Enzymes and bacteria can be used to degrade plastics into chemicals useful for antibacterial coatings
Category: Environmental Chemistry
Upcycling Plant Matter
Avocado peels and uprooted invasive plants can become a source for anti-inflammatories. I’ll toast to that!
Combining Biomass and Carbon Dioxide Feedstocks Can Cut Polyurethane Emissions
Carbon dioxide and biomass combinations can reduce the carbon emissions of polyurethane production, but has negative effects on other environmental parameters.
What captures carbon?
What technology is currently in use to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere? What technologies lie ahead to help us catch up to our emissions?
More than SPF: Some Common Sunscreen Ingredients to Avoid
Buying sunscreen? Take a look at the ingredients list first.
Intimidated by a paper title?
Sometimes we see a paper heading and freak out, put the paper away and never return to it. But don’t worry if that’s the case, we’ve got you…
EFFICIENT CHEMISTRY BEHIND THE OLED SCREENS
OLEDs are earth-friendly, energy-efficient, all while being ultra-thin, flexible, and lightweight. They are the future of ultra-efficient lighting. Researchers are now coming up with new techniques to fabricate such sustainable and efficient OLEDs.
Antibiotics in our food?
Antibiotics are all something we have all taken at one point or another – but how many of us wonder about what happens to those antibiotics next? When we stop and think about it, we might start to realise how our actions are unintentionally impacting the environment around us.
Environmentally Safe Pesticides Made from Copper and Paper-Making Waste Products
Copper concentration in pesticides can be decreased by combining copper with lignin, a waste product from paper manufacturing.
Want more fertile crops this harvest? Add animal bones to your cauldron
Sustaining the world’s population requires finding creative new ways to boost food production
Reactions in Droplets: New Ways of Producing Hydrogen Gas
Developing new ways to produce clean alternative energy sources is of paramount importance. Let’s find out how researchers are using reactions within droplets to produce hydrogen gas, a clean energy source.
Can chemistry overcome incompatibility?
A new way to have incompatible reactions occur in spatially separate regions of a liquid to create methanol from methane.
The Smell of Rain Has a Biological Function
The earthy smell of soil originates from the bacteria that live there. But why do they produce this particular scent?
In Thin Air: Studying Reactions in Levitating Water Droplets
The power of levitation isn’t just for magicians anymore. Learn about a new way of examining water droplets as they float in midair using just sound!
Cleaning the Oceans with Help from … the Sky
Scientists can now identify plastic in coastal water from pictures taken by European Space Agency (ESA) satellites
Harnessing an enzyme’s full potential by locking it in a protein cage
Researchers use a naturally crystalline protein to act as a cage to hold another enzyme. This assembly can then be used to turn waste cooking oil into biodiesel.
Monitoring plant maturation with a Wack reaction
When the authors’ blurb about their own work is “Okay, bloomer,” you know you have to read it.
From Lead Pipes to Contaminated Drinking Water: Lead’s Chemical Accomplices
Lead pipes still exist in older infrastructure, but chemical water treatment can prevent (or increase!) the release of lead from the pipes to drinking water.
Road Salt Impacts the Atmosphere
A surprising new source of chlorine to the atmosphere: road salt!
Better Antibiotics: Active in the Body, Degraded in the Environment
Antibiotics are lifesaving, but current practices don’t keep them from accumulating in the environment where they can damage nature and human health. A new antibiotic design aims to solve this problem.
A New Way to Clean up Harmful Chemicals in Water
Researchers have developed a new technology that can remove harmful PFAS chemicals from water.
Downstream Effects of Adding Hydrochar Nutrients to Soil
Thermochemical degradation of plant matter can create a great plant fertilizer called hydrochar. But what effect does this hydrochar have on the soil ecosystem?
A brain found in glass pieces
Archaeologists in Herculaneum, in the south of Italy, discovered a black, glassy material that turned out to be… a human brain.
Discovery of a New Ozone Depleting Substance in the Atmosphere
The first complete iodine measurements in the middle atmosphere detected higher levels than expected.
Trapping air pollution with artificial spiderwebs
Filters are one of the best ways to trap and remove pollution and small particles from the air. Let’s learn how spiderweb-like networks can be made from polymer into incredible filters.