On 27.04. it was once again time for the girls' day. The colleagues at the Fritz Haber Institute had the pleasure to invite 30 interested girls to a day full of experiments, technology and questions and to introduce different professions in a research institution dealing with areas at the interface of chemistry and physics.
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Surfactants play an important role in every day life, for instance as major components in soaps.  Since they feature hydrophilic and hydrophobic parts in their structure, they accumulate at water interfaces with air and can there influence the rate of evaporation of the solution or the efficiency with which gas molecules are taken up by the solution, a process that is for instance important for the incorporation of carbon dioxide into the oceans. How surfactants arrange themselves at the interface of water with air is an intriguing question that has fascinated scientist for centuries, going back to Benjamin Franklin who noted the calming effect of cooking oil on the surface of water, and Agnes Pockels who did some of the first systematic experiments on the subject in the late 19^th century. The question of the arrangement of surfactant molecules at the water-air interface is not easy to answer since a close look at the very skin of liquid water requires methods that hone in on the outer layers of water, where surfactant molecules are located in a layer with a thickness of only a few billionths of a meter. more

The ability to distinguish two chiral enantiomers is an essential analytical capability for chemical industries including pharmaceutical companies, flavor/odor engineering and forensic science. A new wave of chiral optical methods have shown significant improvements in chiral sensitivity, compared to their predecessors, leading to potential analytical advantages for chiral discrimination. Researchers at the Fritz Haber Institute have integrated one of these modern methods with the study of gas-phase anions, which enable mass-selection and the use of a simple table-top laser for observation of the chiral effect. Thus, taking another step closer to realizing a robust analytical tool capable of chiral discrimination of dilute and complex, chiral mixtures. more

The Fritz Haber Institute is preparing for the Long Night of the Sciences on 2 July. Planned are participatory projects by the departments and workshops, a chemistry experiment show, a panel discussion on the topic of "No energy transition without hydrogen" and two historical district tours under the motto "Wrong or right: facts about the Dahlem Nobel Prize winners". more

FHI-Director Prof. Dr. Gerard Meijer received an honorary doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. more

Sugars, amino acids, drugs - chiral molecules are everywhere. Researchers in the AQUACHIRAL project at the Fritz-Haber-Institut have used X-rays to study hair-thin liquid jets of these molecules. Using a new method, they can now for the first time distinguish their components in liquid form – and more effectively than ever before. more

In the last week of April, the whole Fritz-Haber-Institut came together for the first live poster session since the start of the pandemic to discuss the research undertaken during the last few years. We spoke to five researchers about their posters. more

Using a new experimental method, a team led by physicist Sandra Eibenberger-Arias of the Fritz-Haber-Institut has transferred the mirror-image forms of chiral molecules into different rotational states more efficiently than ever before. This opens doors to a deeper understanding and manipulability of this common type of molecule for future applications. more

Ronnie Kosloff, Professor of Theoretical Chemistry and at the Fritz Haber Research Center of Theoretical Chemistry at Hebrew University of Jerusalem/Israel, was on a research stay at the FHI in September. more

Under normal conditions, pure water is almost an electrical insulator. Water would only become metallic under extreme pressures, such as found in the interior of very large planets or stars. Now an international collaboration has succeeded to create a metallic state of water using a completely different approach. more