A protective coating developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory can extend the life of costly cutting and boring tools by more than 20 percent, potentially saving millions of dollars over the life of a project. The nanostructure coating, NanoSHIELD, is made from the laser fusing of glassy iron powde...
Atom-by-atom studies of a two-dimensional hybrid material at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are paving the way toward novel low-power electronics. ORNL researchers used electron microscopy to examine newly synthesized samples of a combination of graphene and molybdenum disulfide, which could one day ...
By using graphic processing units in a test bed for the Titan supercomputer, researchers have more than tripled the speed of a code designed to improve efficiency, longevity and safety of nuclear reactors. The algorithm, dubbed Denovo, sweeps through a virtual reactor to track the location of radioa...
A hybrid supercomputer capable of 10 to 100 petaflops, or a quadrillion calculations per second, can support the Materials Genome Initiative, says Jeongnim Kim of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The initiative aims to accelerate understanding of the fundamentals of materials, providing practical info...
Wireless sensors that could help the steel industry save money and reduce energy use and emissions are being put to the test at Commercial Metals Co. in Cayce, S.C. A team led by Glenn Allgood of Oak Ridge National Laboratory recently installed wireless sensors designed to withstand harsh conditions...
Researchers from Corning Inc. used the VULCAN Engineering Materials Diffractometer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Spallation Neutron Source to investigate the mechanical properties of ceramic materials used in car emission control and filtration devices. The instrument helps researchers understa...
Windshields, windows, solar panels, eyeglasses, heart stents and hundreds of other products representing a multi-billion-dollar market are potential targets for Oak Ridge National Laboratory's thin-film superhydrophobic technology. Conventional commercially available products tend to lack transparen...
Millions of seashells off the coast of Japan may be able to play a role in cleaning up radioactive cesium that was dumped into the ocean after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Japan. Researchers from Japan used the NOMAD instrument at the Spallation Neutron Source to study ground sea...
Tiny rod-like nanoparticles of gold or silver able to adsorb, transmit and reflect light at the nanoscale could hold the key to faster computers, higher-resolution microscopes, more efficient light-emitting diodes and a new generation of chemical and biological detectors. In a paper published in the...
Shape-memory alloys are an engineer's dream ? materials that shape-shift spontaneously to accommodate changing operating conditions. Scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration are studying the microstructure and micromechanics of SMAs using the VULCAN neutron diffractometer at...