Category Archives: Materials
A Talbot carpet of electrons in nanoporous graphene
Controlling electron waves by harnessing phase-coherence and interference effects is a cornerstone for future nanoelectronics or quantum computing. To this end, design of platforms with well-defined, narrow, and low-loss propagation channels is essential. Nanoporous graphene (NPG) holds great potential for […]
Spin in a closed-shell organic molecule stabilized on a metallic surface
Every year the amount of data produced is of the order of magnitude of the Avogadro’s constant, thus 6.028×1023. This trend is supposed to increase even more in the next future. This implies that more and more special […]
The ultrafast dynamics of adsorbates deciphered
One of the ultimate goals in surface science is to comprehend the fundamental processes that make that surface reactions need less than a picosecond (10-12 s) to occur. This means understanding what is happening at the scale of […]
27% of all materials in nature are topological. And now there is a catalogue
Topological materials have special universal properties, which are protected against perturbations. Such properties are theoretically described by topology, a branch of mathematics concerned with the properties of geometrical objects that are unchanged by continuous deformations. Topological materials behave like an […]
How lithium ions move in substituted ceramic solid electrolytes
From electric vehicles to storing wind and solar energy produced during off-peak hours, rechargeable lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are the best option that we currently have tu support our technological future. But if we want them to be truly environmentally-friendly and […]
The unexpected role of glycolaldehyde in photocatalytic cofactor regeneration using triethanolamine
Nature is a source of inspiration for scientists. If the efficiency of natural processes efficiency has been honed by billions of years of evolution, it seems reasonable that the best way to achieve some process is to try and mimic […]
Bionanospear, a living nanoprobe with subwavelength resolution
Light waves spread and bend as they pass through an aperture or round the edge of a barrier. This is a well-known phenomenon called diffraction. Diffraction imposes a limit to the size of objects that we can observe sharply […]
The role of copper in the Ullmann reaction
Organic chemistry uses lots and lots of names. Not only purely chemical names, but people’s names. This is so because the field is so broad that you need to name not only substances, that usually have two names, the official […]
Biogasoline production and integration into current petrorefinery process
Planes, ships, trucks and (most) cars run on different fractions of crude oil, composed of carbon chains of different length: Diesel (C10-C22), kerosene (C8-C16) and gasoline (C5-C12). Despite […]
Design of protein-protein binding sites suggests a rationale for naturally occurring contact areas
Author: Ivan Coluzza is an Ikerbasque Research Professor at CICbiomaGUNE
Molecular recognition is a critical process for many biological functions and consists in non-covalent binding of different molecules, such as protein-protein, antigen-antibody and many others. The host-guest molecules involved often […]