Mechanochemistry involves smashing and grinding powders together Pexels
Imagine yourself in a chemistry lab. You are probably picturing a scene featuring a whole load of liquids 鈥 fluids bubbling in round-bottomed flasks, solutions swirling in test tubes, droplets running down condensers. It is a clich茅, but one that accurately describes what these spaces have looked like for centuries the world over.
There isn’t much frothing or bubbling going on in 鈥檚 lab, though. That鈥檚 because he and his team at the University of Birmingham, UK, are trying to do away with liquid chemistry. The tools of their trade are powerful machines like the ball mill, a grinder full of metal spheres that resembles a mini cement mixer. It may seem brutal, but this hardball approach could shake up the way chemists work, freeing them from the 鈥渕ental prison鈥, as Fri拧膷i膰 puts it, of having to dissolve everything.
Chemistry creates many of the wonders of modern life, from the medicines that heal us to the screens with which we communicate. When researchers want to make these things from scratch, they often start by assuming they must dissolve their materials. But mechanochemistry, the burgeoning field Fri拧膷i膰 is fascinated by, shows this isn鈥檛 always necessary. 鈥淢echanochemistry gives you the intellectual freedom to think: 鈥楲et me just try this reaction by grinding it鈥,鈥 says Fri拧膷i膰. 鈥淎nd, in many cases, it works.鈥
