Researchers have engineered a series of additively manufactured triply-twinned Body‐Centred Cubic (BCCT) lattices that distribute stress more efficiently, enabling lighter structures with significantly improved stiffness, strength, and damage-tolerance. This lattice achieves up to three-fold improved performance compared to conventional lattice architecture. They have studied its structure and how to remove defects using the ESRF’s extremely brilliant source. The results are out in Advanced Materials.
Triply-twinned architected lattices are engineered materials made of repeating 3D structures arranged in a precise pattern. ‘Triply-twinned’ refers to three reflection planes in each unit about which sub-structures are mirrored, giving the structure extra strength under compression. In general, they are made from polymers or metals, depending on the application.
Currently, scientists are exploring them for potential applications where low weight is critical, such as in aerospace, energy and advanced engineering. However, they are not yet common in commercial products, with the main limitation being the manufacturing process.
“We are excited to translate the concept of twinning, normally observed at the atomic scale, into centimetre‑scale architected materials using additive manufacturing. This approach allows us to precisely tailor stiffness, strength, and damage tolerance, opening new opportunities for applications ranging from biomedical implants and heat exchangers to energy‑absorbing components,” says Chu Lun Alex Leung, professor at University College London (UCL) and corresponding author of the publication.
Through the EPSRC International Centre to Centre collaboration: Manufacturing by Design, Leung (work package lead) and his team from UCL, together with scientists at the University of Sheffield and the ESRF have designed, engineered, characterised, and analysed a series of additively manufactured lattices that have shown a successful increase in the stiffness (+380%) and strength (+279%) of materials.
The X-ray Pump Probe instrument is returning to normal operations this spring and will see a major capability boost when the high-energy beam comes online near the end of 2027.
Key takeaways:
XPP, an instrument at SLAC’s X-ray laser that has enabled groundbreaking science, is returning to normal operations this spring after a year-long rebuild.
The overhaul is a key milestone for the ongoing high-energy upgrade to the Linac Coherent Light Source.
It will see a major capability boost when the high-energy beam comes online toward the end of 2027.
XPP, the X-ray Pump Probe instrument at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), is back online and welcoming researchers after a complete rebuild. The overhaul has readied XPP for the significant increase in X-ray output expected from the ongoing high-energy upgrade to LCLS at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. LCLS is a pioneering X-ray free-electron laser facility used by scientists around the world to capture ultrafast snapshots of natural processes.
“Completing the XPP rebuild on-time and on-budget is a key milestone for the high-energy upgrade effort, and we’re thrilled that the instrument is back to supporting researchers from around the world,” said John Hogan, project director for the LCLS high-energy upgrade. “This was a huge team effort, involving partners across SLAC’s engineering, science and project teams.”
Since its 2010 debut, XPP has enabled groundbreaking research across materials science – from quantum information storage to material dynamics across timescales – as well as studies in chemistry, physics and bioscience. Researchers have leveraged XPP to pioneer X-ray optics technologies, including cavity-based X-ray oscillators that are shaping future X-ray free-electron laser facilities.
The recent, year-long rebuild prepared XPP for the upcoming high-energy upgrade to LCLS, which began in 2025 and will take about two years to complete. After the upgrade, LCLS will produce high-energy X-rays at repetition rates up to a million pulses per second, enabling XPP to gather more data, achieve higher spatial resolution and support a wider range of experiments.
“In 2010, XPP became the first instrument in the world to use hard X-rays from an X-ray free-electron laser,” said Takahiro Sato, XPP instrument lead. “It’s been an instrument we’ve used to develop new experimental tools and techniques and to showcase ultrafast science. With this upgrade, we’re enabling it to remain at the forefront of this field.”
To ready XPP for the major increase in photons, higher energies and associated heat loads, teams stripped out the entire instrument, removing legacy components and rebuilding the instrument with new and refurbished parts.
