As versatile as enzymes already are, it’s actually possible to engineer enzymes to catalyze reactions that are entirely new to nature!
Category: Research Bites
Less is more – learning chemistry with machine learning
What does machine learning have to do with chemistry? Let’s have a look at computation x chemistry today!
Duality of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles in Cancer Therapy
Title: Duality of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles in Cancer Therapy: Amplification of Heating Efficiency by Magnetic Hyperthermia and Photothermal Bimodal Treatment Authors: Ana Espinosa, Riccardo Di Corato, Jelena Kolosnjaj-Tabi, Patrice Flaud, Teresa Pellegrino, and Claire Wilhelm DOI 10.1021/acsnano.5b07249 By: Ehsan Moaseri – Behzad Changalvaie In our previous…
Rechargeable Battery Breakthrough!
Title: Rechargeable Sodium All-Solid-State Battery Authors: Weidong Zhou, Yutao Li*, Sen Xin , and John B. Goodenough* Publication Info: ACS Cent. Sci., 2017, 3 (1), pp 52–57; DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.6b00321 Publication Date : January 3, 2017 Electricity generated by photovoltaic solar panels has reached the pivotal point where it is…
Patterning World Flags and More with DNA
Using similar principles to those that guide embryos in early development to form different organs and tissues, this research could lead to artificial objects that are capable of patterning themselves into many different complex structures.
How a method is recognised as a method? – an example by a honey story
You are what you eat and we want to be safe with what we eat. We rely on testing methods as our guards, but how do we know if they are qualified?
Plasmonic photothermal therapy (PPTT) using gold nanoparticles
Title: Plasmonic photothermal therapy (PPTT) using gold nanoparticles Authors: Xiaohua Huang, Prashant K. Jain, Ivan H. El-Sayed, Mostafa A. El-Sayed By: Ehsan Moaseri – Behzad Changalvaie Cancer therapeutics have been a principal part of biomedical research in the past two decades. A significant portion of this…
Health Assessment in Your Home via Disposable Breath Analysis Sensors
Title: Diagnosis and Classification of 17 Diseases from 1404 Subjects via Pattern Analysis of Exhaled Molecules Authors: Hossam Haick et al. Publication Info: ACS Nano, 2017, 11 (1), pp 112–125 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.6b04930 This work reports on the development of a portable, inexpensive, and non-invasive breath analyzer that couples the use…
Get to know about molecules without chemicals!
If you want to know about a molecule without chemicals, now you can without entering a lab. In this article, let us explore how computational power can benefit our understanding of molecules!
Listen and Grow! – The Story Behind Growing Polymers with Sound
Our bones have the ability to heal themselves when exposed to mechanical stresses by forming new polymeric material, so what’s stopping scientists from doing the same synthetically?
Imaging Oil Reservoirs Using Ultra-stable Iron Oxide Nanoparticles as Contrasting Agents
Title: Adsorption of iron oxide nanoclusters stabilized with sulfonated copolymers on silica in concentrated NaCl and CaCl2 brine Authors: Hitesh G. Bagaria , Bethany M. Neilson , Andrew J. Worthen , Zheng Xue , Ki Youl Yoon, Victoria Cheng, Jae Ho Lee, Sindhuja Velagala, Chun Huh,…
Electrochemical Capture and Release of Carbon Dioxide
Title: Electrochemical Capture and Release of Carbon Dioxide Authors: Joseph H. Rheinhardt, Poonam Singh, Pilarisetty Tarakeshwar, and Daniel A. Buttry* Publication Info: ACS Energy Lett., 2017, 2 (2), pp 454–461, DOI:10.1021/acsenergylett.6b00608 This article is a perspective from recognized experts in the field of CO2 capture and release.…
The Era Beyond Fluorescence and Phosphorescence – Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence
Advances in knowledge about light emission have brought breathtaking innovations in lighting and display technologies. The well-known light-emitting processes are fluorescence and phosphorescence. Let’s take a closer look into their dynamics and another light-emitting process: Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence (TADF)!
A Simple Approach for Developing Inexpensive and Sustainable Metal Catalysts
In order to keep catalyst-based industries sustainable and profitable, new catalysts need to be developed that utilize inexpensive, earth-abundant materials. The authors here present a novel method for easily forming stable earth-abundant metal catalysts, which are inexpensive and sustainable alternatives to precious-metal catalysts.
Future of Cancer Therapy: Advanced Functional Nanomaterials to Image and Deliver Drugs into Tumors
Title: Controlled Assembly of Biodegradable Plasmonic Nanoclusters for Near-Infrared Imaging and Therapeutic Applications Authors: Jasmine M. Tam, Justina O. Tam, Avinash Murthy, Davis R. Ingram, Li Leo Ma, Kort Travis, Keith P. Johnston, and Konstantin V. Sokolov Journal: ACS Nano Gold has been historically a great…
Quantifying the Effects of Individual Nanoparticles
Title: Electrocatalytic Activity of Individual Pt Nanoparticles Studied by Nanoscale Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy Authors: Jiyeon Kim, Christophe Renault, Nikoloz Nioradze, Netzahualcóyotl Arroyo-Currás, Kevin C. Leonard, and Allen J. Bard* Publication Info: J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2016, 138 (27), pp 8560–8568 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.6b03980 The mere mention of…
Continuing the pesticide analysis journey: peeking into different LC-MS instrumentation
This article will be focusing on a very commonly used instrumentation, Liquid Chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Who wins in the battle between LC-QqQ, QTOF, TOF?
Using Biology to Harness the Power of Fluorine Chemistry
What comes to mind when you think of fluorine? The sodium fluoride in toothpaste and mouthwash is the typical, everyday example that most people think of, but fluorine plays a large role in many other compounds. Pure fluorine is a highly reactive and poisonous gas, while fluorinated compounds are incredibly stable, fairly nontoxic, and used in many real-life applications.
How much pesticides are in your food? – Sample preparation in a nutshell
How do we know we are safe with what we eat? Here, the authors introduce a fast and easy way to dig out the pesticides from our food for analysis.
Stacks on stacks on stacks
Finding ways to create order is a common theme in science. Here researchers are trying to carefully arrange chromophores in order to create better solar cells (among other potential uses). In particular, these chemists are trying to make porphyrins stand up on a surface creating stacks of porphyrins that are a well defined distance from each other and from the surface they are attached to.
“Chemical-free”
Here the authors describe all of the consumer products that are utterly and completely chemical-free. I hate to ruin the surprise, but their aren’t any.
Can adding calcium help forests?
This study further supports a connection between acid deposition and forest decline. The authors state, “Continued vigilance in the control of acid rain precursors will be needed to correct these problems, and aggressive options to reduce pollution in rapidly industrializing regions of Latin America, Asia, and Africa are warranted.”
Questions are raised about “unclick” reaction
Click chemistry, a term used to describe a number of high yield reactions, is used far and wide by chemists. The azide alkyne Huisgen cycloaddition typifies click chemistry and awhile back, I described it as my favorite reaction.
The survey results are in…
I found the results of the recent Astrobites graduate student life survey fascinating. Please take some time to read through the Astrobites article summarizing the results.
A Discussion about Graduate Student Life
A recent email has caused quite a buzz in the astronomy community. The email pertains to the expectations placed on graduate students. We are reminded that similar letters have been written in the chemistry community – see this post on Chemistry Blog. Our friends over at…