Physical Chemistry News

Yang et al. made the first direct observation of atomic motion in liquid water molecules that have been excited with laser light. Image credit: Greg Stewart / SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

Physicists Directly Observe Atomic Motion in Liquid Water Molecules

Aug 25, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of experimental physicists from the United States and Sweden has made the first direct observation of how hydrogen atoms in water...

A pure NaK drop exposed to water vapor in vacuum. Image credit: Mason et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03646-5.

Scientists Create Metallic Water Solution

Jul 30, 2021 by News Staff

Insulating materials can in principle be made metallic by applying pressure. In the case of pure water, this is estimated to require a pressure of 48 Mbars...

The hexagonal electronic lattice (green) of beryllonitrene conforms to its crystal structure, and looks like a slightly distorted honeycomb; the beryllium atoms are shown as gray balls, nitrogen atoms as blue balls. Image credit: M. Bykov.

Scientists Synthesize New Two-Dimensional Material

May 4, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Named beryllonitrene, the new two-dimensional (2D) material consists of regularly arranged nitrogen (N) and beryllium (Be) atoms and has an unusual electronic...

$Illustration showing the relationship between ice VI and XIX unit cells viewed down their c-axes, and the differences in their diffraction patterns, with color coding red for ice XIX and blue for ice VI. Image credit: University of Innsbruck.$

Scientists Create New Crystalline Form of Ice

Feb 18, 2021 by News Staff

Ice XIX is the second hydrogen-partially-ordered phase of ice VI, a previously known form of ice that exists at pressures around 1 GPa and temperatures...

Scanning electron microscope image of the ellipsoidal colloids. Inset shows a confocal microscopy image, highlighting the core-shell structure. Scale bar - 5 μm. Image credit: Roller et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2018072118.

Researchers Discover New State of Matter: Liquid Glass

Jan 6, 2021 by News Staff

Using a technique called confocal microscopy, a team of scientists from Germany and the Netherlands has found that suspensions of ellipsoidal colloids...

This 3D model of a polymer desalination membrane shows water avoiding dense spots in the membrane and slowing flow; red above the membrane shows water under higher pressure and with higher concentrations of salt; the gold, granular, sponge-like structure in the middle shows denser and less-dense areas within the salt-stopping membrane; silver channels show how water flows through; and the blue at the bottom shows water under lower pressure and with lower concentrations of salt. Image credit: Ganapathysubramanian Research Group / Iowa State University / Gregory Foss, Texas Advanced Computing Center.

Researchers Make Progress Toward High-Performing Water Desalination Membranes

Jan 1, 2021 by News Staff

Biological membranes can achieve remarkably high permeabilities while maintaining ideal selectivities by relying on homogeneous internal structures in...

This illustration shows Jezero Crater -- the landing site of NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover -- as it may have looked billions of years ago on Mars, when it was a lake. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Researchers Develop Hydrogen and Oxygen Harvesting System for Use on Mars

Dec 1, 2020 by News Staff

The active Martian water cycle, i.e., the presence of shallow water and soluble perchlorate salts in the Martian soil, enables the production of hydrogen...

Conceptual representation showing a glass containing two liquids of water separated by a thin interface; the bottom liquid is dense than the liquid at the top and, thus, shows that it is composed of water molecules closely packed. Image credit: Jerker Lokrantz / Anders Nilsson.

Supercooled Water Can Exist in Two Liquid States, Study Confirms

Nov 20, 2020 by News Staff

The usual liquid state of water that we are all familiar with corresponds to liquid water at normal temperatures. However, a new study published in the...

Kringle et al captured reversible changes in the structure of supercooled water using pulsed laser heating and infrared spectroscopy. Image credit: Timothy Holland, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Supercooled Water is Two Liquids in One, Study Shows

Sep 18, 2020 by News Staff

The first-ever measurements of liquid water at temperatures between 135 K (minus 138.15 degrees Celsius, or minus 216.7 degrees Fahrenheit) and 235 K (minus...

Moberg et al show that the smallest water clusters that can sustain ice contain only around 90 water molecules. Image credit: Gerd Altmann.

Smallest Possible Particle of Water Ice Contains Only 90 Molecules

Nov 8, 2019 by News Staff

The smallest droplet of water in which ice can form is only as big as 90 water molecules, according to new research. Moberg et al show that the smallest...

Ogle et al modified BODIPY molecules to serve as nano-thermometers inside cells. The chart on the left is a compilation of fluorescent lifetime micrographs showing the molecules’ response to temperature, in Celsius. At right, the structure of the molecule shows the rotor, at bottom, which is modified to restrict 360-degree rotation. Image credit: Meredith Ogle / Rice University.

Fluorescent Nano-Thermometer Can Measure Temperature inside Cells

Aug 30, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine has used a modified version of the boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY) molecular rotor...

Vibrational motions of N-methyl morpholine. Image credit: Brown University.

Scientists Observe Molecular Motions in Real Time

Jul 17, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of researchers led by Brown University has used ultra-high-speed X-ray pulses to image subtle motions of a molecule of N-methyl morpholine. Vibrational...

Zhang et al explained the enigmatic phenomenon of triboelectricity and why it occurs. Image credit: Alexandre Dulaunoy / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Researchers Uncover Cause of Triboelectric Charging

Apr 26, 2019 by News Staff

A team of scientists from Curtin University, the Australian National University and the University of New South Wales has demonstrated that the breaking...

Turnbull et al synthesized a single crystal of ι–N2 in a diamond anvil cell from ε–N2 at 65 GPa and 477 degrees Celsius. Image credit: Turnbull et al, doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-07074-4.

Physicists Solve Structure of Unusually Complex Form of Nitrogen

Nov 13, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of experimental physicists has for the first time determined the structure of ι-N2, a crystallized version of nitrogen. Turnbull...

Silletta et al uncovered new molecular properties of water. Image credit: Arek Socha.

Researchers Discover New Molecular Properties of Water

Aug 17, 2018 by News Staff

Water has numerous anomalous properties, many of which remain poorly understood. One of its intriguing behaviors is that it exhibits the so-called temperature...

Micrograph of aspirin polymorphs. Image credit: Chunhua Tony Hu.

New Polymorph of Aspirin Promises More Efficient Pain Relief

Jul 25, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

Every compound has different crystal forms with distinct structures and properties called polymorphs. New York University scientist Chunhua Tony Hu and...

For a substance that is ubiquitous on Earth, three quarters of our planet is covered with it, scientists can still be surprised by some of water’s properties. Image credit: Brisch27.

Scientists Observe Mysterious Phase Transition in Supercooled Water

Mar 9, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of researchers, led by Arizona State University chemist C. Austen Angell and University of Amsterdam’s Dr. Sander Woutersen, has...

Gas-phase structure of alpha-pinene was experimentally unveiled, using Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations. Image credit: Elias M. Neeman.

Scientists Determine Structure of Alpha-Pinene, Major Component of Forest Aroma

Dec 11, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of scientists from France and Spain has accurately determined the gas-phase structure of alpha-pinene, a molecule emitted into the...

Zeolitic ice (left) and aeroice (right) are illustrated: their structure can be regarded as combinations of a couple of polyhedral building blocks. In molecular scale, each polygonal face of the polyhedra is made of water molecules (left bottom); yellow lines are hydrogen bonds. Image credit: Masakazu Matsumoto / CC BY 2.0.

Scientists Predict Existence of Ultralow-Density Ices: ‘Aeroices’

Sep 6, 2017 by News Staff

A research team at Okayama University in Japan has theoretically predicted a new class of ice phases, called aeroices, likely the most stable solid phases...