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Caption: Jaswinder Sharma makes battery coin cells with a lightweight current collector made of thin layers of aligned carbon fibers in a polymer with carbon nanotubes. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Electric vehicles can drive longer distances if their lithium-ion batteries deliver more energy in a lighter package. A prime weight-loss candidate is the current collector, a component that often adds 10% to the weight of a battery cell without contributing energy.

Kim Tutin, founder and chief executive officer of Captis Aire, receives the EPA Green Chemistry Challenge Award. Credit: Eric Vance/USEPA

The founder of a startup company who is working with ORNL has won an Environmental Protection Agency Green Chemistry Challenge Award for a unique air pollution control technology. 

ORNL Composites Innovation staff members David Nuttall, left, and Vipin Kumar use additive manufacturing compression molding to produce a composite-based finished part in minutes. AMCM technology could accelerate decarbonization of the automobile and aerospace industries. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Researchers at ORNL are extending the boundaries of composite-based materials used in additive manufacturing, or AM. ORNL is working with industrial partners who are exploring AM, also known as 3D printing, as a path to higher production levels and fewer supply chain interruptions.

The sun sets behind the ORNL Visitor Center in this aerial photo from April 2023. Credit: Kase Clapp/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

In fiscal year 2023 — Oct. 1–Sept. 30, 2023 — Oak Ridge National Laboratory was awarded more than $8 million in technology maturation funding through the Department of Energy’s Technology Commercialization Fund, or TCF.

ORNL’s Fulvia Pilat and Karren More recently participated in the inaugural 2023 Nanotechnology Infrastructure Leaders Summit and Workshop at the White House, held Sept. 11–13. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

ORNL’s Fulvia Pilat and Karren More recently participated in the inaugural 2023 Nanotechnology Infrastructure Leaders Summit and Workshop at the White House.

Steve Nolan, left, who manages many ORNL facilities for United Cleanup Oak Ridge, and Carl Dukes worked closely together to accommodate bringing members of the public into the Oak Ridge Reservation to collect distant images from overhead for the BRIAR biometric recognition project. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Carl Dukes’ career as an adept communicator got off to a slow start: He was about 5 years old when he spoke for the first time. “I’ve been making up for lost time ever since,” joked Dukes, a technical professional at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Experts at the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility worked with Magotteaux-Pulaski to develop a more durable composition and new 3D-printing process for abrasion-resistant materials. Credit: Magotteaux

For more than 100 years, Magotteaux has provided grinding materials and castings for the mining, cement and aggregates industries. The company, based in Belgium, began its international expansion in 1968. Its second international plant has been a critical part of the Pulaski, Tennessee, economy since 1972.

ORNL researchers encoded grid hardware operating data into a color band hidden inside photographs, video or artwork, as shown in this photo. The visual can then be transmitted to a utility’s control center for decoding. Credit: ORNL/U.S. Dept. of Energy

Inspired by one of the mysteries of human perception, an ORNL researcher invented a new way to hide sensitive electric grid information from cyberattack: within a constantly changing color palette.

Image of outerspace

Few things carry the same aura of mystery as dark matter. The name itself radiates secrecy, suggesting something hidden in the shadows of the Universe.

NASA scientist Andrew Needham used the MARS neutron imaging instrument at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to study moon rock samples brought back from the Apollo missions. Credit: Jeremy Rumsey/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

How did we get from stardust to where we are today? That’s the question NASA scientist Andrew Needham has pondered his entire career.