PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Impossible material made by Uppsala University researchers

2013-07-18
(Press-News.org) A novel material with world record breaking surface area and water adsorption abilities has been synthesized by researchers from Uppsala University, Sweden. The results are published today in PLOS ONE.

The magnesium carbonate material that has been given the name Upsalite is foreseen to reduce the amount of energy needed to control environmental moisture in the electronics and drug formulation industry as well as in hockey rinks and ware houses. It can also be used for collection of toxic waste, chemicals or oil spill and in drug delivery systems, for odor control and sanitation after fire.

In contrast to what has been claimed for more than 100 years in the scientific literature, we have found that amorphous magnesium carbonate can be made in a very simple, low-temperature process, says Johan Goméz de la Torre, researcher at the Nanotechnology and Functional Materials Division.

While ordered forms of magnesium carbonate, both with and without water in the structure, are abundant in nature, water-free disordered forms have been proven extremely difficult to make. In 1908, German researchers claimed that the material could indeed not be made in the same way as other disordered carbonates, by bubbling CO2 through an alcoholic suspension. Subsequent studies in 1926 and 1961 came to the same conclusion.

A Thursday afternoon in 2011, we slightly changed the synthesis parameters of the earlier employed unsuccessful attempts, and by mistake left the material in the reaction chamber over the weekend. Back at work on Monday morning we discovered that a rigid gel had formed and after drying this gel we started to get excited, says Johan Goméz de la Torre.

A year of detailed materials analysis and fine tuning of the experiment followed. One of the researchers got to take advantage of his Russian skill since some of the chemistry details necessary for understanding the reaction mechanism was only available in an old Russian PhD thesis.

After having gone through a number of state of the art materials characterization techniques it became clear that we had indeed synthesized the material that previously had been claimed impossible to make, says Maria Strømme, professor of nanotechnology and head of the nanotechnology and functional materials division.

The most striking discovery was, however, not that they had produced a new material but it was instead the striking properties they found that this novel material possessed. It turned out that Upsalite had the highest surface area measured for an alkali earth metal carbonate; 800 square meters per gram.

This places the new material in the exclusive class of porous, high surface area materials including mesoporous silica, zeolites, metal organic frameworks, and carbon nanotubes, says Strømme.

In addition we found that the material was filled with empty pores all having a diameter smaller than 10 nano meters. This pore structure gives the material a totally unique way of interacting with the environment leading to a number of properties important for application of the material. Upsalite is for example found to absorb more water at low relative humidities than the best materials presently available; the hydroscopic zeolites, a property that can be regenerated with less energy consumption than is used in similar processes today.

This, together with other unique properties of the discovered impossible material is expected to pave the way for new sustainable products in a number of industrial applications, says Maria Strømme.



INFORMATION:



The discovery will be commercialized though the University spin-out company Disruptive Materials that has been formed by the researchers together with the holding company of Uppsala University.

The article describing the novel material is published in PLOS ONE can be read on the following link: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0068486.

For more information, please contact Maria Strømme phone: +46 70 167 91 04, maria.stromme@angstrom.uu.se or Johan Goméz de la Torre, phone: +46 18-471 58 63, Johan.Forsgren@angstrom.uu.se



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

'Intelligent knife' tells surgeon which tissue is cancerous

2013-07-18
Scientists have developed an "intelligent knife" that can tell surgeons immediately whether the tissue they are cutting is cancerous or not. In the first study to test the invention in the operating theatre, the "iKnife" diagnosed tissue samples from 91 patients with 100 per cent accuracy, instantly providing information that normally takes up to half an hour to reveal using laboratory tests. The findings, by researchers at Imperial College London, are published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The study was funded by the National Institute for Health ...

Earth's gold came from colliding dead stars

2013-07-18
We value gold for many reasons: its beauty, its usefulness as jewelry, and its rarity. Gold is rare on Earth in part because it's also rare in the universe. Unlike elements like carbon or iron, it cannot be created within a star. Instead, it must be born in a more cataclysmic event - like one that occurred last month known as a short gamma-ray burst (GRB). Observations of this GRB provide evidence that it resulted from the collision of two neutron stars - the dead cores of stars that previously exploded as supernovae. Moreover, a unique glow that persisted for days at ...

Conflict threatens global nutrition progress, new report warns

2013-07-18
Major progress in tackling child undernutrition in some of the world's toughest countries is under threat as military and security funding takes precedence, a new report from aid agency World Vision warns. The number of children under five who die every year has decreased by half since 1990. Yet, World Vision's Fragile but not Helpless report (PDF) finds that this progress is under threat. Countries marred by conflict or fragility have some of the highest rates of acute and chronic undernutrition in the world. In Africa alone it is on average 50 percent higher in fragile ...

Researchers reveal great white sharks' fuel for oceanic voyages: Liver oil

2013-07-18
Great white sharks are not exactly known as picky eaters, so it might seem obvious that these voracious predators would dine often and well on their migrations across the Pacific Ocean. But not so, according to new research by scientists at Stanford University and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The researchers' findings, published July 17 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, reveal previously unknown details of how great white sharks power themselves and stay buoyant on non-stop trips of more than 2,500 miles. The discoveries have potentially broad implications for conservation ...

