Oak Ridge Today

ORNL’s Dai ranked among world’s most influential scientists

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Sheng Dai

Sheng Dai (Photo by ORNL)

 

Sheng Dai of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been named to a list of the most highly cited researchers in the world.

Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers is an annual list that recognizes some of the world’s leading researchers in the sciences and social sciences. About 3,000 researchers were named to the 2015 list.

Dai is a UT-Battelle Corporate Fellow and serves as the group leader of the Nanomaterials Chemistry Group in ORNL’s Chemical Sciences Division. He also holds a joint appointment with the Department of Chemistry at the University of Tennessee. His research focuses on the synthesis and characterization of materials for energy-related applications. [Read more…]

ORNL technique could set new course for extracting uranium from seawater

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ORNL-TOC-Graphic

Using high-energy X-rays, researchers discovered uranium is bound by adsorbent fibers in an unanticipated fashion. (Image by ORNL)

 

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.

The work of a team led by Carter Abney, a Wigner Fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, shows that the polymeric adsorbent materials that bind uranium behave nothing like scientists had believed. The results, gained through collaboration with the University of Chicago and detailed in a paper published in Energy and Environmental Science, highlight data made possible with X-ray Absorption Fine Structure spectroscopy performed at the Advanced Photon Source. The APS is a DOE Office of Science User Facility at Argonne National Laboratory.

“Despite the low concentration of uranium and the presence of many other metals extracted from seawater, we were able to investigate the local atomic environment around uranium and better understand how it is bound by the polymer fibers,” Abney said. [Read more…]

Looking ahead: SNS users visit to discuss next-generation target station at ORNL

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SNS-Second-Target-Station

More than 200 scientists from around the world met from October 27 to 29 at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory to provide input on the scientific instruments that would be installed at a proposed Second Target Station, or STS, at the Spallation Neutron Source, which is pictured above. (Aerial photo and overlay by ORNL)

 

More than 200 scientists from around the world met from October 27 to 29 at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory to provide input on the scientific instruments that would be installed at a proposed Second Target Station, or STS, at the Spallation Neutron Source.

The workshop—which was organized by ORNL’s Neutron Sciences Directorate and drew researchers from 56 universities, research institutions, and other national laboratories—aimed to define the capabilities needed to ensure the next-generation neutron source meets the biggest science challenges.

The Spallation Neutron Source is a DOE Office of Science User Facility that provides the most intense pulsed neutron beams in the world for scientific research and industrial development. [Read more…]

Four ORNL researchers elected fellows of American Physical Society

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Jaime Fernandez-Baca

Jaime Fernandez-Baca (Photo courtesy ORNL)

Four researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been elected fellows of the American Physical Society, one of the nation’s top professional organizations for scientists.

Jaime Fernandez-Baca, Sergei Kalinin, Mark Lumsden, and Thomas Maier were selected for the honor by the APS Council of Representatives. They will be formally recognized at the APS’s March meeting.

Fernandez-Baca, a distinguished research staff member in the Quantum Condensed Matter Division in ORNL’s Neutron Science Directorate, was recognized by the APS Division of Materials Physics “for seminal neutron scattering studies of magnetic materials, especially the spin and lattice dynamics of colossal magnetoresistive manganites.”

Fernandez-Baca’s research is performed mainly at ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor, where he is the lead for the Triple Axis Spectroscopy group. His expertise is in the study of the magnetic ordering and spin dynamics of complex oxides and related alloys using neutron scattering techniques.

He was the recipient of the International Atomic Energy Agency fellowship, the DOE Office of Science Outstanding Mentor Award (2008), and the Neutron Scattering Society of America Distinguished Service Award (2014). [Read more…]

Miaofang Chi of ORNL named top scientist at UT-Battelle’s Awards Night

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Miaofang Chi

Miaofang Chi (Photo by ORNL)

Miaofang Chi of the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has earned the ORNL Director’s Award for Outstanding Individual Accomplishment in Science and Technology.

ORNL Director Thom Mason presented the award to Chi on Friday during the annual Awards Night event in Knoxville hosted by UT-Battelle, the management and operating contractor for ORNL.

Chi was honored for her pioneering early career research in analytical electron microscopy. Chi’s research has advanced the understanding of defect and interface chemistry and structure and how such defects control materials properties at the atomic level. Her work includes the recent development of transformative insitu microscopy methods to probe transport phenomena at the atomic scale.

Chi also earned the Early-Career Researcher Award. [Read more…]

ORNL, Solid Power sign exclusive license for lithium-sulfur battery tech

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Howe-Dudney-Liang

ORNL’s Nancy Dudney, center, and former lab researchers Jane Howe and Chengdu Liang were among the developers of lithium-sulfur materials that have been licensed to Solid Power for use in next-generation batteries. (Photo by ORNL)

 

Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Solid Power Inc. of Louisville, Colorado, have signed an exclusive agreement licensing lithium-sulfur materials for next-generation batteries.

The company licensed a portfolio of ORNL patents relating to lithium-sulfur compositions that will enable development of more energy-dense batteries, a press release said. ORNL’s proof-of-concept battery research has demonstrated the technology’s potential to improve power, operating temperature, manufacturability, and cost as well, the release said.

