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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.

Rice University researchers have learned to manipulate two-dimensional materials to design in defects that enhance the materials’ properties. The Rice lab of theoretical physicist Boris Yakobson and colleagues at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are combi...

L-R, ORNL’s Bruce Warmack, Nance Ericson with an early prototype of the Hot Stick (ORNL photographer Carlos Jones).
With more volts than ever before in electric vehicles (EVs) and on solar-paneled rooftops, first responder and electrical worker safety is a growing concern. Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are addressing the challenge with the develop...
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It’s been 10 years since the US Department of Energy first established a BioEnergy Science Center (BESC) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and researcher Gerald “Jerry” Tuskan has used that time and the lab’s and center’s resources and tools

ORNL’s David Cullen used sophisticated, low-voltage microscopy to directly observe the active sites of a low-cost, platinum group metal-free fuel cell catalyst developed by a Los Alamos-led research team. Photo by Jason Richards, ORNL/DOE
In order to reduce the cost of next-generation polymer electrolyte fuel cells for vehicles, researchers have been developing alternatives to the prohibitively expensive platinum and platinum-group metal (PGM) catalysts currently used in fuel cell
Used cooking oil can be converted into biofuel with carbon derived from recycled tires—a new method developed by an Oak Ridge National Laboratory-led research team.
Using a novel, reusable carbon material derived from old rubber tires, an Oak Ridge National Laboratory-led research team has developed a simple method to convert used cooking oil into biofuel.
A novel technique can help protect the innermost wall in a fusion reactor from the energy created when hydrogen isotopes are heated to temperatures hotter than the sun. Photo by General Atomics
Fusion scientists from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, as part of the DIII-D National Fusion Facility team at General Atomics, are studying an approach to insulate the reactor’s innermost wall that surrounds the burning plasma from the energy created when hydrogen isotopes are heated...
Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory created a new catalyst production process that doubles the output of renewable BTX, a group of high-value chemicals used to produce soda bottles and tires.

A simplified catalyst production process developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory could double the output of high-value chemicals used in making materials found in soda bottles and tires. Scientists found that single gallium cations are the key to increasing production of ben...

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).
An Oak Ridge National Laboratory–led team discovered that vanadium dioxide in a crystalline thin film makes an outstanding electrode for lithium-ion batteries. Theory and computation predicted a high capacity for lithium storage, which experiments confirmed with tests in coin c...
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In a first-of-a-kind experiment, researchers used neutrons to investigate the performance of a new aluminum alloy in a gasoline-powered engine—while the engine was running. A team from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory worked with industry partners to perfor...
Left to right: ORNL’s Derek Rose, Matthew Eicholtz, Philip Bingham, Ryan Kerekes, Shaun Gleason
In the quest to better understand and cure childhood diseases, scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital accumulate enormous amounts of data from powerful video microscopes. To help St. Jude scientists mine that trove of data, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory hav...