High-performance fillers can change material properties, such as improving strength and stiffness, but also, for example, make packaging films easier to remove, increase the thermal conductivity of adhesives, regulate the temperature of acrylic glass sheets or store light in colours and release it again in the dark.
There is a common misperception that the Foundation Industries, which produce metals, chemicals, cement, ceramics, paper and glass, have changed little since the Industrial Revolution. They are often thought to still be manufacturing commodity products using ‘old’ technology. The reality is that an ever-growing demand to produce more of these materials, at lower cost, has driven considerable innovation over recent decades.
In an ever more competitive marketplace, makers of decorative paints often rely on unique selling points to make their products stand out. Some companies, however, may be misleading consumers with unsubstantiated green claims about their paints. A recent international analysis of websites conducted by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that 40% of green claims made online could be misleading.
The events in Ukraine are devastating beyond what I can even start to comprehend or describe. My heart goes out to all those involved. What probably hasn’t been appreciated, however, is the impact this war will have on drug discovery.
Warning or camouflage? Pigments can send signals, but also protect against sunlight or other dangers. The small, colour-giving particles are hardly soluble in water or other application media; pigments are mainly added to paints and coatings, plastics and construction materials. In contrast, dyes are used mainly to colour liquids.
As the global Covid-19 pandemic enters its third year, life science innovation is setting new records in the level of investment, activity and scientific progress, in addition to the number and range of new medicines reaching patients around the world. Beyond the ground-breaking contributions to Covid-19 in the form of vaccines and therapeutics, this sector has also succeeded in adapting and re-focusing to a remarkable extent, overcoming the many operational and organisational challenges.
Supplying a fast-growing global population with food, energy and clean water, making the best use of limited natural resources and protecting our climate are among the greatest challenges of our time. Innovations based on chemistry play a pivotal role in overcoming these and it’s certainly worth taking a deeper look.
Economic incentives to support EU companies moving away from hazardous chemicals could stimulate the transition of the market towards sustainability. This is the case that is presented in the latest ChemSec report, Unlock the market – Economic incentives for alternatives to hazardous chemicals.
From 1 July 2024, all rechargeable industrial and EV batteries will require a carbon footprint declaration, which will eventually transition into a mandatory maximum lifecycle carbon footprint threshold.
Medical hydrogels currently dominate hydrogel publicity, patents and research but others will become a larger business 2022 to 2042.* Self-healing and membrane hydrogels turn out to be extremely important for the future. Hydrogels can be tailored to be phase changing, shape memory, toxin and rare metal-grabbing and so much more. The properties can be useful in the new structural electronics and many types of sensors.