A vegan way to stop damage from excessive ice build-up and freezer burn

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

Almost everyone has a bag of veggies shoved into the dark recesses of their freezer that’s now essentially an unrecognizable block of ice crystals. And when thawed, foods damaged by excessive ice lose their texture and become mushy. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry have shown that broken-down soy proteins can prevent ice crystal growth and could be especially useful for preserving frozen vegan foods or biological samples.

Some animals that live in extremely cold environments, such as fish in the deep polar oceans, make antifreeze proteins to keep the liquid in their bodies from freezing. These proteins slow down ice crystal formation and growth, a process that has piqued the interest of the frozen food industry. Recently, researchers discovered that some peptides, which are pieces of broken-down proteins, can also slow ice crystal growth. However, all of the edible peptides tested so far have come from animal sources, including fish, pigs, chickens and cows. So, Tong Wang, Madison Fomich and colleagues at the University of Tennessee wanted to see if breaking down plant proteins could generate similar compounds with ice-crystal-inhibiting properties.

The team generated peptides from a commercially available soy protein isolate powder by exposing it to three different hydrolyzing enzymes: alcalase, pancreatin and trypsin. Each resulting mixture of peptides was also separated by size into multiple fractions.

All of the mixtures slowed ice growth in tests, but the ones produced from alcalase and trypsin were better inhibitors than those from pancreatin. For all three enzymes, most of the activity came from the fraction with the largest peptides. The large-size fractions also ended up including some smaller peptides, which on their own didn’t keep ice crystals from growing; however, the team showed that these small compounds boosted the activity. This study is an initial step toward using soy-derived peptides as a natural, effective way to reduce the ice growth that can lead to freezer burn and thereby increase the shelf life of frozen goods, including vegan and vegetarian products, the researchers say.

The authors acknowledge funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Hatch/Multistate Project through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The paper’s abstract will be available on July 19 at 8 a.m. Eastern time here: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jafc.2c08701

For more of the latest research news, register for our upcoming meeting, ACS Fall 2023. Journalists and public information officers are encouraged to apply for complimentary press registration by completing this form.

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

DOI

10.1021/acs.jafc.2c08701 

ARTICLE TITLE

Ice Recrystallization Inhibition Activity of Soy Protein Hydrolysates

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Jul-2023

 

Melatonin doesn’t just help you sleep — it can help keep fruit and vegetables fresh

The natural compound can be used to reduce the amount of fresh horticultural produce lost due to ‘chilling injury’.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

EDITH COWAN UNIVERSITY

Edith Cowan University (ECU) horticultural scientists have been compiling research over the past year from all over the world to assess the benefits of melatonin application onto fruit and vegetables, to help keep these highly perishable foods fresher – for longer.

 

Lead researcher Professor Zora Singh said up to 44 percent of fresh horticultural produce is lost from farm to consumption, and ‘chilling injury’ plays a key role in the postharvest losses.

 

“You will often see abnormal ripening, sunken spots, pitting, hardening of flesh and browning of peel and pulp in cold-stored fruits, while browning of tissues, translucency and water-soaked lesions in the vegetables, that is what we call chilling injury,” Professor Singh explained.

 

“The average storage temperature for subtropical fruits and vegetables usually range from 4–8°C while 10–20°C is optimum temperature to avoid chilling injury in tropical horticultural produce.”

 

Professor Singh and his team claim most of the evidence points to melatonin as one of the best ways to prevent or reduce the effects of chilling injury to cold-stored fruit and vegetables.

 

“Melatonin is a natural sleeping hormone in living organisms, and it is also helpful in reducing chilling injury symptoms and membrane leakage by maintaining higher levels of antioxidants and freshness of horticultural produce,” researcher and PhD student Shoaib Shah explained.

 

“Melatonin is a safe alternative to hazardous chemical treatments, without any adverse effects on the consumer health.”

 

Global food security – the challenge    

 

Across the globe food security is an escalating problem, with food losses rising annually.

 

• 13.2 per cent of food, valued at $400 billion, is lost annually between harvest and the retail market (FAO 2019)
• 17 per cent of food production is wasted in households, food services and in retail (UNEP 2020)
• Food loss and waste account for approximately 8-10 per cent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (UNEP 2021)

 

Fresh produce, such a fruit production is declining, the result of shrinking agricultural land, reduced availability of water supplies, climate change and soil degradation.

 

Chilling injury is another significant factor contributing to that decline, resulting in 44 per cent of fruit and vegetables not being fit for human consumption globally.

