Innovative battery electrode made from tin foam

Innovative battery electrode made from tin foam

Metal-based electrodes in lithium-ion batteries promise significantly higher capacities than conventional graphite electrodes. Unfortunately, they degrade due to mechanical stress during charging and discharging cycles. A team at HZB has now shown that a highly porous tin foam is much better at absorbing mechanical stress during charging cycles. This makes tin foam an interesting material for lithium batteries.

Modern lithium-ion batteries are typically based on a multilayer graphite electrode, with the counter electrode often made of cobalt oxide. During charging and discharging, lithium ions migrate into the graphite without causing significant volume changes in the material. However, the capacity of graphite is limited, making the search for alternative materials an exciting area of research. Metal-based electrodes, such as aluminium or tin, have the potential to offer higher capacity. However, they tend to expand significantly in volume when lithium is absorbed, which is associated with structural changes and material fatigue. Tin is particularly attractive because it’s capacity per kilogram is almost three times higher than graphite, and it is not a rare raw material but is available in abundance. One option for realising metal electrodes that ‘fatigue’ less quickly involves nanostructuring the thin metal foils. Another option is to use porous metal foams.

A team from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) has now studied various types of tin electrodes during the discharge and charging process using operando X-ray imaging, and developed an innovative approach to address this problem. Part of the experiments were carried out at the BAMline at BESSY II. The high-resolution radioscopic X-ray images were taken in collaboration with imaging experts Dr. Nikolai Kardjilov and Dr. André Hilger at HZB. ‘This allowed us to track the structural changes in the investigated Sn-metal-based electrodes during the charging/discharging processes,’ says Dr. Bouchra Bouabadi, first author of the study. With battery expert Dr. Sebastian Risse, she explored how the morphology of the tin electrodes changes during operation due to the inhomogeneous absorption of lithium ions.

Read more on HZB website

Image: Tin can be processed into a highly porous foam. An interdisciplinary team at HZB has investigated how this tin foam (pictured) behaves as a battery electrode.

Credit: B. Bouabadi / HZB

On the hunt for axions

On the hunt for axions

New X-ray experiment at the European XFEL could solve some of the mysteries of physics

Researchers at European XFEL, together with colleagues from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the University of Oxford and other research institutions, have been searching for a hypothetical particle that could potentially explain the dark matter of the universe. The experiment is described in a study published in Physical Review Letters.

The researchers hunted for so-called axions at the High Energy Density instrument HED/HiBEF at European XFEL. Axions are tiny and incredibly light hypothetical particles. They are intended to explain, for example, why neutrons, which make up atomic nuclei alongside protons, have no electric dipole moment, even though the nuclear building blocks consist of even smaller charged particles known as quarks. This could also be an indication of new physics beyond the standard model. Furthermore, axions are a natural candidate for dark matter, the mysterious substance that makes up most of the structure of the universe.

The researchers used European XFEL in Schenefeld near Hamburg, the largest and most powerful X-ray laser in the world for their experiments. They channelled the intense X-ray beam of European XFEL through thin plates of germanium crystals. These have strong electric fields inside. For moving particles, this appears like an extremely strong magnetic field of around 1000 Tesla. This enables photons to transform themselves into axions and back again.

Read more on the European XFEL website

Image: Axion search at the HED/HiBEF instrument of European XFEL

Credit: European XFEL

Enzyme discovered from Brazilian biodiversity can revolutionize bio-refineries

Enzyme discovered from Brazilian biodiversity can revolutionize bio-refineries

Unprecedented enzyme class prospected in Brazilian soil can increase biorefinery efficiency and accelerate the sustainable production of energy and chemicals

A new enzyme class discovered in Brazilian soil represents one of the main advances in recent decades in the field of sustainable production of energy and chemicals. This enzyme is capable of accelerating the cellulose breakdown, a critical process in the production of bioenergy and biochemicals. This discovery, published in the journal Nature, was led by researchers from CNPEM (Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, in Campinas) in a partnership with researchers from INRAE (French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment, at Aix Marseille University) and Technical University of Denmark (DTU).

