In a recent study at the ALS, researchers employed an approach that combines two techniques and uses a single X-ray beam to capture both chemical and structural changes in nanopatterned ceria during catalytic reactions. Read more »
ALS Work Using Spectroscopy
These techniques are used to study the energies of particles that are emitted or absorbed by samples that are exposed to the light-source beam and are commonly used to determine the characteristics of chemical bonding and electron motion.
A New Framework for Designing Synthetic Enzymes
Researchers engineered protein-like polymers that replicate complex enzyme functions. This work, which was verified using X-ray characterization techniques at the ALS, offers a cost-effective, scalable approach that paves the way for functional materials in biomedicine, energy, and manufacturing. Read more »
Infrared Nanospectroscopy Reveals Behaviors of Ionic Liquids
Researchers used infrared spectroscopy at the ALS to detect the molecular behaviors of ionic liquids—which serve as high performance electrolytes in energy storage devices—under varying charge bias conditions. Their insights define a direction for targeted design of ionic liquid-based electrolytes with optimized properties for energy storage applications. Read more »
Local Disorder Impacts a Quantum Material’s Electronic States
Machine learning tools and experiments at the ALS enabled the identification of defect-rich regions in single-crystalline Co3Sn2S2 that link to how surface electrons move. Atom-level understanding of how the surface electronic properties of a magnetic semimetal can be tuned could guide its use in advanced technologies like spintronics and catalysis. Read more »
The Goldilocks of Ethylene Purification
Researchers engineered defects in boron nitride to develop a metal-free route for purifying ethylene to remove acetylene. The ALS shed light on how the engineered defects were responsible for exceptional selectivity. Read more »
Altermagnetism All the Way Down
Altermagnets are an emerging class of magnetic materials that offer the potential for energy-efficient, high-density memory chips. Researchers at Penn State, UC Santa Barbara, and the ALS demonstrated that characteristic altermagnetic band splitting in chromium antimonide is evident in thin films relevant for real-world device application. Read more »
Dynamic Surface Restructuring in Ag–Cu Boosts CO2 Conversion
Multimodal in situ x-ray experiments at the ALS revealed how copper–silver nanoparticle catalysts evolve during CO2 photoreduction. The findings, which demonstrate dynamic catalyst restructuring at the atomic level, provide crucial insights for enhancing the selectivity and efficiency of CO2 conversion into high-value chemicals. Read more » 
Ancient Asteroid Provides Evidence of Amino Acid Precursors
Researchers identified nitrogen-rich compounds in samples from the asteroid Bennu, returned to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. The results support the idea that asteroids like Bennu may have delivered the essential chemical building blocks of life to Earth in the distant past. Read more »
From Magnetite to Ammonia, A New Line of Production
Ammonia is a critical ingredient in many important industrial and agricultural applications. The Haber–Bosch process is the primary process for large-scale ammonia production. A new study uses an experimental–theoretical approach to uncover how interfacial chemistry at the magnetite–water interface drives ammonia synthesis under ambient temperature and pressure. Read more »
Separating an Electron into Waves of Spin and Charge
Researchers are exploring how a thin film can host a Tomonaga–Luttinger liquid, which separates an electron’s charge and spin. The research findings could contribute to the development of ultra-compact and energy-efficient technologies. Read more »
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