 

Tropical and sub-tropical fruits are most at risk, as they are highly perishable.

 

While fruits such as apples can stored for up to nine months, berries can only be kept refrigerated for seven to 12 days.

 

“When it comes to grains and other produce for harvest, they are more resilient than fresh horticultural produce,” Professor Singh said.

 

“Fruit and vegetables are not only challenging to grow, preserving them is immensely difficult and this is a crisis affecting nations all over the world, so we need to find the solution to keep producing food from the earth in a sustainable way.”

 

Professor Zora Singh is a Foundation Professor of Horticultural Science in ECU’s School of Science with global research expertise in production technology and postharvest physiology of horticultural crops.

 

Presently, Professor Singh and his research team, including PhD students, are working to minimise the global food and nutritional security challenges by improving production technology and reducing postharvest losses in fresh horticultural produce - from farm to fork.

 

You can read the full paper, Insight into the Role of Melatonin in Mitigating Chilling Injury and Maintaining the Quality of Cold-Stored Fruits and Vegetables authored by Shoaib Shah, Zora Singh, Eben Afrifa-Yamoah, Mahmood UI Hasan, Jashanpreet Kaur and Professor Andrew Woodward here.

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JOURNAL

Food Reviews International

DOI

10.1080/87559129.2023.2212042 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Insight into the Role of Melatonin in Mitigating Chilling Injury and Maintaining the Quality of Cold-Stored Fruits and Vegetables

 

Evaluation of the applicability of multiple drought indices in the core zone of “westerlies-dominated climatic regime”

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

 

IMAGE: IN THE 5 SUBGRAPHS ON THE LEFT, SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION CHARACTERISTICS OF ANNUAL AND SEASONAL VARIATIONS OF PRECIPITATION (PRE) DURING 1961–2014. IN THE 5 SUBGRAPHS IN THE CENTER, SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION CHARACTERISTICS OF ANNUAL AND SEASONAL VARIATIONS OF POTENTIAL EVAPOTRANSPIRATION (PET) DURING 1961–2014. IN THE 5 SUBGRAPHS ON THE RIGHT, SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION CHARACTERISTICS OF ANNUAL AND SEASONAL VARIATIONS OF SOIL MOISTURE IN WHOLE LAYER (SM) DURING 1980–2014. view more 

CREDIT: ©SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

With the intensification of global warming, different regions are facing constantly changing hydroclimatic conditions, which brings significant uncertainties to the assessment of dry-wet under the backdrop of global warming and the study of drought events. The core zone of “westerlies-dominated climatic regime” primarily includes the five Central Asian countries and China's Xinjiang, located in the heartland of the Eurasian continent and dominated by westerly circulation. Its climate and hydrological changes differ from monsoon regions and have received widespread attention in recent years. As a key indicator for measuring the variation of dry-wet trend and the change of drought events, the applicability of drought indices also varies across different regions. Therefore, selecting the most suitable index to reflect the changes in aridity and characteristics of drought events in that region forms the basis for unraveling and revealing the hydroclimatic change facts and mechanisms.

To address the above challenges, Professor Wei Huang’s research group at Lanzhou University evaluated the ability of three indices: the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), the Standardized Moisture Anomaly Index (SZI), and the self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index (scPDSI) to describe the dry-wet characteristics and drought events in the core zone of the “westerlies dominated climatic regime” from multiple dimensions such as climate, hydrology, and vegetation.

The research findings revealed important insights into the dry-wet trends and drought events in the study area. Over the past 60 years, Kazakhstan had experienced uniform drying, while the four southern Central Asian countries had witnessed drier conditions in the western parts and wetter conditions in the eastern parts. This aligned with the observed slight increase in precipitation in Kazakhstan and the four southern Central Asian countries, accompanied by a significant rise in potential evapotranspiration, ultimately leading to drier conditions. In Xinjiang, the hydroclimatic variables, SZI and scPDSI indicated a trend towards increased humidity, particularly in summer. However, the SPEI demonstrated an opposite pattern of change. (see Figures 1 and 2). The researchers noted that the SPEI, being more sensitive to potential evapotranspiration alterations, exacerbated the severity of regional drought in arid and semi-arid regions due to rising temperatures. Consequently, it is not applicable to the study of drought in the core zone of the “westerlies-dominated climatic regime.”

