Tootfinder

🌞 Sunlight-activated material turns PFAS in water into harmless fluoride
#chemistry

Sunlight-activated material turns PFAS in water into harmless fluoride
Researchers at the University of Adelaide have developed a sunlight-activated material that can degrade per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in water, breaking down the pollutant into harmless components, including fluoride. The work is published in the journal Small.

I didn't take A-level chemistry back when I was a teenager, so playing catch-up... the equilibrium bond angles in sp² and sp³ hybridized bonds make shapes that tesselate nicely (regular hexagonal prisms and regular tetrahedra respectively) to form crystalline solids. But that didn't have to be the case, did it? Is that one of the anthropic coincidences cosmologists get exercised about? #Chemistry

💩 A more climate-friendly way to produce nitrogen fertilizer
#chemistry

A more climate-friendly way to produce nitrogen fertilizer
Humanity has an insatiable appetite for ammonia: This substance is used to make fertilizer, which in turn is used in most modern agriculture. Until now, the Haber-Bosch process has been the method of choice for extracting nitrogen from the seemingly inexhaustible atmosphere and binding it in the form of ammonia. However, this method requires an extremely large amount of methane gas and energy.

"Pop, soda or coke? The fizzy #history behind America’s favorite linguistic debate"
"A #chemistry professor, Benjamin Stillman, set up the first [Carbonated water] device in a drugstore in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1806."
Having grown up in the Midwest, I'm a "p…

Pop, soda or coke? The fizzy history behind America’s favorite linguistic debate
An expert in American dialects explains how a ‘health drink’ from the early 1800s spawned so many names and variations.

🍸 'Super alcohol' created in space-like lab reveals cosmic secrets
#chemistry

'Super alcohol' created in space-like lab reveals cosmic secrets
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researchers in the Department of Chemistry have created a molecule once thought too unstable to exist called methanetetrol using extreme, space-like conditions. The discovery could reshape our understanding of chemistry in the universe and shed light on the complex reactions happening in deep space.

🚭 High-purity green hydrogen with very low tar from biomass, with chemical looping gasification
#energy #hydrogen #biomass

High-purity green hydrogen with very low tar from biomass, with chemical looping gasification
A promising industrial process can turn crushed sugar cane waste into green hydrogen far more efficiently than previously thought, shows a SECLG process simulation from the University of Johannesburg. The study is published in Renewable Energy.