Research
Highlights...
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Vitalij
Pecharsky
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| Number 109 |
June 24, 2002 |
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Ball-milling takes away the solvents
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| The ball-mill cannister |
Researchers at DOE's Ames Laboratory have found a way to combine organic materials in solid state without the use of solvents. This revolutionary solvent-free process means that environmentally harmful solvents, such as benzene, could be removed from many of the chemical processes used to produce millions of consumer and industrial products. The discovery uses high-energy ball-milling, a well-known process for producing and modifying metal alloys. Materials to be processed are placed in a hardened steel vial along with steel balls. The vial is vigorously shaken and mechanical energy transferred into the system alters the crystallinity of the solids and provides mass transfer, eventually combining the materials into new compounds.
[Kerry Gibson, 515/294-1405,
kgibson@ameslab.gov]
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Conducting/insulating materials reveal their secrets
Physicists at DOE's Brookhaven
Lab have provided new insight into why some oxide materials
composed of stacks of metallic planes are conductors in the planes
but insulators perpendicular to the planes. The scientists found
that this dual property was due to the presence or absence of
strongly interacting electrons within the planes. Below some temperature—which
varies between -100 and -300 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on
the material—electrons within the planes no longer interact
strongly with each other, and are free to move within and between
the planes, allowing the material to conduct in all directions.
These results will help scientists gain new insight into superconductors—materials
that conduct electricity with no energy loss.
[Karen McNulty Walsh 631/344-8350,
kmcnulty@bnl.gov]
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Signs of a new relative
of the proton
Scientists at the DOE's Fermilab
believe they have found signals of three-quark combinations never
seen before experimentally. Protons and neutrons are the most
common three-quark combinations, called baryons. They only use
combinations of the up and down quarks, and there are four other
quarks
(charm, strange, top and bottom). The SELEX
experiment has identified three candidates for baryons containing
two charm quarks, a combination which might not have been produced
in nature since the earliest moments after the Big
Bang. However, experiment co-spokesperson Jim Russ of Carnegie
Mellon University stressed, "many puzzling aspects remain"
in the results.
[Mike Perricone, 630/840-5678,
mikep@fnal.gov]
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"Slick" coating nears
commercialization
"Near-Frictionless Carbon" coating, developed in 1997 at DOE's Argonne
National Laboratory, stands on the brink of commercialization.
After its disclosure, 3,000 engineers expressed interest in the
new coating, which has the lowest coefficient of friction ever
measured. Not only is the material slick, it's extremely wear-resistant.
A sample of the coating survived 17.5 million passes of a steel
ball pressed against its surface—the testing machine failed,
but the coating didn't. Argonne scientists then turned their efforts
to converting the laboratory curiosity into something industry
could use. Collaborative research with CemeCon USA adapted a coating
techique, allowing hundreds of small parts to be carbon-coated.
[Catherine Foster, 630/252-5580,
cfoster@anl.gov]
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Deep ocean in the Lab
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| CO2 in viewport |
Researchers at DOE's National Energy
Technology Laboratory have designed and constructed a high-pressure
water tunnel that simulates deep-ocean temperature and pressure
conditions, up to 3460 meters. The facility is being used to investigate
the thermal, physical, and thermodynamic behavior of CO2
under the conditions anticipated in deep-ocean sequestration scenarios.
By manipulating water flow, the rig is capable of holding a buoyant
drop of CO2 stable for extended observation through
its viewing port (photo), and will help scientists understand
the formation
mechanism of CO2 hydrate—carbon dioxide
trapped in ice—and the ultimate fate of sequestered CO2
in deep-ocean conditions.
[Damon
Benedict, 304/285-4913,
damon.benedict@netl.doe.gov]
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Scientific path spans the globe for
Ames Lab's Pecharsky
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Vitalij
Pecharsky
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Science has always been an important part of Vitalij Pecharsky's
life and his journey on that path was determined early on.
It's a path that's led him to become a leader in the field
of magnetic refrigeration research and to collaborate with
Ames Laboratory
colleagues in developing a mechanochemical process for creating
organic compounds without the use of solvents. But as a boy
growing up in the Ukraine, he never imagined that his love
of science would lead him to a U.S. federal laboratory and
a land-grant, state university located smack-dab in the middle
of Iowa.
Born into a family of professors—his father is a mathematician
and his mother was a physicist in the Polytechnic Institute
in the Ukraine—Pecharsky decided to follow in their footsteps.
After graduating with a Ph.D. from Lviv State University in
the Ukraine, he joined the faculty there in the Department
of Inorganic Chemistry, the former Soviet Union's leading
research group involved in the study of intermetallic compounds.
He trained and worked as a materials scientist and crystallographer,
researching the crystal structure of materials using x-rays.
Pecharsky's career path took its dramatic turn in 1989 when
he took part in a scientifice exchange program between the
United States and Soviet Union. During that first visit, he
came to Ames Laboratory where he met and worked with senior
metallurgist Karl Gschneidner. In 1993, Gschneidner invited
him back to Ames Lab as a visiting scientist, and two years
later Pecharsky received a permanent position at the Ames
Laboratory. In 1998, he secured a tenured position in Iowa
State University's materials science and engineering department.
As a member of Gschneidner's group, Pecharsky has been involved
in the magnetic refrigeration technology research that has
focused on fundamental issues—looking to develop new
materials with better magnetocaloric properties. Pecharsky
has researched the physical properties of materials, in particular,
their magnetic and thermodynamic properties.
"Being a crystallographer by background helps," says Pecharsky.
"I understand how the materials are built and what their structure
is."—Oksana Opsomer
Submitted by DOE's Ames
Laboratory
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