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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.

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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.

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A team led by Michael Zingale of Stony Brook University is exploring the physics of Type Ia supernovas using the Titan supercomputer at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The team’s latest research focuses on a specific class of Type Ia supernovas known as double-detonation supernovas. This year, the team completed a three-dimensional (3-D), high-resolution investigation of the thermonuclear burning a double-detonation white dwarf undergoes before explosion. The study expands upon the team’s initial 3-D simulation of this supernova scenario, which was carried out in 2013.

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Oak Ridge Graph Analytics for Medical Innovation (ORiGAMI) supplies researchers with an advanced data tool for literature-based discovery that has the potential to accelerate medical research and discovery. The result of collaboration between Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the US National Library of Medicine, ORiGAMI unites three emerging technologies that are shaping the future of health care: big data, graph computing, and the Semantic Web

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Higher cost of electricity not necessarily deterrent to usage; Finding opens door for lead-free electromechanics; Neutron measurements provide insight into quantum magnets.

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A new era of electronics and even quantum devices could be ushered in with the fabrication of a virtually perfect single layer of “white graphene."

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Supercomputing simulations could change how researchers understand the internal motions of proteins that play functional, structural and regulatory roles in all living organisms. The team’s results are featured in Nature Physics.

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The American Association for the Advancement of Science has named Thomas Zacharia and Mariappan Parans Paranthaman of Oak Ridge National Laboratory as new AAAS fellows. The two are honored for their achievements in science administration and materials chemistry, respectively.

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

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Atomic-level imaging of catalysts by scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory could help manufacturers lower the cost and improve the performance of emission-free fuel cell technologies.

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Four researchers from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been elected fellows of the American Physical Society (APS), one of the nation's top professional organizations for scientists.

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A new freight database that will help transportation officials improve highways, railroads and other trade routes across the country.

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Researchers at the Department of Energy’s 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.

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The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science announced 56 projects aimed at accelerating discovery and innovation to address some of the world’s most challenging scientific questions. The projects will share 5.8 billion core hours on America’s two most powerful supercomputers dedicated to open science.

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The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, FCA US LLC, and the foundry giant, Nemak of Mexico, are combining their strengths to create lightweight powertrain materials that will help the auto industry speed past the technological roadblocks to its target of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

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Electron microscopy researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a unique way to build 3-D structures with finely controlled shapes as small as one to two billionths of a meter.

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ORNL device potentially huge help for studying chemical interactions, disease, drugs.

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A new study from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory explains the mechanism behind a technology that converts bio-based ethanol into hydrocarbon blend-stocks for use as fossil fuel alternatives.

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New tool developed for inspecting concrete at nuclear power plants; ORNL motor features 3-D printed metallic parts; ORNL technique combines intuition, computational strengths; Trane, ORNL combine to boost rooftop A/C efficiency 20 percent; Titan delivering unprecedented climate modeling; ORNL announces JUMP program to stimulate innovation; Bioenergy researchers closer to defeating lignin.

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A team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory computed distributions in calcium-48, and revealed that the difference between the radii of neutron and proton distributions (called the “neutron skin”) is considerably smaller than previously thought.

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RJ Lee Group has signed an agreement to license an invention developed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory that converts waste rubber into a valuable energy storage material.

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Researchers in an Energy Frontier Research Center led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are investigating ways to design structural materials that develop fewer, smaller flaws under irradiation.

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Catalysts that power chemical reactions to produce the nylon used in clothing, cookware, machinery and electronics could get a lift with a new formulation that saves time, energy and natural resources.

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ITER, the world’s largest tokamak now under construction in France, will have over 60 diagnostic systems installed to enable plasma control, optimize plasma performance, and support machine protection¬. Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in collaboration with industry and universities, are developing the US contributions to ITER diagnostic systems. At this point, six of seven US diagnostic systems are in preliminary design with teams actively investigating physics and engineering issues through testing, prototype development and proof-of-principle activities.

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Advances in ultrathin films have made solar panels and semiconductor devices more efficient and less costly, and researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory say they’ve found a way to manufacture the films more easily, too.

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Engines, laptops and power plants generate waste heat. Thermoelectric materials can recover heat and improve energy efficiency. Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory explored the fundamental physics of the world’s best thermoelectric material.

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Thawing permafrost and contaminated sediment in marine coastal areas pose some of the greatest risks for the production of highly toxic methylmercury.

