Catalysts for organic chemical transformations, in particular those used for alcohol oxidations, are considered to be valuable commodities for the bulk, fine chemical as well as pharmaceutical industr...
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A stem cell’s microenvironment plays a key role in regulating its behavior (e.g., adhesion, migration, proliferation and differentiation). A variety of templates have been used to study stem cell be...
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Fatty acids generally can be classified as straight-chain or non-straight-chain. Non-straight-chain fatty acids are less abundant and highly valued in dietary supplements, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, ...
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Pyruvate is a starting material for synthesizing a variety of biofuels and chemicals. It can be readily converted into more than 60 commercial chemicals, including ethanol and several active pharmaceu...
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Activated (porous) carbon is conventionally produced by pyrolysis (carbonization) of carbon-rich biomass or coal followed by activation/oxidation. Activated carbon produced by this conventional method...
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A nanocomposite is a reinforcing material that can be added to conventional materials to make them lightweight and ductile while also increasing their strength. Nanocomposites having high strength-to-...
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The global cosmetics industry is a $460 billion dollar market with the skin whitening sector valued at $381 million in 2014. This growing market is projected to increase at a CAGR of 11.7%, reaching $...
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There is a great need and market opportunity for bioresorbable and biodegradable polymers. These polymers could prove useful in a broad range of applications including health care where the polymers c...
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Disulfide bonds between cysteine residues are the most common crosslinking agents in proteins. Reducing these bonds is an ordinary procedure in biochemistry and biotechnology. The most commonly used r...
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Lyotropic liquid crystal (LLC) assemblies are useful for highly selective chemical separations, such as water desalination and selective ion-transporting membranes. Bicontinuous cubic LLC assemblies a...
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Conventional techniques for generating plasmas aren't suitable for plasma reactions in liquids such as gasoline or diesel fuels. They are inefficient and can result in significant heat and unwanted ef...
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Biomass processing and many other industrial catalytic reactions are performed in hot, liquid conditions. These hydrothermal reactions may be carried out at elevated temperatures (e.g., 200 degrees C)...
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Lignin is a major component of non-edible biomass. It is a cheap byproduct of pulp and biofuel production and is one of the few naturally occurring sources of valuable aromatic compounds. Converting l...
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Polymer brushes are a broad class of materials consisting of a polymer chain tethered at one end to a surface. These brushes have a variety of uses given their ability to tune or modify surface proper...
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Widespread production of sustainable fuels and chemicals will require cost-effective methods for breaking down biomass into its constituent sugars. Attaining high yields of concentrated C5 and C6 carb...
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Piezoelectric materials produce electric charge in response to mechanical stress. Such materials can be utilized as very small ‘nanogenerators’ that absorb vibrations from the environment (e.g., a...
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Formaldehyde-based adhesives have been used to make interior plywood and particle board for decades. These synthetic adhesives, which are derived from petroleum, are inexpensive and perform well. Howe...
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"Orthobiologics" provides an improved method of treating fractures and other bone defects. This therapy employs inductive molecules, such as bone morphogenetic protein-2 or bone morphogeneti...
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Production of industrial chemicals has long relied on petroleum-based starting material. As reserves of fossil carbon dwindle, a new approach is looking to microorganisms and their ability to convert ...
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Plastics are the most widely used materials in the United States, surpassing steel, copper and aluminum combined by volume. While ubiquitous, fossil-based plastics are becoming more and more costly to...
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Several techniques exist for turning plastic into goods and packaging. Microcellular foams are of particular interest because they can be used to produce strong, lightweight plastic. Unfortunately, du...
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Enantiomers are pairs of compounds that have the same chemical formula but different spatial structures (like your left and right hand, they are non-superimposable mirror images of each other). This i...
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The sugars found in biomass can be treated with solvent and converted into many important building block chemicals. One such chemical is 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), which is used to make plastic ma...
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Polymer brushes are a broad class of materials made of polymer chains tethered at one end to a substrate. These brushes are able to tune and modify surface properties like bioadhesion and wettability....
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Block copolymers (BCPs) self-assemble into well-defined, highly regular and dense nanostructures. Such BCP arrays are useful for fabricating electronic devices like magnetic storage media, quantum dot...
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