How chemical bonds are formed: physicists at TU Graz observe energy flow in real time
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 20-Jun-2025 16:10 ET (20-Jun-2025 20:10 GMT/UTC)
For the first time, a research team led by Markus Koch from the Institute of Experimental Physics at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) has tracked in real time how individual atoms combine to form a cluster and which processes are involved. To achieve this, the researchers first isolated magnesium atoms using superfluid helium and then used a laser pulse to trigger the formation process. The researchers were able to observe this cluster formation and the involved energy transfer between individual atoms with a temporal resolution in the femtosecond range (1 femtosecond = 1 quadrillionth of a second). They recently published their findings in the journal Communications Chemistry.
Cellulose-based textile material can make the clothing sector more sustainable. Currently, cellulose-based textiles are mainly made from wood, but a study headed by researchers from Chalmers University of Technology points to the possibility of using agricultural waste from wheat and oat. The method is easier and requires fewer chemicals than manufacturing forest-based cellulose, and can enhance the value of waste products from agriculture.
Osaka Metropolitan University researchers have successfully increased the production of D-lactic acid from methanol by exposing Komagataella phaffii yeast to ultraviolet irradiation.
Researchers have developed a humidity-resistant phosphorescent material using a simple and effective strategy of multi-component crosslinking in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) films. The innovation enables ultralong phosphorescence (3.18 seconds) under high humidity (80% RH), enabling applications in anti-counterfeiting, data encryption, and wearable electronics.
Given the limited exposure of active sites and the retarded separation of photogenerated charge carriers in those developed photocatalysts, photocatalytic CO2 splitting into value-added chemicals has suffered from the poor activity and remained in great challenge for real application. Herein, hydrothermally synthesized BiOCl with layered structure (BOCNSs) was exfoliated into thickness reduced nanosheets (BOCNSs-w) and even atomic layers (BOCNSs-i) via ultrasonication in water and isopropanol, respectively. In comparison with the pristine BOCNSs, the exfoliated BiOCl, especially BOCNSs-i with atomically layered structure, exhibits much improved photocatalytic activity for CO2 overall splitting to produce CO and O2 at a stoichiometric ratio of 2:1, with CO evolution rate reaching 134.8 µmol g-1 h-1 under simulated solar light (1.7 suns). By surpassing the photocatalytic performances of the state-of-the-art BilOmXn (X: Cl, Br, I) based photocatalysts, the CO evolution rate is further increased by 99 times, reaching 13.3 mmol g-1 h-1 under concentrated solar irradiation (34 suns). This excellent photocatalytic performance achieved over BOCNSs-i should be benefited from the shortened transfer distance and the increased built-in electric field intensity, which accelerates the migration of photogenerated charge carriers to surface. Moreover, with oxygen vacancies (VO) introduced into the atomic layers, BOCNSs-i is exposed with the electrons enriched Bi active sites that could transfer electrons to activate CO2 molecules for highly efficient and selective CO production, by lowering the energy barrier of rate-determining step (RDS), *OH + *CO2− → HCO3−. It is also realized that the H2O vapor supplied during photocatalytic reaction would exchange oxygen atoms with CO2, which could alter the reaction pathways and further reduce the energy barrier of RDS, contributing to the dramatically improved photocatalytic performance for CO2 overall splitting to CO and O2.