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Category: chemistry

Chemists stabilize rare three‑atom metal ring, revealing new form of aromaticity

In a world first, the team, led by Professor Stephen Liddle, discovered a new type of aromatic molecule made entirely of metal atoms, the heaviest of its kind ever confirmed. The team stabilized an extremely rare three‑atom ring of bismuth, held between two large metal atoms (uranium or thorium) in a structure known as an “inverse‑sandwich” complex.

This breakthrough provides fresh insight into one of chemistry’s most familiar concepts—aromaticity—and shows it can occur not only in carbon‑based rings like benzene, but also in unusual clusters of heavy metals. The paper is published in the journal Nature Chemistry.

Computer-designed thermoelectric generator achieves more than 8-fold improvement in efficiency

A thermoelectric generator with a shape that no human designer would likely have imagined has now been created by a computer—and it performs more than eight times better than conventional designs. Rather than relying on intuition or repeated trial and error, the breakthrough was achieved through advanced computational optimization.

A joint research team led by Professor Jae Sung Son of the Department of Chemical Engineering at POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology), in collaboration with Professor Hayoung Chung of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UNIST (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology), has developed a general design framework that enables computers to autonomously identify the optimal structure of thermoelectric generators, which convert waste heat into electricity.

Their work is published online in Nature Communications.

New microscope reveals previously hidden differences in photosynthetic light-harvesting antennae

How do photosynthetic organisms harvest light so efficiently? To help answer this question, researchers have developed an ultrafast transient absorption microscope with sensitivity approaching the single-molecule level.

Plants and photosynthetic bacteria have a wide variety of light-harvesting antennae in which pigment molecules are precisely arranged to utilize light energy efficiently. However, these molecular arrangements are not perfectly uniform and vary from particle to particle because of conformational distortions and fluctuations. Such structural variations are considered to perturb excited states and energy transfer processes triggered by light absorption. Because these early excitation dynamics initiate a cascade of photosynthetic photochemical reactions, understanding the effects of such fluctuations and heterogeneities is essential for revealing how phototrophic organisms maintain efficient and stable photosynthesis.

To analyze these fluctuations and heterogeneities, single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy has been widely utilized. However, the fluorescence-based approach faces fundamental challenges in observing ultrafast and multistep processes, as well as non-fluorescent dark states and radical species.

A mechanical blue LED: Stretching GaN shifts light from UV to blue without changing chemistry

A research team from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has successfully used mechanical stretching technology to dynamically control the emission color of gallium nitride (GaN) material from ultraviolet (UV) to blue light. This technological breakthrough provides a new semiconductor material control solution for future advanced power transistors, optoelectronic components, radio frequency components, and micro-LED displays.

The findings have been published in Physical Review X in a paper titled “Deep Elastic Strain Engineering of Free-Standing GaN Microbridge.”

Led by Professor Yang Lu from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the team utilized micro-nano processing technology to fabricate single-crystalline GaN material into tiny bridge-like structures.

Direct electrochemical appraisal of black coffee quality using cyclic voltammetry

Coffee flavor is primarily determined by the bean roast color and concentration of the beverage. Here, the authors show that both of these characteristics are reflected in the coffee’s cyclic voltammogram. This approach enables rapid determination of the strength and roast intensity of the coffee.

Raman Spectroscopy Could Reveal if Enceladus is Habitable

Raman spectroscopy can be used to identify minerals in Enceladus’s plumes to help determine if its subsurface ocean could support life. [ https://www.labroots.com/trending/space/30495/raman-spectros…abitable-2](https://www.labroots.com/trending/space/30495/raman-spectros…abitable-2)

Is Saturn’s ocean moon Enceladus habitable? This is what a recent study published in The Planetary Science Journal hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated the likelihood of Enceladus hosting the necessary ingredients for life as we know it. This study has the potential to help scientists develop new methods for finding life beyond Earth, even life as we don’t know it.

For the study, the researchers examined whether Raman spectroscopy, which is a common chemical analysis method in planetary science, could be used to analyze particles emitted from Enceladus’ plumes. These plumes, which originate from Enceladus’ south polar region, are responsible for discharging pieces of the moon’s interior ocean, including water vapor and other molecules. To accomplish this, the researchers used a vacuum chamber to simulate conditions on Enceladus and froze salt water at pH levels of 9 and 11. They then analyzed the salts using Raman spectroscopy to ascertain if it could identify particles within the water and determine which pH level they originated from.

In the end, the researchers discovered that the instrument could differentiate between the two pH levels while identifying sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and sodium carbonate (washing soda) in both pH levels while identifying only sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) in pH 11. The researchers note these findings demonstrate the potential for using a spacecraft-mounted Raman spectrometer for future missions to Enceladus and other icy worlds with the goal of identifying the necessary ingredients for life as we know it.

Asymmetry Control in a Parametric Oscillator for the Quantum Simulation of Chemical Activation

Researchers have demonstrated a superconducting quantum circuit that simulates tunneling in chemical reactions, revealing unexpected quantum effects in state transitions.

The work enables controlled study of quantum dynamics in chemistry-like energy landscapes and highlights superconducting circuits as powerful tools for exploring chemical processes.

Read more in PRX Quantum.

A continuously driven Kerr parametric oscillator simulates a dissipative quantum system with applications to reactions in quantum chemistry.

Medicine’s next leap: Delivering gene therapies exactly where they’re needed

A quiet revolution is underway in modern medicine: Drug development is aiming to move from managing disease to correcting it through RNA and gene-editing therapies. But delivering these treatments safely and precisely to the right cells remains a major hurdle—especially in hard-to-target organs like the brain and kidneys.

Now, researchers led by a University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine team offer highly compelling evidence that an elegant, nature-inspired solution lies in ultra-tiny, bubble-like structures called small extracellular vesicles (sEVs). These metabolic messengers, refined over millions of years of evolution, carry RNA—a nucleic acid that is a chemical cousin of DNA—and other molecules between cells.

In a nutshell, the research team’s new findings show that not all sEVs are alike: their cell of origin determines where they travel, with certain vesicles naturally targeting specific tissues in the body.

At just four nanometers thick, this metal starts behaving in a way physicists did not expect

Researchers in the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have discovered a powerful new way to control the electronic behavior of a metal—by manipulating the atomic properties of materials where they meet. The study, published in Nature Communications, demonstrates that interfacial polarization can tune the surface work function of metallic ruthenium dioxide (RuO2) by more than 1 electron volt (eV)—a tiny amount of energy—simply by adjusting film thickness at the nanometer scale.

“We often think of polarization as something that belongs to insulators or ferroelectrics—not metals,” said Bharat Jalan, professor and Shell Chair in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota. “Our work shows that, through careful interface design, you can stabilize polarization in a metallic system and use it as a knob to tune electronic properties. This opens an entirely new way of thinking about controlling metals.”

This specific change is most powerful when the metal layer is about 4 nanometers thick—roughly the width of a single strand of DNA. At this precise size, the metal shifts from being “stretched” by the material underneath it to a more “relaxed” state. This transition proves that the physical way atoms are packed together has a direct, measurable impact on how the metal handles electricity.

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