This enzyme was identified from the genetic material of a microbial community found in biomass residues collected in Brazilian soils. Its novel mechanism of action, combined with the ability to generate its own co-substrate, makes it a powerful tool for plant biomass deconstruction.

“This discovery changes the paradigm of cellulose degradation in nature and has the potential to revolutionize biorefineries”, says CNPEM researcher Mario Murakami, responsible for leading the studies. “With CelOCE, we can envision new routes for bioenergy, biochemicals and biomaterials production from plant biomass, contributing to a bio-based, low-carbon and circular economy.”

CelOCE (Cellulose Oxidative Cleaving Enzyme) improves efficiency in breaking down biomass into glucose, an essential step to convert this raw material into bioenergy and biochemicals. This research spanned from bioprospection in nature to an industrially relevant scale, with validation at the CNPEM pilot plant.

Data under industrial conditions have shown that, when used together with enzymes already used in the industry, CelOCE increased the amount of glucose released by up to 21% from agro-industrial residues. This means higher productivity and less waste in the industrial process.

According to ANP (Brazilian National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels) data, Brazil produced 43 billion ethanol liters in 2023. With this discovery, production can increase by billions of liters, using agro-industrial residues such as sugarcane bagasse, corn straw, wood and other crops, without needing to expand planting areas. However, the exact volume of this increase cannot yet be determined, as it depends on the amount of residues that will be used for ethanol production.

The research was carried out by a multidisciplinary team of scientists from CNPEM and international institutions from countries such as France and Denmark. According to CNPEM’s General Director, Antonio José Roque da Silva, the combination of advanced techniques available at the Center, including X-ray crystallography at Sirius, Brazil’s particle accelerator, and genetic engineering with CRISPR-Cas9, was essential to unravel  CelOCE’s unprecedented mechanism. “This work exemplifies the potential opened up by the integration and synergy between CNPEM’s different scientific competencies”, highlights the institution’s General Director.

Read more on CNPEM website

A new dimension of complexity for layered magnetic materials

A new dimension of complexity for layered magnetic materials

When it comes to layered quantum materials, current understanding only scratches the surface; so demonstrates a new study from the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI. Using advanced X-ray spectroscopy at the Swiss Light Source SLS, researchers uncovered magnetic phenomena driven by unexpected interactions between the layers of a kagome ferromagnet made from iron and tin. This discovery challenges assumptions about layered alloys of common metals, providing a starting point for developing new magnetoelectric devices and rare-earth-free motors. 

Patterns are everything. With quantum materials, it’s not just what they’re made of but how their atoms or molecules are organised that gives rise to the exotic properties that excite researchers with their promise for future technologies. 

Graphene showed this to the world: arranged into single layers of a hexagonal lattice, common-or-garden carbon atoms could exhibit extraordinary electronic properties. Research over the last decade has since been dedicated to discovering whether other two-dimensional arrays of atoms, either alone or stacked into a three-dimensional material, can reveal similarly novel behaviours.

The kagome lattice, which takes its name from a type of Japanese basket woven in corner sharing triangles, is another two-dimensional pattern that has excited researchers with its ability to host exotic quantum states, ranging from superconductivity to unconventional magnetism. 

Yet until now, research has focused on electronic and magnetic properties in two-dimensions of the material. The latest results in Fe3Sn2 – a ferromagnetic material made of iron and tin atoms arranged into the intricate kagome pattern – change that.

Read more on the PSI website

Image: The kagome ferromagnet, Fe3Sn2 hosts spin waves – magnetic ripples arising from collective excitations of electron spins (shown here as golden arrows). The new findings reveal that the spin-waves are influenced by unexpected interactions between the layers in the material.

Credit: ©Wenliang Zhang / Paul Scherrer Institute PSI

Anomaly in the deep sea

Anomaly in the deep sea

Beryllium-10, a rare radioactive isotope produced by cosmic rays in the atmosphere, provides valuable insights into the Earth’s geological history. A research team from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), in collaboration with the TUD Dresden University of Technology and the Australian National University (ANU), has discovered an unexpected accumulation of this isotope in samples taken from the Pacific seabed. Such an anomaly may be attributed to shifts in ocean currents or astrophysical events that occurred approximately 10 million years ago. The findings hold the potential to serve as a global time marker, representing a promising advancement in the dating of geological archives spanning millions of years. 

