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Fullerenes appear as small silver spheres spread consistently throughout a network of small molecules, or polymers, in this schematic illustration of the morphology of a BHJ film with solvent additives. Credit: ORNL.
Advances in ultrathin films have made solar panels and semiconductor devices more efficient and less costly, and researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory say they’ve found a way to manufacture the films more easily, too. Typically the films—used b...
Redistribution of electronic clouds causes a lattice instability and freezes the flow of heat in highly efficient tin selenide. The crystal lattice adopts a distorted state in which the chemical bonds are stretched into an accordion-like configuration, an

Engines, laptops and power plants generate waste heat. Thermoelectric materials, which convert temperature gradients to electricity and vice versa, can recover some of that heat and improve energy efficiency. A team of scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridg...

Alvin Weinberg, then the director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, marks 6000 power hours performance of his brainchild, the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment, in October 1967.

The Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE), which ran a brief four years in the 1960s but earned an enduring legacy as an innovative reactor technology concept, this year marks a half century since its June 1965 startup. A workshop on molten salt reactor technologies, "From the ...

Coastal wetlands are just one of dozens of environments where scientists found genes that transform mercury into the neurotoxin methylmercury. (Photo courtesy of Smithsonian Environmental Research Center/Grace Schwartz)
Thawing permafrost and contaminated sediment in marine coastal areas pose some of the greatest risks for the production of highly toxic methylmercury, according to findings published in the journal Science Advances. The discovery of these newly identified location...
New additive manufacturing technologies are being explored at DOE's Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL.

The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Strangpresse LLC of Youngstown, Ohio, have signed a non-exclusive licensing agreement on a portfolio of ORNL patents related to large-scale additive manufacturing. ORNL is leading advances in the productio...

New additive manufacturing technologies are being explored at DOE's Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL.

The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Strangpresse LLC of Youngstown, Ohio, have signed a non-exclusive licensing agreement on a portfolio of ORNL patents related to large-scale additive manufacturing. ORNL is leading advances in the productio...

An artist’s rendering of the five protein structures solved using neutrons shown on top of the MaNDi instrument detectors. Image credit - ORNL/DOE
Plants and other biomass can be converted into a variety of renewable high-value products including carbon fibers, plastics, and liquid fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel that are beneficial for reducing petroleum use and vehicle emissions. Breaking down plants in order to release...
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Quasiparticles—excitations that behave collectively like particles—are central to energy applications but can be difficult to detect. Recently, however, researchers have seen evidence of quasiparticles called negative trions forming and fading in a layer of semiconducting mate...

A surfactant template guides the self-assembly of functional polymer structures in an aqueous solution. Image credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy; image by Youngkyu Han and Renee Manning.
The efficiency of solar cells depends on precise engineering of polymers that assemble into films 1,000 times thinner than a human hair. Today, formation of that polymer assembly requires solvents that can harm the environment, but scientists at the Department of En...
An ORNL-University of Rome study has delivered direct evidence of high-temperature superconductivity at the interface of two insulating oxide materials. Electron microscopy at ORNL showed that superconductivity arises from oxygen ions (circled in white) t
Electron microscopy at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory is pointing researchers closer to the development of ultra-thin materials that transfer electrons with no resistance at relatively high temperatures. The study delivers direct evidence of high-tem...