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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.

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A team of scientists has for the first time measured the elusive weak interaction between protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom. They had chosen the simplest nucleus consisting of one neutron and one proton for the study.

Adian Cook standing in front of GROVER autonomous bus

Arriving at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in late 2017 as a vehicle system engineer, Adian Cook could not foresee then that he would soon be the example of what happens to a research career when one is in the right place at the right time. But perfect timing is exactly what transpired for Cook as me...

Using as much as 50 percent lignin by weight, a new composite material created at ORNL is well suited for use in 3D printing.

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have created a recipe for a renewable 3D printing feedstock that could spur a profitable new use for an intractable biorefinery byproduct: lignin.

Sheng Dai innovates chemical separations, nanomaterials synthesis, and catalytic interfaces for energy applications at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and is the lab’s most prolific author.
Sheng Dai, the most prolific author ever at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, had no intention of pursuing a career in science as a young man; he wanted to paint instead. But he couldn’t help noticing that the stones artists carved with their initials and ...
Michael L. Simpson
Michael L. Simpson, a Corporate Fellow researcher at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been elected fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). The NAI fellows selection committee and board of directors cited Simpson for "a high...
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Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have confirmed that methane-producing microorganisms known as methanogens are responsible for the greenhouse gas that leaks from living Eastern cottonwood trees in Southeastern forests.
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By studying the inner workings of lithium-ion batteries, Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have developed a highly sensitive technique to characterize and measure at the electrolyte and electrode interface.

AAAS Fellows: Phillip F. Britt, Stephan Irle, Bruce Moye, and Amy Wolfe

Four researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The AAAS is the world’s largest multidisciplinary scientific society and publisher of the Sci...