U.S. Department of Energy Research News

Public Release: 12-Feb-2012

Nature Materials
Researchers develop method to examine batteries -- from the inside
There is an ever-increasing need for advanced batteries for portable electronics, such as phones, cameras, and music players, but also to power electric vehicles and to facilitate the distribution and storage of energy derived from renewable energy sources. But, once a battery fails, there are no corrective measures -- how do you look inside a battery without destroying it?

US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 10-Feb-2012

Physical Review Letters
Putting the squeeze on planets outside our solar system
Using high-powered lasers, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and collaborators discovered that molten magnesium silicate undergoes a phase change in the liquid state, abruptly transforming to a more dense liquid with increasing pressure. The research provides insight into planet formation.

Public Release: 10-Feb-2012

Physical Review Letters
Hovering not hard if you're top-heavy, NYU researchers find
Top-heavy structures are more likely to maintain their balance while hovering in the air than are those that bear a lower center of gravity, researchers at NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Department of Physics have found. Their findings are counter to common perceptions that flight stability can be achieved only through a relatively even distribution of weight -- and may offer new design principles for hovering aircraft.

National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy

Public Release: 9-Feb-2012
ORNL's Zinkle elected to National Academy of Engineering
Steven J. Zinkle, a senior materials researcher at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Public Release: 9-Feb-2012

Science
Hydrogen from acidic water
A technique from Berkley Lab for creating a new molecule that structurally and chemically replicates the active part of the molybdenite catalyst paves the way for developing catalytic materials that can serve as effective low-cost alternatives to platinum for generating hydrogen gas from water.

US Department of Energy/Office of Science

Public Release: 7-Feb-2012
Energy department to launch new energy innovation hub focused on advanced batteries and energy storage
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced today plans to launch a new Energy Innovation Hub for advanced research on batteries and energy storage with an investment of up to $120 million over five years. The hub, which will be funded at up to $20 million in fiscal year 2012, will focus on accelerating research and development of electrochemical energy storage for transportation and the electric grid.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 7-Feb-2012

Nature Communications
Nanoshell whispering galleries improve thin solar panels
Engineers at Stanford have created photovoltaic nanoshells that harness a peculiar physical phenomenon to better trap light in the solar materials. The results could dramatically improve the efficiency of thin-film solar cells while reducing their weight and cost.

Center for Nanostructuring for Efficient Energy Conversion, US Department of Energy

Public Release: 5-Feb-2012

Nature Geoscience
Tree rings may underestimate climate response to volcanic eruptions
Some climate cooling caused by past volcanic eruptions may not be evident in tree-ring reconstructions of temperature change because large enough temperature drops lead to greatly shortened or even absent growing seasons, according to climate researchers, who compared tree-ring temperature reconstructions with model simulations of past temperature changes.

National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy

Public Release: 5-Feb-2012

Nature
Steroids control gas exchange in plants
Plants leaves are sealed with a gas-tight wax layer to prevent water loss. Plants breathe through microscopic pores called stomata on the surfaces of leaves. As the key conduits for CO2 uptake and water evaporation, stomata are critical for both our climate and plant productivity. Thus, not surprisingly, the total number and distribution of stomata are strictly regulated by plants to optimize photosynthesis while minimizing water loss. But the mechanisms for such regulation have remained elusive until now.

National Institutes of Health, US Department of Energy, Herman Frasch Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Public Release: 2-Feb-2012
ORNL, partners earn FLC honor for cookstove technology
Envirofit International, the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Colorado State University have won a Federal Laboratory Consortium award for excellence in technology transfer for a clean-burning cookstove designed for the developing world.

Public Release: 1-Feb-2012
PNNL's Mike Kluse named Laboratory Director of the Year
PNNL Director Mike Kluse has been named 2012 Laboratory Director of the Year by the Federal Laboratory Consortium for his support of technology transfer and commercialization.

Public Release: 1-Feb-2012

Nano Letters
Self-assembling nanorods: Berkeley Lab researchers obtain 1-, 2- and 3-D nanorod arrays and networks
Berkeley Lab researchers have developed a relatively fast, easy and inexpensive technique for inducing nanorods to self-assemble into aligned and ordered macroscopic structures. This technique should enable more effective use of nanorods in solar cells, magnetic storage devices and sensors, and boost the electrical and mechanical properties of nanorod-polymer composites.

