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Category: chemistry – Page 3

Quantum Space Acquires Phase Four’s Propulsion Tech

Alabama spacecraft manufacturer Quantum Space is already putting its $40M Series A extension round to work, announcing the acquisition of Phase Four’s multi-modal propulsion tech on Monday for an undisclosed amount.

Quantum has also taken over ownership of Phase Four’s integration and test facility in Hawthorne, CA, which can churn out up to 100 engines per year.

Paying in gold: The deal opens the door for Quantum to integrate Phase Four’s unique propulsion capabilities to fuel Quantum’s Golden Dome ambitions. Phase Four’s multi-modal propulsion system uses chemical and electric propulsion to perform high thrust or high efficiency maneuvers, depending on the mission.

A mobile robot scientist capable of carrying out experiments by itself

We live in a time when robots can clean our homes, drive our vehicles, deactivate bombs, offer prosthetic limbs, help healthcare workers, read the news, entertain, teach, and many more. And now, there is a robot scientist that can work on behalf of humans 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Researchers at the University of Liverpool have built an intelligent “robot scientist” capable of moving around a laboratory and carrying out scientific experiments by itself. The first of its kind machine with humanoid dimensions are designed to work in a standard laboratory, using instruments much as a human researcher does. It can also make its own decisions about which chemistry experiments to perform next.

The robot scientist is 1.75-meter tall, weighs around 400 kg, and can roam around the laboratory, performing a wide range of different tasks. Unlike a human being, the robot has infinite patience, can think in 10 dimensions, and works for 21.5 hours each day, pausing only to recharge its battery for two hours. This will allow scientists to automate time-consuming and tedious research they wouldn’t otherwise tackle.

Life on Mars? NASA discovers potential biosignatures in Martian mudstones

Data and images from NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover reveals that recently discovered rocks in Jezero crater are organic carbon bearing mudstones. The findings, detailed in a paper published in Nature, indicate that these mudstones experienced chemical processes that left behind colorful, enigmatic textures in the rock that represent potential biosignatures.

The paper, led by Joel Hurowitz, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Geosciences at Stony Brook University, builds upon ongoing research conducted with the rover since it landed in 2021 – work aimed at characterizing early Martian geological processes and collecting samples that may someday be returned to Earth.

Upon entering the Jezero crater’s western edge, Perseverance investigated distinctive mudstone outcrops of the Bright Angel formation. There, the Mars 2020 science team conducted a detailed geological, petrographic, and geochemical survey of these rocks and found traces of carbon matter along with minerals, namely ferrous iron phosphate and iron sulfide.

Dormant no more: Brain protein’s hidden role may reshape psychiatric and neurological treatments

In a new research report, scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have identified a potential target for drugs that could dial up or down the activity of certain brain proteins in efforts to treat psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety and schizophrenia, and a neurological condition that affects movement.

The proteins, called delta-type ionotropic glutamate receptors, or GluDs, have long been understood to play a major role in signaling between neurons. Mutations in GluD proteins are thought to drive psychiatric conditions, including anxiety and schizophrenia, the scientists say. Yet, scientists had few clues as to how GluDs function, hampering the ability to find treatments to regulate them.

“This class of protein has long been thought to be sitting dormant in the brain,” says Edward Twomey, Ph.D., assistant professor of biophysics and at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Our findings indicate they are very much active and offer a potential channel to develop new therapies.”

New approach improves accuracy of quantum chemistry simulations using machine learning

A new trick for modeling molecules with quantum accuracy takes a step toward revealing the equation at the center of a popular simulation approach, which is used in fundamental chemistry and materials science studies.

The effort to understand materials and eats up roughly a third of national lab supercomputer time in the U.S. The gold standard for accuracy is the quantum many-body problem, which can tell you what’s happening at the level of individual electrons. This is the key to chemical and material behaviors as electrons are responsible for chemical reactivity and bonds, electrical properties and more. However, quantum many-body calculations are so difficult that scientists can only use them to calculate atoms and molecules with a handful of electrons at a time.