A key addition is a Large Offset Double Crystal Monochromator, which will be cryo-cooled using liquid nitrogen to approximately minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit to handle increased heat loads and minimize temperature fluctuations during experiments.
The team also upgraded the multiplexing system, which can split the LCLS X-ray beam in two – directing one stream to XPP while sending another downstream to other instruments – so multiple experiments can run at once. The new multiplexing system replaces the old one and is more reliable and stable.
Image: Juan Perez (front) and Aaron Butcher (back) install a Large Offset Double Crystal Monochromator (LODCM) in LCLS’s XPP hutch, which filters the incoming X-ray beam to a precise energy before it reaches the experiment.
Credit: Olivier Bonin/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Researchers engineered protein-like polymers that replicate complex enzyme functions.
SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT
This work, which was verified using X-ray characterization techniques at the Advanced Light Source (ALS), offers a cost-effective, scalable approach that paves the way for functional materials in biomedicine, energy, and manufacturing
Schematic comparing the global folding patterns, chemical structures, and active sites of a) natural protein behavior demonstrating a rigid secondary structure of regular, local folding patterns in the chain of amino acids, stabilized by intramolecular bonding; and b) the protein-like polymers created in this study, which do not form secondary structures but instead adopt varying conformations based on the hydrophobic (water-repelling) properties of segments in the chain. Red, grey, blue and yellow correspond to very hydrophobic, hydrophobic, hydrophilic (water-loving) and very hydrophilic amino acid residues, respectively. The chemical structures of key functional residues are shown in the inset boxes. (Credit: Ting Xu/UC Berkeley/LBNL)
Protein-like functions, without the protein
Many industries already use enzymes, which are specialized protein molecules that accelerate chemical reactions without being consumed. Incorporating these catalytically active molecules into materials could unleash impactful applications biomedicine, energy generation, and chemical synthesis—including masks that eliminate airborne toxicants or environmental filters that degrade pollutants. Their practicality, however, is limited: naturally occurring enzymes tend to be fragile, costly, and unstable.
While these constraints have driven interest in synthetic polymers that mimic enzymatic activity, designing durable protein-like alternatives has been difficult. Natural enzymes rely on rigid secondary structures—local folding patterns along the amino acid chain—that determine whether a target molecule can bind at the active site and trigger a reaction. As a result, past efforts have generally assumed that precise sequence control was necessary to reproduce protein function. This has hindered industrial applications, as specifying the exact order of building blocks in a polymer chain requires costly, high-purity chemical reactions.
In this study, researchers reinterpreted proteins’ sequence-structure-function relationship to engineer polymers with bio-inspired functions and practical adjustments to their molecular chemistry. Using X-ray techniques at the ALS, the team connected how the polymers pack globally with how the local chemical microenvironments near the catalytic region shift upon target binding, a key factor governing function.
The study was conducted by an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the SOLARIS National Synchrotron Radiation Centre, AGH University of Krakow, the Institute of Physics of the Jagiellonian University, and an industrial partner, Inglot Sp. z o.o. The aim of this work was to develop a rapid and sensitive method for the determination of trace amounts of lead in raw materials with potential cosmetic applications. The feasibility of using energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence excited by monochromatic synchrotron radiation (SR-XRF) for the quantitative analysis of samples with complex and unknown matrices was evaluated. The use of synchrotron radiation enabled the achievement of very low detection limits with minimal sample preparation and short measurement times, and the results were validated using the ICP-OES method.
Cosmetic products play a significant role in human life, and their importance continues to increase alongside economic development and improved accessibility for various social groups. However, the growing number of consumers is accompanied by increasing concerns regarding cosmetic safety, particularly with respect to the presence of heavy metals. In the European Union, cosmetic products are regulated under Regulation (EC) No. 1223/2009, according to which lead and its compounds are listed as prohibited substances. Due to natural processes and the ubiquitous presence of ultra-low concentrations of elements in the environment, achieving their complete absence is not feasible, which necessitates the use of reliable and sensitive analytical methods enabling their control at trace levels.
