The best thing about working in the field of chemistry is the sense of being on the cutting edge of something. A science that is vital to life and touches so many areas of other industries; energy, manufacturing, food stuffs, agriculture. The world around us relies on chemistry.

As a science, it is full of exploration and research into the unknown, something that is never felt by those working in banking, advertising or insurance. The new discoveries of today, are new markets for traders and businessmen in the chemicals’ industry of the future.

Which is why it is worth taking a look at what breakthroughs have been made over the past year. These exciting developments give all of us the buzz we yearn for in life. Something that few occupations have. As Melissa A. Hines, director of Cornell University’s Center for Materials said earlier in the year, “In all honesty, I decided to become a chemist right after I found out that I couldn’t become a cowboy.”

So here are the top 4 chemical breakthroughs of the last 18 months.

1. Batteries

Much research has been done in the field of batteries these past few years. Anyone with a mobile or laptop will tell you how the energy never lasts long enough and that the battery is always too big or too heavy, whilst environmentalists remind us how incorrect disposal of mercury or lithium batteries can effect us all for years to come.

Maybe these problems will soon be a thing of the past, because scientists at Virginia Tech have developed a bio-battery that runs on sugar. It is claimed that they hold twice the power of a lithium battery and using a new enzymatic route to remove electrons from sugar, can create energy from maltodextrin. They can even be recharged by simply adding more sugar.

Another development has lithium-ion batteries that can be physically stretched out by up to 600%, enabling them to be woven into cloth. This was achieved by using carbon nanotube-lithium “yarns” wound onto an elastomer base, which was then covered with a layer of gel electrolyte.

2. Medicine

In the medical world, scientists have developed an artificial skin that wraps around a prosthetic limb, giving the user the sensation of pressure and heat. This has been achieved with flexible sensors that send signals directly to the wearer’s brain.

Meanwhile the Scripps Research Institute has been able to turn cells into ‘drug manufacturing centres’.

Normally, large molecules cannot cross the blood-brain barrier, resulting in the use of medicines based on smaller, but less effective, molecules. To overcome this limitation, researchers added small molecules to a diseased living cell with the intention to change the defect on a molecular level. Using a method known as “click chemistry”, these molecule-cell combinations are 1,000 times more potent than the small molecule itself.

3. Greenhouse Gases

The US department of agriculture released a report detailing the most accurate calculations for quantifying greenhouse gases in different locations (prairies, rainforest, tundra etc). Whilst the evidence presented was not ground-breaking in itself, the report is the most up-to-date and non-researcher friendly of its kind, and is sure to assist future studies.

Meanwhile, a team from the University of Houston has developed a molecule that can ‘eat’ greenhouse gases.  This molecule can adopt a porous structure able to bind to several hazardous gases that are present in the atmosphere. This is basically a “big ball” covered with pores lined with fluorine atoms. This then gives it an affinity or attraction for other fluorine-based compounds, such as fluorocarbons. Crucially, the weak bonds of this molecule can then be reversed or recycled.

4. New Materials

The discovery of graphine, a material with the thickness of a single molecule, and its countless possible applications was big news in previous years, but now the science behind its creation has inspired further ‘2D’ materials.

These include phosphorene, developed from phosphurus by a team at Purdue University in America. They were able to exfoliate black phosphurus in a similar way that graphine is exfoliated from graphite. The researchers claim that phosphorene has better electrical conductor properties than graphene.

Silicene has been developed from silicon, germenen from germanium and arsenene from arsenic, all with varying properties, but all strong and very, very, very thin.

Whilst all of these breakthroughs leave us standing in amazement at what the future will bring, they also leave us asking ourselves in what ways can we further develop, market or profit from these advances. That said, it is also worth remembering what Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla cars said earlier in the year.

“It’s remarkable how many so-called breakthroughs you read about that turn out to be nonsense.”