An international team of scientists around Simo Huotari, University of Helsinki, Finland, and colleagues at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble, France, use extremely bright X-rays from a synchrotron light source to form images of the chemical bond distribution of different carbon forms embedded deep in an opaque material – an achievement previously thought to be impossible without destroying the sample.

The new technique can see not only which elements are present in any inclusions but also what kind of molecule or crystal they belong to. It will give insights into the molecular level structure of many interesting materials ranging, for example, from novel functional nanomaterials to fuel cells and new types of batteries.

^{Image: © ESRF}

• Direct tomography with chemical-bond contrast,
  Simo Huotari et al.,
  Nature Mat. 2011.
  DOI: 10.1038/NMAT3031