Skip to main content
Close up image of researcher's hands showing a PAN nanofiber next to a strand of human hair.

Stronger than steel and lighter than aluminum, carbon fiber is a staple in aerospace and high-performance vehicles — and now, scientists at ORNL have found a way to make it even stronger.

Two ORNL researchers inspect carbon fiber materials - one black rectangular sheet and one see-through sheet of film.

Researchers at ORNL have developed an innovative new technique using carbon nanofibers to enhance binding in carbon fiber and other fiber-reinforced polymer composites – an advance likely to improve structural materials for automobiles, airplanes and other applications that require lightweight and strong materials. 

Large group photo outside on stairs at the Quantum Science Center all hands meeting.

Members of the Quantum Science Center, or QSC, gathered at an all-hands meeting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in mid-May to reflect on the remarkable accomplishments from the past five years and to prepare for what members hope to be the next five years of the center.

Five scientists and one in a boat are conducting fish sampling for the biological monitoring program on the DOE Oak Ridge Reservation.

ORNL’s Biological Monitoring and Abatement Program, or BMAP, is marking 40 years of helping steward the DOE’s 33,476 acres of land on which some of the nation’s most powerful science and technology missions are carried out. 

ORNL researcher is sitting at a transmission electron microscopy board in a lab at ORNL

As the focus on energy resiliency and competitiveness increases, the development of advanced materials for next-generation, commercial fusion reactors is gaining attention. A recent paper examines a promising candidate for these reactors: ultra-high-temperature ceramics, or UHTCs.

Paul Kairys

Paul is exploring the next frontier: bridging quantum computing with neutron science. His research aims to integrate quantum algorithms with neutron scattering experiments, opening new possibilities for understanding materials at an atomic level.

ORNL's Quantum Science Center Director is speaking to a attendee at Purdue University Quantum Science Center Summer School poster presentation

The fifth annual Quantum Science Center, or QSC, Summer School at Purdue University, held Apr. 21 through Apr. 25, 2025, welcomed its largest group of students to date. Experts from industry, academia and national laboratories gathered at the Purdue Quantum Science and Engineering Institute to share their research in multiple areas of quantum science.

Illustration of a real-time simulation showing a metallic nanoparticle’s optical response to light using RT-TDDFT. The image depicts electron oscillations and surrounding electromagnetic fields. Four inset panels represent applications: plasmon-enhanced biosensing, quantum computing, photochemical catalysis, and cancer detection through photothermal therapy.

A research team from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in collaboration with North Carolina State University, has developed a simulation capable of predicting how tens of thousands of electrons move in materials in real time, or natural time rather than compute time.

Illustration of the GRETA detector, a spherical array of metal cylinders. The detector is divided into two halves to show the inside of the machine. Both halves are attached to metal harnesses, displayed against a black and green cyber-themed background.

Analyzing massive datasets from nuclear physics experiments can take hours or days to process, but researchers are working to radically reduce that time to mere seconds using special software being developed at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley and Oak Ridge national laboratories.  

A 3D printing nozzle wrapped in insulation extrudes black composite material into a small square mold on a green and white flat surface in a lab setting. Inset shows a close-up of a pressure gauge connected to brass valves and tubing.

Scientists at ORNL have developed a vacuum-assisted extrusion method that reduces internal porosity by up to 75% in large-scale 3D-printed polymer parts. This new technique addresses the critical issue of porosity in large-scale prints but also paves the way for stronger composites.