Molecular cage protects precious metals in catalytic converters
SLAC Blog » X-ray Spectroscopy
by nathanc
1y ago
Sometimes, solutions to environmental problems can have environmentally unfriendly side effects. For example, while most gas-powered cars have a catalytic converter that transforms engine emission pollutants into less harmful gases, this comes with a tradeoff: Catalytic converters contain precious metals such as platinum and palladium. The good thing about these precious metals is that they act as catalysts that help break down pollutants, with a suite of properties that make them the best elemental candidates for this chemical job. But they are also rare, which makes them expensive ..read more
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Chengcheng Fan wins 2022 Klein Award for coronavirus vaccine and protein transporter research
SLAC Blog » X-ray Spectroscopy
by dekrause
1y ago
Chengcheng Fan is not sure what she will be doing twenty years from now. But later in life, she wants to look back and say that she tried her hardest to help develop a more powerful coronavirus vaccine during the global pandemic. So far, Fan is doing just that: She has mapped the structures of more than 30 antibodies attached to coronavirus spike proteins using cryo-electron microscopes at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) Cryo-EM Center and high-energy X-rays from the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Lab ..read more
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Analysis of the rock record rules out atmospheric oxygen before the Great Oxygenation Event
SLAC Blog » X-ray Spectroscopy
by nathanc
1y ago
Oxygen shale sample.jpg A synchrotron X-ray fluorescence image of a sample of Mount McRae shale. Purple areas represent arsenic and reveal the outlines of cracks formed well after the shale was initially deposited. White arrows point to bits of copper within the cracks. These chemical signatures had previously been taken to indicate oxygen present in the atmosphere at the time the shale was deposited. (Slotznick et al., Science Advances, 5 January 2022) Chemical signatures that have been considered evidence for a “whiff of oxygen” in Earth’s atmosphere before the Great Oxygenation Event 2 ..read more
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Researchers aim X-rays at century-old plant secretions for insight into Aboriginal Australian cultural heritage
SLAC Blog » X-ray Spectroscopy
by dekrause
1y ago
For tens of thousands of years, Aboriginal Australians have created some of the world’s most striking artworks. Today their work continues long lines of ancestral traditions, stories of the past and connections to current cultural landscapes, which is why researchers are keen on better understanding and preserving the cultural heritage within. In particular, knowing the chemical composition of pigments and binders that Aboriginal Australian artists employ could allow archaeological scientists and art conservators to identify these materials in important cultural heritage objects. Now, resear ..read more
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SLAC’s superconducting X-ray laser reaches operating temperature colder than outer space
SLAC Blog » X-ray Spectroscopy
by alisun
1y ago
Nestled 30 feet underground in Menlo Park, California, a half-mile-long stretch of tunnel is now colder than most of the universe. It houses a new superconducting particle accelerator, part of an upgrade project to the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray free-electron laser at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Crews have successfully cooled the accelerator to minus 456 degrees Fahrenheit – or 2 kelvins – a temperature at which it becomes superconducting and can boost electrons to high energies with nearly zero energy lost in the process. It is one of the l ..read more
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Stanford graduate student Aisulu Aitbekova wins 2021 Melvin P. Klein Award
SLAC Blog » X-ray Spectroscopy
by nathanc
1y ago
Aisulu Aitbekova.jpg Aisulu Aitbekova Aisulu Aitbekova, a 2021 doctoral graduate from Stanford University, discovered her passion for research when she traveled from Kazakhstan to the U.S. for a summer internship as a chemical engineering undergraduate. She said that experience inspired her to go to graduate school. After earning a master’s in chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she continued her studies at Stanford under the supervision of Matteo Cargnello, an assistant professor of chemical engineering and Aitbekova’s doctoral adviser. Much of her thesis w ..read more
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San Jose State students study nanodiamonds at SLAC’s synchrotron
SLAC Blog » X-ray Spectroscopy
by nathanc
1y ago
Nanodiamonds Authors.jpg San Jose State University students Cynthia Melendrez, Camron Stokes, Jorge Lopez-Rosas and Tsz Megan Cheung were coauthors on a recent study of nanodiamonds that collected data at SSRL. (Courtesy Abraham Wolcott) To Abraham Wolcott, diamonds are so much more than sparkly rocks and status symbols. The San Jose State University physical chemist works with nanodiamonds – that is, nanoscale diamonds made from breaking up larger synthetic diamonds. These nanodiamonds are so small, it takes a row of about 8,000 of them to span the width of a human hair.  What can a ..read more
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Ilya Belopolski wins 2021 Spicer Young Investigator Award for work on exotic quantum materials
SLAC Blog » X-ray Spectroscopy
by nathanc
1y ago
Ilya Belopolski.jpg It was 2015, and Ilya Belopolski and colleagues had made a remarkable discovery: A prediction made nearly nine decades earlier by a particle physicist could come true – not in elementary particles, but instead in the collective motion of electrons inside a crystal of tantalum arsenide.  Belopolski and others have continued to explore that phenomenon, known as Weyl fermions, in what are known as topological materials. In 2017, working at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, he and teammates showed that certain magnetic materials could host the fermions an ..read more
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Bucket brigades and proton gates: Researchers shed new light on water’s role in photosynthesis
SLAC Blog » X-ray Spectroscopy
by alisun
1y ago
Photosystem II is a protein in plants, algae and cyanobacteria that uses sunlight to break water down into its atomic components, unlocking hydrogen and oxygen. A longstanding question about this process is how water molecules are funneled into the center of Photosystem II, where water is split to produce the oxygen we breathe. A better understanding of this process could inform the next generation of artificial photosynthetic systems that produce clean and renewable energy from sunlight and water.  In a paper published last week in Nature Communications, an ..read more
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SSRL and LCLS Host 2021 Users’ Meeting
SLAC Blog » X-ray Spectroscopy
by nathanc
1y ago
SSRL:LCLS drone shot Matt Beardsely.jpeg The Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource synchrotron ring (foreground) and Linac Coherent Light Source. (Matt Beardsley) More than 1,200 researchers from 45 countries and six continents attended this year’s SSRL/LCLS Annual Users’ Meeting, held Sept. 20-24, to present research, participate in workshops and discuss the work they’ve done at SLAC’s Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) and Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS).  For the second year, the meeting was held online because of the pandemic. “I hope we can have a hybrid e ..read more
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