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Media Contacts
![Red background fading into black from top to bottom. Over top the background are 20 individual rectangles lined up in three rows horizontally with a red and blue line moving through it.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2024-05/cover_image.jpg?h=f61ad192&itok=-DQxXWM_)
ORNL scientists develop a sample holder that tumbles powdered photochemical materials within a neutron beamline — exposing more of the material to light for increased photo-activation and better photochemistry data capture.
![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.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2024-05/0N4A1403.jpg?h=193fc484&itok=LG0sANT8)
ORNL researchers used electron-beam additive manufacturing to 3D-print the first complex, defect-free tungsten parts with complex geometries.
![The ORNL-developed inspection system uses an angled window to minimize light reflections while capturing images inside waveguides that are designed to channel microwaves at the ITER fusion project.](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2024-04/Waveguide%20Camera%20illumination%20%282%29.jpg?h=dc515907&itok=DIfDwKC5)
Inspection technology developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory will help deliver plasma heating to the ITER international fusion facility.
![Heat is typically carried through a material by vibrations known as phonons. In some crystals, however, different atomic motions — known as phasons — carry heat three times faster and farther. This illustration shows phasons made by rearranging atoms, shown by arrows. Credit: Jill Hemman/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-02/23-G01840_Phason_Manly_proof3_0.png?h=10d202d3&itok=3NpjriWi)
Warming a crystal of the mineral fresnoite, ORNL scientists discovered that excitations called phasons carried heat three times farther and faster than phonons, the excitations that usually carry heat through a material.
![When an electron beam drills holes in heated graphene, single-atom vacancies, shown in purple, diffuse until they join with other vacancies to form stationary structures and chains, shown in blue. Credit: Ondrej Dyck/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-12/variation.jpg?h=bedff801&itok=9S6jmOVH)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers serendipitously discovered when they automated the beam of an electron microscope to precisely drill holes in the atomically thin lattice of graphene, the drilled holes closed up.
![With seismic and acoustic data recorded by remote sensors near ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor, researchers could predict whether the reactor was on or off with 98% accuracy. Credit: Nathan Armistead/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-05/Seismo%20acoustic%20draft%20v3_0.jpg?h=2e111cc1&itok=0oLpYDc8)
An Oak Ridge National Laboratory team developed a novel technique using sensors to monitor seismic and acoustic activity and machine learning to differentiate operational activities at facilities from “noise” in the recorded data.
![Virginia-based battery technology company, BTRY, has licensed several electrolyte and thin-film coating technologies, developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to make batteries with increased energy density, at lower cost, and with an improved safety profile in crashes. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-03/2021-P11907.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=dPCyvLmj)
Several electrolyte and thin-film coating technologies, developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, have been licensed by BTRY, a battery technology company based in Virginia, to make batteries with increased energy density, at lower cost, and with an improved safety profile in crashes.
![Samples of four unique materials hitched a ride to space as part of an effort by ORNL scientists to evaluate how each fares under space conditions. Credit: Zac Ward/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-02/unlabeled_0.jpg?h=06058838&itok=4F9H5cRo)
To study how space radiation affects materials for spacecraft and satellites, Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists sent samples to the International Space Station. The results will inform design of radiation-resistant magnetic and electronic systems.
![The first central solenoid module arrived at the ITER site in St. Paul-lez-Durance, France on Sept. 9. Credit: ITER Organization](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-09/central_solenoid_module_1_0.jpeg?h=0a638d1e&itok=j9UFi53Z)
Staff at Oak Ridge National Laboratory organized transport for a powerful component that is critical to the world’s largest experiment, the international ITER project.
![An ORNL research team is investigating new catalysts for ethanol conversion that could advance the cost-effective production of renewable transportation. Credit: Unsplash](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-07/catalyst_story_tip_0.jpg?h=78aab1d8&itok=0ieRdqRo)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have developed a new catalyst for converting ethanol into C3+ olefins – the chemical