The team also evaluated the capability of the index to identify different degrees of drought events in the study area. The SZI employed a standardization approach based on a nonlinear three-parameter probability cumulative distribution function to enhance the representation of drought conditions. However, actual climate change often deviates from the normal distribution, leading to the underestimation of severe and extreme drought events by SZI. On the other hand, the scPDSI primarily focused on assessing the severity of regional drought to provide a better reflection of the overall drought situation in the area. As a result, it could effectively reproduce the occurrence of drought events in most parts of Xinjiang during the corresponding period (see Figure 3). In summary, the scPDSI is better suited for monitoring and identifying the characteristics of drought, including extreme drought events, in the core zone of the “westerlies-dominated climatic regime”.

These research findings provide a valuable theoretical foundation for the utilization and improvement of drought indices, as well as the monitoring, attribution, and prediction of drought events in arid areas. They will significantly contribute to the estimation and understanding of climate and environmental risks in the future, as the impacts of human activities continue to increase in arid regions.

See the article:

Guo H, Huang W, Xie T, Ma S. 2023. Evaluation of the applicability of multiple drought indices in the core zone of “westerlies-dominated climatic regime”. Science China Earth Sciences, 66(7): 1504–1520, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-022-1097-0

In the five subgraphs on the left, spatial distribution characteristics of annual and seasonal variations of scPDSI. In the five subgraphs in the center, spatial distribution characteristics of annual and seasonal variations of SZI. In the five subgraphs on the right, spatial distribution characteristics of annual and seasonal variations of SPEI.

The two subgraphs above (a) and (b), the severe drought in 1989. The two subgraphs below (c) and (d), the continuous drought in spring and summer in 2008.

CREDIT

©Science China Press

JOURNAL

Science China Earth Sciences

DOI

10.1007/s11430-022-1097-0 

DINOSAURS/FOSSILS

Flying reptiles had nurturing parental style, new research finds

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK

 

IMAGE: YANG ET AL. (2023) SHOW THAT LARGE-BODIED PTEROSAURS, SUCH AS THE GIANT PTERANODON (SHOWN HERE), PROBABLY PRACTICED PARENTAL CARE. UNLIKE SMALL PTEROSAURS, WHICH WERE BORN WITH WELL-DEVELOPED WINGS AND COULD FLY SOON AFTER HATCHING, LARGE PTEROSAURS WERE BORN WITH SMALL ARMS THAT WOULD NOT HAVE FACILITATED ACTIVE POWERED FLIGHT, AND PARENTAL CARE WOULD HAVE BEEN ESSENTIAL TO SURVIVAL OF THE YOUNG AND ENABLING THEM TO GROW TO HUGE SIZES. ARTWORK BY JAMES ROBINS. view more 

CREDIT: JAMES ROBINS/UCC

•

    Flying pterosaurs were caring parents – but only larger species.
•    Research led by University College Cork finds parental care behaviour changed with evolution.
•    International team involved researchers based in Ireland, China, and the UK.

Did the pterosaurs, flying reptiles from the days of the dinosaurs, practice parental care or not? New research by scientists from Ireland (University College Cork), China (Nanjing and Yunnan Universities) and the UK (University of Bristol and Queen Mary University of London) shows that pterosaurs were indeed caring parents – but only the larger species.

This solves a long-standing conundrum. To be able to fly soon after hatching from the egg, a bird or pterosaur must have well-developed wings. Studies of smaller pterosaurs from the Jurassic showed that their babies already had large wings when they hatched and they could have wobbled into flight within a few days of birth.

But did this work for the later pterosaurs which were much larger in size? In the Cretaceous, pterosaurs usually had wingspans of 5 metres, and some even reached 10–15 metres, the size of a small glider.

“This was a difficult project,” says the study leader, Dr Zixiao Yang from University College Cork (UCC). ‘We needed examples of pterosaurs where we had at least one hatchling or very young specimen as well as adults so we could study their growth rates. But baby pterosaurs are really rare.”

Dr Yang collaborated with Professor Baoyu Jiang from Nanjing University, Professor Michael Benton of University of Bristol, Professor Xu Xing of Yunnan University, and Professor Maria McNamara of UCC on the research.

“Luckily, we were able to use some classic specimens from the Jurassic of Europe and the Cretaceous of North America, together with new finds from China. By measuring the skulls, backbones, wings, and hind legs, we were able to test for differences in the relative growth of different parts of the body.”

The research focussed on testing the allometry, or how the creatures’ characteristics changed with size.

