news 2017

By Birgit Baustädter The research area of molecular electronics focuses on miniaturisation. It's a further development of microelectronics and deals with circuits at the molecular level. Electronic objects of daily life are becoming increasingly smaller - but at the same time more powerful and efficient.

Transitions occurring in nanoscale systems, such as a chemical reaction or the folding of a protein, are strongly affected by friction and thermal noise. Almost 80 years ago, the Dutch physicist Hendrik Kramers predicted that such transitions occur most frequently at intermediate friction, an effect known as Kramers turnover.

TU Graz researchers observe enzymes breaking down cellulose to aid the production of biofuels. The results are now published in Nature Communications. Biofuels obtained from biomass are becoming increasingly important. Apart from biomethane, however, they cannot be produced efficiently, cheaply and sustainably since the current technological complexity and costs are still too high.

Researchers at the Universities of Vienna and Göttingen have succeeded in developing a method for predicting molecular infrared spectra based on artificial intelligence. These chemical "fingerprints" could only be simulated by common prediction techniques for small molecules in high quality. With the help of the new technology, which is based on neuronal networks similar to the human brain and is therefore capable of learning, the team led by Philipp Marquetand from the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Vienna was able to carry out simulations that were previously not possible.

TU Wien is conducting research into high-precision 3D printing technology. Now, a new method is enabling researchers to look for suitable materials with greater precision than ever. How is it possible to build a model of St Stephen's Cathedral the size of a dust particle' Well, using TU Wien's modern 3D-printing technology, this is no longer a problem.

A riddle, which has been bugging atomic physicists for more than 20 years, has been solved. The solution should help to understand the helpful effects of ionizing radiation in cancer therapy. A highly charged ion (center) passing through graphene can transfer energy to several carbon atoms simultaneously.

Simon Stellmer has been awarded a prestigious ERC Starting Grant. He will now use ultracold mercury atoms to investigate fundamental symmetries in nature. Why is there matter in the universe at all? To date there has been no conclusive answer to this question. Our understanding of the Big Bang is based on the assumption that equal amounts of antimatter and matter were created.

Quantum physics teaches us that unobserved particles may propagate through space like waves. This is philosophically intriguing and of technological relevance: a research team at the University of Vienna has demonstrated that combining experimental quantum interferometry with quantum chemistry allows deriving information about optical and electronic properties of biomolecules, here exemplified with a set of vitamins.

In quantum mechanics particles can behave as waves and take many paths through an experiment, even when a classical marble could only take one of them at any time. However, it requires only combinations of pairs of paths, rather than three or more, to determine the probability for a particle to arrive somewhere.

By Ulrike Keller From laptops to generators: plastics are an integral part of every electronic and electrical device. In the research project "PolyTherm" experts from chemistry, materials science, plastics and high-voltage engineering pool their expertise. They're developing and testing novel polymers to facilitate the manufacture of more powerful and compact high-tech products in the future.

By Ulrike Keller Nikolaus Schwaiger co-developed the BioCRACK process. High-grade and eco-friendly diesel fuel is produced from biomass such as wooden waste, straw and reeds. The findings are impressive. "In comparison with fossil fuels, the fuel generated in the bioCRACK plant saves 85 per cent of greenhouse gases," explains chemical engineer Nikolaus Schwaiger.

Wherever you look, you are almost guaranteed to find tiny plastic particles. However, a study conducted by TU Wien has revealed that, in many cases, what is thought to be plastic found in samples of seawater may actually be natural fibres from lab coats. Plastic is constantly finding its way into the ocean - it comes from ships, unsecured landfill sites and the sewage system.

By Martina Geier The pharma industry is in search of sustainable and cost-effective manufacturing processes for drugs. In the "CHEM21" project, project teams from TU Graz and acib developed genetic tools to provide tailored microorganisms for quick and straight forward drug production approaches. Classical drug production processes often require up to 100 kg of raw materials to manufacture 1 kg of the active ingredient of a drug.

Without fossil fuels, there can be no blast furnace process - but hydrogen could play a more important role in the future. An environmentally friendly process is being developed at TU Wien by which biomass can be used to produce a hydrogen-rich gas that can then be employed in various ways in the iron and steel industry.

Scientists at the University of Vienna have created a new hybrid structure, termed buckyball sandwich, by encapsulating a single layer of fullerene molecules between two graphene sheets. Buckyball sandwiches combine for the first time soccerball-like fullerenes, each consisting of sixty carbon atoms, and graphene, a one-atom thick layer of carbon.

Traffic contributes more to nitrogen oxide emissions in Europe than previously thought. This is the result of a current study carried out by scientists from the University of Innsbruck. The research team headed by Thomas Karl shows that even newer air quality models underestimate traffic related nitrogen oxide pollution by up to a factor of 4.

Graphene is considered as one of the most promising new materials. However, the systematic insertion of chemically bound atoms and molecules to control its properties is still a major challenge. Now, for the first time, scientists of the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, the University of Vienna, the Freie Universität Berlin and the University Yachay Tech in Ecuador succeeded in precisely verifying the spectral fingerprint of such compounds in both theory and experiment.

Asphalt does not last forever. At some point, it ages and starts to crumble. This has to do with the bitumen, the sticky binding agent, which holds and keeps the rock content in the asphalt. Bitumen is a petroleum product consisting of several organic components, which undergo a chemical change over time.

In order for a fuel cell to work, it needs an oxidising agent. TU Wien has now found a way to explain why oxygen does not always enter fuel cells effectively, rendering them unusable. Fuel cells use a simple chemical reaction, such as the combination of oxygen and hydrogen to form water, to generate electricity.

The analysis of the minutest quantities of pharmaceutical samples is of crucial importance for the research and synthesis of new medications. At the moment it represents a technical challenge, but a new infrared method of measurement developed by TU Wien in collaboration with two research groups from Copenhagen may remedy this.