/ en-us Â鶹ÒùÔº internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Â鶹ÒùÔºics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Researchers at Kumamoto University and Nagoya University have developed a new class of two-dimensional (2D) metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) using triptycene-based molecules, marking a breakthrough in the quest to understand and enhance the physical properties of these promising materials. The work is published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. /news/2025-08-high-quality-crystals-enable-insights.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Fri, 01 Aug 2025 09:41:04 EDT news673260062 Protons are the basis of bioenergetics. The ability to move them through biological systems is essential for life. A new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows for the first time that proton transfer is directly influenced by the spin of electrons when measured in chiral biological environments such as proteins. In other words, proton movement in living systems is not purely chemical; it is also a quantum process involving electron spin and molecular chirality. /news/2025-05-quantum-effects-proteins-tiny-particles.html Biochemistry Analytical Chemistry Mon, 05 May 2025 15:35:34 EDT news665678126 U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and Aarhus University, Denmark, researchers have confirmed protonic conductivity over distances exceeding 100 micrometers along filamentous Desulfobulbaceae, commonly referred to as cable bacteria. Findings provide insights into microbial proton transport mechanisms and open pathways for applications in bioelectronics. /news/2025-01-cable-bacteria-protons-micrometers-hinting.html Cell & Microbiology Biotechnology Mon, 20 Jan 2025 11:20:07 EST news656591740 Hydrogen gas, owing to its high energy density and carbon-free nature, is gaining much attention as the energy source for a green and sustainable future. Despite being the most abundant element in the universe, hydrogen is mostly found in a bound state as chemical compounds such as ammonia, metal hydrides, and other hydrogenated compounds. /news/2024-09-temperature-ammonia-hydrogen-conversion-electric.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Tue, 24 Sep 2024 11:48:03 EDT news646397281 MIT physicists and colleagues report new insights into exotic particles key to a form of magnetism that has attracted growing interest because it originates from ultrathin materials only a few atomic layers thick. The work, which could impact future electronics and more, also establishes a new way to study these particles through a powerful instrument at the National Synchrotron Light Source II at Brookhaven National Laboratory. /news/2024-08-physicists-insights-exotic-particles-key.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Condensed Matter Thu, 01 Aug 2024 16:05:48 EDT news641747119 Chemists at RIKEN have developed a method for making synthetic derivatives of the natural dye indigo that doesn't require harsh conditions. This discovery could inspire advances in electronic devices, including light-responsive gadgets and stretchy biomedical sensors. /news/2024-02-method-synthetic-derivative-natural-indigo.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Thu, 01 Feb 2024 15:00:02 EST news626022001 For the first time, Stanford researchers have found a way to create and stabilize an extremely rare form of gold that has lost two negatively charged electrons, denoted Au2+. The material stabilizing this elusive version of the valued element is a halide perovskite—a class of crystalline materials that holds great promise for various applications including more-efficient solar cells, light sources, and electronics components. /news/2023-09-rare-gold-unveil-material-infused.html Materials Science Sat, 30 Sep 2023 04:01:54 EDT news615265297 When your laptop or smartphone heats up, it's due to energy that's lost in translation. The same goes for power lines that transmit electricity between cities. In fact, around 10 percent of the generated energy is lost in the transmission of electricity. That's because the electrons that carry electric charge do so as free agents, bumping and grazing against other electrons as they move collectively through power cords and transmission lines. All this jostling generates friction, and, ultimately, heat. /news/2023-07-physicists-generate-snapshots-fermion-pairs.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 06 Jul 2023 14:00:01 EDT news607870293 The discovery of Ba2LuAlO5 as a promising proton conductor paints a bright future for protonic ceramic fuel cells, report scientists from Tokyo Tech. Experiments show that this novel material has a remarkably high proton conductivity even without any additional chemical modifications, and molecular dynamics simulations reveal the underlying reasons. These new insights may pave the way to safer and more efficient energy technologies. /news/2023-06-scientists-proton-conductor-next-generation-fuel.