Category Chemistry/Nanotechnology

Self-healing rubber links permanent covalent bonds (red) with reversible hydrogen bonds (green). Credit: Image courtesy of Peter and Ryan Allen/Harvard SEAS

Potential applications include durable tires, wearable electronics, medical devices. Imagine a tire that could heal after being punctured or a rubber band that never snapped. Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a new type of rubber that is as tough as natural rubber but can also self-heal.

Self-healing materials aren’t new – researchers at SEAS have developed self-healing hydrogels, which rely on water to incorporate reversible bonds that can promote healing...

Candy cane supercapacitor. Credit: Stoyan Smoukov

Supercapacitors promise recharging of phones and other devices in seconds and minutes as opposed to hours for batteries. But current technologies are not usually flexible, have insufficient capacities, and for many their performance quickly degrades with charging cycles. Researchers at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and University of Cambridge have found a way to improve all 3 problems in one stroke. Their prototyped polymer electrode, which resembles a candy cane achieves energy storage close to the theoretical limit, but also demonstrates flexibility and resilience to charge/discharge cycling.

The technique could be applied to many types of materials for supercapacitors and enable fast charging of mobile phones, smart clothes and ...

Ephemeral collision complexes mediate chemically termolecular transformations that affect system chemistry. Nature Chemistry, 2017; DOI: 10.1038/nchem.2842

Finding opens door to innumerable possibilities, from new engine types to planetary chemistry for cloud formations, climate change, and the conditions for creating life. A new study led by Michael P. Burke, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia Engineering, has identified the significance of a new class of chemical reactions involving 3 molecules that each participate in the breaking and forming of chemical bonds. The reaction of 3 different molecules is enabled by an “ephemeral collision complex,” formed from the collision of 2 molecules, which lives long enough to collide with a third molecule.

This fourth class, w...

A new material developed at Argonne shows promise for batteries that store electricity for the grid. The material consists of carefully structured molecules designed to be particularly electrochemically stable in order to prevent the battery from losing energy to unwanted reactions.
Credit: Robert Horn, Argonne National Laboratory

A new material shows promise for batteries that store electricity for the grid. The material, created by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, consists of carefully structured molecules designed to be particularly electrochemically stable in order to prevent the battery from losing energy to unwanted reactions...