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Tag: chemistry

From Moon Rocks to Space Dust: Berkeley Lab's Extraterrestrial Research

Photo - A blue crystal recovered from a meteorite that fell near Morocco in 1998. The scale bar represents 200 microns (millionths of a meter). Such crystals, which have been studied at Berkeley Lab, have been found to contain liquid water and complex organic compounds. (Credit: Queenie Chan/The Open University, U.K.)

4 Berkeley Lab-affiliated Scientists Elected as National Academy of Sciences Members

Photos - From left, Kristie Boering, Judith Campisi, Ehud "Udi" Isacoff, and Michael Manga.

In Pursuit of Perfect Chemistry: A Vision for Unifying Catalysis

Image - In a 2016 study, Berkeley Lab scientists used the bacterium Moorella thermoacetica in a hybrid artificial photosynthesis system for converting sunlight into valuable chemical products. (Credit: Berkeley Lab)

Chemical Sleuthing Unravels Possible Path to the Formation of Life’s Building Blocks in Space

Image - The atomic structure of pyrene molecules (upper left and upper right) are represented in an artist's rendering of an asteroid belt. A new study shows chemical steps for how pyrene, a type of hydrocarbon found in some meteorite samples, could form in space. (Credit: NASA-JPL-Caltech, Wikimedia Commons)

X-Rays Provide Key Insights on Path to Lithium-Rich Battery Electrode

Image - Electric car makers are intensely interested in lithium-rich battery cathodes that could significantly increase driving range. A new study opens a path to making them live up to their promise. (Stanford University/3Dgraphic)

New Catalyst Gives Artificial Photosynthesis a Big Boost

Photo - Phil De Luna of University of Toronto is one of the lead authors of a new study that reports a low-cost, highly efficient catalyst for chemical conversion of water into oxygen. The catalyst is part of an artificial photosynthesis system in development at the University of Toronto. (Credit: Tyler Irving/University of Toronto)

Making Polymer Chemistry ‘Click’

Photo - (Credit: falconsoft/Pixabay)

New Studies of Ancient Concrete Could Teach Us to Do as the Romans Did

Photo - This sample shows dissolving phillipsite and the growth of aluminum-tobermorite crystals that serve to strengthen Roman seawater concrete. (Credit: University of Utah)

Chemicals Hitch a Ride onto New Protein for Better Compounds

Chemistry on the Edge: Study Pinpoints Most Active Areas of Reactions on Nanoscale Particles

Illustration - This illustration shows the setup for an experiment at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source that used infrared light (shown in red) and an atomic force microscope (middle and top) to study the local surface chemistry on coated platinum particles (yellow) measuring about 100 nanometers in length. (Credit: Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

New Graphene-Based System Could Help Us ‘See’ Electrical Signaling in Heart and Nerve Cells

Image - This diagram shows the setup for an imaging method that mapped electrical signals using a sheet of graphene and an infrared laser. The laser was fired through a prism (lower left) onto a sheet of graphene. An electrode was used to send tiny electrical signals into a liquid solution (in cylinder atop the graphene), and a camera (lower right) was used to capture images mapping out these electrical signals. (Credit: Halleh Balch and Jason Horng/Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley)

Scientists Trace ‘Poisoning’ in Chemical Reactions to the Atomic Scale

Image - A scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image showing a type of catalyst called a zeolite that is used to convert ethanol to high-value fuels. The particles measure about 15 microns in length. (Credit: PNNL)