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Hood Whitson, chief executive officer of Element3, and Cynthia Jenks, associate laboratory director for the Physical Sciences Directorate, shake hands during the Element3 licensing event at ORNL on May 3, 2024. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

A collection of seven technologies for lithium recovery developed by scientists from ORNL has been licensed to Element3, a Texas-based company focused on extracting lithium from wastewater produced by oil and gas production. 

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.

The Roane State Community College associates are (from left) Jeff Manning, Chris Zerr, Bruce Lester, Joe Pyle, Darrell Roddy and Rusty Dryman.

Bruce Lester has had a lot of jobs: fisherman, horse trainer, “professional stair builder.” He last worked for a real estate company, surveying land using geographic software. “When the bottom fell out of the construction industry and the company downsized, I got laid off,” 

Sheng Dai of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Sheng Dai of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been named to a list of the most highly cited researchers in the world. Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers is an annual list that recognizes some of the world’s leading 

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An ultra-high-resolution technique used for the first time to study polymer fibers that trap uranium in seawater may cause researchers to rethink the best methods to harvest this potential fuel for nuclear reactors. The work of a team led by Carter Abney, a W...
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A state-of-the-art web application developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory has received a national award for technology innovation. The Research Enterprise Solution program, or RESolution, was the overall winner of the 2015 Excellence.Gov Awards, given by the American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC) to honor the best government information technology programs.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
A high school senior at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has published research showing that, while it’s just part of a complex story, higher electricity costs alone cannot be counted on to reduce demand for electricity and cut greenhouse gas emissions. The paper, published in “Susta...
Illustration of the structure of a phosphoglycerate kinase protein that was subjected to molecular dynamics simulations. The relative motions of the red and blue domains of the proteins are highly complex, and can be described in terms of motion of a conf
Supercomputing simulations at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory could change how researchers understand the internal motions of proteins that play functional, structural and regulatory roles in all living organisms. The team’s results are featur...
ORNL’s Nancy Dudney (center) and former lab researchers Jane Howe and Chengdu Liang were among the developers of lithium-sulfur materials that have been licensed to Solid Power for use in next-generation batteries.

The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Solid Power Inc. of Louisville, Colo., have signed an exclusive agreement licensing lithium-sulfur materials for next-generation batteries. The company licensed a portfolio of ORNL patents relating to lit...

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Atomic-level imaging of catalysts by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory could help manufacturers lower the cost and improve the performance of emission-free fuel cell technologies.