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Beyond the solvent fog: watching molecules dance in the crowd

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A technique called time-resolved X-ray liquidography has been used to shed precision light on the steps involved in a classic chemical reaction.

By

  1. Kathryn Froese

    1. Kathryn Froese is at The Ultrafast Electron Imaging Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, and Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada.

  2. Germán Sciaini

    1. Germán Sciaini is at The Ultrafast Electron Imaging Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, and Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada.

One of the greatest challenges in modern physical chemistry — monitoring how molecules behave, interact and transform in a crowded liquid environment — seems simple, yet is anything but. Writing in Nature, Kim et al.1 apply the technique of time-resolved X-ray liquidography to the study of a textbook chemical reaction — the light-induced rearrangement of atoms in azobenzene molecules in solution. In doing so, the authors reveal details of this photoisomerization process and demonstrate the technique’s utility for studying low-mass atoms in a bulky solvent.

Nature 658, 613-615 (2026)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-02970-y

References

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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