American Chemical Society

Turning human waste into plastic

Imagine you're on your way to Mars, and you lose a crucial tool during a spacewalk. Not to worry, you'll simply re-enter your spacecraft and use some microorganisms to convert your urine and exhaled carbon dioxide into chemicals to make a new one.

Packaging film coated with clay nanotubes

Sometimes it seems as if fresh fruits, vegetables and meats go bad in the blink of an eye. Consumers are left feeling frustrated, often turning to less expensive processed foods that last longer but are less nutritious.

Smart label could let you know when to toss food and cosmetics

Detecting food and cosmetic spoilage and contamination. Identifying new medicinal plants in a remote jungle. Authenticating tea and wine. Scientists have developed a low-cost, portable, paper-based sensor that can potentially carry out all of these functions with easy-to-read results.

Harvesting the microbiome of athletes

Scientists have now tapped into the microbiome of exceptional runners and rowers, and have identified particular bacteria that may aid athletic performance.

Freeze-dried foam soaks up carbon dioxide

Materials scientists have created a light foam from two-dimensional sheets of hexagonal-boron nitride that absorbs carbon dioxide.

Silk could improve sensitivity, flexibility of wearable body sensors

Scientists report they are on the cusp of using silk, one of the world's most coveted fabrics, to develop a more sensitive and flexible generation of multi-purpose devices that monitor a slew of body functions in real time.

Spray-on electric rainbows: making safer electrochromic inks

Anyone who has a rear-view mirror that automatically dims blue in reaction to annoying high-beam headlights glaring from behind has seen an electrochromic film in action. Now, chemists have developed a new method to more safely and, by extension, easily produce these shear films, which change their color with the help of a tiny electric current. This could make them available to many industries that have not been able to feasibly use them before.

Candy cane supercapacitor could enable fast charging of mobile phones

Supercapacitors promise recharging of phones and other devices in seconds and minutes as opposed to hours for batteries. But current technologies are not usually flexible, have insufficient capacities, and for many their performance quickly degrades with charging cycles.

Graphene electronic tattoo sensors

Researchers have demonstrated tattoo-like epidermal sensors as an emerging class of truly wearable electronics, owing to their thinness and softness.

Artificial intelligence for human age-reversal

A research collaboration to use artificial intelligence to develop solutions for preventing early aging.

Ultrathin device harvests electricity from human motion

Imagine slipping into a jacket, shirt or skirt that powers your cell phone, fitness tracker and other personal electronic devices as you walk, wave and even when you are sitting down.

Upconverted light has a bright future

A professor's method to "upconvert" light could make solar cells more efficient and disease-targeting nanoparticles more effective.

Smart toys without the batteries

The greatest challenge in entertaining young children is keeping their toys powered up. Now, one group reports that they are one step closer to battery-free interactive games.

Hacking the human brain

One of the greatest challenges facing artificial intelligence development is understanding the human brain and figuring out how to mimic it.

Swimming microbots can remove pathogenic bacteria from water

The lack of clean water in many areas around the world is a persistent, major public health problem. One day, tiny robots could help address this issue by zooming around contaminated water and cleaning up disease-causing bacteria.

Computer system predicts products of chemical reactions

A computer system that's trained on thousands of examples of experimental reactions and that learns to predict what a reaction's major products will be.

Plant inspiration could lead to flexible electronics

Versatile, light-weight materials that are both strong and resilient are crucial for the development of flexible electronics, such as bendable tablets and wearable sensors.

Chemists create 3D printed graphene foam

Nanotechnologists have used 3D laser printing to fabricate centimeter-sized objects of atomically thin graphene.

Solar paint offers endless energy from water vapour

Researchers have developed a solar paint that can absorb water vapour and split it to generate hydrogen - the cleanest source of energy.

Miracle material discovery could end cracked smart devices

Currently, most parts of a smart phone are made of silicon and other compounds, which are expensive and break easily.