One of the most urgently sought-after goals in modern science is the ability to observe the detailed dynamics of chemical reactions as they happen – that is, on the spatial scale of molecules, atoms, and electrons, and on the time scale of picoseconds or even shorter.
That is a formidable challenge. But as a successful 2010 proposal for an ambitious NIST project explains, “it is critical to the development of next-generation nanomaterials ranging from industrial catalysts to renewable energy devices that harvest sunlight, store electricity, and make hydrogen and other fuels from splitting water or recycling carbon dioxide.
”Now a group of researchers from that ongoing project has devised and demonstrated a highly unusual, compact, and relatively inexpensive x-ray source for an imaging system that may soon be employed to produce the kind of “molecular movies” that scientists and engineers need.
via nanowerk
November 26, 2012
