SLAC topics

Chemistry and catalysis RSS feed

Catalysts are the unsung heroes of chemistry, accelerating reactions used to make fertilizers, fuels and consumer products. Our work aims to make catalysts more efficient and reduce the use of fossil fuels.

Energy sciences

Depiction of four techniques used to study a single-atom catalyst.

News Feature

A study including SLAC scientists and facilities discovers a new process that shows promise in turning the greenhouse gas back into usable fuels.

Two Stanford researchers in the lab
Press Release

Replacing today’s expensive catalysts could bring down the cost of producing the gas for fuel, fertilizer and clean energy storage.

Grad student McKenzie Hubert watches electrolyzer at work
News Feature

Molecular movie-making is both an art and a science; the results let us watch how nature works on the smallest scales.

Molecular movie frames for the light-triggered transition of the ring-shaped 1,3-CHD molecule.
News Feature

A new study shows how soccer ball-shaped molecules burst more slowly than expected when blasted with an X-ray laser beam.

Buckyballs
News Feature

SLAC/Stanford scientists and their colleagues find a new way to efficiently convert CO2 into the building block for sustainable liquid fuels.

Graves-Bajdich-Machalo
News Feature

Using SLAC’s X-ray synchrotron SSRL, Wang improves fundamental knowledge about how cells communicate, which could enable the development of more effective drugs.

Xinru Wang
News Feature

SUNCAT researchers discover a way to improve a key step in these conversions, and explore what it would take to turn the climate-changing gas...

Diagram of scheme for turning CO2 from smokestacks into products
Illustration
Researchers at Stanford and SLAC are working on ways to convert waste carbon dioxide (CO2) into chemical feedstocks and fuels...
Diagram of scheme for turning CO2 from smokestacks into products
News Feature

A new way to arrange the hard-working atoms in this part of an exhaust system could lower the cost of curbing pollution from automotive...

News Feature

Stanford researchers have made a significant advance in the development of artificial catalysts for making cleaner chemicals and fuels at an industrial scale.

Scientists create artificial catalysts inspired by living enzymes.
News Feature

This early-career scientist has undertaken challenging projects with significant implications for lithium-ion batteries.

Hans-Georg Steinrück
News Feature

The technique can be used to study molecular phenomena and the forming and breaking of chemical bonds.

vibrating molecules