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• New family of atomic-thin electride materials
  An exploratory investigation into the behavior of materials with desirable electric properties resulted in the discovery of a structural phase of two-dimensional (2D) materials. The new family of m...
• Gene protection for Covid-19 identified
  A scientific and medical team led by Newcastle University, UK, have demonstrated that the gene, HLA-DRB1*04:01, is found three times as often in people who are asymptomatic. This suggests that peop...
• X-ray flash imaging of laser-induced bubbles and shockwaves in water
  Everyone is familiar with tiny gas bubbles gently rising up in sparkling water. But the bubbles that were created by intense focused lasers in this experiment were ten times smaller and contained w...
• A low-cost, mobile near-infra-red spectrometer
  Sugar or sweetener? Cotton or wool? Fake or genuine? At first glance, the average consumer finds it hard to tell the substances that food or textile products actually contain. Equipment which uses ...
• How catalysts age
  PSI researchers have developed a new tomography method with which they can measure chemical properties inside catalyst materials in 3-D extremely precisely and faster than before. The application i...
• Enantiomorph distribution maps for metals and metallic alloys
  Left- or right-handedness is a symmetry property that many macroscopic objects also exhibit and which is of immense importance, particularly for the bioactivity of organic molecules. Chirality is a...
• The biodegradable battery
  The number of data-transmitting microdevices, for instance in packaging and transport logistics, will increase sharply in the coming years. All these devices need energy, but the amount of batterie...
• Enzymes successfully embedded in plastics
  In general, plastics are processed at way over a hundred degrees Celsius. Enzymes, by contrast, cannot usually withstand these high temperatures. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied...
• Making batteries live longer with ultrathin lithium
  Our lives today are governed by electronics in all shapes and forms. Electronics, in turn, are governed by their batteries. However, the traditional lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), that are widely us...
• A more eco-friendly method to produce hydrogen peroxide
  Hydrogen peroxide is used to disinfect minor cuts at home and for oxidative reactions in industrial manufacturing. Now, the pandemic has further fueled demand for this chemical and its antiseptic p...
• Polypropylene recycling from carpet waste
  A significant part of carpet waste consists of petroleum-based polypropylene. As a non-recyclable product, disposing of it has previously meant incineration or landfill. However, a new solvent is n...
• Manganese as active material in hybrid redox-flow battery with a long cycle life
  Redox-flow batteries store electrical energy in chemical compounds that are dissolved in an electrolyte. They are a particularly promising alternative to lithium-ion batteries as stationary energy ...
• Shiny mega-crystals that build themselves
  An international team led by Empa and ETH Zurich researchers is playing with shape-engineered nanoscale building blocks that are up to 100-times larger than atoms and ions. And although these nano ...
• It takes some heat to form ice
  Researchers from Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) and the Universities of Cambridge and Surrey succeeded to track down the first step in ice formation at a surface, revealing that additional...