News

In this artist’s conception of the process, an automated deposition system places a new material onto a base material (purple beam, right) as the last sample that was made is analyzed and sent to the AI (green beams, brain, left). The AI tells the pulsed laser deposition machine what to do next (data cable, bottom).
Researchers harness AI for autonomous discovery and optimization of materials
Students gather at a poster session
Students acquire skills at Quantum Science Center
Rectangular box being lifted by a red pully system up the left side of the building
Researchers make ‘green’ floor to replace steel

Filter News

Area of Research

News Type

Date

News Topics

Media Contacts

Connect with ORNL

Rectangular box being lifted by a red pully system up the left side of the building

Researchers make ‘green’ floor to replace steel

Researchers at ORNL and the University of Maine have designed and 3D-printed a single-piece, recyclable natural-material floor panel tested to be strong enough to replace construction materials like steel. 

A tan and black cylinder that is made up of three long tubes vertically with a black line horizontally going across the bottom and the top. There is a piece laying on the floor that says ORNL.

Shattering heat limitations

ORNL researchers used electron-beam additive manufacturing to 3D-print the first complex, defect-free tungsten parts with complex geometries. 

ORNL’s Erin Webb is co-leading a new Circular Bioeconomy Systems Convergent Research Initiative focused on advancing production and use of renewable carbon from Tennessee to meet societal needs. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Q&A with Erin Webb: Toward a Tennessee circular bioeconomy

ORNL’s Erin Webb is co-leading a new Circular Bioeconomy Systems Convergent Research Initiative focused on advancing production and use of renewable carbon from Tennessee to meet societal needs. 

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

Going the distance

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.

Naval Academy midshipmen look at tiny particle fuels while touring ORNL. Credit: Lena Shoemaker/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Military academy students join effort to send a nuclear thermal rocket to space by 2027

Nuclear engineering students from the United States Military Academy and United States Naval Academy are working with researchers at ORNL to complete design concepts for a nuclear propulsion rocket to go to space in 2027 as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DRACO program.

SM2ART team members receive the CAMX Combined Strength Award at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. Pictured here are, from left, ORNL’s Dan Coughlin, Sana Elyas, Halil Tekinalp, Amber Hubbard, Soydan Ozcan; University of Maine’s Susan MacKay, Angelina Buzzelli, Scott Tomlinson, Wesley Bisson; and ORNL’s Matt Korey and Vlastimil Kunc. Credit: University of Maine

BioHome3D team wins CAMX Combined Strength Award

The Hub & Spoke Sustainable Materials & Manufacturing Alliance for Renewable Technologies, or SM2ART, program has been honored with the composites industry’s Combined Strength Award at the Composites and Advanced Materials Expo, or CAMX, 2023 in Atlanta. This distinction goes to the team that applies their knowledge, resources and talent to solve a problem by making the best use of composites materials.

ORNL Composites Innovation staff members David Nuttall, left, and Vipin Kumar use additive manufacturing compression molding to produce a composite-based finished part in minutes. AMCM technology could accelerate decarbonization of the automobile and aerospace industries. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

‘Cradle to cradle’ research expands composites’ 3D-printing possibilities

Researchers at ORNL are extending the boundaries of composite-based materials used in additive manufacturing, or AM. ORNL is working with industrial partners who are exploring AM, also known as 3D printing, as a path to higher production levels and fewer supply chain interruptions.

The sun sets behind the ORNL Visitor Center in this aerial photo from April 2023. Credit: Kase Clapp/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

ORNL projects receive $8M from DOE Technology Commercialization Fund in FY23

In fiscal year 2023 — Oct. 1–Sept. 30, 2023 — Oak Ridge National Laboratory was awarded more than $8 million in technology maturation funding through the Department of Energy’s Technology Commercialization Fund, or TCF.

The OpeN-AM experimental platform, installed at the VULCAN instrument, features a robotic arm that prints layers of molten metal to create complex shapes. Credit: Jill Hemman/ORNL, U.S Dept. of Energy

ORNL wins six R&D 100 research awards

Technologies developed by researchers at ORNL have received six 2023 R&D 100 Awards.  

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory discovered a tug-of-war strategy to enhance chemical separations needed to recover critical materials. Credit: Alex Ivanov/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Tug-of-war strategy supercharges lanthanide separation

ORNL scientists combined two ligands, or metal-binding molecules, to target light and heavy lanthanides simultaneously for exceptionally efficient separation.