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Tue, 06 Jun 2023 09:59:42 EDT news605264377 Protons (H+) and hydronium ions (H3O+) in free aqueous solutions seem to migrate faster than other ions due to the the Grotthuss-mechanism. Individual protons do not really migrate at all. Instead, bonds of the hydronium ions are broken and new bonds to other water molecules are formed, so that the individual proton does not migrate. Rather charges are transported directly from one water molecule to the next. This process is quicker than the diffusion of an ion through the solution. /news/2021-09-confined-protons-migrate.html Nanophysics Wed, 08 Sep 2021 09:14:22 EDT news550311259 In a new study of water dynamics, a team of MIT chemists led by Professor Mei Hong, in collaboration with Associate Professor Adam Willard, has discovered that water in an ion channel is anisotropic, or partially aligned. The researchers' data, the first of their kind, prove the relation of water dynamics and order to the conduction of protons in an ion channel. The work also provides potential new avenues for the development of antiviral drugs or other treatments. /news/2021-03-chemists-gain-insights-behavior-influenza.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Fri, 19 Mar 2021 09:04:38 EDT news535363418 Mitochondria are the powerhouses of our cells, generating energy that supports life. A giant molecular proton pump, called complex I, is crucial: It sets in motion a chain of reactions, creating a proton gradient that powers the generation of ATP, the cell's fuel. Despite complex I's central role, the mechanism by which it transports protons across the membrane has so far been unknown. Now, Leonid Sazanov and his group at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria) have solved the mystery of how complex I works: Conformational changes in the protein combined with electrostatic waves move protons into the mitochondrial matrix. This is the result of a study published today in Science. /news/2020-09-mystery-giant-proton.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 24 Sep 2020 15:54:41 EDT news520181671 An infinite chain of hydrogen atoms is just about the simplest bulk material imaginable—a never-ending single-file line of protons surrounded by electrons. Yet a new computational study combining four cutting-edge methods finds that the modest material boasts fantastic and surprising quantum properties. /news/2020-09-infinite-chains-hydrogen-atoms-properties.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Mon, 14 Sep 2020 12:40:02 EDT news519305711 Electron movement—what scientists call electron transfer—powers many of life's functions. For example, a good deal of the energy we derive from the foods we eat is captured by a process that removes electrons from food molecules, like sugar or fat, and transfers them to the oxygen we breathe. /news/2020-07-scientists-distance-electron.html Materials Science Wed, 29 Jul 2020 07:55:09 EDT news515228099 Protons are subatomic particles with a positive electric charge. Proton translocation plays a significant role in natural phenomena and manmade technologies. But it remains challenging to control proton conduction and fabrication in biomaterials and devices. In a new report, Chao Ma and an interdisciplinary team of scientists in China, the Netherlands, and Germany, rationally designed proton-conducting protein constituent materials that exceeded previously reported proteinaceous (consisting of or containing protein) systems. They developed the structures through stepwise exploration of peptide sequences from intrinsically disordered coils to protein-supercharged polypeptide chimeras. The new design paradigm offers potential for bioprotonic device fabrication at the interfaces of artificial and biological systems, the results are published on Science Advances. /news/2020-07-freestanding-supercharged-polypeptide-proton-conducting-membrane.html Materials Science Fri, 24 Jul 2020 10:30:01 EDT news514799868 An international team of researchers from University College Dublin (UCD) and University of Saskatchewan, Canada, have observed 'proton-hopping' movement in a high-pressure form of ice (Ice VII lattices). /news/2020-05-protons-hopscotch-high-pressure-ice.html Condensed Matter Mon, 25 May 2020 09:53:14 EDT news509619190 A team of scientists has uncovered new molecular properties of water—a discovery of a phenomenon that had previously gone unnoticed. /news/2018-08-behavior-waterscientists-properties-h2o.html Condensed Matter Mon, 13 Aug 2018 11:10:03 EDT news453377321 Hydrogen is regarded as the energy source of the future: It is produced with solar power and can be used to generate heat and electricity in fuel cells. Empa researchers have now succeeded in decoding the movement of hydrogen ions in crystals – a key step towards more efficient energy conversion in the hydrogen industry of tomorrow. /news/2017-06-protons-fuel-cell.html Materials Science Thu, 22 Jun 2017 09:00:02 EDT news417340460 Waseda University researchers have developed a new method for producing hydrogen that is fast, irreversible, and takes place at much lower temperatures using less energy. This innovation is expected to contribute to the spread of fuel cell systems for automobiles and homes. /news/2016-12-hydrogen-temperature.html Materials Science Thu, 01 Dec 2016 06:25:14 EST news399795906 A team led by the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory used neutron analysis to better understand a protein implicated in the replication of HIV, the retrovirus that causes AIDS. The enzyme, known as HIV-1 protease, is a key drug target for HIV and AIDS