2023

2023.01.02

Easy access to anhydrous lanthanide salts

First paper for 2023 or last for 2022? That is the question. But, without question it is an exciting result from the prolific Rogers-Mudring collaboration! Read about the easy access to anhydrous lanthanide salts that does not require exclusion from water or air humidity. The results might not only be of interest in separation science, but also help other chemists, engineers and materials scientists with the easy access to water-free starting materials for exciting lanthanide chemistry!

Isolation of anhydrous tetrabutylphosphonium lanthanide hexa- and penta-nitrates from ionic liquids

2023.02.04

Green lighting technology from plants?

Can natural products be a basis for green lighting technology? 8-Hydroxyquinoline is a natural product found in the fungus Cortinarius subtortus and the plant Allium stipitatum (aka the Persian shallot). 8-Hydroxyquinoline and its derivatives can act as antiseptics and disinfectants, have anti-inflammatory properties, and are heavily researched as antineurodegeneratives, antidiabetics, and anticancer agents in medicine. Its structure renders 8-hydroxyquinoline a good emitter material from the natural pool for light emission. Unfortunately, rapid proton transfer quenches the emission. This can be overcome by complexation with metal ion, such as in tris(8-hydroxyquinolinato) aluminium, which is a compound widely used in OLEDs. However, metal ions such as aluminium are suspected to cause diseases like Alzheimer’s. Thus, metal-free alternatives are more desirable. In a collaboration of chemists, physicists, and chemical engineers we now have developed 8-hydroxyquinoline into a metal-free, natural product platform molecule for true green lighting.

Read the full article here: The 8-Hydroxyquinolinium Cation as a Lead Structure for Efficient Color-Tunable Ionic Small Molecule Emitting Materials

2023.03.01

Environmentally Benign Cooling

Looking for environmentally benign ways of cooling? Then use magnetic refrigeration!

Read about the newest developments in the field and our collaborative work with colleagues from the Ames Lab (Yaroslav Mudryk and magnetic refrigeration pioneer Vitalij Pecharsky) & U Genova (Alessia Provino and Pietro Manfrinetti):
Thank you to the Independent Research Fund Denmark for sponsoring our research activities in the field:

Solubility limits, magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of MoB-type GdCoxNi1−x (0.47 ≤ x ≤ 0.72)

2023.03.22

Going truly green!

Hybrid perovskites have become popular for solar light harvesting as well as as light emissive systems for solid state lighting. Frequently they are based on lead – but it is possible to get stable, highly efficient materials with the non-toxic, earth abundant manganese! Read more in our latest publication:

Enhanced stability and complex phase behaviour of organic-inorganic green-emitting ionic manganese halides

2023.06.01

Not all defects are bad

The new phase Mg7Pt4Ge4 (≡Mg8□1Pt4Ge4; □ = vacancy) was prepared for this study. A high content of Mg vacancies results in a violation of the 18-valence electron rule. First principle density functional theory calculations on a hypothetical, vacancy-free “Mg2PtGe” reveal potential electronic instabilities at EF in the band structure and significant occupancy of states with an antibonding character resulting from unfavorable Pt–Ge interactions. These antibonding interactions can be eliminated through introduction of Mg defects, which reduce the valence electron count, leaving the antibonding states empty. Mg itself does not participate in these interactions. Instead, the Mg contribution to the overall bonding comes from electron back-donation from the (Pt, Ge) anionic network to Mg cations. These findings may help to understand how the interplay of structural and electronic factors leads to the “hydrogen pump effect” observed in the closely related Mg3Pt, for which the electronic band structure shows a significant amount of unoccupied bonding states, indicating an electron deficient system.

 

Read more here: Optimization of Chemical Bonding through Defect Formation and Ordering─The Case of Mg7Pt4Ge4

2023.06.15

Is three a crowd?

Adding a third partner to a family can lead to a number of new structural arrangements. We observed this in the world of Chemistry that upon adding the noble metal Pt to Sn and Nd a plethora of new compounds form. Hopefully this is a way for selective property tuning of materials.

Read the full study here: The Prolific Ternary System Pt/Sn/Nd: Insertion of Pt into the Structures of Sn/Nd Intermetallics Yields Structural Complexity and Wealth

2023.08.01

2nd Green Chemistry and Engineering Symposium

Mark Oct. 26-27 2023 in your calendar. It is a pleasure to invite you, for the second time, together with Mikael Friberg from Merck Group to Aarhus University, Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS) – Aarhus University for a Green Chemistry and Engineering Symposium to discuss the power of science & engineering to secure a sustainable future. Come and join us for this exciting event – either online or in person – with an amazing lineup of speakers: Jia Wang , Shweta Agarwala, Julie Zimmerman, Adam Slabon, Morten Madsen, Tomislav Friscic, John Warner, Amy Cannon, Beyond Benign—Green Chemistry for a Sustainable Future together with Lars Ottosen and Brian Vinter from AU.