Materials – Page 24
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FeatureSustainable Covid-19 protection
Discarding our pandemic face masks could be an environmental disaster. Clare Sansom looks at the alternatives
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PodcastAzidoazide azide
A compound so explosively unstable that nobody has been able to measure how sensitive it is without it, well, exploding
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ResearchConduit coated with bioink encourages damaged nerves to reconnect
New electro-conductive system is fully biodegradable
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ResearchNew record efficiency for flexible perovskite solar cells
Porous planar electron transport layer boosts power conversion efficiency in flexible perovskite solar cells to 20.7%
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ResearchNMR monitors MOF assembly process
Technique adapted to interrogate nucleation and growth mechanism
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ResearchSnail slime central to sustainable strategy for making wound-healing gold nanoparticles
Nanoparticles made using mucus could be developed into acne treatments
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ResearchMoths draped in stealth acoustic cloak evade bat sonar
Two species have wing scales covered in a complex metamaterial
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BusinessTaking plastic out of performance paper coatings
SGMA’s silicate sol-gel is a sustainable alternative for packaging such as coffee cups
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ResearchInorganic ‘sponge’ made from seafood waste
New form of calcite can absorb water as well as contaminants like oil and dyes
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NewsTen chemistry innovations that Iupac says could change the world
How chemistry can tackle plastic recycling, climate change and Covid-19 among other challenges
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ResearchAncient Maya communities were first to use zeolite to purify water
2000 years ago, people in Tikal were using the world’s most advanced water purification systems
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ResearchTunable graphene oxide–polymer membrane mimics biological membranes
Composite material’s permeability and selectivity varies with pH
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ResearchRedox-less electron transfer in ‘weird’ material could allow powerful batteries
Models predict yttrium difluorocarbene could hold twice the charge of lithium-ion cells
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ResearchRippling polymer sheets flex like muscles
Two-dimensional Belousov–Zhabotinsky gels mimic the way organisms move
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ResearchSilanols explain the lethal toxicity of silica dust
After decades of ambiguity, scientists have finally discovered what makes silica toxic
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NewsMillions of microplastic particles released by some baby feeding bottles
Hot water is key variable responsible for release of large numbers of plastic particles
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ResearchPlastic waste upcycled to high-value chemicals in one-pot process
Polyethylene chains are broken down and aromatised to produce valuable alkylaromatic products
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BusinessStretching liquid crystals to the limit with LC AuxeTec
The unintuitive properties of LC AuxeTec’s materials mean they thicken when stretched, and could be exploited in body armour and skyscraper windows
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ResearchRoom temperature superconductivity finally claimed by mystery material
At high pressures carbon–hydrogen–sulfur compound becomes superconducting at 15˚C