Chemical and Materials Science (XSD-CMS)

 
A New Catalyst for Making Fuels from Shale Gas
01.23.2018
Methane in shale gas can be turned into hydrocarbon fuels using an innovative platinum and copper alloy catalyst, according to new research carried out in part at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Adv...
12-BM-B
Coupling Single Platinum Atoms to Form Clusters Improves Catalytic Activity
03.10.2020
Improved catalytic converters for the next generation of ultra-low-emission vehicles could result from an innovative approach demonstrated in research at the U.S. Department of Energy’s APS....
12-BM-B
Catalytic Magic
09.21.2020
Converting carbon dioxide and water into ethanol efficiently and cheaply could reduce the amount of CO2 that is released into the atmosphere. Researchers designed a novel catalyst to break down CO2 wi...
12-BM-B, 20-BM-B
A Safer, Less Expensive, and Fast-Charging Aqueous Battery
01.13.2021
A stable, high-performance, dendrite-free aqueous battery using seawater as the electrolyte has been developed with an assist from research at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source....
12-BM-B
Research Pushes the Auto Industry Closer to Clean Cars Powered by Direct Ethanol Fuel Cells
01.24.2022
Research Pushes the Auto Industry Closer to Clean Cars Powered by Direct Ethanol Fuel Cells: Alternative-energy research including studies at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source i...
5-BM-D, 12-BM-B
A New Efficient, Abundant and Cost-Effective Catalyst for CO2 to CO Reduction
10.10.2022
A New Efficient, Abundant and Cost-Effective Catalyst for CO2 to CO Reduction: Reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) to carbon monoxide (CO) is useful for creating CO feedstocks and for lessening atmospheric...
12-BM-B
Probing the Phase Dynamics of a Complex Oxide
01.09.2023
Probing the Phase Dynamics of a Complex Oxide: Scientists using U.S. Department of Energy user facilities including the Advanced Photon Source have developed a technique that could be utilized for no...
8-ID-E, 12-BM-B
Probing the Phase Dynamics of a Complex Oxide
01.18.2023
Probing the Phase Dynamics of a Complex Oxide: Scientists using the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source have shown how oxygen ions interact with a complex oxide, strontium cobalt oxi...
8-ID-E, 12-BM-B
Increasing the Efficiency of Carbon Conversion
01.24.2023
Increasing the Efficiency of Carbon Conversion: One method of combating climate change would be to capture carbon emissions at the source and convert them into some other material, preferably one wit...
12-BM-B, 20-BM-B
Shifting electrolysis cathodes away from scarce, expensive iridium
06.25.2024
Splitting water using renewable electricity to produce green hydrogen is seen by many as essential for achieving net-zero carbon emissions. A group of scientists has recently demonstrated a new type o...
12-BM-B, 17-BM-B, 20-BM-B
Newly-Discovered Semiconductor Dynamics May Help Improve Energy Efficiency
09.11.2017
Researchers utilizing intense x-ray beams from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source (APS) examined the flow of electricity through semiconductors and uncovered another reason these...
10-ID-B, 11-ID-D, 12-ID-B
Giant Molecules as a Unique Platform for Unconventional Nanostructures
06.26.2018
The engineering of materials into ordered structures is always a critical step to transfer and amplify microscopic molecular functionalities to macroscopic material properties. Tremendous efforts have...
12-ID-B, 12-ID-C,D
Unexpected Nanoclusters in Lithium-Ion Battery Electrolytes
03.05.2019
Researchers using the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory made a surprising discovery about the complexity of the interactions between different compone...
12-ID-B, 12-ID-C,D
Controlling Thermal Conductivity of Polymers with Light
03.14.2019
Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with colleagues from the Air Force Research Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory, have designed and demonstrated a novel type of ...
12-ID-B, 12-ID-C,D
Ultraviolet Light Makes a Polymer Run Hot or Cold
10.17.2019
Plastic materials that can be switched from their normal character as heat insulating materials to ones that can conduct heat well by simply turning the lights on could have a wide range of applicatio...
12-ID-B, 12-ID-C,D
Why Z Phase Matters
12.09.2019
Scientists used the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source to gain insight about potential special properties of Z phase matter and how other, more complex Frank Kasper phases of matter ...
12-ID-B, 12-ID-C,D
How Oxygen Transfer is Altered in Diseased Lung Tissue
05.12.2020
Scientists using research techniques including x-ray studies at the U.S. Department of Energy’s APS have developed tiny sensors that measure oxygen transport in bovine lung tissue, establishing a ne...
12-ID-B
Mimicking Nature for Fast, Colorful 3-D Printing
06.17.2020
A new study in part carried out at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source demonstrates how a modified 3-D printing process provides a versatile approach to producing multiple colors ...
12-ID-B
How Tiny Compartments Could Have Preceded Cells
01.25.2021
How Tiny Compartments Could Have Preceded Cells: One of the most important questions in science is how life began on Earth. Results obtained by research at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced ...
12-ID-B
Inside the Black Box of Iron Oxide Formation
02.02.2021
Scientists know that iron hydroxides can capture heavy metals and other toxic materials, and also can be natural semiconductors. While these properties suggest many applications, the full details of h...
12-ID-B
UCLA and UIC Researchers Discover Foam “Fizzics”
06.21.2021
UCLA and UIC Researchers Discover Foam “Fizzics”: Researchers using the APS answered longstanding questions about the underlying processes that determine the life cycle of liquid foams, which cou...
