A team of researchers has built a new catalyst that can break down the pain‑killer acetaminophen from water more efficiently than before. The trick is to stick two different metal atoms – cobalt and copper – onto a thin sheet called Ti₃C₂Tₓ MXene. By balancing the two metals at a 1:1 ratio, they cre
Scientists have found a clever way to make hydrogen fuel more efficiently by mixing two metals in a smart way. They combined tiny bits of palladium (a rare metal) with molybdenum dioxide (a cheaper, more common material) to create a powerful combo for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. The tr
Scientists often struggle to watch how tiny catalysts behave in tough acidic environments. These catalysts help speed up chemical reactions, like splitting water into oxygen, but their structures can shift unpredictably. A team found a way to track the same iridium nanocatalysts over long periods us
Scientists have figured out exactly which parts of a cobalt‑based material make it good at turning glycerol into useful energy. Instead of guessing, they built three similar crystals that differ only in the tiny details around cobalt atoms. The key discovery was that the reaction happens mainl
The world faces an energy crisis and worsening climate, pushing scientists to find cleaner ways to power daily life. One promising route is photocatalysis, a process that uses sunlight to create chemical fuels. A group of materials called layered double hydroxides (LDHs) and their transformed forms—
Scientists found a clever way to fine-tune chemical reactions by adjusting the shape of special sponge-like materials. These materials, called metal-organic frameworks, are built from tiny building blocks that lock together like Lego pieces. By changing the overall structure while keeping the same c
A team of scientists created a special platinum alloy that breaks the usual symmetry seen in metals. By mixing platinum with iron, cobalt and copper, they made the atoms line up unevenly and stretch in different directions. This irregular arrangement adds more nearby metal atoms around each platinum
A new material, made by coating tiny beads of a resin with a conductive polymer, can turn sunlight into a powerful cleaning agent. The resin bead is called resorcinol‑formaldehyde and the polymer is polypyrrole. When light hits this combo, it grabs electrons from water and releases oxygen‑based mole
Scientists have been playing around with tiny bits of metal called nanoparticles. These little guys are super small, like a billionth of a meter small! They've been trying to figure out how to make these nanoparticles work better for turning alcohol into other useful stuff. They started with a base
Plastic waste is a big problem. It's everywhere. In our homes, in our streets, and even in our oceans. By 2050, there could be 40 billion tons of plastic waste in the oceans. That's a huge amount! So, finding ways to recycle plastic is really important. Scientists have found a new way to recycle po
