The tiny rings that chemists at the Center for Nanointegration (CENIDE) at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) create in the laboratory are as small as a bacterium. Self-organized, individual polymer chains form the flexible structures that can even squeeze themselves through cell membranes. This would enable them to deliver active substances in a very targeted manner. The renowned scientific journal ACS Nano reports on this in its current issue.

Not much is possible without catalysts: More than 80% of all chemically manufactured products undergo a catalytic step during their production. The active material is usually platinum or another precious metal, so production is correspondingly expensive and requires several steps. Physicists at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) have now filed a patent application for a process that produces highly active and long-term stable catalyst material in a single step.

They look like interlocking egg cups, but a hen's egg is 100,000 times as thick as one of the miniature cups: Scientists at the Center for Nanointegration (CENIDE) at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) have made polymers to form themselves into tiny cups on their own. They could, for example, be used to remove oil residues from water. The scientists have published their results in the journal "Angewandte Chemie".