Spotlight on Science
Up one levelThe latest scientific news
Coupling of single molecule magnets to ferromagnetic metals
With dimensions close to a nanometre and the ability to store one bit of information, molecules that possess bistable magnetic states could represent the ultimate evolution of digital memory. Experiments at the ESRF have unravelled how such tiny metal-organic complexes inter…
The compliant behaviour of germanium nanocluster arrays on free-standing silicon nanostructures
“Don’t change a winning team” is a widely known sport paradigm on short-term success. However, it is also evident that success on the long-term is no longer guaranteed when teams do not further develop. In this respect, a coach must sooner or later answer the question …
Aharonov-Bohm interferences from local deformations in graphene
Since graphene was first isolated in a controlled way, it has been an optimal playground to test the most exciting ideas in condensed matter. Its curvature and elastic deformations can be modelled by means of fictitious gauge fields as if the system were in the presence of a…
Seeing inside a working catalyst
Metal/metal oxides supported on porous catalyst bodies represent the cornerstone of the heterogeneous catalysis industry. However, little is known about the process by which an active phase forms from an impregnation precursor and how this influences the final properties of …
Local structure of Co-implanted ZnO nanowires
Co-implanted ZnO nanowires were explored by nano-X-ray absorption spectroscopy using a 100 nm monochromatic X-ray beam. This permitted discovery of the chemical state of the implanted ions, the short-range order in various regions of individual wires and the local order of t…
The molecular details of receptor-drug interactions in the treatment of asthma and heart conditions
Researchers from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology have unravelled how drugs such as sabutamol (Ventolin) interact with adrenergic receptors in the human body. These studies will aid future rational drug design to create more effective medicines and treatments of disea…
Strong inside, weak outside: Graphene on Ir(111)
Graphene, a single monolayer of carbon, features a set of fascinating properties. In particular, it has the largest tensile strength ever measured. Experiments at the ESRF now show that this large internal strength is in stark contrast to its weak bonding to the outside worl…
Piezoelectric properties in non-polar block copolymers
Scientists working at the ESRF have discovered piezoelectric properties in non-polar block copolymers. The researchers, a team from RWTH Aachen University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, used home-built capacitors and small-angle X-ray scattering at beamline ID02 to monit…
Snapshot of a bacterial transporter in the act of secreting a protein
The human urinary tract is one of the most common sites for bacterial infection and most of the diagnosed urinary tract infections are caused by the uropathogenic Escherichia coli. During the infection process, the bacteria recognise and adhere to host epithelial cells by us…
Structural and spectroscopic observation of an enzyme at work
Observing enzymes at work is a difficult task. Yet, scientists at the University of Pavia in Italy, in collaboration with colleagues from the ESRF, the IBS and the University of Groningen in The Netherlands have succeeded in generating and characterising several biologically…
Towards full polarisation control in resonant inelastic soft X-ray scattering
High-resolution RIXS spectra in the soft X-ray range can now be measured with linear polarisation analysis of the scattered radiation using the AXES spectrometer at beamline ID08. In June 2011, a first experiment on layered cuprates successfully demonstrated that this additi…
Complex patterns in liquid crystals
A new way of making small molecules self-assemble into highly-complex nanopatterns has been discovered by researchers at University of Sheffield (UK) and Martin Luther University in Halle (Germany). It will help expand the capabilities of ‘bottom-up’ methods of nanopatte…
Silicon carbonate phase formed from carbon dioxide and silica under pressure
The recent discovery of non-molecular silica-like carbon dioxide motivated a team of scientists from Italy and France to attempt to react carbon dioxide with silicon dioxide under high pressure. They created a new silicon carbonate phase by reacting a micro-porous SiO2 zeoli…
Shedding light on the heart of a transistor
X-ray nanobeam diffraction was used to explore the heart of a fully processed field-effect transistor. The structural and strain properties of a single SiGe island and the overlying strained Si channel, which represents the active area of the device, were investigated with a…
Bio-SAXS at ID14-3: looking at proteins in their native state – a valuable complement to protein crystallography studies
The complete automation of data collection is maximising the potential of bio-SAXS at the ESRF. Never before have SAXS studies of protein in solution been so easy. Academics and industrialists are getting excellent results and some are even using the beamline by remote opera…
Untangling the chemical bonding in high-pressure γ-B28 boron
An icosahedral, quasimolecular cluster of 12 boron atoms (B12) is the building block of all allotropes of boron as well as many boron-rich solids. However, the properties of boron polymorphs and boron-rich compounds that make them interesting for materials science and techno…
Determining the state of Pt in SnO2-based sensors under working conditions
The role of Pt-dopants in real SnO2-based gas sensors is unknown, especially their beneficial effect on the sensors’ intrinsically poor selectivity. A combination of innovative sample design and high-energy-resolution fluorescence-detected X-ray absorption spectroscopy at …
Tracking the protein motions that harvest energy
Energy conversion is one of the most fundamental processes in all organisms. Glycolysis is the metabolic pathway that breaks down sugars, in the absence of oxygen, to release energy. The pathway is common to all organisms and is very ancient. Indeed, as the pathway does no…
Organic photovoltaics in situ annealing studied by grazing-incidence diffraction
Organic photovoltaic materials have long-term promise for large area devices on flexible substrates produced by low-cost processes such as inkjet printing. Control of order and morphology at the nanometre scale during processing steps such as thermal annealing is crucial for…
When oil and water do mix: the nanoscale structure of a surfactant-modified hydrophobic interface
Scientists have succeeded in measuring the molecular-scale structure and thermodynamics of deeply buried oil/water interfaces decorated by ionic surfactants. They found evidence of the interfacial layer becoming more dense, more ordered, than the oil layer as temperatures ar…
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