Materials Chemistry

N-Heterocyclic Carbenes (NHCs) are extremely reactive molecules with surfaces such as gold, silver, cobalt, palladium and iron. NHCs are stabilized on these surfaces due to their strong sigma-donating and pi-back-bonding abilities, which leads to extremely stable molecules on metal surfaces when applied. These NHC-modified surfaces have found applications in microelectronics, protective coatings and catalysis. However, metals are a finite resource, and in each of these applications, a limitation of either of these metals would be catastrophic to society.

The external components of spacecraft and satellites endure extreme environmental conditions, including ultra-vacuum, UV radiation, temperature fluctuations, and atomic oxygen, leading to material degradation over time. Among the most vulnerable parts are the solar panels and their supporting base structures, which lack the protection of multi-layer insulation. This research aims to enhance the resilience of these components through innovative material solutions, contributing to sustainability by addressing space debris and minimizing the depletion of critical Earth resources.

Amine-based adsorbents are widely used for CO2 capture. However, one of the biggest hurdles for their further development is their limited oxidation stability. Moreover, methods developed to improve the oxidation stability often lead to significant decrease in their CO2 (HES) on the CO2 uptake. Here, we investigated the effect of hydroxyethyl starch uptake and oxidation stability of impregnated polyethylenimine (PEI) adsorbents. Performance of HES-PEI co-impregnated materials was evaluated under different oxidation conditions using CO2 uptake measurements, and mass spectrometry.

Peptoids, or N-substituted glycine polymers, are an important platform for the development of new materials for therapeutic, cryopreservation, and biosensing applications. The stepwise solid-phase synthesis of peptoids uses iterative acylation and displacement reactions to grow the peptoid chain but relies on hazardous solvents, N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), which are used in large quantities for resin swelling, washing, and solubilizing the required chemical reagents.

The low bioavailability of widely used drugs, such as metformin (MFH), makes it necessary to administer constant doses to achieve the desired therapeutic effect, which leads to an increase in adverse effects and toxicity. In addition, their disposal also causes an environmental impact on both the ecosystem and organisms [1,2]. The development of materials based on biocompatible polymers is one of the most promising alternatives to reduce the dosage of active ingredients. Besides, these materials can function as adsorbents of micropollutants in the wastewater treatment [3].

Application-specific nanomaterials with longer lifetime can be developed with the aid of interdisciplinary sciences. For that, exploring different synthetic methods and conditions is necessary. Moreover, designing the  surface ligands with required functionalities is considered the key for stabilization and solubility as well as target binding and different applications. Modification of surface ligands at surface of metal NPs and quantum dots (QDs) opens the door of numerous opportunities in terms of applications.

Driven by the growing eco-awareness, bio-based polymers have been widely explored lately. In spite of important scientific breakthroughs, widespread technological usage is limited sometimes by performance mismatch with the currently used materials and often by the lack of scalability towards large-scale production. This study focuses on the combination of polysaccharides and proteins into a bilayer design that was shaped into flat films in a scaled-up fashion by continuous casting.

Scientific research increasingly demonstrates that chemicals and materials essential for everyday products threaten natural systems and human health. Transitioning to sustainable, circular, and low-carbon economies depends critically on having safer chemicals available. We propose that materials scientists should also account the impact of the health hazards of chemicals associated with the synthesis, processing, and manufacturing of materials.