wire - news in brief

Researchers from the Ecotox Centre, Eawag and the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland have tested combined biological and chemical online monitoring as an early warning system at a municipal wastewater treatment plant. The system is able to detect peak loads of micropollutants in treated wastewater and identify toxic pollutants in real time.

On June 16, Empa inaugurated its novel methanation plant. The move-MEGA research project is the first to demonstrate so-called sorption-enhanced methanation at pilot scale - a technology developed at Empa that makes the power-to-gas process more flexible and robust.

"Matrix First" is a new approach to the design and production of composite materials, developed for applications in the catalytic, aerospace, and energy fields-where optimizing the thermo-mechanical, chemical, and structural properties of materials is essential.

Organoids are a promising breakthrough that scientists have been exploring over the past 15 years. These three-dimensional tissue cultures grown from human stem cells stand to revolutionize some aspects of biomedical research, but they won't do away entirely with the need for animal testing.

FMI researchers have shed light on how intestinal organoids form crypts, the pockets that house stem cells for gut regeneration and long-term stability.

Millions of different organic compounds are found in the soil and in bodies of water. New methods are making it possible to analyse these molecules more accurately than ever before - and to decipher their role in the functioning of ecosystems and species communities. In a scientific journal, a research team from Eawag and University of Zurich therefore calls for a new "ecology of molecules".

The Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology has announced the appointment of professors at EPFL.

DNA sequencing was revolutionized after scientists discovered a new bacterium in the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park, and today it's a common research technique.

EPFL chemical engineers have developed a way to build metal clusters - with near atomic precision - in a method that has the potential to improve catalysts and accelerate chemical reactions including turning carbon dioxide into high value chemicals like methanol.

Originally developed for electric cars, nowadays they supply mobile phone antennas with electricity, and tomorrow perhaps entire districts: The salt battery is a safe and long-lasting battery technology with huge potential. researchers are collaborating with an industrial partner to further develop these special batteries.

The Horizon 2020 SOLiDIFY consortium, comprised of 14 European partners, has developed a high-performance lithium-metal solid-state battery.

Researchers at ETH Zurich are using iron to store hydrogen safely and for long periods. In the future, this technology could be used for seasonal energy storage.

Green hydrogen could transform our energy system and solve many supply and emissions challenges. Whether this happens will depend on how economically it can be produced and attractive it will be to consumers.

By supporting a large-scale research project for carbon capture, utilization and storage, EPFL will shrink its carbon footprint while giving a boost to emerging technology.

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have for the first time precisely characterised the enzyme styrene oxide isomerase, which can be used to produce valuable chemicals and drug precursors in an environmentally friendly manner. The study appears today in the journal Nature Chemistry . Enzymes are powerful biomolecules that can be used to produce many substances at ambient conditions.

All-perovskite tandem solar cells could soon pick up where silicon solar cells reach their limits. These highly efficient, lightweight and flexible cells have already proven themselves in the laboratory - now, researchers are working on scaling them up and making them ready for the real world. Roof tiles are becoming a thing of the past: Today, more and more Swiss roofs boast large black and blue rectangles that convert sunlight into electricity.

The word "perovskite" describes a naturally occurring mineral, but also a whole range of highly specialized synthetic compounds that have promising applications in electronics and photovoltaics. But what do they actually have in common? Who discovered them? And how are researchers using them to create innovative technology? This is the focus of the new issue of Empa Quarterly.

Recycling is an accepted formula for sustainable resource use, but in the case of plastic it can have serious side effects, says - and uses the example of plastic flooring in Switzerland to illustrate the dilemma. Considering the climate crisis and worldwide plastic pollution, many people believe that recycling materials, in particular plastic, is the solution to our problems.

The inflammasome plays a pivotal role in our immune system, essentially serving as an intricate alarm mechanism within our cells that combats infections and diseases.

Kevin Turani-I-Belloto has developed a low-cost method for breaking down ammonia to produce hydrogen.

Researchers have extracted nanocellulose from a waste product of beer brewing and processed it into an aerogel.

For a scientist who's won numerous international honors for his research, Urs von Gunten, a professor at EPFL and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), is disarmingly modest.

Two outstanding publications by young researchers were honored with the Empa Research Award. The recipients, Amogh Kinikar and Shih-Chi Yang, wrote their award-winning papers during their doctoral studies at Empa.

Non-toxic and scalable water-based flow batteries would be a good solution for storing renewable energy in urban areas - if it weren't for their very low energy density.

The Empa research group led by Maksym Kovalenko is researching innovative materials for the batteries of tomorrow. Whether it's fast-charging electric cars or low-cost stationary storage, there's a promising material or a novel manufacturing process for every application. What are the hallmarks of a good battery? Is it its capacity? How fast it charges? Or its price? The answer depends on where the battery is used, says Empa researcher Kostiantyn Kravchyk.

An international group of researchers with participation from the University of Bern is using new concepts to search for efficient and durable electrocatalysts for the energy transition.

Empa and Kyburz Switzerland AG are looking for ways to recycle end-of-life lithium-ion batteries in an efficient and resource-saving way. A specially developed experimental facility breaks down the old batteries into their components so that materials can be recovered as clean as possible. Everyone is familiar with this phenomenon from their cell phone or laptop: Over time, the capacity of the battery decreases, so that you have to reach for the charger more and more often.

Master's project series (7). Donato Kofel has quantified the positive and negative effects of trees on outdoor air quality in Geneva Canton.

At Empa, Dorina Opris is researching how to synthesize complex electroactive polymers for robotic components, sensors or batteries - a promising project that the European Research Council (ERC) is currently funding with one of its prestigious ERC Consolidator Grants.

The team of students is working on a unique prototype that uses graphene membranes combined with a porous, sponge-like material to pull carbon from the atmosphere.

Innovative production technologies are crucial to the chemical industry's net-zero endeavour - but they're not always enough, says Paolo Gabrielli. Chemical products, such as plastics, fertilisers and solvents pervade our modern lifestyle. The vast majority are derived from crude oil or natural gas - and producing them generates around 5 percent of global CO2 emissions.

Empa researcher Amy Knorpp wants to bring systematics into the young research field of high-entropy oxides.

Three institutes in the ETH Domain are conducting research on so-called perovskite-based optoelectronics, such as solar cells, photodetectors, and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). In a project called AMYS, labs of EPFL, ETH Zurich and Empa have now joined forces for four years to explore new chemical compositions, but also simple and scalable low cost production methods.

Synthetic energy carriers are carbon-neutral and make renewable energy transportable and storable in the long term. Synthetically produced methane is one of them. The problem: The production involves rather high energy losses; moreover, existing processes require the methane to be purified. To change this, researchers have developed a new, optimized reactor concept for methanation.