Chemists

Chemists at the University of Colorado Boulder are developing the future of recycling polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a common type of plastic found in packaging and soda bottles. The method relies on electricity and chemical reactions to dissolve the plastic. The study addresses concerns about the problem of plastic waste around the world. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the total generation of municipal solid waste in 2018 was 292.4 million tons. This is approximately 23.7 million tons more than the…

For the first time, MIT chemists have measured the energy transfer between photosynthetic light-harvesting proteins, allowing them to discover that the disorganized arrangement of light-harvesting proteins boosts the efficiency of the energy transduction. Credit: Courtesy of the researchersThe disorganized arrangement of the proteins in light-harvesting complexes is the key to their extreme efficiency.<span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="<div…

MIT chemists have come up with a new way to identify neutralizing antibodies, depicted here in light blue, against SARS-CoV-2 in a blood sample. Credit: iStockThe method could enable a rapid test to determine whether individuals are producing antibodies that help protect against <span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="<div class=glossaryItemTitle>COVID-19</div><div class=glossaryItemBody>First identified in 2019 in Wuhan, China, COVID-19, or…

But when it’s time to decommission one, a wind turbine’s strength can become a weakness.  Because the blades are designed to be so durable, the materials used to build them can’t currently be recycled. And about 43 million tons of these blades will be decommissioned by 2050. The new work describes a way to recover the main components of wind turbine blades, breaking down the plastic that holds them together without destroying the material’s primary building blocks.  “We need sustainable energy, but we also have to…

An MIT study finds that smoke particles in the stratosphere can trigger chemical reactions that erode the ozone layer — and that smoke particles from Australian wildfires widened the ozone hole by 10 percent in 2020. This map shows the size and shape of the ozone hole over the South Pole on October 5, 2022. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens. Edited by MIT News.Smoke Particles From Wildfires Can Erode the Ozone Layer<span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt"…

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurological disorder that affects movement and mobility. It is caused by the degeneration of dopamine-producing neurons in the brain, leading to symptoms such as tremors, stiffness, slow movements, and impaired balance and coordination.The team utilized a technique that they believe could speed up the drug discovery process in the production of lissodendoric acid A.Organic chemists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have synthesized the first artificial form of a…

The chemists use blue light to produce unsymmetrically structured vicinal diamines. Credit: University of Münster – Glorius groupA new method for the easy production of vicinal diamines has been developed by chemists.A team led by Professor Frank Glorius of the University of Münster has developed a new method for producing vicinal diamines, a common structure found in biologically active molecules, natural products, and drugs. These compounds contain two functional groups, each with a nitrogen <span…

Professor Michael Hecht and his research group at Princeton have made a significant discovery in the field of chemistry by creating the first known de novo protein that catalyzes the synthesis of quantum dots. Quantum dots are nanocrystals with fluorescent properties that are used in a range of electronic applications, including LED screens and solar panels. This new method of creating quantum dots has the potential to be more sustainable and environmentally friendly than current methods, as it demonstrates that…

Illustration of a new class of protein misfolding called a non-covalent lasso entanglement that can result from changes to the rate of protein synthesis caused by synonymous mutations. Bottom: structure of a protein showing its native state and misfolded state with non-covalent lasso entanglement. Credit: Yang Jiang, Penn StateModeling shows how genetic changes that don’t lead to changes in protein sequence can still alter protein function.New modeling shows how synonymous mutations — those that change the <span…

Rorrer says the researchers are also considering what materials they should use. Cobalt is more common and less expensive than some other catalysts they’ve tried, like ruthenium and platinum, but they are still searching for other options. Better understanding how the catalysts work could allow them to replace cobalt with cheaper, more abundant catalysts, Rorrer says. The ultimate goal would be a fully mixed-feed plastic recycling system, Rorrer says, “and that framework is not completely far-fetched.” Still, achieving…