08/18/2026
Have you ever wondered what happens to all those leftover coffee grounds used in your daily brew? ☕
Every year, millions of tons of coffee grounds find their way to the trash, but student researchers Irene Jhang and Minho Kim wondered if they could be put to better use. Specifically, could spent coffee grounds (SCG) help improve chemical reactions?
Catalysts are materials that speed up reactions and are essential for making things like fuel, plastics, and fertilizers. But many catalysts, like titanium dioxide (TiO₂), are expensive and harsh to the environment.
To test this, the researchers mixed TiO₂ with SCGs in different ratios and measured how quickly each mixture could break down a blue dye to determine which mixture was the most efficient catalyst
While pure TiO₂ performed the best, (names) were excited to find the 3:1 mix of TiO₂ to SCG performed almost as well!. Coffee grounds alone didn’t work well, but when paired with TiO₂, their porous, carbon-rich structure helped support the reaction and break down the dye.
These findings suggest that waste materials like coffee grounds could reduce our reliance on expensive and unsustainable catalysts, making chemical processes more sustainable without sacrificing too much efficiency and replacing TiO₂ altogether.
The lesson? The next great discovery may be sitting on your kitchen counter 🧪
Jahng, I., & Kim, M. (2025). Analysis of the catalytic efficiency of spent coffee grounds and titanium dioxide using UV-Vis spectroscopy. Journal of Emerging Investigators. https://doi.org/10.59720/25-063
Post by: .ur.ate.alyssa
