A newly developed laboratory-based double X-ray spectrometer enables systematic and simultaneous X-ray emission (XES) and X-ray absorption (XAS) measurements.

Stochastic processes are highly relevant in research fields as different as neuroscience, economy, ecology, chemistry, and fundamental physics. However, due to their intrinsic unpredictability, stochastic mechanisms are very challenging for any kind of investigations and practical applications. Here we report the deliberate use of stochastic X-ray pulses in two-dimensional spectroscopy to the simultaneous mapping of unoccupied and occupied electronic states of atoms in a regime where the opacity and transparency properties of matter are subject to the incident intensity and photon energy. A readily transferable matrix formalism is presented to extract the electronic states from a dataset measured with the monitored input from a stochastic excitation source. The presented formalism enables investigations of the response of the electronic structure to irradiation with intense X-ray pulses while the time structure of the incident pulses is preserved.

[Ru(bda)(L)₂] incorporated into the MIL-101(Cr) metal–organic framework catalyzes water oxidation faster than a homogenous reference, with the number of active catalysts depending on oxidant concentration.

The binding of the antitumor drug cisplatin with DNA was determined by means of in situ resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) spectroscopy. Because of the penetrating properties of hard X-rays, we could determine, under physiological conditions, the identity and number of platinum complexes present. In situ RIXS revealed that under physiological conditions, water molecules replace chloride ligands owing to drug hydration. The subsequent interaction with DNA, led to the bonding of the aqua complexes into the DNA structure with simultaneous loss of the coordinating water and chloride ion. The data analysis reveals that Pt is coordinated by two adjacent guanines giving cis-[Pt(NH₃)₂{d(GpG)-N7(1),-N7(2)}] upon losing its coordinating water or chloride ligands.