Oak Ridge Today

ORNL technologies receive six R&D 100 Awards

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Using the Atomic Forge, Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers brought two, three, and four silicon atoms together to build clusters (green) and make them rotate within a layer of graphene (blue). (Image courtesy ORNL)

Using the Atomic Forge, Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers brought two, three, and four silicon atoms together to build clusters (green) and make them rotate within a layer of graphene (blue). (Image courtesy ORNL)

 

By Shelby Whitehead and Sean Simoneau

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have received six R&D 100 Awards in recognition of their significant advancements in science and technology, a press release said. The honorees were recognized over the weekend at the 56th annual R&D 100 Conference, which is sponsored by R&D Magazine.

The awards, known as the “Oscars of Invention,” honor research and development pioneers and their revolutionary breakthroughs in materials science, biomedicine, consumer products, and more from academia, industry, and government-sponsored research agencies, the press release said. This year’s six honors bring ORNL’s total of R&D 100 awards to 216 since their inception in 1963.

ORNL researchers were recognized for the following innovations: [Read more…]

ORNL-led team demonstrates desalination with graphene membrane

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Nature Nanotech Pores

Researchers created nanopores in graphene (red, and enlarged in the circle to highlight its honeycomb structure) that are stabilized with silicon atoms (yellow) and showed their porous membrane could desalinate seawater. Orange represents a non-graphene residual polymer. (Source: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy)

 

By Dawn Levy

Less than 1 percent of Earth’s water is drinkable. Removing salt and other minerals from our biggest available source of water—seawater—may help satisfy a growing global population thirsty for fresh water for drinking, farming, transportation, heating, cooling, and industry. But desalination is an energy-intensive process, which concerns those wanting to expand its application.

Now, a team of experimentalists led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has demonstrated an energy-efficient desalination technology that uses a porous membrane made of strong, slim graphene—a carbon honeycomb one atom thick. The results are published in the March 23 advance online issue of Nature Nanotechnology.

“Our work is a proof of principle that demonstrates how you can desalinate saltwater using free-standing, porous graphene,” said Shannon Mark Mahurin of ORNL’s Chemical Sciences Division, who co-led the study with Ivan Vlassiouk in ORNL’s Energy and Transportation Science Division.

“It’s a huge advance,” said Vlassiouk, pointing out a wealth of water travels through the porous graphene membrane. “The flux through the current graphene membranes was at least an order of magnitude higher than (that through) state-of-the-art reverse osmosis polymeric membranes.” [Read more…]

ORNL microscopy system delivers real-time view of battery electrochemistry

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ORNL Battery Electrochemistry

A new in situ transmission electron microscopy technique enabled ORNL researchers to image the snowflake-like growth of the solid electrolyte interphase from a working battery electrode. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

Using a new microscopy method, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory can image and measure electrochemical processes in batteries in real time and at nanoscale resolution.

Scientists at ORNL used a miniature electrochemical liquid cell that is placed in a transmission electron microscope to study an enigmatic phenomenon in lithium-ion batteries called the solid electrolyte interphase, or SEI, as described in a study published in Chemical Communications.

The SEI is a nanometer-scale film that forms on a battery’s negative electrode due to electrolyte decomposition. Scientists agree that the SEI’s formation and stability play key roles in controlling battery functionality. But after three decades of research in the battery field, details of the SEI’s dynamics, structure, and chemistry during electrochemical cycling are still debated, stemming from inherent difficulties in studying battery electrode materials in their native liquid environment.

“We’ve used this novel in situ method to understand the dynamics of how this layer forms and evolves during battery operation,” said Raymond Unocic, ORNL research and development staff scientist. [Read more…]