Metals
The latest chemistry news and research on metals, including metallurgy, alloys and corrosion, from the Royal Society of Chemistry's magazine, Chemistry World
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Feature
One of these vials is contaminated with nanoplastics. Chemistry can tell us which one
Nina Notman talks to the scientists finding where nanoplastics come from and where they end up
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Research
Why are there metal particles in never-used cannabis vapes?
Findings cast doubt on past research showing metals are solely released by e-cigarettes when the devices’ coils are heated
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Opinion
High entropy or just complex?
Several elements mixed in a single crystal phase isn’t necessarily a high entropy material
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Feature
Marvellous mixtures of metals
High entropy alloys, with anywhere from five or more different metals, have unusual properties and could find use in a variety of high-tech applications. Clare Sansom reports
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Feature
The archaeologists saving Africa’s ironworking heritage
The fires of traditional African iron smelters burned out a century ago and now the researchers dedicated to uncovering their stories are disappearing from the continent too, writes Hayley Bennett
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Feature
The liquid metals giving catalysis a new phase
They’re not like solid metals or like other liquids, but scientists are starting to understand and exploit them. James Mitchell Crow reports
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Research
High-entropy alloy nanoparticles made with 17 different metals
Liquid gallium matrix enables mixing of elements that were otherwise immiscible
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Research
Metallic hydrogen and diamonds may have been made from plastics
A combination of x-ray diffraction experiments and simulations suggests that an intense laser can transform polystyrene
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Research
New theory provides answers to why metals have the structures that they do
The simple concept shows that a metal’s structure results from chemical interactions between localised electrons, challenging the traditional free electron gas model
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Research
Polymer shows some backbone as it becomes first with extended metal spine
Construction process for 21-atom-long one-dimensional nickel wires could find use in nanoelectronics
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News
Resource conflict likely to expand as world heads into ‘low-cooperation era’
Critical metals such as cobalt and vanadium could be fought over in the near future, World Economic Forum report claims
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Research
Flexible batteries kept stable with stretchy metallic films
Liquid metals that block out air and water could improve the lifetime of stretchable electronics
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Research
Terminator material helps Lego man break out of jail
Material changes from solid to liquid in response to magnetic field
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Research
Powerful rare-earth free magnet ‘evolved’ and refined by machine learning algorithm
Combination of iron, cobalt and boron points to alternatives to metals beset by geopolitical battles
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Research
Machine learning navigates vast materials space to discover new high-performance alloys
Neural net suggested unusual element combination to create better Invar alloys
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Research
Explaining the mysterious purple gold at Spain's Alhambra
Chemical corrosion converts gold leaf into purple nanospheres
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Research
Metallic deuterium made at pressures rivalling those found at the centre of a planet
Synthesis could aid study of high-pressure superconductors
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Business
Ukraine invasion rattles global supply chains
Russia’s war against Ukraine will impact supplies of metals, noble gases and more
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Research
Squeezed crystal becomes better catalyst
Fine-tuning platinum’s lattice strain with removable atomic spacers boosts its catalytic activity by up to 50%