First valence electron measurements capture fleeting reaction process

Chemists at a giant x-ray laser in the US have studied a reaction in the most extreme detail yet, watching individual valence electrons as ammonia dissociates. ‘For the first time here, we were able to track just a single valence electron,’ says Ian Gabalski, a PhD candidate at Stanford University in California. This is likely the first of many such experiments that will help scientists to better understand the processes of making the chemicals that are important to us.