Radionuclides are types of atomic nuclei (isotopes) that decay into other elements over time. They are used to date archaeological and geological samples, with radiocarbon dating being one of the most well-known methods. In principle, radiocarbon dating is based on the fact that living organisms continuously absorb the radioactive isotope carbon-14 (14C) during their lifetime. Once an organism dies, the absorption ceases, and the 14C content starts to decrease through radioactive decay with a half-life of approximately 5,700 years. By comparing the ratio of unstable 14C to stable carbon-12 (12C), researchers can determine the date of the organism’s death.

Archaeological finds, such as bones or remnants of wood, can be dated quite accurately in this way. “However, the radiocarbon method is limited to dating samples no more than 50,000 years old,” explains HZDR physicist Dr. Dominik Koll. “To date older samples, we need to use other isotopes, such as cosmogenic beryllium-10 (10Be).” This isotope is created when cosmic rays interact with oxygen and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere. It reaches the Earth through precipitation and can accumulate on the seabed. With a half-life of 1.4 million years, 10Be decays into boron, allowing geological dating that can extend back over 10 million years.

Conspicuous accumulation of beryllium

Some time ago, Koll’s research group examined unique geological samples retrieved from the Pacific Ocean at a depth of several kilometers. The samples consisted of ferromanganese crusts, primarily composed of iron and manganese, which had formed slowly but steadily over millions of years. To date the samples, the team analyzed the 10Be content using a highly sensitive method – Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) at HZDR. In this process, the sample is chemically purified before undergoing analysis for trace isotopes. Individual atoms from the sample are accelerated by high voltage, deflected by magnets, and then registered by specialized detectors. This method allows for the precise identification of 10Be, distinguishing it from other beryllium isotopes as well as molecules and isotopes with the same mass, such as boron-10.

When the research group evaluated the collected data, they were in for a surprise. “At around 10 million years, we found almost twice as much 10Be as we had anticipated,” reports Koll. “We had stumbled upon a previously undiscovered anomaly.” To eliminate any possibility of contamination, the experts analyzed additional samples from the Pacific, which also exhibited the same anomaly. This consistency allows the team to conclude that it is indeed a real phenomenon.

Read more on HZDR website

Image: Schematic depiction of production and incorporation of cosmogenic 10Be into ferromanganese crusts. A pronounced anomaly in 10Be concentration about 10 million years ago was discovered. This anomaly has great potential as time marker for the Late Miocene.

Credit: HZDR / blrck.de

A novel fullerene structure on a topological insulator surface

A novel fullerene structure on a topological insulator surface

The so-called Buckminster fullerene (C60) has a spherical shape and assembles into a cubic structure at all temperatures. At room temperature, the fullerenes can spin around their axes and hence, the molecules are randomly oriented. At lower temperature, this spinning motion is frozen and all the C60 molecules are orientationally ordered in a certain direction. The transition to ordered structure with cooling is typically observed as first order structural transition from face-centered-cubic to simple cubic structure below 260 K. While thick layers of fullerenes on metal and semiconductor substrates have been studied previously, the C60 structural transition in single layer and its impact on substrate surface electronic properties are still unexplored.

In this work, Pandeya et al. studied the growth of single layer long-range crystalline order of a single layer fullerene film on a novel substrate. Since the expected effect of C60 on the substrate is rather small because of the van der Waals interaction, a topological insulator (TI), Bi4Te3, with spin-polarized electronic states located at the surface was chosen as substrate. The sample was grown at Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany) by molecular beam epitaxy and capped with a protective layer so that it could be safely transported to Elettra synchrotron. The surface character of the topological insulator electronic states made it possible to study the interaction with adsorbed fullerenes.

To probe the electronic structure of both topological insulator surface and the C60 thin film, high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements were carried out at the BaDElPh beamline of Elettra, taking advantage of high brightness, high energy resolution, photon energy tunability, and most importantly polarization tunability of the photon source. The study was conducted at two different temperatures: room temperature, at which the fullerenes are spinning, and 30 K, at which the spinning motion is frozen out. Careful analysis of the ARPES data (see Figure 1) enabled the research team to identify a significant electron transfer to the TI surface state from C60 layer at room temperature without affecting substrate surface and thin film electronic properties. Interestingly, at low temperature where C60 molecules are frozen, a negligible charge transfer to TI surface was observed, indicating that both the substrate and thin films preserve the pristine electronic properties.