therapies. /news/2016-05-neutrons-probe-enzyme-critical-next-generation.html Biochemistry Fri, 20 May 2016 19:10:01 EDT news382989427 For the first time, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have shown that carbon nanotubes as small as eight-tenths of a nanometer in diameter can transport protons faster than bulk water, by an order of magnitude. /news/2016-04-tiny-tubes-fast-lane.html Nanophysics Mon, 04 Apr 2016 15:48:32 EDT news379003699 While drinking your favourite cold drink, you probably do not imagine what is going on inside each ice cube. At the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), the Theory of Quantum Matter Unit, led by Professor Nic Shannon has explained in detail the theory behind two experiments that show how protons inside ice behave. Their findings have been published in Â鶹ÒùÔºical Review B. /news/2016-04-ice-protons.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Fri, 01 Apr 2016 10:05:22 EDT news378723913 The behavior of a few rubidium atoms in a cloud of 40,000 hardly seems important. But a handful of the tiny particles with the wrong energy may cause a cascade of effects that could impact future quantum computers. /news/2016-03-rogue-rubidium-atomic-anomaly.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 17 Mar 2016 09:38:22 EDT news377426300 (Â鶹ÒùÔº)—If asked to describe the differences between humans and frogs, a child might say that one hops and rib-its while the other walks and talks. If we ask that same child how to build a frog, they will probably need a few minutes with Google. Assuming they are good, they might find that for humans you start with a diameter of 5.2nm for their nuclear pore complexes (NPCs), while for frogs the parameter you use is 10.7nm. That one detail determines a lot about what is possible in the cell, and therefore the entire organism. /news/2016-02-nuclear-pore-complex-billion-years.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 24 Feb 2016 09:50:01 EST news375515032 (Â鶹ÒùÔº)—As long as the temperature is above absolute zero, gas molecules are always in constant random motion. They may diffuse—or spread out—through three-dimensional space or, in a process called "surface diffusion," along the two-dimensional surface of a solid. The most well-known mechanism to explain surface diffusion is a classical mechanism called thermal hopping, in which gas molecules jump from one adsorption site (the place where the gas molecules attach to the surface) to another at a temperature-dependent rate. So far, thermal hopping is the only mechanism known to explain the surface diffusion of hydrogen atoms on the surface of ice. /news/2015-10-quantum-tunneling-diffusion-hydrogen-atoms-ice.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 01 Oct 2015 09:30:02 EDT news362888219 (Â鶹ÒùÔº)—Photosynthesis – the ubiquitous yet remarkable process by which most plants, algae, and cyanobacteria convert light energy into chemical energy – provides the atmospheric oxygen and organic compounds fundamental to the evolution of life on Earth, and in so doing captures some six times more energy than humans consume while annually converting roughly 100 billion tons of carbon into biomass. In the effort to find alternatives to fossil fuels, the field of artificial photosynthesis – a chemical process that replicates natural photosynthesis – seeks to capture and store energy from visible light, including sunlight, in the chemical bonds of what is known as a solar fuel (for example, hydrogen, methane or methanol). /news/2015-02-red-green-metal-free-sensitizers-portend.html Materials Science Wed, 18 Feb 2015 09:30:01 EST news343411431 Protons, as positively charged hydrogen ions, move very rapidly in water from one water molecule to the next, which is why the conductivity of water is relatively high. The principle of proton conduction in water has been known for 200 years and is named the Grotthuss mechanism after its discoverer, Theodor Grotthuss. It is based on the assumption that it is not that a single specific proton moving from one molecule to another; instead, there is cleavage of bonds. /news/2013-07-protons-molecule-suitable-energy-conditions.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 23 Jul 2013 11:00:04 EDT news293795206 (Â鶹ÒùÔº) -- An international team of researchers has discovered how adding trace amounts of water can tremendously speed up chemical reactions—such as hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis—in which hydrogen is one of the reactants, or starting materials. /news/2012-05-hydrogenation-hydrogenolysis-chemical-reactions.html Materials Science Thu, 17 May 2012 14:00:10 EDT news256475470 Researchers from New York University and the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart reveal how protons move in phosphoric acid in a Nature Chemistry study that sheds new light on the workings of a promising fuel cell electrolyte. /news/2012-04-chemists-molecular-fuel-cell-electrolyte.html Materials Science Sun, 22 Apr 2012 13:00:01 EDT news254302327 Human devices, from light bulbs to iPods, send information using electrons. Human bodies and all other living things, on the other hand, send signals and perform work using ions or protons. /news/2011-09-proton-based-transistor-machines.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:31:51 EDT news235740665