Researchers have found a biomaterial with surprising features in the skin of a lizard. The material is hard like enamel but is structured differently. Understanding the material on the nanoscale opens up new routes in designing for hard-wearing applications.
Tribute to Alexei Zakharov
It is with great sadness that we inform that Alexei Zakharov, beamline scientist at the MAXPEEM beamline, passed away on 10 July 2025. Alex was an excellent scientist, enthusiastic researcher, great colleague and friend. Internationally renowned, Alex personified PEEM at the MAX IV Laboratory, both for the staff and for our users. After studying physics
Essential closer look at nanosized drug carriers
Researchers have developed a protocol for studying how drug carrying nanoparticles called cubosomes behave in the body. The results show nanoparticle stability and confirm localisation in the cell. The study represents a significant step forward in the development of novel pharmaceuticals.
MAX IV and BESSY II initiate new collaboration to advance materials science
Swedish national synchrotron laboratory MAX IV and Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) BESSY II light source announce the signing of a 5-year cooperation agreement. The new agreement establishes a framework to strengthen cooperation for operational and technological development in the highlighted fields of accelerator research and development, beamlines and optics, endstations and sample environments as well as digitalisation and data science.
WISE beamline TomoWISE—a bright future with full-field tomography at MAX IV
MAX IV, Sweden’s national synchrotron laboratory welcomes TomoWISE, a full-field tomography beamline as the new chosen WISE beamline for the facility. The rigorous selection process was made possible thanks to relentless contributions by many actors. Selection of the new WISE beamline follows a three-year cooperation aimed at enabling new materials science for sustainability by the MAX IV organisation and the Wallenberg Initiative Materials Science for Sustainability (WISE) programme.
A long career among molecules and synchrotrons – Prof. Kiyoshi Ueda visited MAX IV
On Tuesday, May 20, Professor Kiyoshi Ueda, from Tohoku University in Japan and Shanghai Tech University in China, gave a seminar at MAX IV. The seminar was part of a visit that also included beamtime at FlexPES using the ICE reaction microscope together with his Chinese colleagues. Kiyoshi Ueda has been in the synchrotron world
Research grants for structural biology at MicroMAX
User opportunities for studies of structural biology at the new X-ray crystallography beamline MicroMAX just got an upgrade. The Novo Nordisk Foundation is now offering funding for researchers affiliated with a Danish research institution to apply for grants for academic use of the beamline. The programme is called ‘MicroMAX Collaborative Research Grants.’
Inventive AI and robotic self-driving lab accelerates material discoveries
To find solutions to real-world challenges, researchers often need to do labour-intensive work that requires a time-consuming trial-and-error process. Developing a synthesis method for custom-made materials is one of them. The process can take years and is very hard to replicate. But what if technology could help solve this and accelerate the application of new functional materials? An international collaboration led by Andy Sode Anker from the Technical University of Denmark came to MAX IV and accomplished just that.
Seventy times faster charging possible for Lithium-ion batteries
A research team from the Netherlands and the UK have used MAX IV to investigate a material that could make charging of lithium-ion batteries seventy times faster than today. It is a promising development for future electric vehicles and renewable energy.
A path to polymerize metallic hydrogen?
An international research group reports in Nature the observation of the phase transition of a hexagonal close-packed (HCP) crystal structure of hydrogen to a 6-fold larger hydrogen supercell. The findings describe polymerization activity at extreme pressures which reveals how atoms arrange themselves in solid hydrogen and offers clues to the formation of metallic hydrogen. The study includes X-ray diffraction (XRD) data from MAX IV’s NanoMAX beamline.