Research

The acidity of molecules can be easily determined, but until now it was not possible to measure this important property for atoms on a surface. By combining a new microscopy technique and quantum chemical calculations, this has now been achieved. The degree of acidity or alkalinity of a substance...

Chemists at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg publish a breakthrough in magnesium chemistry in the highly renowned journal Nature. Magnesium (Mg) is an earth abundant early main group metal of low electronegativity that easily loses it’s both valence electrons. In combination w...

Environmental pollution caused by microplastics and nanoplastics is a ubiquitous problem which cannot be tackled using currently available cleaning concepts. Researchers at FAU have now demonstrated how magnets could be used to remove plastic particles of various types and sizes from water. They ...

Prodrugs are substances that only release their effects once they have been metabolised. The prodrugs of the FAU research team led by Prof. Dr. Andriy Mokhir, Professorship of Organic Chemistry, are activated in the organism by means of a chemical reaction with specific molecules that contain oxygen...

Molecular nitrogen (N2) is a highly stable gas with a N≡N triple bond that is among one of the strongest known chemical bonds. It reacts with hardly anything and is used as a protective gas for food storage. Being the main component of air, it is also used by plants as a nitrogen source. However, in...

Why are the red, yellow, and blue colours used in the world’s oldest knotted-pile carpet still so vivid and bright, even after almost two and a half thousand years? Researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg have now been able to uncover the secrets behind the so-called Pazyryk...

Life on Earth is regulated by light. It is the primary energy source of the planet, it allows some species to see, and it also plays the main role in a wide variety of technological applications. In this context, functional nanomaterials that allow to tailor light-matter interactions will probably b...

The German Research Foundation (DFG, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) established a new Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1452 “CLINT – Catalysis at Liquid Interfaces” at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg. Starting from January 2021, researchers in CLINT will explore an entirely new concept in c...

Soft X-ray microscopy is a powerful tool for characterization of various material properties in a large range of applications. It can provide insights into the nanostructure of thin organic films for solar cell or battery applications, but also reveal complex spin dynamics in novel nanomagnetic syst...