Measuring the process in unprecedented detail gives them clues to how to minimize the problem and protect battery performance.

The Horizon Prizes celebrate the most exciting, contemporary chemical science at the cutting edge of research and innovation.

From the invisible world of elementary particles to the mysteries of the cosmos, recipients of this prestigious award for early career scientists explore nature at every level.

Edward Hohenstein, Emma McBride and Caterina Vernieri study what happens to molecules hit by light, recreate extreme states of matter like those inside stars and planets, and search for new physics phenomena at the most fundamental level.

With a new suite of tools, scientists discovered exactly how tiny plate-like catalyst particles carry out a key step in that conversion – the evolution of oxygen in an electrocatalytic cell – in unprecedented detail.

Scientists have documented a process that makes these next-gen batteries lose charge – and eventually some of their capacity for storing energy – even when a device is turned off.

This new understanding could aid the development of more efficient clean energy sources.

The surprising results offer a way to boost the activity and stability of catalysts for making hydrogen fuel from water.

The results, which show that ultrafast atomic motions are the first step in forming a magnetic state, could lead to faster and more efficient data storage devices.

A better understanding of how this happens could help researchers hone future electronic measurements and offer insights into how X-rays interact with matter on ultrafast time scales.

Scientists at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource will study plastics and biologically-motivated processes that break them down in hopes of finding more efficient ways to “upcycle” them.