The latest business digest for C&I Issue 2 2022 with all the latest mergers and acquisitions in the chemical industry.
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.
An international team of researchers has demonstrated an important concept underpinning a type of quantum battery. Still only theoretical, quantum battery technology involves qubits, the basic units of quantum information, which can take different forms such as electrons and photons. Charging a quantum battery means changing a qubit’s state from a lower to a higher energy level, while using or discharging the battery does the reverse.
Natural tooth enamel is the hardest substance in the human body. Now, however, scientists have produced an engineered analogue of tooth enamel that they say ‘exceeds the properties’ of both natural enamel and previously manufactured materials (Science, doi: 10.1126/science.abj3343).
Singapore researchers have found a new use for recycled plastics found in electronic waste. They have repurposed them as laboratory cell culture containers, such as petri dishes.
Mining and commodities giant Glencore has entered into a joint venture with battery pioneer Britishvolt to build a battery recycling plant in Kent. Once completed, the plant will be Glencore and Britishvolt’s first battery recycling facility in the UK, with an expected processing capacity of a minimum of 10,000t of Li-ion batteries/year.
Suspicious deaths are notoriously difficult to investigate and pinning down how long a person has been dead is critical. Now, an array of novel analytical techniques promises to make the process more accurate and objective, Jon Evans reports
A new facility has been commissioned in Egypt to produce benzene – a gasoline additive also used in the production of resins, adhesives and plastics.
Expertise built-up while monitoring wastewater during the Covid-19 pandemic may also be useful for other pathogens – providing early warning of future disease outbreaks, Michael Gross reports.