Density functional theory, or DFT, is easier—the computing resources needed for its calculations scale with the number of electrons cubed, rather than rising exponentially with each new electron. Instead of following each individual electron, this theory calculates electron densities—where the electrons are most likely to be located in space. In this way, it can be used to simulate the behavior of many hundreds of atoms.

New method for making graphene turns defects into improvements

Recent research has found a new way to make graphene that adds structural defects to improve the performance of the material that could have benefits across a range of applications—from sensors and batteries, to electronics.

Scientists from the University of Nottingham’s School of Chemistry, University of Warwick and Diamond Light Source developed a single-step process to grow -like films using a molecule, Azupyrene, whose shape mimics that of the desired defect. The research has been published today in Chemical Science.

David Duncan, Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham and one of the study’s lead authors, explains, “Our study explores a new way to make graphene, this super-thin, super-strong material is made of carbon atoms, and while perfect graphene is remarkable, it is sometimes too perfect. It interacts weakly with other materials and lacks crucial electronic properties required in the semiconductor industry.”

18-member Nanoring Pushes The Boundaries of Global Aromaticity

Pushing the limits of size constraints in chemistry, an 8-nanometer 18-porphyrin nanoring (c-P18) becomes the largest known cyclic molecule to exhibit detectable global aromaticity. This phenomenon, where π-electrons are delocalized not just over individual aromatic units but around the entire macrocyclic ring, is mostly seen in smaller aromatic molecules but rarely found in macrocyclic entities.

Researchers from the University of Oxford and the University of Nottingham confirm that the c-P18 nanoring carries a circuit of 242 π-electrons, setting the current upper size limit for global aromaticity in butadiyne-linked systems. Using highly sensitive Fluorine-19 NMR spectroscopy, they tracked ring currents while charging the nanoring via oxidation.

The experiments uncovered faint magnetic shoulder signals—the telltale signature of electrons flowing globally between aromatic and antiaromatic states. This pushes beyond the benchmark set by the 12-member porphyrin nanoring, which had previously been the largest in this class, to show clear global aromaticity.

Boron replaces metal by forming complexes with olefins, reducing toxicity and cost

When it comes to eliminating toxic and expensive heavy metals in the chemical industry, a new study from the University of Würzburg points the way forward.

The team led by chemistry professor Holger Braunschweig at the University of Würzburg is investigating the “metal-mimetic” properties of main group elements such as boron. They have shown that under certain conditions, boron can mimic the reaction behavior of metals without being toxic or as expensive as metals.

The article published in Nature Chemistry shows that boron can also form so-called π complexes with , which are similar in their properties and behavior to the complexes of transition metals with olefins. The latter compounds are intermediates in many large-scale catalytic processes in industry.

Shape-shifting material could transform future of implantable and ingestible medical devices

Researchers led by Rice University’s Yong Lin Kong have developed a soft but strong metamaterial that can be controlled remotely to rapidly transform its size and shape.

The invention, published in Science Advances, represents a significant advancement that can potentially transform ingestible and .

Metamaterials are synthetic constructs that exhibit unusual properties not typically found in . Instead of relying solely on , the effective behavior of these materials is primarily determined by the physical structure, i.e., the specific shape, arrangement and scale of their building blocks.

Chemists create light-switchable magnets that remain active for hours

A research team from the University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague (UCT Prague) and the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague) has created and described a new type of photoswitch. The molecule, a thienyl-based acylhydrazone, undergoes an unprecedented “closed-to-open-shell” transformation, where light converts it into a stable diradical.

While previously published lifetimes of such triplet states are a few milliseconds, this ’s switched state has a half-life of over six hours. This revolutionary innovation opens the way for optimizing , developing new and spintronic devices, and targeted elimination of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. The work is published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry C.

Photoswitches are molecules that change between two states under the influence of light. This new switch is unique because it transitions from a stable, non-magnetic (closed-shell) state to an exceptionally long-lived magnetic (open-shell triplet) state. In this triplet state, two electrons have parallel spins, making the molecule paramagnetic and highly reactive. This state is crucial for many photochemical processes, including the generation of .

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