Burning of natural gas at oil and gas wells, called flaring, is a major waste of fossil fuels and a contributor to climate change. In this work, researchers synthesized and characterized a metal-organic framework that uses biomimetic chemistry to convert wellhead gases into economically valuable feedstocks for petrochemical products. Read more »
Improving Carbon Retention in Grassland Soil from Point Reyes
Soil organic carbon directly influences the life-supporting services provided by soils, including the production of food and the regulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide. To better understand how minerals such as calcium affect carbon accumulation in soil, researchers studied soils collected from Point Reyes National Seashore. Read more »
HyMARC Aims to Hit Targets for Hydrogen Storage Using X-Ray Science
Understanding how materials absorb and release hydrogen is the focus of the Hydrogen Materials Advanced Research Consortium (HyMARC). At the ALS, the HyMARC Approved Program was recently renewed, underscoring the key role that soft x-ray techniques have played in addressing the challenges of hydrogen storage. Read more »
Organic Matrix Derived from Host–Microbe Interplay Contributes to Pathological Renal Biomineralization
A composite image of a rare form of kidney stone, illustrating extensive organic filamentous networks abundant with immune response-related proteins such as calprotectin (displayed in red), myeloperoxidase (in yellow), and DNA molecules (in blue). Originating from intricate host-microbe interplay, these organic networks promote the heterogeneous nucleation and precipitation of inorganic particulates. Read more »
Making Renewable, Infinitely Recyclable Plastics Using Bacteria
Scientists engineered microbes to make the ingredients for recyclable plastics—replacing finite, polluting petrochemicals with sustainable alternatives. The new approach shows that renewable, recyclable plastics are not only possible, but also outperform those from petrochemicals. Read more »
Coaxing Molecules to Stand Tall for Better Solar Cells
Multimodal probes revealed a way to prevent the formation of undesirable phases in a perovskite-type compound that shows promise for the efficient harvesting of light for solar cells. The work led to new fabrication protocols that resulted in devices with improved power-conversion efficiencies and operational stability. Read more »
Spiraling Beams Differentiate Antiferromagnetic States
Using spiraling x-ray beams, researchers differentiated between energetically equivalent (“degenerate”) states in an antiferromagnetic lattice. The work shows the potential of these beams to probe properties that would otherwise be inaccessible, to better understand phenomena of fundamental interest and for applications such as spintronics. Read more »
Increasing the Energy Density of Hybrid Supercapacitor Electrodes
Hybrid supercapacitors (HSCs) integrate the merits of batteries with those of supercapacitors. However, the fraction of active material in HSC electrodes has remained too low for commercial requirements. Now, researchers have found a clever way to increase the active-mass ratio to achieve dramatic improvements in key measures. Read more »
Extreme Closeup of Copper Electrocatalysts in Action
Researchers at Berkeley Lab have made real-time movies of copper nanoparticles as they evolve to convert carbon dioxide and water into renewable fuels and chemicals. Their new insights could help advance the next generation of solar fuels. Read more »
Imaging Topological Magnetic Monopoles in 3D
Researchers created topologically stable magnetic monopoles and imaged them in 3D with unprecedented spatial resolution using a technique developed at the ALS. The work enables the study of magnetic monopole behavior for both fundamental interest and potential use in information storage and transport applications. Read more »
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