March 2026 ESRFnews

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Schweizerischer Nationalfonds ( Switzerland ’ s main

public research - funding body ) to study “ barocaloric ”

materials that could potentially replace volatile and

environmentally harmful refrigerants . Such materials

heat up or cool down when pressure is applied or

released . “ For me , the ESRF – EBS has been a game

changer , because it combines outstanding in - house

high - pressure expertise with unprecedented beam

brightness and stability , ” he says . “ This allows us to

follow subtle structural and phase changes in real time

and at high sampling frequency , which is essential for

understanding pressure - driven caloric effects . ”

Several recent results confirm how ID27 is breaking

new ground . Last year , for example , Federico Aiace

Gorelli at Italy ’ s National Research Council and

colleagues performed single - crystal diffraction at the

beamline to give evidence that extreme pressure forces

solid oxygen into kagome lattice spin liquid candidates

quantum states in which magnetic moments remain

dynamically disordered even at very low temperatures

instead of forming conventional magnetic order

Phys Rev Lett 135 076101 Meanwhile in 2023

Dominique Laniel at the University of Edinburgh in

the UK and colleagues used ID27 and ID11 data to help

show that high pressure can generate new metastable

carbon nitride compounds Featuring covalent CN

4

tetrahedra these compounds have been predicted

for decades to exhibit a hardness comparable to or

exceeding that of diamond Adv Mater 36 2308030

Although a lot of high pressure research centres

on ID27 , the field today is increasingly hybrid in its

instrumental approach , and many users turn to a host

of other ESRF beamlines for complementary data .

Last year , Valerio Cerantola at the University Milano -

Bicocca in Italy was awarded an ERC Consolidator

Grant to make use of advanced X - ray diffraction and

spectroscopy techniques at beamlines including ID14 ,

ID15A , ID15B and ID20 –   as well as ID27 – to explore

the chemistry of sulphur in conditions ranging from

early planetary accretion to the Earth ’ s present - day

mantle . ID14 is the ESRF ’ s new nuclear - resonance

beamline , able to reveal the magnetic and vibrational

properties of atoms that ordinary diffraction cannot

see . Both ID15A and ID15B perform high - speed

diffraction , with ID15A tailored more for high - energy ,

operando and time - resolved studies , and ID15B more

for diamond anvil cells . ( See “ ID15B strengthens high -

pressure toolkit p19

These beamlines are allowing Cerantola and

colleagues to follow the transformation of sulphur

bearing materials in varying conditions all in one

place The ESRF EBS has made the ESRF one of

the most powerful and complete large scale facilities

worldwide for high pressure science he says The

increase in brilliance and beam stability together

with the continuous upgrades of beamlines and

experimental infrastructure give the user community

faster experiments and higher quality data allowing us

to investigate more complex samples and tackle more

ambitious scientific questions

HIGH PRESSURE

Anna Pakhomova , awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant , is exploring how

extreme pressure affects the chemistry inside icy moons . The ID27 beamline

scientist ’ s experiments are testing which complex molecules can form and

persist , and what that implies for potential habitability .

Tomasz Poręba at the University of Bern , supported by a Swiss National

Science Foundation ( SNF ) grant , is studying barocaloric solids as potential ,

leak - free alternatives to volatile refrigerants . He measures how their cooling

response changes with compression to guide better materials choices .

The ESRF

EBS has made

the ESRF one

of the most

powerful and

complete

facilities

worldwide for

high pressure

science

E S R F / S T E F C A N D É E S R F / S T E F C A N D É