Read more on Elettra website

Scientists invent “slime” that could be used in new medical, green energy, and robot applications

Scientists invent “slime” that could be used in new medical, green energy, and robot applications

University of Guelph (U of G) researchers have developed a slime-like material that produces electricity when compressed. When the team studied their prototype using the Canadian Light Source (CLS) at the University of Saskatchewan, they discovered the material has an array of potential applications.

If installed in floors, it could produce clean energy when people walk on it. If incorporated into a shoe insole, it could be used to analyze your gait. In theory, says lead researcher Erica Pensini, their material could even be used as the basis for a synthetic skin to train robots to know how much pressure to use when checking the pulse of a patient.

“The synchrotron is like a super-microscope,” says Pensini. “It allowed us to see that if you apply an electric field, you can change the crystalline structure of this material.”

Pensini, an associate professor at U of G, and colleagues, found that the “slime” could form different structures at the microscopic level so that it either arranged itself like a sponge, formed layers like a lasagna, or took on a hexagonal form. Pensini conducted the work in collaboration with U of G professors Alejandro G. Marangoni, Aicheng Chen, and Stefano Gregori.

This property, explains Pensini, could offer an opportunity for the targeted delivery of medicine within the body. “Imagine you have the material take an initial structure that contains a pharmaceutical substance and then, when an electric field is applied to it, the structure changes to release the medicine.”

The team’s prototype is composed of natural materials that are highly compatible with the body. It is 90 per cent water plus oleic acid (found in olive oil) and amino acids (the building blocks of protein in the body). “I wanted to make something that is 100 per cent benign and that I would put on my skin without any concerns,” she says.

Read more on CLS website

PETRA III delivers novel approach to determine melting at high pressures

PETRA III delivers novel approach to determine melting at high pressures

An international team of scientists from DESY Photon Science, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (U.S.), the University of Edinburgh (UK), and Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (Germany) has developed a novel approach to accurately determine the melting temperature of opaque materials using X-ray phase contrast imaging and X-ray diffraction in the laser-heated diamond anvil cell at up to pressures of 500 000 bar and 4000 Kelvin. The team lead by Emma Ehrenreich-Petersen from DESY and Earl Francis O’Bannon from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory developed the technique at beamline P02.2 at DESY´s high-energy photon source PETRA III and published their results in the journal Results in Physics.

For decades, determining the high pressure melting of opaque materials has been a significant challenge. Many approaches have been developed over the last decades since the introduction of laser heated diamond anvil cell. This fist-large high-pressure device consists of two opposed modified diamonds which compress the sample in between them. It can generate pressures that are higher than the pressure found at the center of the Earth. The sample – in this case a metal foil – can be heated through the transparent diamonds with very powerful infrared lasers that illuminate the sample from both sides of the diamonds. “It is extremely difficult to detect the first appearance of very small amounts of melt by means of optical imaging or X-ray diffraction of the sample. This led to discrepancies in melt temperature determination in earlier studies,” explains lead author Emma Ehrenreich-Petersen from DESY. “In our study we combine the otherwise well-established technique of X-ray phase contrast imaging with diffraction and apply it to the laser heated diamond anvil cell, to detect the smallest amount of phase contrast between the solid and the liquid sample”

“This approach has the advantage that one does not need to melt the entire sample, since this setup can resolve features as small as about one micron” states project leader Earl Francis O’Bannon from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. “We benchmarked this novel approach at the PETRA III Extreme Conditions Beamline P02.2 by determining the melting line of platinum up to pressures of 500 000 atmospheres and temperatures up to 4000 Kelvin. We demonstrated that the technique is much more sensitive in determining the onset of melting than any other previous technique.”

Read more on PETRAIII website

Image: The technique developed at PETRA III allows the incipient melting process in platinum (centre) to be tracked precisely.