Despite the existence of national recommendations concerning permissible heavy metal contents in cosmetics, harmonised international standards are still lacking. For example, in the United States and Canada a limit of 10 μg/g of lead is recommended, while in Germany the recommended limit is 5 μg/g. Heavy metals, including lead, may enter the human body via oral, inhalation or dermal routes, leading to bioaccumulation and serious adverse health effects, such as DNA damage, disruption of enzymatic activity, or abnormalities in calcium metabolism. Particular attention is given to products applied in the vicinity of the mouth and eyes, due to the risk of ingestion and the increased permeability of the thin skin in these areas.
A new publication presents a comprehensive analysis that strengthens the foundations of single particle cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo EM), one of the most powerful techniques currently available for visualizing biological structures at near atomic resolution. The research was conducted by a team of scientists from the SOLARIS National Synchrotron Radiation Centre, in collaboration with a representative of the Malopolska Centre of Biotechnology at the Jagiellonian University.
The research team systematically examined how key data‑collection parameters—such as electron dose, onset of radiation damage, pre‑exposure effects, and dose‑weighting strategies—impact the final quality of cryo‑EM reconstructions. Using ribosome particles from E. coli and human cells, the authors established practical recommendations that help researchers optimize imaging conditions and achieve higher‑resolution results, while also saving time and reducing the volume/size of data collected.
These findings offer an important reference point for the cryo‑EM community and support more efficient, reproducible, and reliable experimental workflows.
MAX IV’s first artist in residence, Jennifer Rainsford has revealed her plans for a science-inspired artwork crafted with X-rays and experiences from the experimental halls of MAX IV. With insights from ForMAX, NanoMAX and other beamlines and the laser lab, her new exhibit and film will offer the public a fresh perspective and closer look at research conducted at Sweden’s large-scale research infrastructure, MAX IV.
The Artist in Residence programme is designed to highlight activities at MAX IV, while also spotlighting Lund University as Sweden’s leading cultural university by offering new contexts for artistic exploration and exposition. Thanks to generous funding by the Gyllenstiernska Krapperup Foundation, a chosen artist is offered an onsite residency to learn about the science and the 4th generation synchrotron in order to develop an artistic project which reflects current research or techniques in X-ray science.
“This programme offers a rare chance for talented professionals in vastly different fields to collaborate. Artists and scientists are both curious and creative, and it is those qualities that lead to new ways of thinking and new discoveries,” said Heidi LaGrasta, MAX IV Outreach Officer and co-coordinator for the Artist in Residence programme. “I am eager to see what happens when we dissolve the boundaries between these two fields and allow for a more expansive understanding and investigation of research here at MAX IV.”
Researchers from the Food Science Research Institute (CIAL, CSIC-UAM), in collaboration with the ALBA Synchrotron, have characterized the composition and nanoscale architecture of the cell walls of two edible seaweeds: Ulva lacinulata (sea lettuce) and Porphyra dioica (nori). By combining different techniques, including Small-Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) at the ALBA synchrotron, they revealed how their molecular organization dictates how nutrients are stored and released.
Seaweeds are gaining attention as a sustainable food source, especially as demand grows for alternatives to animal protein. They are rich in nutrients such as essential amino acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals. However, accessing these nutrients remains a challenge, as they are trapped inside complex cell walls, making them harder for our bodies to absorb.
Understanding the nanostructure of these barriers and how it influences their mechanical properties is essential for designing food processing strategies that facilitate the release of these compounds for human nutrition.
A group of early career scientists participating in two established training schools have received Lightsources.org awards recognising the work they presented during the 2026 editions of the schools.
Ana Belén Martínez, Head of Communications and Outreach at ALBA and Chair of Lightsources.org, comments, “An important goal for Lightsources.org is to support early career STEM professionals and highlight both the career opportunities and experimental capabilities of the facilities within our global membership. Partnering with HERCULES 2026 and the FASEM school has enabled us to recognise outstanding contributions during these two schools, both of which provide incredible experiences for those looking to build their knowledge and experience within a range of world class European facilities. Our congratulations go to all the winners and everyone who took part in these training schools.”
