A spring in the step of SPring-8

Synchrotron radiation is essential to nanoscience. As nanoscale production techniques improve, related insights are becoming increasingly crucial to produce a wide range of real-world innovations. For instance, recent nanoscale analyses have led to advances in carbon fiber technology, enabling more energy-efficient transport. New insights into the structures of catalysts have also spurred the creation of carbon capture technologies that reduce industry emissions.

Scientists use synchrotron radiation to better understand material interactions at the nanoscale level. These insights come from studying the light diffraction and scattering that results when a collision occurs between the atoms in a research sample and the X-ray light produced by the synchrotron. However, to achieve nanoscale level detail, the electron beam in the synchrotron must be accelerated over a 1.4 km circular orbit to near the speed of light, while keeping it’s spread very small - approximately the diameter of a human hair.

RIKEN's Super Photon Ring-8 GeV (SPring-8) is the world's largest 3rd generation facility and the only high-power synchrotron facility in Japan. To remain competitive on the international stage, SPring-8 has been planning to transition to a 4th generation facility since 2014. Construction will likely start in the second half of this decade, if funded.

This upgrade is necessary for the continued progression of nanoscience. When SPring-8 opened in 1997, we expected that scientific research would be the main focus of our users, with relatively few studies contributing to industry research. By 2018, approximately 2,300 projects had been conducted at SPring-8, and nearly 20% were industry-related. Today, synchrotron science worldwide regularly produces results that can be quickly adapted and used to produced socially beneficial innovations.

The facility's new design will significantly increase SPring-8's brilliance, speeding up data production by a factor of 10. It will also decrease the accelerator's power consumption by roughly 30%. Thus we will be able to provide less expensive, faster, and more detailed research, which will super-charge data collection.

Insight into hydrogen energy catalysts is another great example of synchrotron data's capacity for impact.

Today, reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a global goal, and lowering dependence on fossil fuel energy represents a considerable portion of the challenge. If the energy created by reactions between hydrogen and oxygen were to replace the energy currently provided by fossil fuels, industry could vastly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Water is usually the only by-product of hydrogen energy catalysis. However, a catalytic conversion rate of 10% or more is needed for effective performance, and these reactions must then be adapted for individual applications. In addition, it is theorized that even with this efficiency, the price of hydrogen production will not fall enough to be cost effective.

In April 2022, Kobe University published data obtained at SPring-8 that showed that by modifying the surface of their previously-developed hematite photocatalyst, it was feasible to inexpensively, safely, and stably produce hydrogen from sunlight and water, with hydrogen peroxide as a by-product. Hydrogen peroxide is used in everything from disinfectants and bleaches to soil treatments, so selling this by-product could help make hydrogen production more affordable.

This is only one of many examples of the possibilities facilitated by synchrotron research. Furthermore, industry demand is increasing both for solitary results and access to big synchrotron datasets for AI to analyze. To create these datasets, data production must be expedited faster than the timeline for the planned upgrades.

By building suitable datasets, engineers and scientists will have access to the information they need to design materials for more natural disaster resilient structures, lighter and more accessible transport, advanced medical devices and medications, and everything in between, well as the means to actualize green technology.