Pub Date : 2024-06-24DOI: 10.1038/s44286-024-00083-9
Emulsions underpin a wide range of important natural phenomena and many technological applications. However, it remains challenging to create emulsion droplets with specific internal structures. Now, a method has been developed to create macromolecular emulsions with custom architectures by applying non-equilibrium thermodynamic principles to condensate formation.
{"title":"Structuring emulsion droplets out of equilibrium","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s44286-024-00083-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44286-024-00083-9","url":null,"abstract":"Emulsions underpin a wide range of important natural phenomena and many technological applications. However, it remains challenging to create emulsion droplets with specific internal structures. Now, a method has been developed to create macromolecular emulsions with custom architectures by applying non-equilibrium thermodynamic principles to condensate formation.","PeriodicalId":501699,"journal":{"name":"Nature Chemical Engineering","volume":"1 6","pages":"398-399"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141452732","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-10DOI: 10.1038/s44286-024-00077-7
Nadia A. Erkamp, Madelief A. M. Verwiel, Daoyuan Qian, Tomas Sneideris, Frans A. Spaepen, David A. Weitz, Jan C. M. van Hest, Tuomas P. J. Knowles
The structure and function of biomolecular condensates are closely related. However, many studies and applications of this relationship are prevented because controlling the mesoscale architecture of condensates can be difficult. Here we introduce a way to create custom multiphase architectures by nucleating new droplets in condensates. This nucleation occurs due to limited diffusion in the dense condensates and a composition change forced upon the system by changing the experimental conditions. The designed architectures are transient states created out of equilibrium. We provide a detailed method for understanding and designing a range of condensate architectures. Access to these long-lived complex architectures will enable researchers to incorporate increasingly sophisticated compartmentalization and functionality in condensates. This general strategy for creating complex structured condensates out of equilibrium may also provide insights into the structure of condensates in cells. Biomolecular condensates can contain multiple phases. The number of droplets of each phase and their location give the condensate a certain architecture. Here the authors present a method to create a range of transient architectures in biomolecular condensates, making the architecture or interfacial area controllable design variables in experiments.
{"title":"Biomolecular condensates with complex architectures via controlled nucleation","authors":"Nadia A. Erkamp, Madelief A. M. Verwiel, Daoyuan Qian, Tomas Sneideris, Frans A. Spaepen, David A. Weitz, Jan C. M. van Hest, Tuomas P. J. Knowles","doi":"10.1038/s44286-024-00077-7","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44286-024-00077-7","url":null,"abstract":"The structure and function of biomolecular condensates are closely related. However, many studies and applications of this relationship are prevented because controlling the mesoscale architecture of condensates can be difficult. Here we introduce a way to create custom multiphase architectures by nucleating new droplets in condensates. This nucleation occurs due to limited diffusion in the dense condensates and a composition change forced upon the system by changing the experimental conditions. The designed architectures are transient states created out of equilibrium. We provide a detailed method for understanding and designing a range of condensate architectures. Access to these long-lived complex architectures will enable researchers to incorporate increasingly sophisticated compartmentalization and functionality in condensates. This general strategy for creating complex structured condensates out of equilibrium may also provide insights into the structure of condensates in cells. Biomolecular condensates can contain multiple phases. The number of droplets of each phase and their location give the condensate a certain architecture. Here the authors present a method to create a range of transient architectures in biomolecular condensates, making the architecture or interfacial area controllable design variables in experiments.","PeriodicalId":501699,"journal":{"name":"Nature Chemical Engineering","volume":"1 6","pages":"430-439"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44286-024-00077-7.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141360807","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-10DOI: 10.1038/s44286-024-00080-y
Daniele Marchisio
Daniele Marchisio discusses the importance of chemical reaction rates with respect to physical transport rates with the help of the Damköhler numbers.
