Filter News
Area of Research
News Type
News Topics
- (-) Bioenergy (6)
- (-) Energy Storage (14)
- (-) Machine Learning (5)
- (-) Materials Science (19)
- (-) Mercury (1)
- (-) Space Exploration (1)
- (-) Sustainable Energy (12)
- 3-D Printing/Advanced Manufacturing (13)
- Advanced Reactors (10)
- Artificial Intelligence (6)
- Big Data (9)
- Biology (4)
- Biomedical (16)
- Biotechnology (1)
- Chemical Sciences (2)
- Clean Water (2)
- Climate Change (5)
- Computer Science (26)
- Coronavirus (14)
- Cybersecurity (2)
- Environment (16)
- Exascale Computing (2)
- Frontier (1)
- Fusion (12)
- Grid (6)
- High-Performance Computing (1)
- Isotopes (4)
- Mathematics (2)
- Microscopy (5)
- Molten Salt (1)
- Nanotechnology (5)
- Neutron Science (13)
- Nuclear Energy (23)
- Physics (8)
- Polymers (3)
- Quantum Science (6)
- Security (2)
- Summit (10)
- Transformational Challenge Reactor (3)
- Transportation (9)
Media Contacts
![Drawing of air taxi](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-11/airTaxi_730x457_0.jpg?h=f017b3e4&itok=FiV6MYk7)
If air taxis become a viable mode of transportation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have estimated they could reduce fuel consumption significantly while alleviating traffic congestion.
![A Co-Optima research team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Jim Szybist in collaboration with Argonne, Sandia and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, created a merit function tool that evaluates six fuel properties and their impact on engine performance, giving the scientific community a guide to quickly evaluate biofuels. Credit: ORNL/U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-12/2017-P08539-2_0.jpg?h=b6236d98&itok=h0OT2BqC)
As ORNL’s fuel properties technical lead for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Co-Optimization of Fuel and Engines, or Co-Optima, initiative, Jim Szybist has been on a quest for the past few years to identify the most significant indicators for predicting how a fuel will perform in engines designed for light-duty vehicles such as passenger cars and pickup trucks.
![ORNL researchers determined lower heat exchange in lithium-ion batteries is caused by the strong non-harmonic forces among ions and weak interaction between layers, providing guidance for high-density battery design. Credit: Tianli Feng/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-11/Batteries-Catching_heat.jpg?h=8268b4f9&itok=A6MFlGFT)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers proved that the heat transport ability of lithium-ion battery cathodes is much lower than previously determined, a finding that could help explain barriers to increasing energy storage capacity and boosting performance.
![UTK researchers used neutron probes at ORNL to confirm established fundamental chemical rules can also help understand and predict atomic movements and distortions in materials when disorder is introduced, as arrows show. Credit: Eric O’Quinn/UTK](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-11/Neutrons-disordered_ordered_0.png?h=e91a75a9&itok=hlh7xoRJ)
Pauling’s Rules is the standard model used to describe atomic arrangements in ordered materials. Neutron scattering experiments at Oak Ridge National Laboratory confirmed this approach can also be used to describe highly disordered materials.
A collaboration between the ORNL and a Florida-based medical device manufacturer has led to the addition of 500 jobs in the Miami area to support the mass production of N95 respirator masks.
![Water from local creeks now flows through these simulated streams in the Aquatic Ecology Laboratory, providing new opportunities to study mercury pollution and advance solutions. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-10/img_3692.jpg?h=77bd3ecb&itok=dM1eszup)
New capabilities and equipment recently installed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are bringing a creek right into the lab to advance understanding of mercury pollution and accelerate solutions.
![stacked poplar logs](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-10/poplar_sized.jpg?h=e91a75a9&itok=Oq847ULr)
Popular wisdom holds tall, fast-growing trees are best for biomass, but new research by two U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories reveals that is only part of the equation.
![Shown here is an on-chip carbonized electrode microstructure from a scanning electron microscope. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-10/Lavrik%20Story%20Tip_0.jpg?h=33192216&itok=nNMwVUtU)
Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee designed and demonstrated a method to make carbon-based materials that can be used as electrodes compatible with a specific semiconductor circuitry.
![Jianlin Li employs ORNL’s world-class battery research facility to validate the innovative safety technology. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-01/2020-P14810-blurred_0.jpg?h=245bf488&itok=DMmYlD02)
Soteria Battery Innovation Group has exclusively licensed and optioned a technology developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory designed to eliminate thermal runaway in lithium ion batteries due to mechanical damage.
![Xunxiang Hu, a Eugene P. Wigner Fellow in ORNL’s Materials Science and Technology Division, designed this machine to produce large, crack-free pieces of yttrium hydride to be used as a moderator in the core of ORNL’s Transformational Challenge Reactor and other microreactors. Credit: Xunxiang Hu/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2020-09/HuYHxphoto.jpg?h=eef83f16&itok=7KfkqQLh)
About 60 years ago, scientists discovered that a certain rare earth metal-hydrogen mixture, yttrium, could be the ideal moderator to go inside small, gas-cooled nuclear reactors.