Are Operando Measurements of Rechargeable Batteries Always Reliable? An Example of Beam Effect with a Mg Battery.

Operando and in situ techniques are becoming mandatory to study Li-ion, post Li-ion, and solid-state batteries. They are essential for monitoring the (electro)chemical and dynamic processes in the battery environment and for providing understanding at different spatial and temporal scales. While operando measurements are becoming more and more routine, scientists have to keep in mind that such experiments are not always harmless for the battery operation, especially when using synchrotron techniques.

Cutting-edge spectroscopy techniques highlight toxicity mechanisms of copper oxide nanoparticles in the aquatic plant Myriophyllum spicatum.

Copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO-NPs) have been increasingly released in aquatic ecosystems over the past decades as they are used in many applications. Cu toxicity to different organisms has already been highlighted in the literature, however toxicity mechanisms of the nanoparticulate form remain unclear. Here, we investigated the effect, transfer and localization of CuO-NPs compared to Cu salt on the aquatic plant Myriophyllum spicatum, an ecotoxicological model species with a pivotal role in freshwater ecosystems, to establish a clear mode of action.

MIL-53 Metal-Organic Framework as a Flexible Cathode for Lithium-Oxygen Batteries.

Li-air batteries possess higher specific energies than the current Li-ion batteries. Major drawbacks of the air cathode include the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen reduction (OER), high overpotentials and pore clogging during discharge processes. Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) appear as promising materials because of their high surface areas, tailorable pore sizes and catalytic centers.

Influence of soil type on TiO nanoparticle fate in an agro-ecosystem.

Nanoparticles (NPs) and in particular TiO-NPs are increasingly included in commercial goods leading to their accumulation in sewage sludge which is spread on agricultural soils as fertilizers in many countries. Crop plants are thus a very likely point of entry for NPs in the food chain up to humans. So far, soil influence on NP fate has been under-investigated.

Intricate disorder in defect fluorite/pyrochlore: a concord of chemistry and crystallography.

Intuitively scientists accept that order can emerge from disorder and a significant amount of effort has been devoted over many years to demonstrate this. In metallic alloys and oxides, disorder at the atomic scale is the result of occupation at equivalent atomic positions by different atoms which leads to the material exhibiting a fully random or modulated scattering pattern. This arrangement has a substantial influence on the material's properties, for example ionic conductivity.