Credit: DESY, Hanns-Peter Liermann

Development of Solid Electrolyte to Enhance Lithium Battery Performance

Development of Solid Electrolyte to Enhance Lithium Battery Performance

How convenient would it be if we could use smartphone batteries longer and more safely? A research team led by Professor Moon Jeong Park at POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology) has announced an innovative research outcome that could turn this vision into reality, gaining significant attention from both academia and the public. In particular, this study builds upon their previous research published in Science last year, where they introduced the “plumber’s nightmare” structure to maximize lithium-ion battery performance, making it even more meaningful.

Lithium-ion batteries are broadly used in modern technologies, including smartphones. While the electrolyte is one of the core components of a battery, conventional liquid electrolytes have risks of leakage or explosion. Solid-state electrolytes are emerging as an alternative, but there have been limitations in balancing the electrolyte’s ‘mechanical strength’ and ‘ionic conductivity’.

A research team led by Professor Park Moon Jeong, Dr. Kim Ji-hoon, and doctoral student Lee Ho-joon from the Department of Chemistry at POSTECH has presented an innovative method that dramatically improves both the ionic conductivity and mechanical properties of batteries by adding only a tiny amount of lithium salt – less than one-tenth the level used in conventional electrolyte production that used more than a few mole concentration of lithium salt to increase ionic conductivity.

The key to this approach is that adding a very small amount of lithium salt to the PS-b-PEO1) block copolymer2) selectively locates it at the terminal hydroxy groups (-OH) of the PEO chain. Through this, the research team succeeded in forming a sophisticated “plumber’s nightmare” structure unobserved in conventional polymer electrolyte systems.

The “plumber’s nightmare” structure refers to an arrangement where all polymer chain ends are entangled inward, just like plumbing pipes gather internally. This structure has six channels formed by the polymer chains, all connected. The structure provides a stable ion pathway as the lithium ions are locally present in the hydroxy groups at the center of the polymer channels. As a result, it creates an environment where ions can move quickly and efficiently while maintaining the hard and robust structure of the electrolyte.

Read more on PAL website

Uncovering ancient text from the Oxford Herculaneum scroll

Uncovering ancient text from the Oxford Herculaneum scroll

In July 2024, Diamond’s powerful light enabled a team from the nearby Bodleian Libraries to scan a 2,000-year-old Herculaneum scroll. The scroll, one of three housed at the libraries, was studied on the I12 beamline and the collected X-ray data has played a crucial role in deciphering the text of this ancient artefact. 

By scanning the scroll, researchers were able to generate an image of the inside of scroll Pherc. 172, which was buried by the Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79AD. The papyrus texts were flashed seared by the volcanic heat and are thought to be part of the only remaining intact library from the ancient world.  

The scroll was buried and carbonised during the eruption, and previous attempts to open similar scrolls have been largely disastrous. But by using the unique capabilities of Diamond’s beamline, as well as a machine learning programme (AI), researchers have been able to create an “un-rolled” image of the carbonised layers.  

The Oxford scroll is unique due to the chemical composition of its ink, which appears more clearly in Diamond’s X-ray scans. It may be that this scroll’s ink contains a denser contamintant, such as lead, that makes its text more legible than other Herculaneum scrolls.  

The image was made possible by the advanced scanning capabilities of the I12 beamline, a high energy X-ray beamline for imaging, diffraction and scattering, which operates at photon energies of 53-150 keV. 

The scanning and deciphering of the text is part of the Vesuvius Challenge, a global machine learning competition which hopes to recover the contents of the scrolls that were discovered in the 1750s. The majority of the scrolls reside at the Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli, although several were gifted to the Bodleian Libraries at Oxford University, the British Library and the Insitut de France.

This is not the first time that Diamond has played host to one of these ancient scrolls. In 2019, Professor Brent Seales, who co-founded the Vesuvius Challenge, brought two scrolls and several fragments from the Institut de France. By using Diamond’s scans, along with the pioneering AI software platform his team developed, thousands of characters making up 5% of the scroll, were identified.    

Read more on Diamond website

Image: The Bodleian Libraries Herculaneum scroll.

