Max Planck Institute for Chemistry

Regarding adverse health effects of air pollution hydrogen peroxide production of fine particles may not be as important as previously assumed

At certain times in the year, more soot particles reach the Amazon rainforest from bush fires in Africa than from regional fires.

Ecosystem changes can be more accurately predicted by emissions of chiral compounds

Earth’s past warm periods witnessed the shrinkage of the open ocean’s oxygen-deficient zones.

People generate their own oxidation field and change the indoor air chemistry around them

Materials that can conduct electricity without any losses would improve energy efficiency in many areas. However, superconductivity would have to occur at more practical temperature levels. By taking a new approach, Mikhail Eremets and his team at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry have come significantly closer to this goal – in particular by placing their materials under truly astronomical pressure.

The theoretical physicist Max Delbrück is considered to be one of the co-founders of molecular genetics. He began his career in biology in the 1930s when he was an assistant at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine 50 years ago, for his work on the genetic structure of viruses and how they reproduce.

Before Jonathan Williams discovered atmospheric chemistry, he had a problem: he was fascinated by so many things that he didn’t know which scientific discipline to devote himself to. Even today, the scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz has varied research interests. In recent years, for example, another new topic has awoken his curiosity – the trace that our emotions leave behind in the air.

For Lise Meitner, 1938 is something like a turning point in her life. She flees the Nazis and goes to Sweden, where she tries to establish herself as a scientist and finds the solution to a problem that Otto Hahn told her about in a letter. As a result, the former researcher at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry becomes one of the co-discoverers of nuclear fission.

The Middle East and North Africa are currently being rocked by armed conflicts and political crises. But even if these were to be resolved, many people there will likely be forced to leave their homes in the coming decades. Jos Lelieveld, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, and his colleagues are predicting that the region will see dramatic climate change and an increase in air pollution, including airborne desert dust.

The human body can strongly influence the chemical composition of indoor air. In our breath and from our skin, we emit a complex mixture of chemical substances and particles wherever we go that react with their environment. Nowadays, since people spend most of their lives indoors, indoor air quality plays an important role regarding health. Therefore, it is particularly important to understand how human emissions can affect the composition of indoor air. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, led by Jonathan Williams, have been working on this in a series of novel experiments.

In spring 2020, group leader Frank Drewnick started a research series at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, which was spontaneously initiated during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this series, they investigated everyday materials for their suitability for face masks to support the selection of materials and to better understand which factors influence their efficacy. The group repurposed measuring instruments which they normally use to analyze the properties of atmospheric aerosol particles to measure the filter efficiency and pressure drop of household materials.

Air pollution has been significantly underestimated as a health hazard. Calculations of the global health study Global Burden of Disease (GBD) indicated that the global mortality rate due to air pollution was around 4.5 million people a year. In a new study, we show that this number is much higher: 8.8 million per year. In Europe alone, nearly 800,000 people die prematurely every year as a result of air pollution.

Biological aerosol particles are omnipresent in the atmosphere because air is one of the major media for the spread of microorganisms and pollen. The airborne particles affect climate and health. In addition, numerous physical and chemical interactions in the atmosphere lead to altered particle properties. Our research focuses on biological aerosols, their ability to act as ice cores, and the impact of air pollutants on proteins and allergies.

During the Quaternary, changes in atmospheric CO₂ concentrations led to major climate changes such as glacial/interglacial cycles. Our studies indicate that the combination of a decrease in ocean overturning through an increased stratification in the Antarctic zone of the Southern Ocean and increased organic carbon export through iron fertilization in the sub-Antarctic zone of the Southern Ocean can explain much of the G/IG's atmospheric CO₂ changes during the last 800,000 years and the entire Quaternary.