“We are all familiar with allometry in human babies, puppies and kittens – their heads, eyes and knees are huge, and the rest of the body grows faster to get to adult proportions. It’s the same with many animals, including dinosaurs and pterosaurs. The babies have cute faces, with short noses, big eyes, and big heads,” Dr Yang said.

“The small, bird-sized, Jurassic pterosaurs were born with large wings and strong arms and legs, evidence that the babies could fly from birth. As they grew from baby to adult, their arms and legs showed negative allometry, meaning they started large and were then growing more slowly than the rest of the body.”

“But it was different for the Cretaceous giants. They also started as small babies, but the key limb bones show positive allometry through growth, suggesting a very different developmental model.”

“This means that the pterosaur giants had sacrificed low-input childcare to the need to grow huge eventually as adults. Minimal childcare makes sense in the early evolutionary history of these ancient reptiles because it saves energy. But to grow huge, the larger pterosaurs had a problem – it basically took much longer to become an adult, and therefore parents needed to protect their young from accidents. The babies of all pterosaurs, large and small, were small because of the limitations of egg size. Investing in childcare by having non-flying babies was offset in evolutionary terms by allowing pterosaurs to evolve truly huge sizes.”

“We see the same thing in birds and mammals today. Some birds fly very young, and of course some mammals like cattle and antelopes are on their feet the day they are born. But this kind of behaviour is risky for the babies because they are often clumsy and are easy targets for predators; it’s costly also for the mother because the babies must have highly developed wings or legs at the point of birth. So, we see the same thing in extinct pterosaurs. They were restricted in maximum body size until the end of the Jurassic, at which point their parental care behaviour changed, and then they could achieve huge sizes.”

The paper ‘Allometric wing growth links parental care to pterosaur giantism’ is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

ENDS

: Yang et al. (2023) show different growth patterns in large and small pterosaurs. The wings of small-bodied pterosaurs show bones that grew slowly with respect to the rest of the body, indicating that they were already good fliers soon after hatching. Large-bodied pterosaur species, however, were born with small arms. Even though their wing bones grew quickly after hatching relative to the rest of the body, the young of these species could not fly efficiently and therefore high-input parental care was critical to survival.

CREDIT

UCC

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences

DOI

10.1098/rspb.2023.1067 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Allometric wing growth links parental care to pterosaur giantism

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Jul-2023

 

Nature inspires breakthrough achievement: hazard-free production of fluorochemicals

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

 

IMAGE: AN ARTISTIC ILLUSTRATION OF THE BALL-MILLING PROCESS BEHIND THE NEWLY DEVELOPED METHOD FOR GENERATING FLUOROCHEMICALS. IMAGE: CALUM PATEL. view more 

CREDIT: AN ARTISTIC ILLUSTRATION OF THE BALL-MILLING PROCESS BEHIND THE NEWLY DEVELOPED METHOD FOR GENERATING FLUOROCHEMICALS. IMAGE: CALUM PATEL.

• 
  
• 
  
• For the first time, Oxford chemists have generated fluorochemicals – critical for many industries – without the use of hazardous hydrogen fluoride gas.
• The innovative method was inspired by the biomineralization process that forms our teeth and bones.
• The results are published today in the leading journal Science.

A team of chemists have developed an entirely new method for generating critically important fluorochemicals that bypasses the hazardous product hydrogen fluoride (HF) gas. The findings, published today in Science, could achieve an immense impact in improving the safety and carbon footprint of a growing global industry.

Fluorochemicals are a group of chemicals that have a wide range of important applications – including polymers, agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, and the lithium-ion batteries in smartphones and electric cars – with a $21.4 billion global market in 2018. Currently all fluorochemicals are generated from the toxic and corrosive gas hydrogen fluoride (HF) in a highly energy-intensive process. Despite stringent safety regulations, HF spills have occurred numerous times in the last decades, sometimes with fatal accidents and detrimental environmental effects.  

To develop a safer approach, a team of chemists at the University of Oxford alongside colleagues in Oxford spin-out FluoRok, University College London, and Colorado State University, took inspiration from the natural biomineralization process that forms teeth and bones. Normally, HF itself is produced by reacting a crystalline mineral called fluorspar (CaF2) with sulfuric acid under harsh conditions, before it is used to make fluorochemicals. In the new method, fluorochemicals are made directly from CaF2, completely bypassing the production of HF: an achievement that chemists have sought for decades.

In the novel method, solid-state CaF2 is activated by a biomineralization‑inspired process, which mimics the way that calcium phosphate minerals form biologically in teeth and bones. The team ground CaF2 with powdered potassium phosphate salt in a ball-mill machine for several hours, using a mechanochemical process that has evolved from the traditional way that we grind spices with a pestle and mortar.

