Materials Chemistry

Omar M. Yaghi to receive 2025 Von Hippel Award, the Materials Research Society’s highest honor

September 30, 2025
Press Release courtesy of the Materials Research Society (MRS)
Yaghi is being honored for pioneering the design and synthesis of metal-organic frameworks and covalent organic frameworks, enabling advances in gas storage, carbon capture, and water harvesting from air.

NSF commits $18 million to renewed funding for the Center for Genetically Encoded Materials

August 14, 2025
UC Berkeley, College of Chemistry Press Release
The National Science Foundation has renewed funding for the NSF Center for Genetically Encoded Materials (C-GEM).

Improved desalination process also removes toxic metals to produce clean water

April 16, 2021
by Robert Sanders | UC Berkeley Public Affairs

purple glove holding roll of flexible polymer membrane

A flexible polymer membrane incorporating nanoparticles of PAF selectively absorbs nearly 100% of metals such mercury, copper or iron during desalination, more efficiently producing clean, safe water. (UC Berkeley photo by Adam Uliana)

University of California, Berkeley, chemists in the labs of Professor of Chemistry and Chemical and...

Can synthetic polymers replace the body’s natural proteins?

March 20, 2023
By Robert Sanders | Media Relations

Illustration of biological fluids are made up of hundreds or thousands of different proteins

Biological fluids are made up of hundreds or thousands of different proteins (represented by space filling models above) that evolved to work together efficiently but flexibly. UC Berkeley polymer scientists are trying to create artificial fluids composed of random heteropolymers (threads inside spheres) with much less...

Professor Ting Xu honored at Falling Walls Science Summit

November 14, 2022
UC Berkeley, College of Chemistry Press Release
Prof. Xu discussed her research in a talk entitled: 'Breaking the Wall to Programmable Plastic Degradation through Enzymes'.

2021 Priestley Medalist A. Paul Alivisatos helped introduce the world to the nanocrystal

April 14, 2021
Mitch Jacoby | C&EN

Paul Alivisatos

2021 Priestley Medalist A. Paul Alivisatos helped introduce the world to the nanocrystal. Photo Gabriela Hasbun for C&EN.

Some scientists make discoveries that trigger a tidal wave of research. Some inspire so many others to join their scientific endeavor that a new field of research is born. But few people do the kind of extreme-impact work that helps...

An electronic crystal turned flat

February 18, 2022
UC Berkeley, College of Chemistry Press Release
In an exciting new study in Nature Communications, a global team co-led by UC Berkeley professor Michael Zuerch, Shanghai Jiao Tong University professors Dao Xiang and Jie Zhang, and UC Los Angeles professor Anshul Kogar, have discovered unexpected phenomenon in an electronic analogue of ice crystals.

Berkeley’s ecosystem of innovation, entrepreneurship combats climate change

May 16, 2024
Ivan Natividad, Elizabeth Costello | Berkeley News
UC Berkeley faculty are fast-tracking the development of new and creative climate solutions.

Kwabena Bediako honored at third annual Philomathia Day

February 11, 2025
By Veronica Bartell | College of Chemistry
The third annual Philomathia Day took place on Jan. 31, and honored 2024 Philomathia Prize recipient Professor Kwabena Bediako.

Scientists grow lead-free solar material with a built-in switch

September 1, 2022
Theresa Duque | Berkeley Lab

Light microscopy illustration shows nanowires, 100 to 1,000 nanometers in diameter

Light microscopy image of nanowires, 100 to 1,000 nanometers in diameter, grown from cesium germanium tribromide (CGB) on a mica substrate. The CGB nanowires are samples of a new lead-free halide perovskite solar material that is also ferroelectric. (Credit: Peidong Yang and Ye Zhang/Berkeley Lab)

Solar panels, also...