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ORNL researchers used a new scanning transmission electron microscopy technique to sculpt 3-D nanoscale features in a complex oxide material.

Electron microscopy researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a unique way to build 3-D structures with finely controlled shapes as small as one to two billionths of a meter. 

A hybrid 3-D optical microscope – mass spectrometry map showing optical brightness (height) and chemical distribution of poly(2vinylpyridine) (red) and poly(N-vinylcarbazole) (blue) signals of a 20 micron-by-20 micron area of a polymer blend. (ORNL/DOE)
A tool that provides world-class microscopy and spatially resolved chemical analysis shows considerable promise for advancing a number of areas of study, including chemical science, pharmaceutical development and disease progression. The hybrid optical microscope/...
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The Tennessee Automotive Manufacturers Association (TAMA) has inducted Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Ron Graves into its Hall of Fame. TAMA honored Graves for his leadership of the Department of Energy laboratory's Sustainable Transportation Program.

Chaitanya Narula led analysis of an ORNL biofuel-to-hydrocarbon conversion technology to explain the underlying process.

A new study from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory explains the mechanism behind a technology that converts bio-based ethanol into hydrocarbon blend-stocks for use as fossil fuel alternatives. Scientists have experimented for decades with a cl...

Conceptual art connects the atomic underpinnings of the neutron-rich calcium-48 nucleus with the Crab Nebula, which has a neutron star at its heart. Zeros and ones depict the computational power needed to explore objects that differ in size by 18 orders o
An international team led by Gaute Hagen of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory used America’s most powerful supercomputer, Titan, to compute the neutron distribution and related observables of calcium-48
In complex alloys, chemical disorder results from a greater variety of elements than found in traditional alloys. Traces here indicate electronic states in a complex alloy; smeared traces reduced electrical and thermal conductivity. Image credit: Oak Ridg
Designing alloys to withstand extreme environments is a fundamental challenge for materials scientists. Energy from radiation can create imperfections in alloys, so researchers in an Energy Frontier Research Center led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National ...
An ORNL technology that converts waste rubber into a valuable energy storage material has been licensed to RJ Lee Group. ORNL inventors Amit Naskar (left) and Parans Paranthaman flank Richard Lee, CEO of RJ Lee Group.
RJ Lee Group has signed an agreement to license an invention developed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory that converts waste rubber into a valuable energy storage material. The technology turns rubber sources such as tires into carbon blac...
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Catalysts that power chemical reactions to produce the nylon used in clothing, cookware, machinery and electronics could get a lift with a new formulation that saves time, energy and natural resources.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Award-winning author Richard Rhodes, who wrote the book “The Making of the Atomic Bomb,” told an Oak Ridge audience that despite new forms of clean energy being developed, coal is still the world’s primary producer of energy, listing several reasons. “In a world...
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...