Daniele Marchisio 借助达姆克勒数讨论了化学反应速率对物理传输速率的重要性。
{"title":"Reacting with the flows of similarity","authors":"Daniele Marchisio","doi":"10.1038/s44286-024-00080-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44286-024-00080-y","url":null,"abstract":"Daniele Marchisio discusses the importance of chemical reaction rates with respect to physical transport rates with the help of the Damköhler numbers.","PeriodicalId":501699,"journal":{"name":"Nature Chemical Engineering","volume":"1 6","pages":"440-440"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141360633","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-10DOI: 10.1038/s44286-024-00086-6
Translating chemical processes from laboratory to industrial scales is a critical aspect of chemical engineering. At the journal, we view scale-up as a complex path whose significance depends not only on the demonstrated scale, but also the underlying science.
{"title":"The pathway to process scale-up","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s44286-024-00086-6","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44286-024-00086-6","url":null,"abstract":"Translating chemical processes from laboratory to industrial scales is a critical aspect of chemical engineering. At the journal, we view scale-up as a complex path whose significance depends not only on the demonstrated scale, but also the underlying science.","PeriodicalId":501699,"journal":{"name":"Nature Chemical Engineering","volume":"1 6","pages":"387-388"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44286-024-00086-6.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141365671","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-07DOI: 10.1038/s44286-024-00081-x
A structurally robust nanoporous carbon adsorbent that integrates a molecular-selective skin and an internal gas reservoir enables the adsorptive separation of propylene and propane. The surface sieving skin endows the adsorbent with competitive selectivity and the internal reservoir leads to a high propylene capacity, together facilitating the production of high-purity propylene.
{"title":"Kinetic separation of propylene and propane by surface sieving carbon skins","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s44286-024-00081-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44286-024-00081-x","url":null,"abstract":"A structurally robust nanoporous carbon adsorbent that integrates a molecular-selective skin and an internal gas reservoir enables the adsorptive separation of propylene and propane. The surface sieving skin endows the adsorbent with competitive selectivity and the internal reservoir leads to a high propylene capacity, together facilitating the production of high-purity propylene.","PeriodicalId":501699,"journal":{"name":"Nature Chemical Engineering","volume":"1 6","pages":"396-397"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141372967","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-07DOI: 10.1038/s44286-024-00082-w
Alessio Lavino
Kristala Prather from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology talks to Nature Chemical Engineering about her path into metabolic engineering, the influence of her industrial experience and how the existing gap with academia is more an opportunity rather than a problem.
{"title":"Metabolizing new synthetic pathways","authors":"Alessio Lavino","doi":"10.1038/s44286-024-00082-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44286-024-00082-w","url":null,"abstract":"Kristala Prather from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology talks to Nature Chemical Engineering about her path into metabolic engineering, the influence of her industrial experience and how the existing gap with academia is more an opportunity rather than a problem.","PeriodicalId":501699,"journal":{"name":"Nature Chemical Engineering","volume":"1 6","pages":"389-390"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141375195","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The adsorptive separation of olefin/paraffin mixtures requires the development of robust adsorbents with high selectivity and adsorption capacity. Here we introduce surface sieving carbon adsorbents for propylene/propane separations. The surface sieving carbon skins, with a thickness of approximately 5.0 nm, selectively sieve propylene through narrow slits centered at 3.6 Å. Underneath the carbon skin lies a pore reservoir centered at 4.9 Å, resulting in a high propylene adsorption capacity of ~2.0 mmol g−1. Such carbon structures readily self-assemble into water-stable and robust monoliths with highly interconnected macropores for efficient mass transfer. These structural advantages collectively contribute to the high propylene/propane separation performance of the surface sieving carbon even after boiling in water for a week. Process simulations reveal that, using this adsorbent class, 99.5% and 99.9% purity of propylene with the according recovery of 82% and 79% can be obtained from an equimolar propylene/propane mixture through a two-bed six-step vacuum swing adsorption process. The adsorptive separation of olefin–paraffin mixtures requires the development of robust adsorbents with high selectivity and adsorption capacity. Here the authors develop a physiosorbent featuring surface sieving carbon skins several nanometers in thickness, with molecular-selective pores centered at 3.6 Å, for separation of C3H6 and C3H8 with high dynamic selectivity.