A breakthrough in all-organic proton batteries for safer, sustainable energy storage

A breakthrough in all-organic proton batteries for safer, sustainable energy storage

Researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have developed a new type of rechargeable battery that uses protons (H⁺ ions) as charge carriers, offering a safer and more environmentally friendly alternative to conventional lithium-ion batteries. 

Unlike traditional batteries that rely on metal ions, such as lithium or sodium, this innovative design harnesses protons for fast charge transfer and exceptional stability over thousands of cycles.

The researcher team led by Professor Chuan Zhao at UNSW’s School of Chemistry reported in the prestigious journal Angewandte Chemie the development of a novel small organic molecule called tetraamino-benzoquinone (TABQ), as a cathode material in this proton battery. Developed by PhD candidate Sicheng Wu and Professor Zhao, this TABQ molecules plays a crucial role in storing and transporting protons, leading to remarkable performance and long-term stability.

“Using this TABQ cathode material, we successfully built an all-organic proton battery that performs efficiently at both room temperature and sub-zero freezing temperatures,” said Professor Zhao in a media statement.

A key aspect of the research involved real-time monitoring of chemical changes during battery operation, achieved through advanced synchrotron infrared measurements. Dr Pimm Vongsvivut, Senior Scientist at the Australian Synchrotron’s Infrared Microspectroscopy (IRM) beamline, collaborated with this UNSW team to develop a custom in-situ electrochemical cell and monitoring technique. 

“Through this collaboration, we designed a tailored electrochemical cell and an in-situ monitoring approach to track chemical changes during charging and discharging cycles. Our synchrotron infrared technique provided direct chemical evidence confirming that the energy storage mechanism of TABQ relies on a reversible carboxyl/hydroxyl conversion driven by proton uptake and release during cycling,” said Dr Vongsvivut. 

The study also revealed that intercalated protons (or hydronium ions) can protonate amino groups, contributing to an intermolecular hydrogen-bond network that enhances the battery’s performance. Computational analysis confirmed that protons are more easily stored in TABQ compared to metal ions, reinforcing the efficiency of this organic system.

Read more on ANSTO website

Image: Professor Chuan Zhao holds up a prototype of a proton battery in the lab, made in collaboration with UNSW Engineering and ANSTO.                                      

Credit: Prof Zhao and UNSW

Why Your Headphone Battery Doesn’t Last

Why Your Headphone Battery Doesn’t Last

Editor’s Note: The following article was originally issued by the University of Texas at Austin. The research team performed nano-diffraction measurements on battery particles extracted from a commercial wireless earbud at the Hard X-ray Nanoprobe (HXN) at the National Synchrotron Light Source II, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory. Their findings indicate that there are tiny, coexisting regions within the battery that behave differently. These regions show signs of changing phases, which adds to the bigger picture of how the material behaves across different parts of the battery cell. For more information on Brookhaven’s role in this research, contact Denise Yazak (dyazak@bnl.gov, 631-344-6371).

AUSTIN, Texas — Ever notice that batteries in electronics don’t last as long as they did when they were brand new?

An international research team led by The University of Texas at Austin took on this well-known battery challenge, called degradation, with a twist. They’re focusing their work on real-world technology that many of us use daily: wireless earbuds. They deployed X-ray, infrared and other imaging technologies to understand the complexities of all the technology packed in these tiny devices and learn why their battery lives erode over time.

“This started with my personal headphones. I only wear the right one, and I found that after two years, the left earbud had a much longer battery life,” said Yijin Liu, an associate professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, who led the new research published in Advanced Materials. “So, we decided to look into it and see what we could find.”

They found that other critical components in the compact device, like the Bluetooth antenna, microphones and circuits, clashed with the battery, creating a challenging microenvironment. This dynamic led to a temperature gradient — different temperatures at the top and bottom portions of the battery — that damaged the battery.

Exposure to the real world, with many different temperatures, degrees of air quality and other wildcard factors, also plays a role. Batteries are often designed to withstand harsh environments, but frequent environmental changes are challenging in their own way.

These findings, the researchers say, illustrate the need to think more about how batteries fit into real-world devices such as phones, laptops and vehicles. How can they be packaged to mitigate interactions with potentially damaging components, and how can they be adjusted for different user behaviors?