The HERCULES EUROPEAN SCHOOL, which celebrates its 35th Anniversary this year, runs over five weeks and provides training for students, postdoctoral and senior scientists from European and non-European universities and laboratories, in the field of Neutrons, X-ray Synchrotron Radiation, and Free Electron Laser for condensed matter studies.
It’s coordinated by the Université Grenoble Alpes in collaboration with the ESRF, ILL and counts with the support of other European facilities (ALBA, DESY, Elettra, KIT, MAX IV, SLS, SOLEIL, European XFEL, ESS and FERMI). Each year, four of these partner large scale facilities give participants the opportunity to gain practical experience.
For HERCULES 2026, they were ALBA in Spain, KIT in Germany, MAX IV and the ESS in Sweden and SOLEIL in France. The students who spent time at the ALBA synchrotron near Barcelona could learn from the scientists about different techniques, sample preparation and data collection process, combining talks and practical sessions at the beamlines. They worked in teams and presented their experimental reports in groups of four on the last day of the school. Lightsources.org awards were presented to the group who the local jury selected as having given the best presentation.
The winning group at ALBA with members of the local jury
As a complementary educative initiative, the French-Swedish Academy for Scattering Experiments and Modeling (FASEM) is a one-week, biennial advanced-school, that rotate across three key thematic areas: Scattering Techniques for Environment & Materials, Life Sciences, and Energy Applications. The third version was coordinated by ESS, ILL and the French Embassy with support from ESRF. “Its goals are to prepare the future generation of users of large-scale facilities for synchrotron and neutron scattering; to develop and strengthen sustainable scientific exchanges driven by the French and Swedish communities on the use of large-scale facilities, in connection with the forthcoming ESS operation; to reinforce links between research infrastructures, academia and industry; and to strengthen collaboration between institutes in France (ILL, ESRF, SOLEIL) and in Sweden (ESS, MAX-IV),” explains Christine Darve FASEM coordinator. “The 3rd edition organized at ILL, was held in a hybrid format, bringing 30 in-person participants and more than 55 online students to learn scattering techniques (small-angle, diffraction, spectroscopy, etc) applied to energy materials ,” adds Peter Fouquet, ILL local organizer.
During FASEM 2026, students participated in a Student Clips challenge where they were invited to present their research to camera. Lightsources.org sponsored this challenge and prizes were awarded to the students who produced the top three clips.
Maimunah Fa Izun Haji Abdul Rahman, a PhD student at the ESRF in Grenoble, won 1st prize in the FASEM 2026 Lightsources.org Student Clips challenge. 2nd and 3rd prizes went to Sagar Jathar, Uppsala University, and Marcus Liljenberg, Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, respectively.
Maimunah Fa Izun Haji Abdul Rahman receiving 1st prize certificate at FASEM 2026
Reflecting on the week at FASEM, Maimunah comments, “What I valued most was the exchange with people working on very different fields but facing similar questions involving X-ray and neutron-based analyses. It really broadened how I think about my own work. At the same time, the school filled in a lot of gaps, from new characterization approaches to practical things like writing beamtime proposals. It also made concepts I’d seen before feel much more concrete and usable.”
Sagar adds, “I gained deeper insight into advanced scattering techniques such as XANES and EXAFS, particularly for probing the local atomic structure in complex or amorphous materials. In my own research, I now plan to apply synchrotron-based X-ray and neutron scattering techniques to better understand local structure and bonding in my Cr–Nb–N coatings, helping to establish stronger structure–property relationships for nuclear applications.”
Read full interviews with Maimunah, Sagar and Marcus here
University of Toronto researchers finetune device that converts carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide, which is used in production of fuels, plastics, pharmaceuticals
Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions are fueling climate change—causing extreme weather, rising sea levels, and harm to ecosystems.
