chemistry

With scholarship support, chemistry grad student Jessica Kelz probes the secrets of carnivorous plants

Scientists at UCI’s Irvine Materials Research Institute have made a breakthrough in directly imaging a platinum precursor compound and its dynamic transformation into nanocrystals. The observation was made in real space and time in IMRI’s state-of-the-art transmission electron microscope facility. The research team’s results were published today in Science Advances. Knowing the dynamics and kinetics of materials […]

The ammonia you use to clean and disinfect your kitchen floor starts off as nitrogen, a gas that makes up almost 80 percent of Earth’s atmosphere. But the conversion requires the breaking of a strong triple-chemical bond in a high-heat, high-pressure industrial process. UCI physicist Huolin Xin worked with his colleagues at Brookhaven National Laboratory […]

Carbon monoxide used to measure electric forces in single chemical compound

Shane Ardo, UCI assistant professor of chemistry, is among 84 scientists from across the nation to receive funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Early Career Research Program. The effort, now in its ninth year, is designed to bolster the country’s scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the crucial early career years, […]

Innovation could advance pharmaceutical, cancer prevention research

UCI-built apparatus helps scientists probe the unknown

Innovative technology could lead to low-cost seawater desalination

An international team of scientists including Kieron Burke, UCI professor of chemistry, has created a machine-learning algorithm that predicts molecular behavior. The breakthrough may aid in the development of pharmaceuticals and materials to enhance the performance of batteries, solar cells and digital displays. In a study published in Nature Communications, the researchers describe how their […]

UCI researchers have devised a new fluorescence microscopy technique for observing individual molecules during catalytic reactions. Their work, published recently in the prestigious German journal Angewandte Chemie, is aimed at helping scientists and engineers better understand the fundamental workings of catalysis, the basis of multibillion-dollar industries in polymer plastics and pharmaceuticals. “Most studies of catalytic […]