Ionic liquids are molten salts that are also in a liquid form at room temperature. The unique characteristics of these liquid salts are the very thing that makes ionic liquids so interesting for industry and could soon revolutionize a whole range of areas where industrial applications are used: Like in the production of cellulose, for instance, in solar cells, or in the metal processing industry.

Energy efficiency is the most important single future source of energy to supply the growing energy demand and to protect the climate. Being energy efficient in industry, mobility and housing will offer the biggest potential to use energy more efficient. Just through energy efficiency and with already existing technologies it's possible to curb our predicted increasing global energy demand and thus the CO₂-emissions by the year 2030 significantly.

Normal color, like we know from everyday life, doesn't change its color impression when you look at it from different directions. With the help of nanotechnology researchers at BASF have now managed to develop colors that change its color impression when you look at it from different directions. And even more effects are possible: The so called "mechano optical colors" change their color when you stretch them.

The raincoat on a fungus is not a garment, it is a substance called "Hydrophobin". You will find this protein on the skin of fungi where its job is simply to repel water droplets, to make them roll off the fungi. Because this trait is not only useful to fungi, but can also be used for technical applications as well, scientists from BASF have become interested in Hydrophobin. Using a biotechnological process, they are the first who managed to produce Hydrophobin in a large scale.

Today's diesel engines are more than a match for gasoline engines. In terms of design a diesel is much more efficient: It uses less fuel and emits less CO₂. To purify diesel exhaust fumes is a challenge and only possible because manufacturers of catalytic converters like BASF Catalysts are continually improving their exhaust gas aftertreatment systems.

Climatic conditions such as heat or cold and rain or drought can determine whether a harvest turns out well or badly. With the help of plant biotechnology BASF Plant Science develops for example stress tolerant crops. In a targeted manner genes from other plants that already possess the desired traits are inserted into agricultural plants such as corn, soya, canola or cotton. This enables them to better handle stress factors.

Nowadays sports surfaces are like high-tech sports equipment that has a decisive impact on an athlete's performance. The surface can make all the difference being tenths of a second faster in sprints. Those sports surfaces are not prefabricated and then laid, in fact they are poured on as a liquid right in the stadium with the help of special plastics. So one can always check and optimize the track in a stadium during the actual laying process. With this fine tuning the athletes get back part of the energy they use every time they pound the surface.

We still have got a bit to go before we will have electronic newspapers. But still, with the help of printing technology, it is already possible today to produce not only newspapers but even electronic circuits. This allows an amazingly wide range of products and applications - from heated insoles for your shoes to complex circuits and even transistors. Electrographic Ink without color pigments but with very special liquid synthetic materials, so called polymers, enables to print electronics. So theoretically you could even print out electronics elements with a normal inkjet printer.

In general, there are two special characteristics that define bioplastics: either they consist of renewable resources, or they can be harvested directly from nature. Some bioplastics even fulfill both requirements. Bioplastics are suitable for numerous applications: for example mulch film for agriculture or bags which can be used to hold your household biowaste after shopping. On compost heaps bioplastics completely decompose within a few weeks without leaving any residues behind.

Wherever people have physical contact with synthetic materials, then the material has to be extremely safe. Especially in applications such as foodstuff packaging, medical equipment and children's toys. Without chemical additives like plasticizers all PVC-(Polyvinylchloride) products that are soft and plastic would be in fact fragile and brittle like an uncooked noodle. As such plasticizers and PVC are not permanently connected by chemical means, but rather the connection is only physical. Due to manual stress or exposure to liquids the plasticizers could leave the PVC. The special plasticizer Hexamoll DINCH developed from BASF has a far more permanent connection with the PVC molecules. This makes it very well suitable for the use in sensible applications like children's toys, medical equipment and foodstuff packaging.

In the car, at home, in the office. Dark coated surfaces that swallow the sunlight grow hot and give off the heat to their surroundings. An innovative development of color pigments now provides the effect of surfaces staying cooler. Even at deep black surfaces this special color pigments cut the solar heat buildup due to incident sunlight in half. The trick: the special pigments help the material to reflect more sunlight than to absorb - dark surfaces, components or construction elements thus remain pleasantly cool. The applications for the cool pigments are numerous: for solar heat management in construction, for use in coating and printing ink industries or for artificial leather.

In the construction process of the Swiss Gotthard Base Tunnel, which will be one of the longest train tunnels in the world, concrete has to fulfill conflicting requirements: On the one hand wet concrete must not harden while being transported through the mountain for several kilometers, on the other it has to harden in an instant, when being sprayed onto the tunnel wall. Additives to concrete uses such as accelerators and plasticizers make it possible. In addition, a sprayable fire protection mortar prevents concrete from exploding when being exposed to temperatures above 500 degrees Celsius.

The secret of coastal protection is not to work against the waves but with the waves. For example, a dike becomes more stable, when not simply letting the water bounce off its surface, but allowing the water absorb into its surface layers. Learn more about an intelligent method to tame the energy of maritime waves.

Fuel cells are about a third more efficient than all other standard energy technologies - and the waste product is just water vapor. You can already find prototypes intended to supply power to laptops, mobile equipment, cell phones or supplying electricity and heat to homes. A fuel cell is a miniature chemicals factory. Listen how BASF experts work on the application of fuel cell technology to become reality.

Video wallpaper - just a millimeter thick - could transform your living room wall into a flat screen and electronic film as thin as a sheet of paper could serve as your screen for the internet, the news, images or games. In future, all of this will be possible thanks to organic light-emitting diodes, so-called OLEDs. In this episode you will learn more about this revolution in lighting technology.

We can already save energy and generate fewer greenhouse gas emissions in many areas of life today. Many of our products, technologies and system solutions are used for energy-efficient construction. In this Podcast you will learn about intelligent and energy efficient concepts for energy saving homes and innovative insulation and construction materials.