Understanding the structure and composition of aluminate complexes in extremely alkaline systems such as Bayer liquors has received enormous attention due to their fundamental and industrial importance. However, obtaining direct molecular information of the underlying ion–ion interactions using...
X-ray, energetic photon, and electron irradiation can ionize and electronically excite target atoms and molecules. These excitations undergo complicated relaxation and energy-transfer processes that ultimately determine the manifold system responses to the deposited excess energy. In weakly bound...
The rhizosphere represents a dynamic and complex interface between plant hosts and the microbial community found in the surrounding soil. While it is recognized that manipulating the rhizosphere has the potential to improve plant fitness and health, engineering the rhizosphere microbiome through...
Metabolite exchange between plant roots and their associated rhizosphere microbiomes underpins plant growth promotion by microbes. Sorghum bicolor is a cereal crop that feeds animals and humans and is used for bioethanol production. Its root tips exude large amounts of a lipophilic benzoquinone...
In highly alkaline “water-in-salt” Na2O/Al2O3/H2O solutions where the monomeric Al(OH)4– anion dominates, isolation of transitional species that seed crystallization of sodium aluminate salt hydrates has been challenging. For example, discrimination of dimeric [for example, Al2O(OH)62–] species via...
The quantum mechanical treatment of both electrons and nuclei is crucial in nonadiabatic dynamical processes such as proton-coupled electron transfer. The nuclear−electronic orbital (NEO) method provides an elegant framework for including nuclear quantum effects beyond the Born–Oppenheimer...
