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April 2020 Message from the User Office: Proposal Updates

Plans will be developed to phase in research at the ALS, becoming more robust as the COVID-19 timeline plays out. In the meantime, the ALS user office database is tracking the lost beamtime for each proposal. Users can see this information by viewing their proposals in ALSHub and noting the discrepancy between allocated and scheduled beamtime. Read more »

Porous Electrolyte Frameworks for All-Solid-State Batteries

With the help of microtomography at the ALS, researchers developed a method to produce a porous electrolyte framework that they used to construct a working all-solid-state battery. Such batteries potentially offer a higher energy density, longer cycle life, and better inherent safety than state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries. Read more »

How the ALS Team Shelters in Place

While we have been under a shelter-in-place order in the Bay Area, the ALS community has mostly been telecommuting. We caught up with Angelic Lucero, Karen Nunez, Ina Reichel, Bruce Rude, Ashley White, and Antoine Wojdyla to see how they have been handling this unprecedented experience. Read more »

Study Leads to Firmer Grasp of Biochemical “Reactive Handle”

Protein crystallography provided new insight into a functional group of molecules that, if added to bacterial enzymes, could enable a variety of alterations to the bacteria’s polymer output. Tweaking enzymes to produce these “reactive handles” is a first step toward biosynthesizing diverse polymers with tailored properties. Read more »

Jason Jed, Systems Manager

Before Jason Jed joined the ALS last month, he had already toured the facility in person and through virtual reality. Is it any wonder that he knows some of the more hidden rooms at the ALS? Read more »

Direct Imaging of Fracture Closure in Reservoir Shales

Using x-ray microtomography at the ALS, researchers identified and characterized the microscale factors affecting fluid flow through shale fractures propped open with sand or ceramic spheres. A better understanding of propped fractures can lead to safer and more efficient recovery of hard-to-reach oil and gas resources. Read more »PPT-icon-35 PDF-icon-35

Assembly Lines for Designer Bioactive Compounds

Researchers successfully bioengineered changes to a molecular “assembly line” for bioactive compounds, based in part on insights gained from small-angle x-ray scattering at the ALS. The ability to re-engineer these assembly lines could improve their performance and facilitate the synthesis of new medically useful compounds. Read more »PPT-icon-35 PDF-icon-35

Seeing ‘Under the Hood’ in Batteries

To push battery performance, researchers want to learn how the individual ingredients of battery materials behave beneath the surface. But many techniques only scratch the surface of what’s at work inside batteries. A high-sensitivity x-ray technique is attracting a growing group of scientists because it provides a deeper, more precise dive into battery chemistry. Read more »