News

Kai Xiao: Growing novel, nanoscale materials to support future energy needs

January 19, 2017

Kai Xiao's work as a staff scientist at ORNL’s Center for Nanophase Materials Science gives him access to some of the world’s most powerful tools to investigate materials as small as one-billionth of a meter, or at the nanoscale. He joins multidisciplinar

Neon atoms between graphene sheets poke the top sheet from below and stretch the crystalline lattice, forming a bubble at a pressure larger than that of the ocean at its greatest depth.

Materials – Measuring and manipulating graphene

January 4, 2017

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory found a simpler way to measure adhesion between graphene sheets, compared to a sophisticated method used in a 2015 study: They measured how much graphene deflects when neon atoms poke it from below to create

Advanced materials take flight in the LEAP engine, featuring ceramic matrix composites developed over a quarter-century by GE with help from DOE and ORNL. Image credit: General Electric

Ceramic matrix composites take flight in LEAP jet engine

January 3, 2017

Ceramic matrix composite (CMC) materials are made of coated ceramic fibers surrounded by a ceramic matrix. They are tough, lightweight and capable of withstanding temperatures 300–400 degrees F hotter than metal alloys can endure.

Congratulations to new PhD

October 27, 2016

Nano-spike catalysts convert carbon dioxide directly into ethanol

October 12, 2016

In a new twist to waste-to-fuel technology, scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed an electrochemical process that uses tiny spikes of carbon and copper to turn carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into ethanol.

A simulation shows the path for the collision of a krypton ion (blue) with a defected graphene sheet and subsequent formation of a carbon vacancy (red). Red shades indicate local strain in the graphene. Image credit: Kichul Yoon, Penn State

Simulations Show How to Turn Graphene’s Defects into Assets

October 7, 2016

Researchers at Penn State, the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company have developed methods to control defects in two-dimensional materials, such as graphene, that may lead to improved membranes for

General Mode KPFM uses advanced signal processing and analysis methods to extract local electronic properties directly from a noisy cantilever deflection signal.

Materials—Quickly gaining deep insight

October 3, 2016

Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are harnessing big data capture and analytics to quickly develop deep insight into materials and their dynamics.

An ORNL study found that complex oxide materials can self-organize into electrical circuits, which creates the possibility for new types of computer chips.

Complex materials can self-organize into circuits, may form basis for multifunction chips

September 14, 2016

Researchers studying the behavior of nanoscale materials at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have uncovered remarkable behavior that could advance microprocessors beyond today’s silicon-based chips. The study, featured on the cover

Electron beam microscope directly writes nanoscale features in liquid with metal ink

September 9, 2016

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are the first to harness a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) to directly write tiny patterns in metallic “ink,” forming features in liquid that are finer than half the wi

Miaofang Chi: Searching for big solutions to science’s tiny enigmas

August 30, 2016

Miaofang Chi is an early career scientist making a name for herself—and microscopy—at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She is a researcher at ORNL’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences whose early-career

Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences