The world is on the cusp of a revolutionary change in the way we transform fossil fuels into useful modern chemicals. Researchers at Colorado State University have made a groundbreaking discovery that uses light to rewrite the chemistry of fossil fuels, reducing energy demands and associated pollution. This breakthrough, published in Science, could be a game-changer for industries reliant on chemical manufacturing.

At the forefront of this research are professors Garret Miyake and Robert Paton from the Department of Chemistry and the Center for Sustainable Photoredox Catalysis (SuPRCat). Inspired by photosynthesis, their organic photoredox catalysis system harnesses visible light to gently alter the properties of chemical compounds. By exposing them to two separate photons, the team’s system generates energy needed for desired reactions, performing super-reducing reactions that are normally difficult and energy-intensive.

The research has shown remarkable results on aromatic hydrocarbons – resistant compounds like benzene in fossil fuels. Miyake boasts that their technology is “the most efficient system currently available” for reducing these compounds, paving the way for the production of chemicals needed for plastics and medicine.

This work continues the efforts of the U.S. National Science Foundation Center for Sustainable Photoredox Catalysis at CSU, led by Miyake as its director. This multi-institution research effort aims to transform chemical synthesis processes across various uses, making synthetic and computational chemists team up to understand the fundamental chemical nature of photoredox catalysis.

Katharine Covert, program director for the NSF Centers for Chemical Innovation program, highlights the importance of photoredox catalysis in pharmaceutical development and other industries. Through the NSF Center for Sustainable Photoredox Catalysis, researchers are developing catalysis systems similar to the one described in this paper to support energy-efficient production of ammonia for fertilizers, the breakdown of PFAS forever chemicals, and the upcycling of plastics.

Miyake emphasizes the urgency of meeting these challenges and making a more sustainable future for our world. He concludes that “the world has a timeclock that is expiring,” and we must develop sustainable technologies before it’s too late.

This breakthrough has far-reaching implications, not just in chemical manufacturing but also in addressing pressing environmental concerns. As researchers continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible with light-based chemistry, one thing is certain – the future of fossil fuel transformation has never looked brighter.

Quantum sensors are getting increasingly sophisticated, and researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have made a significant breakthrough in creating a device that can track 3D movement without relying on GPS. This innovative technology uses a cloud of atoms chilled to incredibly cold temperatures to measure acceleration in three dimensions – a feat that many scientists didn’t think was possible.

The device, a new type of atom “interferometer,” employs six lasers as thin as a human hair to pin a cloud of tens of thousands of rubidium atoms in place. With the help of artificial intelligence, the researchers manipulate those lasers in complex patterns, allowing them to measure the behavior of the atoms as they react to small accelerations – like pressing the gas pedal down in your car.

This new device is a marvel of engineering and has the potential to revolutionize navigation technology. If you leave a classical sensor out in different environments for years, it will age and decay. Atoms, on the other hand, don’t age, making them ideal for long-term use.

The researchers achieved this breakthrough by using laser interferometry, where they first shine a laser light, then split it into two identical beams that travel over two separate paths. They eventually bring the beams back together, and if the lasers have experienced diverging effects along their journeys, such as gravity acting in different ways, they may not mesh perfectly when they recombine.

The researchers achieved the same feat with atoms instead of light, using a device currently fitting on a bench about the size of an air hockey table. They cooled a collection of rubidium atoms down to temperatures just a few billionths of a degree above absolute zero, forming a mysterious quantum state of matter known as a Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC).

The team then used laser light to jiggle the atoms, splitting them apart and creating a superposition – where each individual atom exists in two places at the same time. When the atoms snap back together, they form a unique pattern resembling a thumb print on a glass.

“We can decode that fingerprint and extract the acceleration that the atoms experienced,” said Murray Holland, professor of physics and fellow of JILA. The researchers spent almost three years building the device to achieve this feat, using an artificial intelligence technique called machine learning to streamline the process.

While the current experimental device is incredibly compact and has a long way to go before it can compete with traditional navigation tools, the technology is a testament to just how useful atoms can be. The group hopes to increase the performance of its quantum device many times over in the coming years, and their research opens up new possibilities for navigation technology based on atoms.

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In a groundbreaking discovery, researchers from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, and the University of Texas at Austin have uncovered a form of molecular motion that defies conventional understanding. When guest molecules penetrate droplets of DNA polymers, they don’t diffuse haphazardly; instead, they propagate through them in a clearly-defined frontal wave.

“This is an effect we didn’t expect at all,” says Weixiang Chen, a leading researcher from the Department of Chemistry at JGU. The findings have been published in Nature Nanotechnology, and the implications are significant.

In contrast to traditional diffusion models, where molecules spread out randomly, the observed behavior of guest molecules in DNA droplets is structured and controlled. This takes the form of a wave of molecules or a mobile boundary, as explained by Professor Andreas Walther from JGU’s Department of Chemistry, who led the research project.

The researchers used thousands of individual strands of DNA to create droplets, known as biomolecular condensates. These structures can be precisely determined and have counterparts in biological cells, which employ similar condensates to arrange complex biochemical processes without membranes.

“Our synthetic droplets represent an excellent model system for simulating natural processes and improving our understanding of them,” emphasizes Chen.

The intriguing motion of guest molecules is attributed to the way that added DNA and the DNA present in the droplets combine on the basis of the key-and-lock principle. This results in swollen, dynamic states developing locally, driven by chemical binding, material conversion, and programmable DNA interactions.

The findings are not only fundamental to our understanding of soft matter physics but also relevant to improving our knowledge of cellular processes. “This might be one of the missing pieces of the puzzle that, once assembled, will reveal to us how cells regulate signals and organize processes on the molecular level,” states Walther.

This new insight could contribute to the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders, where proteins migrate from cell nuclei into the cytoplasm, forming condensates. As these age, they transform from a dynamic to a more stable state and build problematic fibrils. “It is quite conceivable that we may be able to find a way of influencing these aging processes with the aid of our new insights,” concludes Walther.