New understanding of complex catalysis advances catalyst design
Many of the catalytic reactions that drive our modern world happen in an atomic black box. Scientists know all the components that go into a reaction, but not how they interact at an atomic level. Understanding the reaction pathways and kinetics of catalytic reactions at the atomic scale is critical to designing catalysts for more […]
Strong magnets put new twist on phonons: Rice lab’s RAMBO reveals unexpected influence on compound’s crystal lattice
Phonons are collective atomic vibrations, or quasiparticles, that act as the main heat carriers in a crystal lattice. Under certain circumstances, their properties can be modified by electric fields or light. But until now, nobody noticed they can respond to magnetic fields as well. That may be because it takes a powerful magnet. Rice University […]
Discovery unravels how atomic vibrations emerge in nanomaterials: Advances in microscopy reveal source of phonons’ puzzling behavior
A hundred years of physics tells us that collective atomic vibrations, called phonons, can behave like particles or waves. When they hit an interface between two materials, they can bounce off like a tennis ball. If the materials are thin and repeating, as in a superlattice, the phonons can jump between successive materials. Now there […]
Breakup of a single chemical bond measured
The team used a high-resolution atomic force microscope (AFM) operating in a controlled environment at Princeton’s Imaging and Analysis Center. The AFM probe, whose tip ends in a single copper atom, was moved gradually closer to the iron-carbon bond until it was ruptured. The researchers measured the mechanical forces applied at the moment of breakage, […]