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Catalysts are the unsung heroes of chemistry, accelerating reactions used to make fertilizers, fuels and consumer products. SUNCAT’s focus is on improving catalysts for making chemicals and fuels with renewable energy.

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Illustration of nanocrystals forming into superlattices at SLAC's SSRL

Scientists at SLAC observe chemical reactions in unprecedented detail and find ways to make them more efficient, with the goal of using chemistry to help solve the nation’s energy challenges.

Liquids getting vaporized by the world's brightest X-ray laser
News Brief

The team reduced the amount of expensive platinum group metals needed to make an effective cell and found a new way to test future...

An illustration of a thin film resembling dry, cracked earth.
News Feature

Researchers demonstrate a way to remove the potent greenhouse gas from the exhaust of engines that burn natural gas.  

Illustration of bubbles of methane on surface of catalyst
News Feature

The SLAC-Stanford team pulled hydrogen directly from ocean waters. Their work could help efforts to generate low-carbon fuel for electric grids, cars, boats and...

This photograph shows ocean water funneling over rocks on about half of the photograph and deeper ocean water on the other part of the photograph. It is a view of the ocean from above, in the sky.
news collection

Two of the most urgent challenges of our time – clean energy and sustainability – require investigation at the atomic level.

Aerial image of workers installing solar panels on a home.
News Feature

Two GEM Fellows reflect on their summer internships at SLAC and share their thoughts on representation and mentorship.

Nate Keyes and Zariq George
News Feature

Encapsulating precious-metal catalysts in a web-like alumina framework could reduce the amount needed in catalytic converters – and our dependency on these scarce metals.

A web of red material encapsulates blue polyhedrons.
Illustration

The ultrafast, ultrabright X-ray pulses of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) have enabled unprecedented views of a catalyst in action, an important step...

Nilsson science cover
News Feature

Anchoring individual iridium atoms on the surface of a catalytic particle boosted its performance in carrying out a reaction that’s been a bottleneck for...

Illustration showing surface of a catalyst as a lattice work of atoms, with single iridium molecules held above it on tiny 8-sided structures to facilitate splitting of water molecules seen floating above
News Feature

Their work aims to bridge two approaches to driving the reaction – one powered by heat, the other by electricity – with the goal...

A ball-and-stick illustration of a single nickel atom (green) bonded to nitrogen atoms (blue) on the surface of a carbon material. The arrangement allows the nickel atoms to catalyze two types of reactions involved in making fuel from CO2.
News Feature

With a new suite of tools, scientists discovered exactly how tiny plate-like catalyst particles carry out a key step in that conversion – the...

Illustration of nanoscale catalyst particles.
News Feature

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

Illustration showing a book with layers of atoms on its pages