X-ray insights may enable better plastics production

Analysis helps to understand fragmentation of catalyst particles in ethylene polymerisation

30-Sep-2021 - An X-ray study at DESY is pointing the way towards a better understanding of plastics production. A team led by Utrecht University investigated so-called Ziegler-type catalysts, the workhorses in the world's polyethylene and polypropylene production, at DESY's X-ray source PETRA III. As the ...

The indestructible light beam

Researchers create special light waves that can penetrate even opaque materials as if the material was not even there

14-Apr-2021 - Why is sugar not transparent? Because light that penetrates a piece of sugar is scattered, altered and deflected in a highly complicated way. However, as a research team from TU Wien (Vienna) and Utrecht University (Netherlands) has now been able to show, there is a class of very special light ...

Optimal information about the invisible

How do you measure objects that you can't see under normal circumstances?

27-Jan-2021 - Laser beams can be used to precisely measure an object’s position or velocity. Normally, however, a clear, unobstructed view of this object is required – and this prerequisite is not always satisfied. In biomedicine, for example, structures are examined, which are embedded in an irregular, ...

Quantum dots illuminate transport within the cell

23-Mar-2017 - The quantum dots used by the researchers are particles of semi-conducting material just a few nanometres wide, and are the subject of great interest because of their potential for use in photovoltaic cells or computers. "The great thing about these particles is that they absorb light and emit it ...

Microscopic tracking of photocatalysis

New measuring technique brings solar fuels closer

30-Aug-2012 - Detailed molecular-scale measurements of a chemical reaction accelerated by sunlight have been made for the first time ever. Chemists at Utrecht University and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany) have set up a special microscope to simultaneously take part in and observe the ...