Cop26: together for our planet
The 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties, better known as Cop26, held in Glasgow, UK, is a crucial opportunity for world leaders to gather and agree how nations will work together to reduce and mitigate the impacts of climate change. There is much at stake, and many political, economic and societal factors are involved in overcoming this global challenge. One thing of which we can be certain is that chemical science will make a significant contribution to the innovations and technologies needed for a greener future.
Mechanochemistry makes gold salts that are soluble in organic solvents
No need for aqua regia, chlorine or mercury in this gold processing method
Study casts doubt on cultivated meat’s low carbon promise
Preprint suggests that food grown from animal cells could have a global warming potential many times greater than beef
Flexible silicon solar cells could be rolled out on tricky to cover buildings
Bendy silicon cells should be cheaper than thin-film alternative
The RSC’s climate challenge
The Royal Society of Chemistry aims to use Cop26 as a springboard to a more sustainable future. Rachel Brazil reports
Organic catalyst could cut the chlor-alkali process’s enormous appetite for energy
Cheap molecule achieves similar performance as existing costly metallic catalysts – but faces major questions about its stability
Cheaper method to capture carbon dioxide could shake up industry
Guanidinium sulfate-based clathrate salt can cage the gas cheaply and release it easily
The Sun rises on perovskites
With the first solar cells scheduled for commercial sale this year, Tim Wogan looks at the long, hard road to producing stable perovskite photovoltaics
How a circular economy and nanotech save us from a clean energy bottleneck
A carbon-neutral future depends on smarter materials and circular thinking
Recycling wind turbine blades by breaking them down into their constituent chemicals
Thermoset plastics that normally end up in landfill can be selectively depolymerised using a ruthenium catalyst
Waste gases from steelmaking repurposed to prepare pharmaceuticals
Amide-based drug molecules, including paracetamol and vorinostat, made using carbon-rich emissions
UK and India sign research agreement to work on AI, decarbonisation and sustainability
Governments agree to support collaboration on AI, sustainability and decarbonisation
Arlene Blum: ‘Our summit is reduced toxics’
The biophysical chemist on the link between climbing and reducing the use of toxic chemicals
Battery materials going up in smoke
We cannot afford to simply throw away, rather than recycle, these valuable resources
The elements of energy storage
Chemistry is a key component of clean energy
The lithium rush
Move over, gold; lithium is now the metal in global demand. Kit Chapman untangles the global politics around the sought-after resource
The long-term energy storage challenge
In a renewably powered future, how will the grid cope when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing? Rachel Brazil looks at the options
Battery recyclers race to increase capacity and efficiency
As battery demand grows, recycling needs to capture more of the valuable resources in each cell
Solar hydrogen production scaled up in real world test
Pilot plant could be stepping stone to industrial production of green hydrogen by splitting water
Unexpected autocatalytic effect gives light-driven enzyme a boost to synthesise green fuels
Discovery could enhance production of liquid fuels by algae
Redesigned biopolymer solves thermal stability challenge
Chemical redesign makes PHAs easier to process and recycle
Greener by design
Making chemistry sustainable is this century’s big challenge for the field
Podcasts
Oxybenzone
This summer’s extreme weather prompts Katrina Krämer to investigate the history of sunblock and the ingredient blamed by some for bleaching coral reefs
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