Nano drug crosses blood-brain tumor barrier, targets brain-tumor cells and blood vessels

2013-07-18
The blood-brain barrier protects the brain from poisons but also prevents drugs from reaching brain tumors; innovative new treatments are needed. This laboratory study shows that a nanotechnology drug called SapC-DOPS crosses that barrier and targets brain-tumor cells and retards growth of tumor blood vessels. The findings also show how the agent targets tumor cells and recommend its further development as a novel treatment for glioblastoma. COLUMBUS, Ohio – An experimental drug in early development for aggressive brain tumors can cross the blood-brain tumor barrier ...

The best defense against catastrophic storms: Mother Nature, say Stanford researchers

2013-07-18
Extreme weather, sea level rise and degraded coastal systems are placing people and property at greater risk along the coast. Natural habitats such as dunes and reefs are critical to protecting millions of U.S. residents and billions of dollars in property from coastal storms, according to a new study by scientists with the Natural Capital Project at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. The study, "Coastal habitats shield people and property from sea-level rise and storms," published July 14 in the journal Nature Climate Change, offers the first comprehensive ...

Splitting donated livers shown to be safe, allowing doctors to save 2 lives from single organ

2013-07-18
Boston, Mass—Split liver transplantation carries no increased risk of failure in either recipient, allowing surgeons to safely save two lives from a single donated organ (graft), according to new research from Boston Children's Hospital published online in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Due to their regenerative nature, livers donated by a deceased adult or adolescent can be surgically split into two unequally sized portions; the smaller segment is allocated to a young child awaiting transplant and the larger portion to an adult. "Infants waiting ...

Monitoring nutrient intake can help vegetarian athletes stay competitive

2013-07-18
CHICAGO – A balanced plant-based diet provides the same quality of fuel for athletes as a meat-based diet, provided vegetarians seek out other sources of certain nutrients that are more commonly found in animal products, according to a presentation at the 2013 Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting & Expo®. The research was compiled by Dilip Ghosh, Ph.D., director of Nutriconnect in Sydney, Australia. He was unable to attend the meeting, so his presentation was given by Debasis Bagchi, Ph.D., director of innovation and clinical affairs at Iovate Health Sciences ...

Compound discovered at sea shows potency against anthrax

2013-07-18
A team led by William Fenical at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has discovered a new chemical compound from an ocean microbe in a preliminary research finding that could one day set the stage for new treatments for anthrax and other ailments such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). As reported in the international edition of the German journal Angewandte Chemie, Scripps researcher Chris Kauffman in Fenical's group first collected the microorganism that produces the compound in 2012 from sediments close to shore off Santa Barbara, ...

New technologies and ingredients provide better options for gluten-free eating

2013-07-18
CHICAGO—New technologies and ingredients are improving the taste, appearance and nutritional content of gluten-free food products, a market that is expected to grow to $6 billion by 2017, according to a presentation today at the 2013 Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting & Food Expo® in Chicago. An estimated one in 133 Americans has celiac disease, an immune disorder triggered by the ingestion of gluten peptides found in wheat, barley and rye, said Joseph Baumert, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Food Science & Technology and co-director ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Thirty-year mystery of dissonance in the “ringing” of black holes explained

Less intensive works best for agricultural soil

Arctic rivers project receives “national champion” designation from frontiers foundation

Computational biology paves the way for new ALS tests

Study offers new hope for babies born with opioid withdrawal syndrome

UT, Volkswagen Group of America celebrate research partnership

New Medicare program could dramatically improve affordability for cancer drugs – if patients enroll

Are ‘zombie’ skin cells harmful or helpful? The answer may be in their shapes

University of Cincinnati Cancer Center presents research at AACR 2025

Head and neck, breast, lung and survivorship studies headline Dana-Farber research at AACR Annual Meeting 2025

AACR: Researchers share promising results from MD Anderson clinical trials

New research explains why our waistlines expand in middle age

Advancements in muon detection: Taishan Antineutrino Observatory's innovative top veto tracker

Chips off the old block

Microvascular decompression combined with nerve combing for atypical trigeminal neuralgia

Cutting the complexity from digital carpentry

Lung immune cell type “quietly” controls inflammation in COVID-19

Fiscal impact of expanded Medicare coverage for GLP-1 receptor agonists to treat obesity

State and sociodemographic trends in US cigarette smoking with future projections

Young adults drive historic decline in smoking

NFCR congratulates Dr. Robert C. Bast, Jr. on receiving the AACR-Daniel D. Von Hoff Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education and Training in Cancer Research

Chimpanzee stem cells offer new insights into early embryonic development

This injected protein-like polymer helps tissues heal after a heart attack

FlexTech inaugural issue launches, pioneering interdisciplinary innovation in flexible technology

In Down syndrome mice, 40Hz light and sound improve cognition, neurogenesis, connectivity

Methyl eugenol: potential to inhibit oxidative stress, address related diseases, and its toxicological effects

A vascularized multilayer chip reveals shear stress-induced angiogenesis in diverse fluid conditions

AI helps unravel a cause of Alzheimer's disease and identify a therapeutic candidate

Coalition of Autism Scientists critiques US Department of Health and Human Services Autism Research Initiative

Structure dictates effectiveness, safety in nanomedicine

[Press-News.org] Impossible material made by Uppsala University researchers