Chemistry and catalysis

This summer, five graduate students from the University of Puerto Rico had the opportunity to use SLAC’s world-class facilities to keep their studies on track.

A SLAC-Stanford study reveals exactly what it takes for diamond to crystallize around a “seed” cluster of atoms. The results apply to industrial processes and to what happens in clouds overhead.

Tony Heinz and Z-X Shen will receive funding for research focused on catalysis and novel states of matter.

To break, or not to break: An unprecedented atomic movie captures the moment when molecules decide how to respond to light.

Experiments at SLAC heated water from room temperature to 100,000 degrees Celsius in less than a millionth of a millionth of a second, producing an exotic state of water that could shed light on Earth’s most important liquid.

The professor at University of California, Davis, describes his innovative work at SLAC’s synchrotron to search for simple, selective catalysts.

Streamlining their journey through the electrolyte could help lithium-ion batteries charge faster.

Experiments with 'molecular anvils' mark an important advance for mechanochemistry, which has the potential to make chemistry greener and more precise.

Biochemical 'action shots' with SLAC’s X-ray laser could help scientists develop synthetic enzymes for medicine and answer fundamental questions about how enzymes change during chemical reactions.

In experiments with the lab’s ultrafast "electron camera," laser light hitting a material is almost completely converted into nuclear vibrations, which are key to switching a material’s properties on and off for future electronics and other applications.

Lithium ion batteries may remain tops for sheer performance, but when cost-per-storage is factored in, a design based on sodium ions offers promise; research was conducted in part at SSRL.

This novel method could shrink the equipment needed to make laser pulses billionths of a billionth of a second long for studying ultra-speedy electron movements in solids, chemical reactions and future electronics.