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

Scientists Study the Insulator-Superconductor Transition of Copper-Oxide Compound in Fine Detail

Using a highly controlled deposition technique, scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have synthesized ultrathin films containing multiple samples of a copper-oxide compound to study the compound's electronic behavior at near absolute zero, or minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit.

NREL Reveals Potential for Capturing Waste Heat via Nanotubes

A finely tuned carbon nanotube thin film has the potential to act as a thermoelectric power generator that captures and uses waste heat, according to researchers at the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Tiny Tubes Move Into the Fast Lane

For the first time, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have shown that carbon nanotubes as small as eight-tenths of a nanometer in diameter can transport protons faster than bulk water, by an order of magnitude.

Boosting Production of Radioisotopes for Diagnostics and Therapeutics

The DOE Office of Science’s Nuclear Physics Isotope Development and Production for Research and Applications program (DOE Isotope Program) seeks to make critical isotopes more readily available for energy, medical, and national security applications and for basic research.

Proving the Genetic Code’s Flexibility

Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), a DOE Office of Science User Facility, and Yale University show deviations in an amino acid’s code can occur naturally.

What are Aerosols?

Scientists at Brookhaven National Lab are studying the tiny particles – from man-made and natural sources – to understand the big impact aerosols have on Earth’s climate system.

From Near-Dropout to PhD, Berkeley Lab Scientist Now at Forefront of Biofuels Revolution

Berkeley Lab biochemist Ee-Been Goh focuses on engineering E. coli bacteria to produce the compound - methyl ketones - for possible biodiesel fuel use and on mentoring future generations of researchers.

ORNL Scientists Show Charged Salts Can Extract Specific Central Lanthanide Elements

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers made a molecule that could selectively bind to metals in the middle of the lanthanide series. The accomplishment proves selective extraction of central lanthanides is possible and eventually could provide future materials for technologies such as strong magnets in wind turbines.

Nature-Inspired Nanotubes That Assemble Themselves, With Precision

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have discovered a family of nature-inspired polymers that, when placed in water, spontaneously assemble into hollow crystalline nanotubes.

Platinum Catalyst Savings on Any Support

New, inexpensive, and more efficient industrial catalysts for fuel processing and chemical manufacture could emerge from new studies, carried out at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source, into the different ways in which the active metal sites in a catalyst can be prepared when the catalyst metal is on an active or an inert support material.

Novel Water-Removal Technique Boosts Performance of Carbon Nanomaterials

New research illuminating water’s critical role in forming catalysts for oxygen reduction in materials has revealed the key to designing next-generation carbon nanomaterials with enhanced performance for fuel cells and batteries.

NSLS-II User Profiles: Pankaj Sarin

Pankaj Sarin, an assistant professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Oklahoma State University, traveled to Brookhaven Lab recently to conduct research at the X-Ray Powder Diffraction (XPD) beamline. He and his group studied ceramic materials that can withstand extremely high temperatures and may be used to protect spacecraft during re-entry, descent, and landing.