Laser Ablation in Liquid: An Unconventional, Fast, Clean and Straightforward Technique for Material Preparation

The laser ablation in liquid environment (LALE) technique is a straightforward experimental technique with few controllable parameters, capable to provide extreme pressure and temperature conditions during target ablation without the need for dedicated systems to provide those variables. Additionally, we can state that LALE can be considered a low-cost experimental technique, with few steps and a clean synthesis method, by which a wide variety of materials can be synthesized with high yield. The majority of studies published in the literature using this technique seem to be limited only to the synthesis of metal nanoparticles, metal oxides, nitrates and semiconducting. However, in order to extend the synthesis potential of this technique, in this chapter we are going to demonstrate that with the appropriate choice of reactants, solvent, target materials and the solid-liquid interface interactions we will be able to prepare more complex molecules such as carbonate compound Pb3(CO3)2(OH)2, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), luminescent metal-organic frameworks (LMOFs), highly dispersed CdS quantum dots and magnetic materials. Also for each material synthesized, we are going to propose a mechanism to explain its preparation using the LALE technique

Micro- to Nano-scale Soil and Rhizosphere Processes Analyzed Using Multiple Beamlines at the Sirius Synchrotron

Determining mechanisms that regulate plant-nutrient behavior in agricultural soils is often confounded by interactions between physical, chemical, and biological processeswithin these multicomponent, heterogeneous, and hierarchical systems. This presentation will focus on strategies and examples of addressing these complexities by using complementary techniques at multiple Sirius beamlines. For example, we hypothesize that diffusion and reaction of fertilizer phosphate inside soil microaggregates contributes to slowly reversible phosphate binding ("fixation"), which diminishes plant availability of this macronutrient. Micro and nanoscale imaging results from three beamlines wereused to evaluate the 3D internal physical structure of soil microaggregates (CATERETÊcoherent diffraction imaging beamline), 3D spatial distributions of soil-matrix elements (CARNAÛBA coherent X-ray nanoprobe beamline), and the presence of biological components (IMBUIA infrared microprobe beamline). Results revealed accumulations of physical structures of high electron density that at least partially coincide with hotspots of iron and other metals, as well as structures of low electron density that are possibly of biological origin. We will also illustrate how a combination of chemical imaging around a living wheat root at CARNAÛBA and root-structural imaging at the MOGNO X-ray computed tomography beamline reveal root-induced chemical changes in the rhizosphereover time. Initial results show highly reproducible spatial structures of soil matrix elements in the rhizosphere over time and well-defined imaging of roots and root hairs. Integrating multimodal analyses from beamlines with unique capabilities to probe different aspects of a soil matrix is essential for determining how coupled processes affect agricultural nutrient behavior in such complex system