Chinese scientists develop high-performance iron catalyst for fuel cells

28-Aug-2025 - Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), often referred to as "hydrogen power banks," are clean energy devices that generate electricity from hydrogen and oxygen with only water as a byproduct. Characterized by high efficiency, rapid start-up, and zero emissions, they hold great promise in ...

New method developed for investigating the internal structure of atoms

Previously unknown properties of the element samarium revealed

27-Aug-2025 - The ability to describe the internal structure of atoms is important not only for understanding the composition of matter, but also for designing new experiments to explore fundamental physics. Specific experiments require samples of atoms or molecules with particular properties, which depend ...

Breakthrough in catalysis research: splitting CO2 with nickel

Ancient mechanism in bacteria elucidated - important findings for climate protection

19-Aug-2025 - Researchers at Technische Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in the Cluster of Excellence Unifying Systems in Catalysis (UniSysCat) have elucidated the molecular mechanism by which bacteria efficiently convert CO₂ into carbon monoxide. The study, published in the journal Nature ...

Water on a nanoscale

Surfaces dominate - not the room

13-Aug-2025 - Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research have fundamentally questioned previous assumptions about how water behaves in atomically small spaces. Using spectroscopic methods and simulations, they investigated water that is confined to just a few molecular layers. Mischa Bonn's ...

Real-Time Measuring Method Extends Lifespan and Enhances Safety of Batteries

High-resolution measurement method and direct analysis

05-Aug-2025 - An innovative measurement method enables optimized battery management in electric vehicles, helping to make them safer and extend their lifespans. Impedance spectroscopy from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM analyzes detailed measurement data on ...

Super-resolution X-ray technique uncovers atomic structures

New method promises enhanced understanding of chemical reactions and material properties by applying a Nobel-prize winning technique in spectroscopy

23-Jul-2025 - Researchers from the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, USA, along with the Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik (MPIK) in Heidelberg and the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (European XFEL) in Hamburg, developed an innovative approach to X-ray spectroscopy, achieving unprecedented detail ...

WITec Paper Award 2025 winners announced

This year’s prizes reward scientists for their excellent work in material analysis, battery research and medical science

03-Jul-2025 - Oxford Instruments celebrates the WITec Paper Award 2025, recognising the exceptional scientific contributions from scientists in Germany and Poland. Their innovative work advances research in materials, batteries and medical sciences, using WITec Raman technology. We congratulate the winners on ...

How chemical bonds are formed: Observing energy flow in real time

Femtosecond spectroscopy makes chemical processes visible

18-Jun-2025 - A new method combines helium droplets with ultrashort laser pulses to initiate chemical processes in a controlled manner. This provides insights into the transfer of energy and charge during the formation of chemical bonds. For the first time, a research team led by Markus Koch from the Institute ...

Exotic vibrations in new materials

New insights show universal applicability of carbyne as a sensor

28-May-2025 - For the design of future materials, it is important to understand how the individual atoms inside a material interact with each other quantum mechanically. Previously inexplicable vibrational states between carbon chains (carbyne) and nanotubes have puzzled materials scientists. Researchers from ...

Picometric spectroscopy of hydrogen molecules in atomic nanocavities

Scientists have observed hydrogen and deuterium molecules in so-called picocavities using advanced spectroscopy

26-May-2025 - An international research team led by Akitoshi Shiotari from the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society (Germany), Mariana Rossi from the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (Germany) and Takashi Kumagai from the Institute for Molecular Science/SOKENDAI (Japan) ...