Ultrafast Yttrium Hydride Chemistry at High Pressures via Non-equilibrium States Induced by an X-ray Free Electron Laser.

Controlling the formation and stoichiometric content of the desired phases of materials has become of central interest for a variety of fields. The possibility of accessing metastable states by initiating reactions by X-ray-triggered mechanisms over ultrashort time scales has been enabled by the development of X-ray free electron lasers (XFELs). Utilizing the exceptionally high-brilliance X-ray pulses from the EuXFEL, we report the synthesis of a previously unobserved yttrium hydride under high pressure, along with nonstoichiometric changes in hydrogen content as probed at a repetition rate of 4.

Role of biochar in superoxide-dominated dye degradation in catalyst-activated peroxymonosulphate process.

In recent times, the application of biochar (BC) as an upcoming catalyst for the elimination of recalcitrant pollutants has been widely explored. Here, an iron loaded bamboo biochar activated peroxymonosulphate (PMS) process was tested for removing Congo red (CR) dye from water medium. The catalyst was synthesized using a green synthesis method using neem extracts and characterized using SEM, FTIR, and XRD.

A MHz X-ray diffraction set-up for dynamic compression experiments in the diamond anvil cell.

An experimental platform for dynamic diamond anvil cell (dDAC) research has been developed at the High Energy Density (HED) Instrument at the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (European XFEL). Advantage was taken of the high repetition rate of the European XFEL (up to 4.5 MHz) to collect pulse-resolved MHz X-ray diffraction data from samples as they are dynamically compressed at intermediate strain rates (≤10 s), where up to 352 diffraction images can be collected from a single pulse train.

A von Hámos spectrometer for diamond anvil cell experiments at the High Energy Density Instrument of the European X-ray Free-Electron Laser.

A von Hámos spectrometer has been implemented in the vacuum interaction chamber 1 of the High Energy Density instrument at the European X-ray Free-Electron Laser facility. This setup is dedicated, but not necessarily limited, to X-ray spectroscopy measurements of samples exposed to static compression using a diamond anvil cell. Si and Ge analyser crystals with different orientations are available for this setup, covering the hard X-ray energy regime with a sub-eV energy resolution.

Table-top nuclear magnetic resonance system for high-pressure studies with in situ laser heating.

High pressure Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is known to reveal the behavior of matter under extreme conditions. However, until now, significant maintenance demands, space requirements, and high costs of superconducting magnets render its application unfeasible for regular modern high pressure laboratories. Here, we present a table-top NMR system based on permanent Halbach magnet arrays with a diameter of 25 cm and height of 4 cm.