Read more on BNL website

The gut-brain connection in Alzheimer’s unveiled with X-rays

The gut-brain connection in Alzheimer’s unveiled with X-rays

Scientists led by the Institute of Nanotechnology in Italy, in collaboration with the ESRF, have discovered how X-ray micro- and nano- tomography can provide clues on the processes that link the gut neurons with those in the brain and may trigger Alzheimer’s. The results are out today in Science Advances.

Alzheimer’s disease, the most common type of dementia, is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by brain alteration including synaptic loss, chronic inflammation and neuronal cell death.

In recent years, scientists have found evidence that the gut and the brain communicate through the neurons placed in both organs. Dysfunction in this axis has been linked to psychiatric and neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s.

The gut microbiota, which refers to the microorganisms in the intestinal tract, plays a key role in human health and influences brain function, cognition and behaviour. “There are already many studies that support that changes in the gut composition can contribute to Alzheimer’s onset and progression”, explains Alessia Cedola, researcher from the Institute of Nanotechnology in Italy and corresponding author of the article.

In particular, dysbiosis, which is the process by which there is a loss of microbial diversity, induces the prevalence of dangerous bacteria producing toxic metabolites promoting inflammation, and, consequently, the breakage of the gut/brain barriers.

What happens exactly when gut dysbiosis occurs? “The main hypothesis is that changes trigger the escape of bad bacteria from the gut, entering the circulation, reaching the brain and triggering Alzheimer’s, but evidence is still poor”, adds Cedola.

Now scientists have discovered that nano- and micro X-ray phase-contrast tomography (XPCT) is a powerful tool to study structural and morphological alterations in the gut, without tissue manipulation. The team came to the ESRF to scan samples on beamline ID16A. “Thanks to this technique we can image soft biological tissues with excellent sensitivity in 3D, with minimal sample preparation and without contrast agents”, explains Peter Cloetens, scientist in charge of ID16A and co-author of the publication.

The data of the experiments, partially carried out at ANATOMIX at Soleil, showed the changes in cell abundance and organisation in the tissues, as well as structural alteration in different tissues of mice affected with Alzheimer’s. Specifically, it showed relevant alterations in the villi and crypts of the gut, cellular transformations in Paneth and goblet cells, along with the detection of telocytes, neurons, erythrocytes, and mucus secretion by goblet cells within the gut cavity. All these elements, when working correctly, maintain gut health, support digestion, and protect the intestinal lining from damage.

Read more on ESRF website

Image: Nano-XPCT 3D rendering of the longitudinal view of one crypt of SAMR1 mouse. The epithelial layer of the crypt has been rendered in green. The Paneth cells are colored in yellow and the goblet cells in blue. Scale bars, 5 μm.

Credit: A. Cedola

Organic material can convert toxic heavy metal to harmless form

Organic material can convert toxic heavy metal to harmless form

Researchers from the University of Waterloo have discovered that a special form of charcoal is highly effective at absorbing toxic chromium and transforming it into its safer form.

Chromium is a heavy metal that exists in two forms. One form, chromium(III), is a safe micronutrient that our body needs. The other, chromium(VI), is a dangerous carcinogen linked to ovarian, lung, and liver cancer, and reproductive problems. The dangerous form is usually created during industrial processes such as leather tanning, stainless steel production, and mining, but it can also occur naturally in the presence of manganese minerals.

Biochar, a form of charcoal produced by heating agricultural waste without oxygen, is being studied as a potential tool for cleaning up chromium pollution at industrial sites, using the natural filtering ability of organic carbon.

Filip Budimir, a PhD candidate in earth and environmental sciences at the University of Waterloo, wanted to know what happens when water contaminated with chromium(VI) is mixed with an oak-based biochar. His research is published in the journal Chemosphere.

Using the Canadian Light Source at the University of Saskatchewan, Budimir probed the biochar to see where the chromium was being deposited on the grains, and which version of the metal was there. He found that, while the solution initially contained only Cr(VI), after sitting for 120 hours (5 days), most of the chromium (~85%) had become Cr(III). So not only was the biochar absorbing the toxic chromium, it was also converting it to its safer form.

