#materials sciences

An Ontario, Canada, real estate developer & entrepreneur bought an abandoned Union Carbide site in Welland, Ontario, & accidentally discovered a multi-billion dollar synthetic graphite stockpile. Excavations revealed 340,000 tonnes of high-grade synthetic graphite. At market prices up to USD 20,000/tonne, the stockpile could be worth $6.8 billion. This is important for a couple of reasons. The first is that China controls over 90% of the world's anode-grade graphite supply. China's export restrictions have made Western automakers desperate for non-Chinese sources. Charest's find is one of the largest known synthetic graphite stockpiles in North America, already validated for battery use. As such, demand is projected to double from 5.4M tonnes (2025) to 10.1M tonnes in 2030.

Acting as the main interface between the internal and the external world, the skin is the largest and most important organ of the human body. It is frequently exposed to many types of physical injuries or wounds, including cuts, scrapes, scratches, infections, and ulcers. Unfortunately, as one ages, the skin becomes more frail and less capable of healing itself without help. With many countries experiencing a rapid rise in the aging population, the demand for treating such skin wounds has created a greater need for accessible and effective wound care products.

Physicists have discovered an exotic new state of matter that takes the form of a highly ordered crystal of subatomic particles. The new state of matter, called a "bosonic correlated insulator," could lead to the discovery of many new types of exotic materials made from condensed matter, according to the researchers, who detailed their results in a study published May 11 in the journal Science.  Subatomic particles can be separated into two categories: fermions and bosons. The primary differences between the two are how they spin and how they interact with each other.  Fermions, such as electrons and protons, are often thought of as the building blocks of matter because they make up atoms, and are characterized by their half-integer spin. Two identical fermions cannot occupy the same space at the same time. "Bosons can occupy the same energy level; fermions don't like to stay together," study lead author Chenhao Jin, a condensed-matter physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said in a statement. "Together, these behaviors construct the universe as we know it." But there is a case in which two fermions can become a boson: If a negatively charged electron is secured to a positively charged "hole" in a different fermion, it forms a bosonic particle known as an "exciton."  To see how excitons interact with one another, the researchers layered a lattice of tungsten disulfide atop a similar lattice of tungsten diselenide in an overlapping pattern called a moiré. Then, they shined a strong beam of light through the lattices — a method known as "pump-probe spectroscopy." These conditions pushed the excitons together until they were so densely packed that they could no longer move, creating a new symmetrical crystalline state with a neutral charge — a bosonic correlated insulator.

Electrolysis is a process that uses electricity to create hydrogen and oxygen molecules from water. The use of proton exchange membrane (PEM) and renewable energy for water electrolysis is widely regarded as a sustainable method for hydrogen production. However, a challenge in advancing PEM water electrolysis technology is the lack of efficient, low-cost, and stable catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in acidic solutions during PEM water electrolysis.

A team of physicists and geologists at CEA DAM-DIF and Universit´e Paris-Saclay, working with a colleague from ESRF, BP220, F-38043 Grenoble Cedex and another from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, has succeeded in synthesizing a single-crystalline iron in a form that iron has in the Earth's core. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes how they used an experimental approach to synthesize pure single-crystalline ε-iron and possible uses for the material In trying to understand Earth's internal composition, scientists have had to rely mostly on seismological data. Such studies have led scientists to believe that the core is solid and that it is surrounded by liquid. But questions have remained. For example, back in the 1980s, studies revealed that seismic waves travel faster through the Earth when traveling pole to pole versed equator to equator, and no one could explain why. Most theories have suggested it is likely because of the way the iron in the core is structured. Most in the field agree that if the type of iron that exists in the core could be made and tested at the surface, such questions could be answered with a reasonable degree of certainty. But doing so has proven to be challenging due to fracturing during synthesis. In this new effort, the research team has found a way around such problems and in so doing have found a way to synthesize a type of iron that can be used for testing the properties of iron in Earth's core.

University of California, Berkeley, chemists have created a new type of material from millions of identical, interlocking molecules, that for the first time allows the synthesis of extensive 2D or 3D structures that are flexible, strong and resilient, like the chain mail that protected medieval knights.

The material, called an infinite catenane, can be synthesized in a single chemical step.

French chemist Jean-Pierre Sauvage shared the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for synthesizing the first catenane—two linked rings. These structures served as the foundation for making molecular structures capable of moving, which are often referred to as molecular machines.