Researchers from the University of Toronto (U of T) have found a way to optimize a device that helps convert CO2 into a variety of useful products including ethanol, plastics, and even pharmaceuticals.
CO2 electrolyzers (machines that uses electricity to break a substance—most often water—into its original parts), use electricity to turn CO2 and water into carbon monoxide (CO), an industrial gas used for making fuels such as ethanol, plastics, and even pharmaceuticals. Some electrolyzers work by being compressed or pressurized. However, the tiny pores inside these devices can become clogged with liquid and salt crystals if too much compression pressure is applied, which hinders their performance.
The U of T team used the Canadian Light Source (CLS), a national research facility at the University of Saskatchewan, to study in microscopic detail the inner workings of an electrolyzer while it was running. They found that reducing the compression pressure to 10% from 20% or 30% prevented blockages and maximized output of CO. The researchers published their findings in the journal Scientific Reports.
“The pores in our device are about 100 times smaller than the width of a human hair. We needed the CLS to study our device at that level of resolution,” says Tess Seip a recent PhD graduate, who worked on this project along with postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Aida Farsi, who led the study at the U of T.
Through a series of portraits, Synchrotron SOLEIL meets the men and women who bring the synchrotron to life. For this seventh episode, Damien Jeangérard, control room operator, agreed to take part. His main mission? To ensure the smooth operation of the electron accelerators so that scientists on the beamlines can successfully carry out their experiments. A strategic role at the very heart of the synchrotron, where no two days are alike and learning never stops. Much to his delight.
If you ask Damien Jeangérard to name two essential qualities for his profession, he will likely reply: a love of technical challenges and a strong ability to adapt. A control room operator at SOLEIL for the past two years, he works rotating shifts—three eight-hour shifts and sometimes two twelve-hour shifts—requiring his circadian rhythm to adjust regularly.
“It’s a rhythm that suits me,” he notes. “My children are grown up now, and working staggered hours gives me time during the day for personal activities.”
Keeping an eye on everything
Particle accelerators require constant attention. In the control room, Damien Jeangérard sits at the center of everything happening within the synchrotron. “The range of tasks is vast,” he explains. “The most important is preparing and maintaining a stable and homogeneous electron beam.”
This beam produces the radiation used by SOLEIL’s 29 beamlines—research laboratories that operate simultaneously and independently.
To prepare the beam, Damien and his team must first validate the proper functioning of the accelerator equipment and the injection of electrons into the storage ring. Once this delicate operation is complete, the infrastructure cannot be left unattended.
“We need to keep an eye on hundreds of equipment parameters—on the LINAC, the Booster, and the storage ring—and adjust some of them when necessary,” he details.
In the event of an incident involving “the Machine”—the internal name for the entire set of electron accelerators—control room operators must quickly identify the faulty equipment, restore operations, and, for the most serious technical issues, call in SOLEIL’s support groups.
How do radicals form in aqueous solutions when exposed to UV light? This question is important for health research and environmental protection, for example with regard to the overfertilisation of water bodies by intensive agriculture. A team at BESSY II has now developed a new method of investigating hydroxyl radicals in solution. By using a clever trick, the scientists gained surprising insights into the reaction pathway.
Hydroxyl radicals (OH·) are found everywhere, from the troposphere to the cells of the human body. There, they cause oxidative stress and accelerate the ageing process. They are also increasingly present in rivers and lakes, where they are formed by the photolysis of nitrogen oxides that have entered the water from over-fertilised soils. When UV radiation from sunlight strikes nitrogen oxides, hydroxyl radicals and a range of other radicals are generated. The chemistry of these radicals is extremely difficult to characterise accurately, as they react very quickly
A team led by Professor Alexander Föhlisch of the HZB has investigated the chemistry of hydroxyl radicals formed from nitrogen oxides in water using X-ray absorption spectroscopy at the BESSY II X-ray source.
