Scienceblogtwo

There is some good news if you've been depressed by recent revelations that dangerous man-made chemicals known as PFAS, which may persist for thousands of years and make even rainfall unfit to drink, have completely invaded Earth's water supplies. Chemists at UCLA and Northwestern University have created a straightforward method to degrade over a dozen different kinds of these "forever compounds" at relatively low temperatures without creating any negative consequences. In a paper published today in the journal Science, the researchers demonstrate that in water heated to just 176 to 248 degrees Fahrenheit, common, inexpensive solvents and reagents severed some of the strongest known PFAS molecular bonds, starting a chemical reaction that "gradually nibbled away at the molecule" until it was gone, according to Kendall Houk, distinguished research professor at UCLA and co-corresponding author. There is no upper limit to the amount of water that may be handled ...

The thermodynamic characteristics of molten salts, which are employed in several nuclear and solar energy applications, have been studied in a unique method by a chemist at the University of Cincinnati. Yu Shi, a computational chemist and research associate at the University of California's College of Arts and Sciences, and his colleagues created a new simulation technique that uses deep learning AI to compute free energy. Molten salt is salt that has been heated to a high enough temperature to become liquid. Table salt, or sodium chloride, was the subject of study at UC. Shi claimed that the qualities of molten salt made it a useful medium for nuclear power stations' cooling systems. They can be used to store energy or transport heat in solar towers. Ironically, molten salt transmits electricity even though it is an insulator. Shi said that molten salts may store a lot of energy in a liquid form and are stable at high temperatures. "They possess excellent thermodynamic qu...