“We’re thrilled to add the technology developed at ORNL to Solid Power’s portfolio of novel materials and processes built around manufacturing a better battery,” said Douglas Campbell, president and chief executive officer of Solid Power. “The intellectual property ORNL has perfected better positions Solid Power to successfully achieve its mission.” [Read more…]

ORNL wins six R&D 100 awards

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BAAM-RD100-ORNL-2015

The Big Area Additive Manufacturing-CI system, developed by ORNL and Cincinnati Incorporated, was among ORNL’s six 2015 R&D 100 award winners. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

 

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have received six R&D 100 awards, increasing the lab’s total to 193 since the award’s inception in 1963.

The competition, sponsored by R&D Magazine, recognizes advances in the nation’s most impactful technologies and the scientists and engineers who led the effort. This year, ORNL researchers earned awards for the following innovations:

The Big Area Additive Manufacturing-CI system was developed by ORNL researchers and Cincinnati Incorporated. BAAM-CI also received an Editor’s Choice award from R&D Magazine. [Read more…]

New ORNL catalyst addresses engine efficiency, emissions quandary

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ORNL Catalyst Andrew Binder

Researcher Andrew Binder and colleagues discovered that by mixing three components they could create an innovative catalyst that performs well at low temperatures without the use of precious metals. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

 

A catalyst being developed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory could overcome one of the key obstacles still preventing automobile engines from running more cleanly and efficiently.

The mixed oxide catalyst could solve the longstanding problem of inhibition, in which nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons effectively clog the catalyst designed to cleanse a vehicle’s exhaust stream. This happens as these three pollutants compete for active surface sites on the catalyst. Now, however, ORNL’s low-cost catalyst composed of copper oxide, cobalt oxide, and cerium oxide shows considerable promise when tested in simulated exhaust streams.

“Our catalyst potentially fixes the inhibition problem without precious metals and could help more efficient engines meet upcoming stricter emission regulations,” said Todd Toops of ORNL’s Energy and Transportation Sciences Division. Toops noted that the unique formulation builds on previous work by colleagues Andrew Binder and Sheng Dai, who varied the composition of the three catalyst components in search of improved oxidation activity under simple conditions. [Read more…]

DOE event marks beginning of landmark ecosystem experiment

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Carbon Dioxide Test Chambers

By controlling the temperature and the amount of carbon dioxide in the test chambers, scientists hope to learn how microbial communities, moss populations, various higher plant types, and some insect groups respond. (Photo by ORNL)

 

GRAND RAPIDS, Minn.—Scientists are getting a glimpse of the future with a U.S. Department of Energy large-scale experiment designed to answer questions about how carbon-rich peatlands will respond to projected warming of the climate and increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide.

SPRUCE, which stands for Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Climatic and Environmental Change, was launched Wednesday, August 26, at the experiment site about 25 miles north of Grand Rapids. Among those attending the ceremony were Gary Geernaert and Daniel Stover of DOE’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research; Thomas Schmidt, assistant director for research, U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Northern Research Station; and Martin Keller, associate laboratory director of Energy and Environmental Sciences at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

The site consists of about seven acres of raised bog in the peatlands of the Chippewa National Forest. The natural spruce bog in northern Minnesota contains more than 10,000 years of carbon accumulated from peatlands and answers to questions related to the predicted warming of ecosystems. [Read more…]

ORNL climate researcher to receive award from Geophysical Union

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Ben Preston

Ben Preston

Climate researcher Benjamin Preston of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been named to receive the American Geophysical Union’s 2015 Charles S. Falkenberg Award.

The Falkenberg Award is presented once a year “in recognition of an early- to middle-career scientist who has contributed to the quality of life, economic opportunities, and stewardship of the planet through the use of Earth science information and to the public awareness of the importance of understanding our planet,” a press release said.

Preston is a senior research scientist in ORNL’s Environmental Sciences Division and deputy director of the Climate Change Science Institute, where he conducts research on the societal impacts of climate change and the role of adaptation in reducing climate risk. [Read more…]

ORNL has 13 finalists for R&D 100 Award

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory Sign

Thirteen technologies from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been selected as finalists for R&D 100 Awards, the annual technology prizes given by R&D Magazine. ORNL is lead developer in 10 of the technologies and a partner developer in another three technologies that made the finalist list.

R&D Magazine has changed the format of the annual awards substantially, with a list of finalists announced first. The competition also has new “Market Disruptor” and “Green Tech” categories, and finalists can be listed in those categories as well as the technical categories. ORNL has five Market Disruptor finalists and one Green Tech finalist.

The R&D 100 winners will be announced in November at an event in Las Vegas. Here are the finalists: [Read more…]

New pilot helps small businesses tap ORNL expertise

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ORNL Manufacturing Demonstration Facility

Small businesses can gain access to ORNL resources such as the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility through a new U.S. Department of Energy voucher pilot. (Photo by ORNL)

 

Small companies in the advanced manufacturing, transportation, and building sectors have a new opportunity to partner with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

ORNL was among five national laboratories selected to participate in a new DOE small business voucher pilot that aims to connect small clean energy businesses with technical experts and world-class facilities at the national labs.

DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is funding the $20 million pilot as part of its National Laboratory Impact Initiative. ORNL will receive $5.6 million to conduct outreach, merit review, and matchmaking efforts for small business projects.

“We’re pleased to be given the opportunity to partner with smaller businesses who can take advantage of the world-class facilities at ORNL and other national laboratories across the country,” said ORNL’s Johney Green. “Through this pilot, we will help industry achieve their goals of developing innovative, energy-efficient products and being more competitive in the marketplace, particularly in manufacturing, building, and vehicle technologies.” [Read more…]