The resulting powdered product, called Fluoromix, enabled the synthesis of over 50 different fluorochemicals directly from CaF2 , with up to 98% yield. The method developed has the potential to streamline the current supply chain and decrease energy requirements, helping to meet future sustainability targets and lower the carbon footprint of the industry.

Excitingly, the solid-state process developed was just as effective with acid grade fluorspar (> 97%, CaF2) as it was with synthetic reagent grade CaF2. The process represents a paradigm shift for the manufacturing of fluorochemicals across the globe and has led to the creation of FluoRok, a spin‑out company focusing on the commercialisation of this technology and the development of safe, sustainable, and cost-effective fluorinations. The researchers hope that this study will encourage scientists around the world to provide disruptive solutions to challenging chemical problems, with the prospect of societal benefit.

Calum Patel, from the Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, and one of the lead authors of the study, says:

‘Mechanochemical activation of CaF2 with a phosphate salt was an exciting invention because this seemingly simple process represents a highly effective solution to a complex problem; however, big questions on how this reaction worked remained. Collaboration was key to answering these questions and advancing our understanding of this new, unexplored area of fluorine chemistry. Successful solutions to big challenges come from multidisciplinary approaches and expertise, I think the work really captures the importance of that.’ 

Lead author Professor Véronique Gouverneur FRS, from the Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, who conceived and led this study says:

‘The direct use of CaF2 for fluorination is a holy grail in the field, and a solution to this problem has been sought for decades. The transition to sustainable methods for the manufacturing of chemicals, with reduced or no detrimental impact on the environment, is today a high-priority goal that can be accelerated with ambitious programs and a total re-think of current manufacturing processes. This study represents an important step in this direction because the method developed in Oxford has the potential to be implemented anywhere in academia and industry, minimise carbon emissions e.g. by shortening supply chains, and offer increased reliability in light of the fragility of global supply chains.’

The study Fluorochemicals from fluorspar via a phosphate-enabled mechanochemical process that bypasses HF will be published in Science online at 14:00 US Eastern Time (19:00 BST) on Thursday 20 July 2023, and in print on Friday 21 July 2023: http://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi1557

To view a copy of the paper under embargo, please contact scipak@aaas.org.

Media outlets can contact the authors at:

Calum Patel: calum.patel@chem.ox.ac.uk +44 (0)7934 051678

Véronique Gouverneur: veronique.gouverneur@chem.ox.ac.uk +44(0)7545636436

Gabriele Pupo: gabriele.pupo@fluorok.com +44(0)7452932023

For all other press queries please contact Dr Thomas Player (Communications Officer, Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford) on chemistry-news@chem.ox.ac.uk.

Using high precision techniques, such as X-ray diffraction, the researchers unlocked key insights into the composition of Fluoromix and structures of the fluorinating species. The diagram shows structures of crystalline constituents of Fluoromix, which serve as fluorinating reagents. Image: Prof. Michael Hayward.

About the team

Calum Patel completed his Master’s degree in Chemistry at Imperial College London, and has worked at the University of British Columbia and at F. Hoffmann La Roche in Basel on late-stage fluorination. He has a keen interest in the development of novel fluorination methods as part of the Gouverneur research group at the University of Oxford.

Prof Véronique Gouverneur FRS is the Waynflete Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford. She obtained a PhD in chemistry at the Université Catholique de Louvain (LLN, Belgium) and completed a postdoctoral position at the Scripps Research Institute (California, USA). She then held a position at the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg (France) and started her independent research career at the University of Oxford in 1998. She has received numerous prizes and distinctions for her research (Arthur C. Cope Award 2022, Moissan Prize 2021, International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences) and has over 220 peer-reviewed publications and 15 patents.

Prof Michael Hayward is a Professor of Inorganic Chemistry and Tutorial Fellow at Somerville College. He completed his D.Phil. in Oxford in 1999 and after completing a period of post‑doctoral research at Princeton University he returned to Oxford in 2002, initially as a Royal Society University Research Fellow and JRF at Merton College, before being appointed to a fellowship Somerville College in 2004. His research focuses on the synthesis and characterisation of novel solid-state compounds.

About the University of Oxford

Oxford University has been placed number 1 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the seventh year running, and number 2 in the QS World Rankings 2022. At the heart of this success are the twin-pillars of our ground-breaking research and innovation and our distinctive educational offer.

