📌 TOPINDIATOURS Eksklusif ai: Engineered biochar harnesses sunlight to boost chemi

Biochar engineered with artificial humic substances can dramatically amplify sunlight-driven chemical reactions, offering a new way to tackle environmental pollution using solar energy.

Researchers have shown that carefully tuning the chemistry of biochar allows it to actively drive reduction reactions that affect metal cycling and contaminant behavior in natural environments.

The strategy centers on combining biochar with artificially synthesized humic substances, materials that normally form slowly in nature through the breakdown of organic matter.

By recreating and accelerating this process in the lab, the team produced hybrid materials that respond strongly to sunlight and transfer electrons far more efficiently than conventional biochar.

The artificial humic substances were created from pine sawdust using a controlled hydrothermal process.

By adjusting treatment temperatures, the researchers were able to fine-tune the molecular structure of the resulting material, directly influencing how it behaves under light exposure.

Higher temperatures produced materials with stronger electron-donating properties, a key factor behind their improved performance.

Biochar is widely used in soil improvement and pollution control, but its photochemical behavior has remained poorly understood.

Natural humic substances, meanwhile, play a major role in environmental redox reactions but are difficult to study due to their complex composition and slow formation. The new approach bridges that gap by creating engineered systems that mimic and enhance natural processes.

“Our work shows that it is possible to precisely design biochar-based materials with controllable redox activity by co-engineering them with artificial humic substances,” the study’s corresponding authors said.

“This approach allows us to accelerate natural humification processes and create materials that actively respond to sunlight.”

Sunlight as catalyst

To test the engineered materials, the researchers used silver ion reduction as a model reaction.

The results were striking. Materials produced at higher hydrothermal temperatures showed far stronger photochemical activity than those synthesized at lower temperatures.

In particular, samples treated at 340 degrees Celsius achieved reduction efficiencies more than nineteen times higher.

The performance boost comes from changes in lignin-derived molecules during hydrothermal treatment.

Higher temperatures increase the concentration of phenolic functional groups, which act as powerful electron donors. Under sunlight, these groups generate reactive superoxide radicals that drive reduction reactions and enable ligand-to-metal charge transfer.

Beyond enhanced performance, the team uncovered an unexpected dynamic behavior. When exposed to sunlight, hydrochar partially dissolves, releasing dissolved organic molecules into the surrounding environment.

These molecules further intensify photochemical activity, revealing that biochar-based materials can evolve and interact with their surroundings over time.

“Our findings highlight that biochar is not just a passive sorbent,” the authors explained. “It can dynamically transform under sunlight and participate in complex photochemical reactions that affect pollutant behavior and metal cycling.”

Beyond passive carbon

The discovery opens new possibilities for designing solar-responsive remediation systems for contaminated soils and waters.

By engineering biochar to actively participate in light-driven chemistry, researchers could develop low-energy solutions for transforming pollutants and controlling metal mobility in natural environments.

The materials also offer a sustainable advantage. The artificial humic substances are derived from waste biomass, aligning with efforts to develop carbon-negative technologies and circular bioeconomy pathways.

Future studies will focus on testing the materials against a broader range of pollutants and under real-world environmental conditions.

The study was published in the journal Biochar.

🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com

📌 TOPINDIATOURS Hot ai: Novo Nordisk Furious at $49 Knockoff Ozempic Pill Wajib Ba

Novo Nordisk conquered the world with its borderline miraculous drug semaglutide, sold as Ozempic and Wegovy. But with a sinking stock price and compelling alternatives eating its lunch, it’s now finding itself in a position in which it has to take desperate measures to fight off its competitors.

On Thursday, the Danish pharmaceutical giant vowed to take legal action against Hims & Hers after the telehealth company announced a much more affordable knockoff of its weight loss pill, Wegovy— which it’s offering starting at $49 for a month’s supply, though the price subsequently jumps to $99.

“The action by Hims & Hers is illegal mass compounding that poses a significant risk to patient safety,” Novo said in a statement, per CNBC. “Novo Nordisk will take legal and regulatory action to protect patients, our intellectual property and the integrity of the US gold-standard drug approval framework.

“This is another example of Hims & Hers’ historic behavior of duping the American public with knock-off GLP-1 products, and the FDA has previously warned them about their deceptive advertising of GLP-1 knock-offs.”

It remains to be seen if the lawsuit materializes. But Novo probably felt it had to say something to save face. Immediately after Hims announced its Wegovy knockoff on Thursday, the pharma giant’s shares plunged by nearly 8 percent.

Luckily for Novo, they’re now back up by over 5 percent, after its big brother came to the rescue: later that same day, the US Food and Drug Administration made its own vow that it would crack down on “illegal copycat drugs.” With the script now flipped, Hims’ stock nosedived by ten percent in after-hours trading, per Reuters, and as of today, is down by over 2 percent.

What Hims is offering is what’s known as a compounded form of a drug, which are made by pharmacies using their own ingredients, rather than being made by the pharmaceutical company. They’re different from generic versions of a drug, which are approved by the FDA. Compounded drugs are largely unregulated and receive no FDA approval, but are far cheaper than buying the brand name. 

The practice of compounding drugs allows a pharmacist to tailor a drug to a patient’s specific needs, but big pharma companies view it as a loophole that lets copycats sell cheap knockoffs. At one point, Novo claimed that some one million Americans were taking semaglutide knockoffs, and appealed to the US government to ban imports of some of the key ingredients copycats used to formulate their versions of the drug.

The increased competition comes after a disastrous years-long spell for Novo, which was once the most valuable company in Europe. US rival drugmaker Eli Lilly overtook prescription for Wegovy with its Zepbound weight loss shot — which, to rub salt in the wound, also performed better in a head-to-head trial. It didn’t help that Novo’s offerings were prohibitively expensive before it eventually slashed them last summer, at one point costing more than $1,000 per month for customers without insurance. The perception of its weakening grip on the throne saw Novo’s stock collapse by over 50 percent year over year in 2025, wiping out hundreds of billions of dollars in value.

And its worst days may still be ahead. On Wednesday, Novo said it expected sales to fall this year, the New York Times reported, which would be its first annual decline in sales in nearly a decade. Meanwhile, Eli Lilly said it expected its sales to keep growing, nudging its market cap back above the $1 trillion mark.

Novo’s saving grace is that it beat Lilly to the punch with a pill version of Wegovy, released in January. Pill versions are seen as the next big steep for weight loss drugs, as they’re cheaper and less intimidating than shots. Its CEO Mike Doustdar claimed that the Wegovy pill is selling 15 times faster in its first month that than the injectable version on its debut, per the NYT. But this advantage may soon vanish too, as Lilly expects to release its own pill later this year.

More on weight loss drugs: People Who Go Off GLP-1s Are Experiencing a Sudden and Terrible Hunger

The post Novo Nordisk Furious at $49 Knockoff Ozempic Pill appeared first on Futurism.

🔗 Sumber: futurism.com