It is no longer a problem because firefighters sprayed huge amounts of water for hours on the outside of the storage tanks to keep the metal cool. They injected a chemical foam inside the tanks to smother vapors. They used drones to find the hot spots. The chemical stored inside is methyl methacrylate (MMA). The tanks were stored at GNK Aerospace in Garden Grove, & authorities had ordered mass evacuations in the area as a precaution. As a result of the incident, multiple class-action lawsuits were launched. The suit accused GKN of failing to maintain the MMA tanks safely, creating a public nuisance & operating ultrahazardous activities near homes. So far, the lawsuits have not been settled.

It's not actually MMA itself that is dangerous. MMA is a liquid monomer used to make acrylic plastics, but when MMA forms long chains (called polymerization), it becomes exothermic, & if the heat can't escape, you get bulging tank walls, valve failures, flying metal pieces, a fireball, burning MMA on the ground, & potential boiling liquid expanding vapor explosions, shortened to BLEVE. The big tank holding 34,000 gallons (129,000 L) can explode, releasing harmful vapors, causing fire, blast damage to homes & residents nearby, & potential secondary releases of burning or decomposing chemicals. The tank is only 35 mi (56 km) away from Los Angeles. Believe it or not, the chemicals involved here (methylmethyl acrylate & its polymer polymethylmethacrylate) lead to a fascinating story that I'll tell you about.

It all began with a terrible smell with pits full of, believe it or not, dog poop. In Stuttgart, Germany, in 1904, a young German chemist, Dr. Arthur Röhn, worked near old-style tanneries. Back then, tanners softened animal hides in pits full of dog poop. The smell was unbearable. So he invented a synthetic tanning chemical he named Oriphon. This became the 1st successful synthetic leather-processing product. He became very wealthy, which launched his career. Arthur partnered up with an Austrian businessman, Otto Haas. Their company became a giant in acrylic chemistry. Rohm discovered a way to form long chains of the monomer MMA forming PMMA discovering that when they linked together, they would form a clear, hard, shatter-resistant plastic we know as Plexiglass (Perspex) in Europe. This was the first truly clear, strong, glass-like plastic. From this material, Arthur created the first eyeglasses made of plastic. Then, a Canadian chemist, William Chalmers at my alma mater, McGill University, figured out a way to scale it up. It was affordable, consistent, strong, & ready for industrial use.

PMAA soon became a wartime material, & it was used as a clear, protective canopy over pilots' heads. The Germans used it as well, but it was of a poorer quality, so it cracked in cold weather & yellowed faster. Allied Plexiglass was simply better, & pilots found that even if it would shatter after crashes & some splinters went into their eyes, doctors noted their eyes tolerated PMMA extremely well & they did not have severe immune reactions. This observation changed medicine. A British eye surgeon, Sir Harold Ridley, realized that if the eye accepts Plexiglass, why not make a lens out of it? And in 1949, he implanted the 1st successful artificial lens made of Plexiglass (Perspex). This was the birth of cataract surgery.

Before this, cataract patients were left with thick "Coke-bottle" glasses because the natural lens had to be removed. Ridley's PMAA lens changed everything. Later, surgeons refined the technique. Dr. Cornelius Binkhorse (Netherlands) & Dr. Marvin Kwitco (Montreal) developed ways to anchor the lens, shape the lens, & implant it safely, combining PMAA with silicone. These improvements made cataract surgery safer, faster (now it could be done within 2 hours on an outpatient basis), more predictable & more widely available. Modern Plexiglass lenses are flexible, foldable, crystal-clear & inserted through tiny incisions (0.08-0.12 in/2-3 mm), requiring no stitching.

Even MMA has important uses such as road markings (yes, the paint on highways), adhesives & glues for cars, airplanes, boats & for construction, & dental materials such as dentures & crowns, orthopedic surgeons use MMA as "bone cement" in hip & knee replacements & for waterproof coatings. One of the most well-known tourist destinations in Japan is the Hippopo Papa Cafe, where patrons sit on a Plexiglass toilet seat encircled by three sides of a massive Plexiglass aquarium while responding to nature's call amid tropical fish. PMAA (Plexiglass/Perspex) is widely used for aquariums. When you fly, you're looking out of Plexiglass windows. It's also used for taillights, instrument panels for cars, & motorcycle windshields. Architects use them for skylights & building windows. They're used for display cases in museums & in home decor for shelves, artificial chairs, tables & lighting fixtures, eyeglasses & artificial teeth. In hospitals, PMAA is used for incubators, surgical instrument housing & protective shields.