![ORNL researchers demonstrated ultrafast mapping of surface voltage dynamics because of ion migration induced by an electric field in a perovskite solar-cell device. Credit: Liam Collins/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy ORNL researchers demonstrated ultrafast mapping of surface voltage dynamics because of ion migration induced by an electric field in a perovskite solar-cell device. Credit: Liam Collins/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/news/images/02_Figure_AFM_ORNL%20v3.jpg?itok=SJocPWHL)
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![ORNL researchers demonstrated ultrafast mapping of surface voltage dynamics because of ion migration induced by an electric field in a perovskite solar-cell device. Credit: Liam Collins/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy ORNL researchers demonstrated ultrafast mapping of surface voltage dynamics because of ion migration induced by an electric field in a perovskite solar-cell device. Credit: Liam Collins/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/news/images/02_Figure_AFM_ORNL%20v3.jpg?itok=SJocPWHL)
![The ORNL team used atomic force microscopy to characterize ionic movement at a solar material’s surface. Using other microscopy techniques, spectroscopy and simulations, they analyzed ionic movement deeper down, revealing ionic movement across grain bound The ORNL team used atomic force microscopy to characterize ionic movement at a solar material’s surface. Using other microscopy techniques, spectroscopy and simulations, they analyzed ionic movement deeper down, revealing ionic movement across grain bound](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/news/images/03%20Imaging_ionic_moves.jpg?itok=EIfh-1zN)
![ORNL Image](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/web%20-%20cnms%202014-P00394.jpg?itok=7GPxiW-h)
Researchers sometimes need access to expertise and facilities not available at their universities, companies and institutes.
![Researchers at Rice University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory determined that two-dimensional materials grown onto a cone allow control over where defects called grain boundaries appear. Researchers at Rice University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory determined that two-dimensional materials grown onto a cone allow control over where defects called grain boundaries appear.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/0814_TILT-1-web-2cn81mr%20r1.jpg?itok=mXgBlelJ)
Rice University researchers have learned to manipulate two-dimensional materials to design in defects that enhance the materials’ properties.
![Researchers predicted where lithium ions (green spheres) would pack and move in an open framework of epitaxially strained vanadium dioxide, depicted here by a stick model (oxygen-connecting bonds are red and vanadium-connecting bonds, turquoise). Researchers predicted where lithium ions (green spheres) would pack and move in an open framework of epitaxially strained vanadium dioxide, depicted here by a stick model (oxygen-connecting bonds are red and vanadium-connecting bonds, turquoise).](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/news/images/Batteries_promising_electrode_mats_ORNL.jpg?itok=Hr0Pc2cf)
![Arthur Baddorf Arthur Baddorf](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/Baddorf200%20r1.jpg?itok=fNaNjcnA)
Arthur Baddorf and An-Ping Li, researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, have been named fellows of the American Vacuum Society. AVS fellowship is a selective and prestigious honor reserved for members
![ORNL’s Sergei Kalinin and Rama Vasudevan (far left) used scanning probe microscopy to discover inseparable interplay between bulk ferroelectricity and surface electrochemistry in a 30-nanometer-thick film of barium titanate. ORNL’s Sergei Kalinin and Rama Vasudevan (far left) used scanning probe microscopy to discover inseparable interplay between bulk ferroelectricity and surface electrochemistry in a 30-nanometer-thick film of barium titanate.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/news/images/02%20Inseparable_states_matter.jpg?itok=0IXX7oAc)
![This graphene nanoribbon was made bottom-up from a molecular precursor. Nanoribbon width and edge effects influence electronic behavior. Image credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy. This graphene nanoribbon was made bottom-up from a molecular precursor. Nanoribbon width and edge effects influence electronic behavior. Image credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/GNR-2.jpg?itok=UpcA2sYT)
![ORNL’s Yang Song, seated, Dale Hensley, standing left, and Adam Rondinone examine a carbon nanospike sample with a scanning electron microscope. (ORNL photo by Genevieve Martin) ORNL’s Yang Song, seated, Dale Hensley, standing left, and Adam Rondinone examine a carbon nanospike sample with a scanning electron microscope. (ORNL photo by Genevieve Martin)](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/blog/images/2016-P05216.jpg?itok=3f0wAmpY)
In a new twist to waste-to-fuel technology, ORNL scientists have developed an electrochemical process that uses tiny spikes of carbon and copper to turn carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into ethanol.
![ORNL’s Xiahan Sang unambiguously resolved the atomic structure of MXene, a 2D material promising for energy storage, catalysis and electronic conductivity. Image credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy; photographer Carlos Jones ORNL’s Xiahan Sang unambiguously resolved the atomic structure of MXene, a 2D material promising for energy storage, catalysis and electronic conductivity. Image credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy; photographer Carlos Jones](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/Sang_2016-P07680_0.jpg?itok=w0e5eR_U)
Researchers have long sought electrically conductive materials for economical energy-storage devices. Two-dimensional (2D) ceramics called MXenes are contenders.