Read more on CLS website

Light-twisting materials created from nano semiconductors

Light-twisting materials created from nano semiconductors

Cornell scientists have developed a novel technique to transform symmetrical semiconductor particles into intricately twisted, spiral structures – or “chiral” materials – producing films with extraordinary light-bending properties.

The discovery, detailed in a paper publishing Jan. 31 in the journal Science, could revolutionize technologies that rely on controlling light polarization, such as displays, sensors and optical communications devices.

Chiral materials are special because they can twist light. One way to create them is through exciton-coupling, where light excites nanomaterials to form excitons that interact and share energy with each other. Historically, exciton-coupled chiral materials were made from organic, carbon-based molecules. Creating them from inorganic semiconductors, prized for their stability and tunable optical properties, has proven exceptionally challenging due to the precise control needed over nanomaterial interactions.

Scientists from the lab of Richard D. Robinson, associate professor of materials science and engineering in Cornell Engineering and senior author of the study, overcame this challenge by employing “magic-sized clusters” made from cadmium-based semiconductor compounds. Magic-sized clusters are unique nanoparticles because they are identical copies of each other, existing only in discrete sizes, unlike many nanoparticles that can vary continuously in size. Previous research by the Robinson Group reported that when the nanoclusters were processed into thin films, they demonstrated circular dichroism, a key signature of chirality.

“Circular dichroism means the material absorbs left-handed and right-handed circularly polarized light differently, like how screw threads dictate which way something twists,” Robinson explained. “We realized that by carefully controlling the film’s drying geometry, we could control its structure and its chirality. We saw this as an opportunity to bring a property usually found in organic materials into the inorganic world.”

The researchers used meniscus-guided evaporation to twist linear nanocluster assemblies into helical shapes, forming homochiral domains several square millimeters in size. These films exhibit an exceptionally large light-matter response, surpassing previously reported record values for inorganic semiconductor materials by nearly two orders of magnitude.

“I’m excited about the versatility of the method, which works with different nanocluster compositions, allowing us to tailor the films to interact with light from the ultraviolet to the infrared,” said Thomas Ugras, a doctoral student in the field of applied and engineering physics who led the research. “The assembly technique imbues not only chirality but also linear alignment onto nanocluster fibers as they deposit, making the films sensitive to both circularly and linearly polarized light, enhancing their functionality as metamaterial-like optical sensors.”

This discovery could revolutionize technologies that rely on controlling light polarization, and lead to new innovations, such as holographic 3D displays, room-temperature quantum computing, ultra-low-power devices, or medical diagnostics that analyze blood glucose levels non-invasively. The findings also provide insights into the formation of natural chiral structures, such as DNA, which could inform future research in biology and nanotechnology.

Read more on CHESS website

SESAME leads the way in Open Science worldwide with DataCite Global Access Fund

SESAME leads the way in Open Science worldwide with DataCite Global Access Fund

SESAME and Arab States Research and Education Network (ASREN) are collaborating with Global Access Fund (GAF) on a transformative initiative to enhance the accessibility, management, and sharing of research data to its user community. The GAF is part of the DataCite Global Access Program (GAP) made possible by grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. The scope of the project is to create a scalable infrastructure that enhances data discoverability, citation, and accessibility, advancing Open Science and international collaboration. SESAME’s role in this initiative underscores its commitment to scientific progress and global partnerships.

In addition to SESAME’s efforts, ASREN plays a vital role by providing the technical infrastructure needed for Open Science initiatives in the Middle East and Africa. True to its mission to implement, manage and extend sustainable pan-Arab e-Infrastructures dedicated to the use of research and education communities, ASREN will facilitate data sharing among research institutions through high-capacity networks.

This collaboration places SESAME in a unique position to foster scientific cooperation in politically diverse regions. With its (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) FAIR data practices and partnerships with global organizations like DataCite, SESAME is helping researchers from the Middle East contribute significantly to global scientific knowledge. The comprehensive experimental data and its metadata associated with Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) support researchers in sharing their findings transparently and collaborating with the global scientific community, raising the visibility of Middle Eastern scientists and promoting new opportunities for partnerships.

Read more on SESAME website