News by Subject Chemistry & Physics

Researchers at Aalto University have used lignin, a natural polymer abundant in wood and other plant sources, to create a safe, low-cost and high-performing coating for use in construction. As there is a global urge to meet the rising sustainability standards, this new coating has great potential to protect wood, whose use in construction is continually increasing. The new coating is non-toxic, hydrofobic, it retains wood's breathability and natural roughness while being resistant to colour changes and abrasion.

The lithium-ion battery is the future of sustainable energy technology, but drastic volume fluctuations in their anodes related to enhanced battery capacity raises a safety concern. Recently, researchers from the Republic of Korea have found that embedding manganese selenide anodes in a 3D carbon nanosheet matrix is an innovative, simple, and low-cost means of reducing drastic volume expansion while improving the energy density of these batteries.

Plastics offer many benefits to society and are widely used in our daily life: they are lightweight, cheap and adaptable. However, the production, processing and disposal of plastics pose a major global threat to the environment and human health. However, researchers at the University of Göttingen have now found a sustainable method - "hydrosetting", which uses water at normal conditions - to process and reshape a new type of hydroplastic polymer. The research was published in Nature Sustainability.

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have designed a new class of molten sodium batteries for grid-scale energy storage. The new battery design was shared in a paper published today in the scientific journal Cell Reports Physical Science.

Researchers created a simulation of a deep-sea sponge and how it responds to and influences the flow of water. The work revealed a profound connection between the sponge's structure and function, shedding light on both the basket sponge's ability to withstand the dynamic forces of the surrounding ocean and its ability to create a vortex within the body cavity "basket." These properties may help for the design of ships, planes and skyscrapers of the future.

A so-called "strange metal", well-known for its unusual properties, has been shown to be a superconductor at very low temperatures. This allows scientists to study the connection between "strange metal"-behaviour and superconductivity, which could be an important step towards understanding the phenomenon of high-temperature superconductivity.