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Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Strangpresse LLC have signed a non-exclusive patent licensing deal to a portfolio of ORNL patents related to large-scale additive manufacturing that enable the production of parts much larger than the current standards—a potentially game-changing niche.

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Quasiparticles are central to energy applications but can be difficult to detect. Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have seen evidence of quasiparticles called negative trions forming and fading in an ultrathin layer of semiconducting material.

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High octane rating makes ethanol attractive; ORNL has potential solution to congestion, collisions; ORNL using advanced methods to discover new materials; ORNL hosting molten salt reactor workshop; Virginia Tech using ORNL computing resources for energy exploration

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Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have found a “greener” way to control the assembly of photovoltaic polymers in water using a surfactant—a detergent-like molecule—as a template.

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Electron microscopy is pointing researchers closer to the development of ultra-thin materials that transfer electrons with no resistance at relatively high temperatures.

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Lock Data Solutions has licensed a technology from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory designed to protect a company’s data from internal and external threats.

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Some of the 300 million tires discarded each year in the United States alone could be used in supercapacitors for vehicles and the electric grid using a technology developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Drexel University.

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A research demonstration unveiled today at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory combines clean energy technologies into a 3D-printed building and vehicle to showcase a new approach to energy use, storage and consumption.

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Single atoms or molecules imprisoned by laser light in a doughnut-shaped metal cage could unlock the key to advanced storage devices, computers and high-resolution instruments.

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In another step towards building the ITER fusion reactor, the US ITER team worked with international partners to verify the performance of the ITER central solenoid conductor. Using a US-designed “insert coil” or test coil inserted in a large high-field magnet, the international team tested the central solenoid conductor at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency test facility in Naka, Japan and evaluated the findings.

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With winding of the first production module for ITER’s central solenoid well underway, US ITER and its contractor, General Atomics, are now commissioning all of the necessary tooling stations for the 13 Tesla 1,000 metric ton electromagnet.

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A catalyst being developed by researchers could overcome one of the key obstacles still preventing automobile engines from running more cleanly and efficiently.

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A set of automated calibration techniques for tuning residential and commercial building energy efficiency software models to match measured data is now available as an open source code. The Autotune code is available on GitHub.

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ORNL lamp simulates sun in tests for NASA; ORNL model examines diabetes progression; Hybrid lubricant holds great promise for engine efficiency; ORNL, partners score success with wireless charging demo; New software helps in design of quantum computers, batteries

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In mere seconds, a system can identify and characterize a solid or liquid sample.

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Scientists are getting a glimpse of the future with a 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 today at the experiment site about 25 miles north of Grand Rapids.

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A booming economy and population led China to emerge in 2006 as the global leader in fossil-fuel carbon emissions, a distinction it still maintains. But exactly how much carbon China releases has been a topic of debate, with recent estimates varying by as much as 15 percent.

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A team led by James Vary of Iowa State University simulated clusters of neutrons called “neutron drops” to understand their properties better. The ab initio calculations, or calculations based on fundamental forces and principles, were performed on the Titan supercomputer at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Titan is the flagship machine of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), a DOE Office of Science User Facility. Leveraging Titan’s massive memory and computing power, the team was able to determine the ground-state energies and other properties of systems of up to 40 neutrons. The results were published in the December 2014 issue of Physics Letters B.

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An Oak Ridge National Laboratory team of comparative genomics and computational science researchers compared approximately 4,000 complete virus genomes downloaded from a public database known as GenBank. By compressing the sequence files, the team created a virus dendrogram that maps out the relationships among all the different virus families.

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Another barrier to commercially viable biofuels from sources other than corn has fallen with the engineering of a microbe that improves isobutanol yields by a factor of 10.

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Researchers with Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL’s) Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) have developed technology to squeeze materials with a million times the pressure of the earth’s atmosphere while studying them with neutrons. When they bombard these materials with neutrons, the materials provide an unprecedented picture of the changing nature of matter under extreme pressure.

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The Department of Energy Office of Science’s Nanoscale Science Research Centers jointly organized a workshop to discuss opportunities and challenges as imaging and data sciences merge. Those efforts will likely aid the Materials Genome Initiative.

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A microscope that will allow scientists studying biological and synthetic materials to simultaneously observe chemical and physical properties on and beneath the surface.