12-ID-B
Giving RNA the Golden Touch by Adding to its Alphabet
07.20.2021
Giving RNA the Golden Touch by Adding to its Alphabet: Ribonucleic acid is a molecule that is essential in a variety of cellular processes so being able to study its structure and function is key to ...
12-ID-B
A Crystal-Clear Way to Save Time
09.08.2021
A Crystal-Clear Way to Save Time: Researchers collaboratively used the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source in their discovery of a better way to make a new class of soft materials—...
12-ID-B
Nanostructures Get Complex with Electron Equivalents
02.14.2022
Nanostructures Get Complex with Electron Equivalents: Complex crystals that mimic metals—including a structure for which there is no natural equivalent—can be achieved with a new approach to guid...
5-ID-B,C,D, 12-ID-B
Determining the Absorption Bandgap Inhomogeneity of PbSe Quantum Dots
03.01.2018
Scientists using the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source have developed a novel means of determining the absorption bandgap inhomogeneity of colloidal lead selenide (PbSe) quantum dot...
12-ID-C,D
A Quantum Material is a Promising “Ion Conductor” for Research, New Technologies
08.22.2018
A team of researchers utilizing two U.S. Department of Energy synchrotron x-ray sources, including the Advanced Photon Source, have shown how to shuttle lithium ions back and forth into the crystal st...
12-ID-C,D, 20-ID-B,C, 33-ID-D,E
Physicists Observe Long-Sought Nanoscale Phenomenon
09.05.2018
Preparing the perfect nanoscale sandwich from oxygen-based ingredients was no picnic. But, with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source, an international team of res...
12-ID-C,D
Unlocking the Properties of Perovskite Crystals
12.14.2018
A team of materials scientists carrying out research at the U,.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source have, for the first time, visualized the three-dimensional atomic and electron density...
12-ID-C,D, 33-ID-D,E
Layer-By-Layer Crystals: Creating Memories as They Grow
03.14.2019
This research demonstrates a powerful new technique for characterizing atomic-scale surface processes and could eventually help scientists optimize crystal growth or develop new types of crystals for ...
12-ID-C,D
How a Widely Used Catalyst Splits Water
06.16.2020
The crystalline compound ruthenium dioxide is widely used in industrial processes for catalyzing a chemical reaction that splits molecules of water and releases oxygen, but the exact mechanism that ta...
12-ID-C,D
Sniffing Out a Better Covalent Organic Framework
08.16.2021
Sniffing Out a Better Covalent Organic Framework: Research on covalent organic frameworks at the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Photon Source will open the way to effective manufacturing techni...
5-ID-B,C,D, 12-ID-C,D
A Simple Switch in Lanthanide Separations
11.29.2021
A Simple Switch in Lanthanide Separations: In this study, researchers used the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source to investigate the correlation between extraction performance and t...
12-ID-C,D
Putting the Heat on an Additive-Manufactured Alloy
06.06.2018
As the techniques of additive manufacturing (AM), more popularly known as “3-D printing,” become ever more versatile and applicable for diverse purposes, they sometimes pose unique challenges that...
9-ID-B,C, 11-BM-B
Using X-rays and Rare-Earth Elements to Generate Ultra-High Resolution Images
07.28.2020
In recent work carried out at two U.S. Department of Energy x-ray light sources, including the Advanced Photon Source, a novel tool was developed to obtain impressive spatial resolutions (e.g., 36 nan...
9-ID-B,C, 21-ID-D
For Better Pickering Emulsions, Keep the Sound Down
09.08.2020
Homogenized milk, skin cream, and mayonnaise are just a few examples of Pickering emulsions. Researchers used the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source to understand how sound waves ove...
9-ID-B,C
A Greater Understanding of Color Origins in Low-Power Electronic Displays
10.07.2020
Using a variety of research tools, including the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE's) Advanced Photon Source at Argonne, researchers at DOE's Lawrence Livermore National Lab are pursuing technology t...
9-ID-B,C
“Colloidal Gels,” Ubiquitous in Everyday Products, Divulge Their Secrets
06.08.2021
Researchers using the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source have developed a new method for determining the structure and behavior of a class of soft materials known as weak colloidal g...
9-ID-B,C
Making the Most of Metal
11.08.2021
Making the Most of Metal: The importance of metals in biology is made obvious by the elaborate mechanisms organisms use to regulate metal acquisition, storage, and usage. In a recent study at the U.S...
9-ID-B,C, 21-ID-D
Relaxing with Soft Materials
07.25.2022
Relaxing with Soft Materials: A team of investigators used the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source for their studies of the detailed microscopic dynamics of relaxation in a model sof...
8-ID-I, 9-ID-B,C
How to 3D-Print One of the Strongest Stainless Steels
10.03.2022
How to 3D-Print One of the Strongest Stainless Steels: Many critical technologies contain a remarkably strong and corrosion-resistant alloy called 17-4 precipitation hardening stainless steel. Based ...
1-ID-B,C,E, 9-ID-B,C
Tuning Color by Changing Temperature
10.17.2022
Tuning Color by Changing Temperature: Often, materials that transmit particular colors of light do so because of the periodic arrangement of their crystal structure. Researchers using the U.S. Departm...
9-ID-B,C
Tracking Delivery of Copper to Mitochondria with X-ray Beams
04.26.2023
Elesclomol, an experimental anticancer drug, could have potential to also treat copper-deficiency diseases, including Menkes disease. Although this copper-transporting compound has been shown to relie...
2-ID-D, 9-ID-B,C
 

