This study provides valuable insights into the prevention of toxic gas diffusion during lithium battery fires, offering a potential solution for protecting firefighters’ respiratory health. The findings highlight the potential of flower-like CeO₂ microspheres as an effective adsorbent for HF gas removal during LIB thermal runaway, which could significantly enhance the safety of lithium-ion batteries in various applications.

Plastics are one of the largest sources of pollution on Earth, lasting for years on land or in water. But a new type of brilliantly colored cellulose-based plastic detailed in ACS Nano could change that. By adding citric acid and squid ink to a cellulose-based polymer, researchers created a variety of structurally colored plastics that were comparable in strength to traditional plastics, but made from natural biodegradable ingredients and easily recycled using water.

A new study, published by a team of UBC Okanagan chemistry researchers, is creating a major rethink of how enzymes work. And how a quantum phenomenon helps an important enzyme control essential yet dangerous molecules.

Enzymes, also known as biocatalysts, are the tiny machines behind every process in living things, explains study co-author Hossein Khalilian, a doctoral student in the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science’s Department of Chemistry. Enzymes make molecules that are crucial to life, while also breaking down molecules that are bad or unnecessary for us.

Researchers at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) have developed a new way to predict 2D materials that might transform electronics, such as sensors and solar cells. They used a mix of data mining, computer modeling, and structural analysis to reveal 83 candidate materials. Collaborators at the University of Maryland, College Park successfully synthesized some of the proposed materials in the lab, proving the UMBC predictions could be used to guide experiments with the novel materials. 

A promising breakthrough in cancer treatment is taking shape at the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR), where scientists are developing a powerful radioisotope that could one day precisely target and destroy cancer cells. A recent study led by Heather Hennkens, an associate professor at Mizzou’s Department of Chemistry and a researcher at MURR, investigated how to produce, purify and formulate Terbium-161 for radiopharmaceutical use. Through this work, Hennkens’ lab is optimizing the radioisotope so it can be effectively attached to a targeting molecule and sent as the therapeutic “payload” to destroy tumor cells.