Image: How the radical scavenger TEMPO traps a hydroxyl radical OH·. The proton of the hydroxyl radical reacts with TEMPO first. Colour coding: grey for C (carbon), white for H (hydrogen), red for O (oxygen) and blue for N (nitrogen)
Scientists from the University of Witwatersrand (South Africa) and the ESRF discover the first-ever egg of a mammal ancestor, a 250-million year-old proto-mammal embryo, with the help of the ESRF. The results are out now in PLoS ONE.
A new discovery is shedding light on one of the greatest survival stories in Earth’s history, and answering a decades-old scientific mystery. Lystrosaurus, a hardy, plant-eating mammal ancestor, rose to prominence in the wake of the End-Permian Mass Extinction some 252 million years ago, the most devastating extinction event our planet has ever experienced. While countless species vanished, Lystrosaurus not only survived, but thrived in a world marked by extreme environmental instability, intense heat, and prolonged droughts.
Now, new research published in PLoS ONE reveals a discovery that sheds new light on our understanding of this iconic survivor. An international team led by Julien Benoit, Jennifer Botha (Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa), and Vincent Fernandez (ESRF ) has identified, for the first time, an egg containing an embryo of Lystrosaurus, dating back approximately 250 million years. This rare fossil represents the first-ever egg discovered from a mammal ancestor, finally answering a long-standing question: Did the ancestors of mammals lay eggs?
The answer is yes.
The researchers suggest these eggs were likely soft-shelled, explaining why they have remained elusive for so long. Unlike the hard, mineralized eggs of dinosaurs, which fossilize readily, soft-shelled eggs rarely preserve, making this find exceptionally rare. But the implications go far beyond reproduction.
“This fossil was discovered during a field excursion I led in 2008, nearly 17 years ago. My preparator and exceptional fossil finder, John Nyaphuli, identified a small nodule that at first revealed only tiny flecks of bone. As he carefully prepared the specimen, it became clear that it was a perfectly curled-up Lystrosaurus hatchling. I suspected even then that it had died within the egg, but at the time, we simply didn’t have the technology to confirm it,” says Botha.
The new discovery will aid in the development of more efficient and sustainable technologies for bioenergy generation
A study led by researchers from the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), located in Campinas (SP), has identified a novel molecular mechanism that explains how enzymes degrade beta-glucans, a class of carbohydrates found in fungi, algae, and plants, with great relevance for industrial and energy applications. The research involved approximately 18 collaborators from the LNBR (Brazilian Biorenewables National Laboratory) and the LNLS (Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory), both part of CNPEM, in addition to external researchers from Unicamp and universities in Spain and Canada.
Published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, the work describes, for the first time, a process called processive catalysis applied to the breakdown of these compounds. In this mechanism, the enzyme acts continuously on the same molecular chain, without detaching itself after each stage of the reaction, which makes the process more efficient.
According to researcher Mariana Morais, one of the study coordinators, the work utilized various techniques and equipment at CNPEM, including directed mutagenesis techniques and kinetic analyses. The research also included high-resolution X-ray crystallography experiments conducted at Sirius, CNPEM’s particle accelerator, as well as computer simulations carried out on the Santos Dumont supercomputer, at the National Laboratory for Scientific Computing (LNCC).
“This integration allowed for the observation, at the atomic level, of all stages of the enzymatic process, from substrate recognition to product release and the restart of the catalytic cycle”, says Morais.
Researchers used X-ray lasers, including SLAC’s LCLS, to control a modified cardiovascular drug with light and captured snapshots showing how it binds to proteins.
Key takeaways:
Beta blockers bind to protein receptors that are key to fight-or-flight responses, leading to effects such as lowered heart rate and blood pressure.
Using X-ray free-electron lasers at SLAC and in Switzerland, an international team of researchers investigated a beta blocker modified with a light-sensitive bond.
