When Roots Follow the Path of Least Resistance

August 18, 2009

Plant roots follow old root channels in hostile soils for access to water and nutrients. Science knows about the chemical composition of the soil that surrounds plant roots versus the soil matrix away from the roots. What is not known is how long these differences persist in a root channel after the old root decays. Using the Argonne Advanced Photon Source, researchers have unearthed information that can be used to better manage soils and crops in hostile environments, such as low-rainfall areas.

Perfecting Catalytic Arrays

August 13, 2009

Catalysts speed up chemical reactions and remain largely unchanged themselves at the end of the process. This apparently simple statement harbors a chemical secret: Catalysts are much more complicated than that. Work carried out at the Argonne Advanced Photon Source, Center for Nanoscale Materials, and Electron Microscopy Center for Materials Research could improve our understanding of at least one class of industrially important catalyst: metal nanoparticle catalysts.

A Stable Open Framework with Wide Open Spaces

August 11, 2009

Porous materials frameworks with open structures are potentially useful for a wide range of applications, such as gas storage, catalysis, and drug delivery. One such class is metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). But the more porous these frameworks are, the more fragile they tend to become. Researchers using the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne have made a MOF that is remarkably open but also stable. This new synthetic strategy may serve as a general approach toward stable MOFs with even higher surface areas, eventually leading to even greater practical applications.

Pumping Through the Middle Crust

July 29, 2009

A team of geologists and geophysicists using the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source has shed light on a fluid transfer in the middle continental crust, a phenomenon that was formerly poorly understood. Their work could lead to a fuller understanding of fluid migration through rock, with possible wide application in deciphering important geological processes including earthquakes.

Using High-Pressure “Alchemy” to Create Nonexpanding Metals

June 17, 2009

By squeezing a metal alloy at pressures hundreds of thousands of times greater than normal atmospheric pressure, researchers using x-rays at two U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories have created a material that does not expand when heated and acts like a metal with an entirely different chemical composition. The discovery offers insights about the exotic behavior of materials under high pressures, which represent some 90% of the matter in our solar system.