Speaker
Description
Balder, named after the Norse god of light, is a dedicated hard X-ray spectroscopy beamline at the MAX IV laboratory in Sweden, designed for real-time observation of chemical processes. Through the application of X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES), the beamline enables detailed analysis of material structures and electronic states under realistic conditions. Its broad energy range covers the K- and L-edges of much of the periodic table, supporting research across diverse scientific disciplines.
Many essential processes, such as catalytic conversion, battery cycling, and metal behaviour in soils, occur under challenging operando conditions, including high temperatures, reactive gases, liquid phases, and rapidly changing states. X-ray spectroscopy overcomes these challenges by offering elemental and orbital specificity. Tuning the X-ray energy to a particular absorption edge enables the isolation of individual elements, even at low concentrations in disordered or liquid samples. X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) reveals oxidation states and chemical speciation, extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) determines bond distances and coordination numbers, and XES examines occupied electronic states, spin, and ligand environments, providing complementary insights beyond those available from absorption measurements alone.
This presentation introduces X-ray absorption and emission spectroscopy, outlines the capabilities of the Balder beamline, and demonstrates how complementary multimodal techniques elucidate the electronic structure of diverse functional materials. The objective is to contextualise these methods, highlighting the types of scientific questions they address in studies focused on local structure and chemical properties.
| Type of presence | Presence online |
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