Pottery glazes and decorations from Montelupo dated from the 14th-19th centuries have been analyzed through a series of X-ray micro-diffraction measurements with synchrotron light at MSPD beamline of the ALBA Synchrotron. Researchers from Institut Català d’Arqueologia Clàssica and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona carried out the experiments, which will provide useful information to reconstruct the technological processes used for manufacturing the ceramics.
The Catalan Minister Ramon Tremosa has visited the ALBA Synchrotron’s facilities accompanied by its Director, Caterina Biscari, and by other members of the management, as well as by other researchers working in the facility. Later, the Catalan Minister had a meeting at the ALBA auditorium with the directors of several research centers of the area, where he has announced the intention of the Catalan Government to create a public-private investment fund to promote the knowledge transfer of the Catalan research.
An international research team has described the effects of pressure on the structure and ionic conductivity of Na3PS4 solid electrolyte. Researchers used several techniques and carried out unique variable-pressure impedance spectroscopy experiments to investigate the response of ionic conduction to applied pressure. The results of this study are of high interest in the field of solid-state batteries as a next-generation technology for large-scale electrochemical energy storage to enable electric vehicles and renewable electricity production. Some of the measurements were done at the MSPD beamline in the ALBA Synchrotron.
A new study fruit of a collaboration between Spanish research institutions shows that cylindrical nanowires have at the center a magnetization aligned with the axis of the wire and at the surface a magnetization that describes helical lines as the barber poles. The helicity provides chirality to the magnetic configuration, and they found out that two adjacent magnetic domains having opposite chirality are more difficult to move that two adjacent domains with the same chirality. This result evidences the role of the chirality on the dynamics of the domain walls that might be used as a practical variable for magnetic data storage.
An international research team has demonstrated the oxidation effect of HOPG at room temperature by the deposition of an ultra-thin layer of cobalt monoxide (CoO). The formation of carbon defects reveals a weakening of the C-C sigma bonds, facilitating the carbon gasification reaction catalyzed by CoO at lower temperatures than using typical metallic nanoparticles. This fact opens the door to a more comprehensible and efficient graphite and graphene nanopatterning for multiple applications. The results were obtained using in-situ NAP-XPS measurements at the NAPP endstation of the CIRCE beamline in the ALBA Synchrotron.
