A research at the University of California, LA led to the creation of new molecules essential to formulate new forms of fuel and will cause an impact to the pharmaceutical industry. The new molecules will be building blocks when fused with elements that will create other sources of energy and a more effective dose in the field of medicine.
The researchers, Stasik Popov, Alex Bagdasarian, Hosea Nelson, and Brian Shao developed the chemical formulas with new outputs in fuel and medication. To attain new formulas, the team has to create new molecules that do not exist, tearing them down from its present chemical compounds and reforming them to new ones.
Carbon and hydrogen atoms are the most common building blocks of many molecules that are very hard to break. Researchers incline themselves to use expensive chemicals to separate them like Iridium. It converts the new broken-down molecules and creates new ones into another useful chemical structure. Scientists call this process "functionalizing" the bonds.
The team from UCLA lately have cheaper forms of chemicals in breaking down the bonds in order to create new molecules. The new method to break up carbon-hydrogen molecules is by the injection of two cheaper and common type of elements in the form of silicon and boron. The research was published in the journal Science, reports Science News Online.
Hosea Nelson, Senior author of the study and a UCLA assistant professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry stated that the energy industry has a huge interest in a very simple hydrocarbon like methane, to turn it into other forms of fuel. The process allows scientists to fuse methane into bigger molecules. Methane is a light gas that escapes into the air when it is being mined. Nelson and his team aim to apply their discovery to convert the gas into a much denser and easier to store form, reports Science Daily.
The advantage of the process in the creation of new molecules is attainable at low pressure and temperature which could be easily available in laboratories. Nelson's team adds that scientists can now perform the alteration of molecules in existing pharmaceuticals making them safer, more effective and less addictive.
