Researchers from the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM) and other national collaborators have discovered unprecedented proof that water can be transported to regions deep within the Earth​​. The study, published in Scientific Reports (a journal in the Nature group), analyzed a rare diamond from Juína, Mato Grosso, and identified a complex mineral capable of carrying water to the lower mantle, offering new clues about how the planet stores and circulates water hundreds of kilometers below its surface.

A work published in the scientific journal Nature Protocols by researchers from the São Carlos Institute of Chemistry at the University of São Paulo (IQSC-USP) in collaboration with the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM) presents a detailed guide for the study of biocatalysts under operational conditions, combining X-ray absorption spectroscopy with electrochemical techniques. The article brings together years of experimental development and describes how to study proteins that participate in reactions relevant to various applications, including energy production.

A study conducted by researchers from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and featured on the back cover of the Journal of Materials Chemistry A investigated a possible solution for hydrogen storage based on porous metallic nanostructures, called nanofoams. Part of the analysis was performed at the Carnaúba beamline of Sirius, whose spatial resolution allowed for the distinction of different regions of the material at the nanoscale.

A broad international effort involving several research institutions has brought together experts from Brazil, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and France to unravel a major enigma in the history of how life evolved on Earth. This study, which appeared on the cover of the journal Science Advances, showed that the organism Spongiophyton nanum was in fact one of the oldest and most widely distributed lichens in the history of the Earth.

Researchers from the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), in collaboration with institutions in Brazil, the United Kingdom and the United States, have demonstrated a new strategy to monitor the intracellular trajectory of nanoparticles. The study was one of the cover features for the journal Small in June 2025, and combined different high-resolution microscopy techniques to observe how these particles move around in the cellular environment over time.

Research conducted on the Sabiá beamline at Sirius by scientists from the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM) and several universities investigated the behavior of magnetic materials and has resulted in the first scientific publication involving data obtained from this beamline.

Manganese (Mn) is an essential micronutrient for plants, but at high concentrations, it can become toxic. However, Eucalyptus tereticornis appears to be remarkably tolerant to Mn, even at levels well above those that would cause harm to other plant species. The mechanism(s) underlying this ability were not understood based on scientific literature. From a study that monitored the Mn absorption in these plants, published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, researchers from the Department of Plant Biology at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) and from The Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS), from the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), demonstrated how E. tereticornis can tolerate and detoxify high levels of Mn in its environment.

An article published by CNPEM researchers was featured on the Nano Letters scientific journal’s cover and explores how the X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (XPCS) technique can distinguish protein corona formation from nanoparticle aggregation in complex biological media.