News

Just as a snowflake’s intricate structure vanishes when it melts and transforms when it refreezes, the microstructure of metals can change during the 3D printing process, resulting in strengths or weaknesses in the printed product.

Cornell researchers have captured an unprecedented, real-time view of how a promising catalyst material transforms during operation, providing new insights that could lead to replacement of expensive precious metals in clean-energy technologies.

Hydrogen fuel cells are among the most promising next-generation power sources for future automotive transportation. Developing efficient, durable, and low-cost electrocatalysts to accelerate the sluggish oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is urgently needed to advance fuel cell technologies.

As scientists continue to discover new niches for extreme life, the biological relevance of hydrostatic pressure is becoming much more widely understood and appreciated. The unusual adaptations of organisms thriving under these conditions promise to be a rich source of new insights, provided structural information can be obtained at the molecular level. CHESS is at the forefront of this research - enabling scientists to study samples under high pressure, revealing how biomolecules and cellular structures behave in extreme environments.

Now, in a new paper appearing in the journal “Chemistry of Materials”, a group of researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and CHEXS use high-energy x-ray spectroscopy to gain fundamental insights into the redox processes and migration tendencies of transition metals in the cathode material 0.7(Li2MnO3)·0.3(LiFeO2).

The HEXT workshop equips students to actively participate in the CHESS user community through a blend of educational lectures, interactive demonstrations, and proposal writing training. Focused on diversity and practical skills, HEXT aims to cultivate a more inclusive and vibrant environment for synchrotron research.

The U.S. National Science Foundation has awarded the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) nearly $20 million to build a new precision X-ray beamline for research on biological and environmental systems.

Cornell researchers took a novel approach to explore the way microstructure emerges in a 3D-printed metal alloy: They bombarded it with X-rays while the material was being printed. By seeing how the process of thermomechanical deformation creates localized microscale phenomena such as bending, fragmentation and oscillation in real time, the researchers will be able to produce customized materials that incorporate such performance-enhancing characteristics.