BESC Study Seeks Nature's Best Biocatalysts for Biofuel Production
Researchers are looking beyond the usual suspects in the search for microbes that can efficiently break down inedible plant matter for conversion to biofuels. A new comparative study from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory-based center finds the natural abilities of unconventional bacteria could help boost the efficiency of cellulosic biofuel production.
Annihilating Nanoscale Defects
Researchers at the University of Chicago and Argonne may have found a way for the semiconductor industry to hit miniaturization targets on time and without defects.
Superoxide Gives Lithium-Air Batteries a Jolt
In a recent experiment, Argonne battery scientists Jun Lu, Larry Curtiss and Khalil Amine, along with American and Korean collaborators, were able to produce stable crystallized lithium superoxide (LiO2) instead of lithium peroxide during battery discharging. Unlike lithium peroxide, lithium superoxide can easily dissociate into lithium and oxygen, leading to high efficiency and good cycle life.
PPPL Engineers Complete the Design of Wendelstein 7-X Scraper Unit
Engineers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have finished designing a novel component for the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator, which recently opened at the Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics (IPP) in Griefswald, Germany.
A Simple Way to Make Lithium-Ion Battery Electrodes That Protect Themselves
Scientists at three Department of Energy national laboratories have discovered how to keep a promising new type of lithium ion battery cathode from developing a crusty coating that degrades its performance. The solution: Use a simple manufacturing technique to form the cathode material into tiny, layered particles that store a lot of energy while protecting themselves from damage.
Unique Two-Level Cathode Structure Improves Battery Performance
A team of scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory say they've found a way to make a battery cathode with a hierarchical structure where the reactive material is abundant yet protected--key points for high capacity and long battery life.
Technique Matters: A Different Way to Make a Cathode May Mean Better Batteries
Lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide, or NMC, is one of the most promising chemistries for better lithium batteries, especially for electric vehicle applications, but scientists have been struggling to get higher capacity out of them. Now researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have found that using a different method to make the material can offer substantial improvements.
How Seashells Get Their Strength
Seashells and lobster claws are hard to break, but chalk is soft enough to draw on sidewalks. Though all three are made of calcium carbonate crystals, the hard materials include clumps of soft biological matter that make them much stronger. A study today in Nature Communications reveals how soft clumps get into crystals and endow them with remarkable strength.
A Nanoscale Look at Why a New Alloy Is Amazingly Tough
A team of researchers led by scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has identified several mechanisms that make a new, cold-loving material one of the toughest metallic alloys ever.
Renewable Energy for State Renewable Portfolio Standards Yielded Sizable Benefits and Other Impacts in 2013
A new study estimates that billions in dollars in benefits come from reduced greenhouse gas emissions and from reductions in other air pollution for state renewable portfolio standard (RPS) policies operating in 2013. RPS policies require utilities or other electricity providers to meet a minimum portion of their load with eligible forms of renewable electricity.
Story Tips From the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, January 2016
Unmanned Aerial Systems Research Center at ORNL offers world of opportunities; New ORNL material offers clear advantages for consumer products and more; Hospital occupancy data helping ORNL study population distribution; Laser beams, plasmonic sensors able to detect trace biochemical compounds; ORNL devises new tool to map vegetation, wildlife habitat; ORNL software connects dots of disparate data; ORNL breaks mold with steel like none other
PPPL Physicists Simulate Innovative Method for Starting Up Tokamaks Without Using a Solenoid
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have produced self-consistent computer simulations that capture the evolution of an electric current inside fusion plasma without using a central electromagnet, or solenoid.
Q&A: Biologist Describes Milestone toward a Universal Flu Vaccine
Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute and the Crucell Vaccine Institute have now designed a protein fragment called mini-HA that stimulates the production of antibodies against a variety of influenza viruses. A key part of the work took place at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL), a DOE Office of Science User Facility at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, where the scientists used a technique called X-ray crystallography to look at the atomic structure of the mini-HA at each stage of its development.
Beam-Beam Compensation Scheme Doubles Proton-Proton Collision Rates at RHIC
Accelerator physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have successfully implemented an innovative scheme for increasing proton collision rates at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). More proton collisions at this DOE Office of Science User Facility produce more data for scientists to sift through to answer important nuclear physics questions, including the search for the source of proton spin.
Ames Laboratory Scientist's Calculation Featured on Cover of Physical Review Letters
Research performed by U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory Associate Scientist Durga Paudyal was recently featured on the cover of the November 13, 2015, issue of Physical Review Letters.
ORNL Cell-Free Protein Synthesis Is Potential Lifesaver
Lives of soldiers and others injured in remote locations could be saved with a cell-free protein synthesis system developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Discovering a Previously Unknown Mechanism That Halts Solar Eruptions Before They Blast Into Space
Article describes mechanism that halts solar eruptions
Nature's Microscopic Masonry: The First Steps in How Thin Protein Sheets Form Polyhedral Shells
Scientists have for the first time viewed how bacterial proteins self-assemble into thin sheets and begin to form the walls of the outer shell for nano-sized polyhedral compartments that function as specialized factories. The new insight may aid scientists who seek to tap this natural origami by designing novel compartments or using them as scaffolding for new types of nanoscale architectures, such as drug-delivery systems.
ORNL Achieves Milestone with Plutonium-238 Sample
With the production of 50 grams of plutonium-238, researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have restored a U.S. capability dormant for nearly 30 years and set the course to provide power for NASA and other missions.
Neutrons Offer Guide to Getting More Out of Solid-State Lithium-Ion Batteries
A new study conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), has revealed promising results that could drastically boost the performance of solid-state electrolytes, and could potentially lead to a safer, even more efficient battery. Researchers used neutron diffraction (the VULCAN instrument, SNS beam line 7) to conduct an in-depth study probing the entire structure evolution of doped garnet-type electrolytes during the synthesis process to unravel the mechanism that boosts the lithium-ionic conductivity.
New Flow Battery Offers Lower-Cost Energy Storage
Renewable energy can be stored for less with PNNL's new organic aqueous flow battery, which uses inexpensive and readily available materials. The new battery is expected to cost about 60 percent less than today's standard flow batteries.
ORNL Technique Could Set New Course for Extracting Uranium From Seawater
An ultra-high-resolution technique used for the first time to study polymer fibers that trap uranium in seawater may cause researchers to rethink the best methods to harvest this potential fuel for nuclear reactors.
Some Like It Hot: Simulating Single Particle Excitations
Understanding and manipulating plasmons is important for their potential use in photovoltaics, solar cell water splitting, and sunlight-induced fuel production from CO2. Now, for the first time, the interplay between the plasmon mode and the single particle excitation within a small metal cluster has been simulated directly. Researchers with Berkeley Lab used a real-time numerical algorithm to study both the plasmon and hot carrier within the same framework. That is critical for understanding how long a particle stays excited, and whether there is energy backflow from hot carrier to plasmon.
LUX Experiment Draws Best Picture Yet of What Dark Matter Particles Cannot Be
The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) dark matter experiment, which operates nearly a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in the Black Hills of South Dakota, has already proven itself to be the most sensitive dark matter detector in the world. Now scientists have significantly enhanced its ability to look for WIMPs, or weakly interacting massive particles, which are among the leading candidates for dark matter.
New Results From World's Most Sensitive Dark Matter Detector
The Large Underground Xenon dark matter experiment, which operates nearly a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in the Black Hills of South Dakota, has already proven itself to be the most sensitive detector in the hunt for dark matter, the unseen stuff believed to account for most of the matter in the universe. Now, a new set of calibration techniques employed by LUX scientists has again dramatically improved the detector's sensitivity.