They controlled the drug’s interaction using light and reconstructed X-ray images of the reaction, demonstrating how light could be used to improve medications.
Researchers are illuminating a new route for drug delivery – literally, by controlling drugs with light. Recently, an international team led by the Swiss Paul Scherrer Institute and including researchers from the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory used light to control a modified beta blocker and took X-ray laser snapshots of its interaction with a protein receptor.
Not only did the team demonstrate they could control the beta blocker medicine with light, but they also captured 3D images of the interaction at multiple time points. The images revealed that light can switch the beta blocker between different positions on the receptor, which suggests it may be possible to fine tune the drug’s potency while it’s in the body. The findings, published in the journal Angewandte Chemie, also demonstrate how X-ray lasers like the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) can be harnessed to study medicines at the atomic level. This can aid the design of drugs that precisely target protein receptors and therefore have fewer side effects.
Researchers from Concordia University find way to slow formation of dendrites, currently an obstacle to battery’s use in grid storage
As the demand for more reliable power systems grows in the renewable energy sector, the race is on to develop batteries that cost less but have a longer lifespan.
While zinc-based batteries are safer and more cost-effective than lithium-ion batteries, a major obstacle to their use in large-scale, grid storage is their shorter lifespan. They fail sooner because they develop tiny, tree-shaped metal structures on the anode called dendrites, which cause the battery to short circuit.
Now researchers from Concordia University have found a way to slow dendrite formation. Using the ultrabright X-rays of the Canadian Light Source at the University of Saskatchewan, they found that “sprinkling” a small amount of gold nanoparticles on a battery’s inner surface can cut dendrite growth by up to 50 times compared to regular zinc batteries. Their gold-treated batteries went on to work for more than 6,000 hours in lab settings.
“Coating the electrode is known to improve battery performance, but the small quantity of particles needed for our technique and how they are arranged on the battery surface is a very new, exciting finding,” says Seungil Lee, a PhD student at Concordia and lead author of the team’s paper, published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A.
On March 23, the Ministry of Education (MOE) held the award ceremony for the 2025 National Chair Professorships, National Award for Distinguished Contribution to Industry-Academia Cooperation, and Academic Awards. Five NSRRC users were among the recipients.
Prof. Hsin-Lung Chen, Distinguished Chair in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Tsing Hua University (NTHU), received the National Chair Professorship in Engineering and Applied Sciences. A leading scholar in polymer physics, he has long contributed to theoretical development, textbook writing, and industry-academia collaboration. His research has been widely applied in critical materials and industrial technologies, enhancing the international impact of Taiwan’s materials research.
Prof. Bing-Joe Hwang, Chair Professor in the Department Chemical Engineering at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, founder and director of the Sustainable Electrochemical Energy Development Center, and NSRRC board member and adjunct scientist, received the National Award for Distinguished Contribution to Industry-Academic Cooperation in Engineering. He pioneered the “anode-free lithium battery,” developed high-energy-density and high-safety technologies, and promoted high-value hydrogen electrolysis, with extensive industrial applications and patents.
Two NSRRC users were awarded the Academic Award in Mathematics and Natural Sciences. Prof. Chen-Wei Liu, Chair Professor in the Department of Chemistry at National Dong Hwa University, is an international pioneer in metal cluster chemistry. His research combines fundamental innovation with practical application, offering forwarded-looking contributions to catalysis and carbon-reduction technologies. Prof. Ying-Hao Chu, Chair Professor and Department Chair of Materials Science and Engineering at NTHU, specializes in oxide heterostructures and flexible mica-based electronic components, with highly cited work that lays a critical foundation for next-generation electronic devices. In Engineering and Applied Sciences, Prof. Chih-Huang Lai, Chair Professor and Vice Dean of the Institute of Semiconductor at NTHU, was recognized for his research in spintronics and magnetic materials, including advanced memory devices and thin-film solar technologies, as well as Taiwan’s first 12-inch MRAM production line.
