Dissolved aluminum formed during industrial processing has perplexed chemists by occurring in much greater concentrations than predicted. Efforts to explain the phenomenon have been hampered by an inability to accurately identify the concentrations of each aluminum species present. New research from scientists at the Interfacial Dynamics in Radioactive Environments and Materials (IDREAM) Energy Frontier Research Center sorts out which compounds are present and their concentrations, providing an important new tool with broad applicability.