US Department of Energy, Office of Science

Public Release: 1-Feb-2012

Astrophysical Journal
Scientists help define structure of exoplanets
Using models similar to those used in weapons research, scientists may soon know more about exoplanets, those objects beyond the realm of our solar system. In a new study, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists and collaborators came up with new methods for deriving and testing the equation of state of matter in exoplanets and figured out the mass-radius and mass-pressure relations for materials relevant to planetary interiors.

Public Release: 1-Feb-2012
Developing power-over-fiber communications cable: When total isolation is a good thing
Sometimes total electrical isolation is a good thing -- and that's the idea behind a power-over-fiber communications cable being developed by engineers at Sandia National Laboratories.

Public Release: 31-Jan-2012
Sandia tool determines value of solar photovoltaic power systems
Consistent appraisals of real estate outfitted with photovoltaic installations are a challenge for the nation's real estate industry, but a new tool developed by Sandia National Laboratories and Solar Power Electric and licensed by Sandia addresses that issue.

US Department of Energy/Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Public Release: 31-Jan-2012

Astrophysical Journal
IBEX probe glimpses interstellar neighborhood
Space scientists, including researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory, today described the first detailed analyses of captured interstellar neutral atoms -- raw material for the formation of new stars, planets and even human beings. Full details of the research comprise a six-paper special section in the February edition of Astrophysical Journal Supplements.

Public Release: 31-Jan-2012
ORNL microscopy reveals 'atomic antenna' behavior in graphene
Atomic-level defects in graphene could be a path forward to smaller and faster electronic devices.

Public Release: 30-Jan-2012

Nano Letters
Research at Rice University leads to nanotube-based device for communication, security, sensing
Researchers at Rice University are using carbon nanotubes as the critical component of a robust terahertz polarizer that could accelerate the development of new security and communication devices, sensors and noninvasive medical imaging systems as well as fundamental studies of low-dimensional condensed matter systems.

US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, Robert A. Welch Foundation

Public Release: 30-Jan-2012
Reducing ion exchange particles to nano-size shows big potential
Researchers at the US Department of Energy's Savannah River National Laboratory have successfully shown that they can replace useful little particles of an ion exchange material with even tinier nano-sized particles, making them even more useful for a variety of applications.

Public Release: 30-Jan-2012

DOE Joint Genome Institute 7th Annual Meeting
DOE Joint Genome Institute 7th Annual Meeting on March 20-22, 2012
The 7th Annual Genomics of Energy and Environment Meeting of the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute will take place at the Marriott in Walnut Creek, Calif. on March 20-22, 2012. The talks will focus on genomics research in the fields of clean energy generation and the environment. The keynote speakers are Steven Benner, Distinguished Fellow of the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution and Carl Zimmer, a science writer for the New York Times.

Public Release: 30-Jan-2012

Angewandte Chemie
Bright lights of purity
Berkeley Lab researchers have discovered why a promising technique for making quantum dots and nanorods has so far been a disappointment. Better still, they've also discovered how to correct the problem.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 30-Jan-2012
Sandia's self-guided bullet prototype can hit target a mile away
Take two Sandia National Laboratories engineers who are hunters, get them talking about the sport and it shouldn't be surprising when the conversation leads to a patented design for a self-guided bullet that could help war fighters.

Public Release: 27-Jan-2012

Advanced Materials
Eureka! Kitchen gadget inspires scientist to make more effective plastic electronics
A kitchen gadget that vacuum seals food in plastic inspired a Rutgers physicist to improve the performance of organic transistors for potential use in video displays.

US Department of Energy, Institute for Advanced Materials and Devices for Nanotechnology

Public Release: 26-Jan-2012
Report spotlights Sandia Lab's impact on the economy
Sandia National Laboratories spent close to $1 billion overall on the procurement of goods and services in fiscal year 2011, and small businesses across the nation were awarded more than half those dollars, $540 million or 59 percent, according to the Labs' latest economic impact report.

Public Release: 26-Jan-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
How seawater could corrode nuclear fuel
Japan used seawater to cool nuclear fuel at the stricken Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant after the tsunami in March 2011 -- and that was probably the best action to take at the time, says Professor Alexandra Navrotsky at UC Davis. But Navrotsky and others have since discovered a new way in which seawater can corrode nuclear fuel, forming uranium compounds that could potentially travel long distances, either in solution or as very small particles.

US Department of Energy