 

The CMS group has operational responsibility for three experiment stations at sector 12 including: two undulator stations (12-ID-B, -C), a spectroscopy and scattering bending magnet beamline (12-BM), and with USAXS at 9-ID-C. As part of the APS Strategic Plan, canted undulators have been installed on 12-ID and 12-ID-B has become a full-time dedicated SAXS beamline and 12-ID-C has capabilities for SAXS, WAXS, ASAXS, GISAXS, AGISAXS, and TRSAXS, ex-situ and in-situ. Time-resolved and anomalous SAXS experiments on photosystems, biopolymers, polymers, ceramics, and catalytic systems are some of the focus areas for 12-ID-B and 12ID-C. 12-BM studies include: spectroscopy of actinides, nanoparticles, nanotubes, in situ electrochemistry, and proteins; scattering studies of growth strains in oxides; and fluorescence. The USAXS instrument is used in materials science research in energy related areas such as: fuel cells, thermal barrier coatings, energy storage materials, hydrogen/gas storage materials, and carbon sequestration materials.  
12-BM

 

12-BM is a multi-purpose beamline for spectroscopy (XAS), small angle scattering (SAXS) - wide angle scattering (WAXS). The beamline is designed to provide a versatile platform to cover a wide range of experimental needs; XAS, SAXS/WAXS or even a combination of techniques on the samples under different experimental conditions (heating, cooling, in situ catalytic reaction conditions).
12-ID-B

 

12-ID-B is dedicated to simultaneous SAXS/WAXS measurements with a pair of Pilatus area detectors and grazing incidence SAXS. Typical research areas supported include - solution scattering, structural biology, synthetic polymers, and colloidal particles. Chemical and material sciences studies on nano-structures are of interest. Pilatus detectors (2M and 300K) enable time resolved scattering in 10s of milliseconds.
12-ID-C

 

12-ID-C is used for SAXS studies with both mono and pink beam. The 12-ID-C beamline has capabilities for SAXS, WAXS, ASAXS, GISAXS, AGISAXS, and TRSAXS. Energy range from 4.5 to 36 keV. In situ experiments are facilitated with ancillary equipment including furnaces, gas and liquid flow systems, stop-flow, high pressure, and burners.
9-ID-C USAXS

 

9-ID-C is dedicated for ultra-small-angle and small-angle X-ray scattering with a worldwide unique Ultra-Small-Angle X-ray scattering instrument (USAXS) which uses Bonse-Hart geometry and 0.5 – 4 m long pinhole collimated SAXS instrument. Operating range of energies is about 8 – 18keV with flexible beam size – from 0.01 to 2 mm². The USAXS instrument provides characterization of microstructures from 1 nanometer up to 2 micron. Combined with pinhole SAXS instrument the total accessible range of sizes is 2A – 2 micron with dynamic range of intensities about 1011. The typical applications of these instruments are in the areas of materials science, polymers, metals, selected biomaterials, and ceramics.