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© Max-Planck-Institut für Kolloid- und Grenzflächenforschung / ScienceBrush Design
In this image we see several parallel nanometer-sized tubes as a part of the membrane in which the photocatalytic reaction takes place. The membrane is a macroscopic object composed of an ensemble of such nanotubes.
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Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces developed a membrane that is composed of a bundle of nanometer-sized tubes. They used it as a nanoreactor to convert water marked with methylene blue into clear water in milliseconds using sunlight as a driver. ‘Running reactions in fluids with lower viscosity in a blink of an eye represents a new opportunity for chemistry,’ says Prof. Markus Antonietti, Director of the Department of Colloid Chemistry.
Chemistry is often considered as a mature discipline in which new findings only emerge at the outer rims. A team led by Dr. Aleksandr Savateev has now shown that there are still remarkable surprises in the very core, at the nanoscale. Properties of common fluids like water depend on the size of the container in which they are confined. If you fill water, already a quite agile liquid with low viscosity, into a nanosized container that can fit only a few water molecules, it becomes ‘superfluidic’. The smaller the confinement, the larger the superfluid effect. Not all water is the same.
In their reaction experiments, the Savateev group developed a membrane composed of billions of parallel carbon nitride tubes, each with a diameter of a few nanometers, which is 1/10,000 of a human hair. They observed that water slides through these tubes without any friction. In such settings, light is used as a driver for the chemical transformation of polluted water into clear water, while quantum confinement created by the membrane also directs energy of light with unprecedented efficiency. The concave surface of the parallel, nearly one-dimensional tubes, serves as a kind of a mirror that concentrates internal electric field inside the nanotube. Combined with the light coming from outside, it enhances drastically the reaction rate. ‘In ordinary 3D space, reaction rates in milliseconds are simply impossible,’ Dr. Savateev says.
‘We are actively working on the development of this technology to synthesize fuel and other for the society important materials using sustainable energy like solar light, in simple devices comparable to a coffee filter,’ says Aleksandr Savateev.
First programmable photocatalyst developed
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces have developed a sustainable and "smart photocatalyst". The special feature: as a so-called smart material, it can distinguish between the colors of light (blue, red and green) and, in response, enables a specific chemical r ... more
Green Chemistry: Sustainable p-xylene production
Lemonade, juice and mineral water often come in PET bottles. While these are practical and functional, their production is complex and not necessarily sustainable. The starting material for terephthalic acid, which is used to produce saturated polyesters such as PET (Polyethylene terephthal ... more
Put into the right light - Reproducible and sustainable coupling reactions
A team of researchers reports in the journal Nature Catalysis that sustainable carbon-nitrogen cross-couplings can be performed using simple nickel salts, carbon nitrides and light. The chemists study the use of cost-effective and reproducible semiconductors as photocatalysts in coupling re ... more
With Light in the Fight against Malaria
Malaria represents a global threat to health, which is difficult to keep under control. Amongst more than 200 million sufferers, over 500,000 die each year of the disease, with the risk of a fatal outcome being particularly high in children [1]. more
born 1983, studied chemistry at the University of Regensburg and received his doctorate from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, in the Department of Colloid Chemistry. Since Sept. 2011, he has been working as a post-doctoral fellow for Prof. Dr. Seeberger at the ... more
born 1966, studied chemistry at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, and received his doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Colorado. After holding a post-doctorate position at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in New York City, he was Assistant Professor and Fir ... more
Neuroscientists illuminate how brain cells deep in the cortex operate in freely moving mice
How can we see what neurons deep in the cortex are doing during behavior? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Neurobiology of Behavior - caesar (MPINB) have developed a miniature microscope small enough to be carried on the head of a freely moving mouse and capable of measuring ... more
Researchers from Dresden and Vienna reveal link between connectivity of three-dimensional structures in tissues and the emergence of their architecture to help scientists engineer self-organising tissues that mimic human organs. Organs in the human body have complex networks of fluid-filled ... more
Back to the Future of Photosynthesis
The central biocatalyst in Photosynthesis, Rubisco, is the most abundant enzyme on earth. But how did Rubisco evolve, and how did it adapt to environmental changes during Earth’s history? By reconstructing billion-year-old enzymes, a team of Max Planck Researchers has deciphered one of the ... more
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