2016 | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

'Odd Couple' Monolayer Semiconductors Align to Advance Optoelectronics

A research group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has shown that different lattice constants – for creating transistor and semiconductor substrates - can be grown together to form a perfectly aligned stacking bilayer material.

Elusive State of Superconducting Matter Discovered after 50 Years

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, Cornell University, and collaborators have produced the first direct evidence of a state of electronic matter first predicted by theorists in 1964. The discovery, described in a paper published online April 13, 2016, in Nature, may provide key insights into the workings of high-temperature superconductors.

New "EA" Biomass Pretreatment Cuts Enzyme Use, Boosts Biofuel Production

Less input, more output. That’s the achievement of a new biomass pretreatment method that could help improve the economics of cellulosic biofuels, the second-generation biofuels made from grasses, wood, and the inedible parts of plants.

Critical Materials Institute Gains Ten Industrial and Research Affiliates

The Critical Materials Institute, a U.S. Department of Energy Innovation Hub led by the Ames Laboratory, has gained ten new affiliates to its research program, seeking ways to eliminate and reduce reliance on rare-earth metals and other materials critical to the success of clean energy technologies.

Science.gov is Hosting New Interagency Microsites Listing STEM Education and Training Opportunities for Undergraduate and Graduate Students

The Department of Energy’s Office of Science has collaborated with other Federal agencies through the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on STEM Education (CoSTEM) and the Science.gov Alliance to establish two new interagency websites designed to connect undergraduate and graduate students with federally-sponsored education and training opportunities in STEM fields.

Ames Laboratory Physicists Discover New Type of Material That May Speed Computing

Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory have discovered a topological metal, PtSn4 (platinum and tin), with a unique electronic structure that may someday lead to energy efficient computers with increased processor speeds and data storage.

Multiyear Simulation Study Provides Breakthrough in Membrane Protein Research

The research team of Benoît Roux, a professor in the University of Chicago’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a senior scientist in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory Center for Nanoscale Materials recently concluded a three-year Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) project at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF), a DOE Office of Science User Facility, to understand how P-type ATPase ion pumps—an important class of membrane transport proteins—operate.

New Magnetism Research Brings High-Temp Superconductivity Applications Closer

A research team led by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Argonne National Laboratory has discovered that only half the atoms in some iron-based superconductors are magnetic, providing a conclusive demonstration of the wave-like properties of metallic magnetism in these materials.

ORNL Tracks How Halogen Atoms Compete to Grow ‘Winning’ Perovskites

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have found a potential path to further improve solar cell efficiency by understanding the competition among halogen atoms during the synthesis of sunlight-absorbing crystals.

Plastic Proteins: New Synthetic Material Mimics Essential Characteristics of Natural Proteins

Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory hoping to design new materials for energy uses have developed a system to make synthetic polymers — some would say plastics — with the versatility of nature's own polymers, the ubiquitous proteins.

Chalice Receptors Attract Metal Contaminants with New Chemical Selectivity

Recently, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have found new ways to influence selectivity for specific positively charged ions (cations) with the addition of simple receptors, not for cations but rather for negatively charged ions (anions).

PPPL Scientists Help Test Innovative Device to Improve Efficiency of Tokamaks

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have helped design and test a component that could improve the performance of doughnut-shaped fusion facilities known as tokamaks.