Oxford is world-famous for research and teaching excellence and home to some of the most talented people from across the globe. Our work helps the lives of millions, solving real-world problems through a huge network of partnerships and collaborations. The breadth and interdisciplinary nature of our research alongside our personalised approach to teaching sparks imaginative and inventive insights and solutions.

Through its research commercialisation arm, Oxford University Innovation, Oxford is the highest university patent filer in the UK and is ranked first in the UK for university spinouts, having created more than 200 new companies since 1988. Over a third of these companies have been created in the past three years. The university is a catalyst for prosperity in Oxfordshire and the United Kingdom, contributing £15.7 billion to the UK economy in 2018/19, and supports more than 28,000 full time jobs.

About FluoRok

FluoRok is a start-up company based in Oxford, UK and focused on fluorochemical R&D, manufacturing and licensing. It develops novel and transformational technologies to access fluorochemicals in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. Founded in 2022, the company builds on decades of research in the laboratories of Professor Véronique Gouverneur at the University of Oxford. FluoRok’s proprietary technology directly employs fluorinated waste material or naturally occurring fluorite mineral as a source, to access high-value compounds that are key to the world’s energy transition, our global food supply, and our health. Its innovative solution reduces energy requirements, lowers CO2 emissions and enables reshoring of fluorochemical manufacturing due to intrinsic process safety. FluoRok is backed by Oxford Science Enterprises, an independent, billion-pound investment company, that funds transformational businesses via its unique partnership with the University of Oxford.

For more information see: https://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/article/fluorok-the-future-of-fluorination

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adi1557 

ARTICLE TITLE

Fluorochemicals from fluorspar via a phosphate-enabled mechanochemical process that bypasses HF

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

20-Jul-2023

 

Current thinking on batteries overturned by cathode oxidation research

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

Scientists have made a significant breakthrough in understanding and overcoming the challenges associated with Ni-rich cathode materials used in lithium-ion batteries.

These materials have the potential to achieve both high voltages and capacities, but their practical applications have been hindered by structural instabilities and loss of oxygen.

Their study revealed that ‘oxygen hole’ formation – where an oxygen ion loses an electron -- plays a crucial role in the degradation of LiNiO2 cathodes accelerating the release of oxygen which can then further degrade the cathode material.

Using a set of state-of-the-art computational techniques on UK regional supercomputers, the researchers examined the behaviour of LiNiO2 cathodes as they are charged. They found that during charging the oxygen in the material undergoes changes while the nickel charge remains essentially unchanged.

Co-author Prof Andrew J. Morris, from the University of Birmingham, commented: “We found that the charge of the nickel ions remains around +2, regardless of whether it's in its charged or discharged form. At the same time the charge of the oxygen varies from -1.5 to about -1.

“This is unusual, the conventional model assumes that the oxygen remains at -2 throughout charging, but these changes show that the oxygen is not very stable, and we have found a pathway for it to leave the nickel-rich cathode.”

The researchers compared their calculations with experimental data and found that their results aligned well with what was observed. They proposed a mechanism for how oxygen is lost during this process, involving the combination of oxygen radicals to form a peroxide ion, which is then converted into oxygen gas, leaving vacancies in the material. This process releases energy and forms singlet oxygen, a highly reactive form of oxygen.

 “Potentially, by adding dopants that reduce oxygen redox, while promoting transition-metal redox particularly at the surface, mitigating the generation of singlet oxygen, we can enhance the stability and longevity of these type of lithium-ion batteries, paving the way for more efficient and reliable energy storage systems,” first author Dr Annalena Genreith-Schriever from the University of Cambridge adds.

Lithium-ion batteries are widely used for various applications because of their high energy density and rechargeability, but challenges associated with the stability of cathode materials have hindered their overall performance and lifespan.

Researchers from the Universities of Birmingham, Cambridge, Warwick as well as The Faraday Institution, Didcot, published their findings today (19 Jul) in Joule.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

• The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions, its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers and teachers and more than 8,000 international students from over 150 countries.
• Oxygen Hole Formation Controls Stability in LiNiO2 Cathodes: DFT Studies of Oxygen Loss and Singlet Oxygen Formation in Li-Ion Batteries - Genreith-Schriever, Morris et al is published by Joule.

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JOURNAL

Joule

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Oxygen Hole Formation Controls Stability in LiNiO2 Cathodes: DFT Studies of Oxygen Loss and Singlet Oxygen Formation in Li-Ion Batteries

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Jul-2023