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New Tools Link Catalytic Activity to Nanoscale Transformations

Transitioning to a clean hydrogen economy will require cheaper, more efficient ways to split water molecules. To address bottlenecks in the water-splitting process, researchers developed a suite of advanced tools, including a liquid flow cell that enables electrochemical studies of catalysts under working conditions. Read more »

High-Efficiency Organic Photovoltaics using Eutectic Acceptor Fibrils to Achieve Current Amplification

Researchers report the fabrication of ternary organic solar cells, achieving a significant JSC boost, by virtue of their optimized crystalline feature, with the formation of eutectic crystalline fibrils. The optimal morphology suppresses energetic disorder and nongeminate recombination, and increases charge transfer and transport, yielding a high efficiency of 17.84% with significant current amplification. Read more »

New Poster Will Take You “Inside the ALS”

Peek under the dome for an overview of all the components that enable the ALS to produce extremely bright light ranging from infrared to x-rays. This poster includes images and explanations of ALS equipment from the heart of the accelerator to experimental endstations and how they all fit under our iconic dome. Read more »

In Memoriam: David Shirley, Former Laboratory Director

David Arthur Shirley, former director of Berkeley Lab and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, died on March 29, 2021, of age-related illness. Shirley was a pioneer of electron spectroscopy who spearheaded the creation of the ALS and helped motivate the construction of third-generation synchrotron radiation facilities in the U.S. and around the world. Read more »

Call for 2020 and 2021 Publications

All publications resulting from work done in whole, or in part, at the ALS must be recorded by the User Office for the Department of Energy (DOE). Please help ensure our records are complete by reporting your ALS publications, especially those published in 2020 and 2021. Read more »

April 2021 Message from the UEC

Johanna Nelson Weker, UEC chair, encourages users to attend the “Science enabled by ALS-U” seminar series to hear about research at light sources around the world and imagine the possibilities of future experiments. In addition, the UEC recently worked with other DOE light source user committees to share critical contributions with Congress. Read more »

Graphene Outperforms Metal Junctions for 2D Semiconductors

Researchers found that graphene performs ten times better than metal in transmitting a photoinduced current across interfaces with 2D semiconductors. Nanoscale-resolution band-structure measurements provided a deeper understanding of charge transport in these systems and will help in engineering more efficient contacts. Read more »

A Properly Tailored Tail Boosts Solar-Cell Efficiency

With the help of structural insights from the ALS, researchers optimized the fit between organic and inorganic ions in a perovskite solar-cell material. The work increased the material’s power-conversion efficiency and stability and opens up a new avenue for improving the current-carrier dynamics of a promising class of materials. Read more »PPT-icon-35 PDF-icon-35

Structure-Based Design of Selective LONP1 Inhibitors for Probing In Vitro Biology

LONP1 is an AAA+ protease that  maintains mitochondrial homeostasis by removing damaged or misfolded proteins. Elevated activity and expression promotes cancer cell proliferation and resistance to apoptosis-inducing reagents. Herein, we report the development of selective boronic acid-based LONP1 inhibitors using structure-based drug design as well as the first structures of human LONP1 bound to various inhibitors. Read more »