Women in Natural Sciences (WiNS) at ETH Zurich Celebrates its 10th Anniversary - A Retrospective and Outlook.

For this CHIMIA special issue on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the coincidental 10th anniversary of the association of Women in Natural Sciences (WiNS) at ETH Zurich, there is no better opportunity to share what we have achieved in the last decade. WiNS was originally founded by female PhD students and PostDocs at the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences (D-CHAB) and has expanded to include three additional departments at ETH Zurich. Join us in celebrating our anniversary, reflecting on what we and other associations with the same mission have done to promote gender equality and reduced inequalities for all.

Electrocatalyst Microenvironment Engineering for Enhanced Product Selectivity in Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen Reduction Reactions.

Carbon and nitrogen fixation strategies are regarded as alternative routes to produce valuable chemicals used as energy carriers and fertilizers that are traditionally obtained from unsustainable and energy-intensive coal gasification (CO and CH), Fischer-Tropsch (CH), and Haber-Bosch (NH) processes. Recently, the electrocatalytic CO reduction reaction (CORR) and N reduction reaction (NRR) have received tremendous attention, with the merits of being both efficient strategies to store renewable electricity while providing alternative preparation routes to fossil-fuel-driven reactions. To date, the development of the CORR and NRR processes is primarily hindered by the competitive hydrogen evolution reaction (HER); however, the corresponding strategies for inhibiting this undesired side reaction are still quite limited.

Technology Overview of Fast Pyrolysis of Lignin: Current State and Potential for Scale-Up.

Lignin is an abundant natural polymer obtained from lignocellulosic biomass and rich in aromatic substructures. When efficiently depolymerized, it has great potential in the production of value-added chemicals. Fast pyrolysis is a promising depolymerization method, but current studies focus mainly on small quantities of lignin.