烯烃/石蜡混合物的吸附分离需要开发具有高选择性和高吸附能力的坚固吸附剂。在此，我们介绍了用于丙烯/丙烷分离的表面筛分碳吸附剂。厚度约为 5.0 nm 的表面筛分碳皮可通过以 3.6 Å 为中心的窄缝对丙烯进行选择性筛分。碳皮下面是一个以 4.9 Å 为中心的孔隙，因此丙烯吸附能力高达约 2.0 mmol g-1。这种碳结构很容易自组装成水稳定、坚固的单体，并具有高度相互连接的大孔，可实现高效的传质。这些结构优势共同促成了表面筛分碳在水中沸腾一周后仍具有很高的丙烯/丙烷分离性能。工艺模拟显示，使用该类吸附剂，可通过两床六步真空变速吸附工艺从等摩尔丙烯/丙烷混合物中获得纯度分别为 99.5% 和 99.9% 的丙烯，回收率分别为 82% 和 79%。烯烃-石蜡混合物的吸附分离需要开发具有高选择性和高吸附容量的坚固吸附剂。在此，作者开发了一种物理吸附剂，其表面筛分碳皮厚度为几纳米，具有以 3.6 Å 为中心的分子选择性孔隙，用于分离 C3H6 和 C3H8，并具有较高的动态选择性。
{"title":"Surface sieving carbon skins for propylene and propane separation","authors":"Li-Ping Guo, Ru-Shuai Liu, Jianhao Qian, Guang-Ping Hao, Junjie Guo, Hengan Wu, Fengchao Wang, An-Hui Lu","doi":"10.1038/s44286-024-00075-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44286-024-00075-9","url":null,"abstract":"The adsorptive separation of olefin/paraffin mixtures requires the development of robust adsorbents with high selectivity and adsorption capacity. Here we introduce surface sieving carbon adsorbents for propylene/propane separations. The surface sieving carbon skins, with a thickness of approximately 5.0 nm, selectively sieve propylene through narrow slits centered at 3.6 Å. Underneath the carbon skin lies a pore reservoir centered at 4.9 Å, resulting in a high propylene adsorption capacity of ~2.0 mmol g−1. Such carbon structures readily self-assemble into water-stable and robust monoliths with highly interconnected macropores for efficient mass transfer. These structural advantages collectively contribute to the high propylene/propane separation performance of the surface sieving carbon even after boiling in water for a week. Process simulations reveal that, using this adsorbent class, 99.5% and 99.9% purity of propylene with the according recovery of 82% and 79% can be obtained from an equimolar propylene/propane mixture through a two-bed six-step vacuum swing adsorption process. The adsorptive separation of olefin–paraffin mixtures requires the development of robust adsorbents with high selectivity and adsorption capacity. Here the authors develop a physiosorbent featuring surface sieving carbon skins several nanometers in thickness, with molecular-selective pores centered at 3.6 Å, for separation of C3H6 and C3H8 with high dynamic selectivity.","PeriodicalId":501699,"journal":{"name":"Nature Chemical Engineering","volume":"1 6","pages":"411-420"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141386368","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-03DOI: 10.1038/s44286-024-00074-w
Huiyue Liu, Tianyu Zhang, Jingjie Wu
Electroreduction of CO2 in coupled tandem electrolyzers is an enabling technology that can produce valuable chemicals, utilizing different reaction environments in each cell. Now, a kilowatt-scale tandem CO2 electrolysis stack has demonstrated that the selective conversion of CO2 to acetate can achieve competitive prices.
{"title":"Pre-pilot-scale tandem CO2 electrolysis","authors":"Huiyue Liu, Tianyu Zhang, Jingjie Wu","doi":"10.1038/s44286-024-00074-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44286-024-00074-w","url":null,"abstract":"Electroreduction of CO2 in coupled tandem electrolyzers is an enabling technology that can produce valuable chemicals, utilizing different reaction environments in each cell. Now, a kilowatt-scale tandem CO2 electrolysis stack has demonstrated that the selective conversion of CO2 to acetate can achieve competitive prices.","PeriodicalId":501699,"journal":{"name":"Nature Chemical Engineering","volume":"1 6","pages":"393-394"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141271626","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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