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ORNL offers new partnership opportunities for small businesses

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Business Announcement

Small businesses in the clean-energy sector have another opportunity to request technical assistance from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory through the DOE Small Business Vouchers Pilot.

Nano-spike catalysts convert carbon dioxide directly into ethanol

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a new twist to waste-to-fuel technology, scientists have developed an electrochemical process that uses tiny spikes of carbon and copper to turn carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into ethanol.

Journal: ChemistrySelect

Sensors -- quantum leap

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Business Announcement

By exploiting some exotic quantum states, researchers have conceptually designed a sensor that features unparalleled sensitivity. In a paper published in Physical Review A, Ali Passian of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and George Siopsis of the University of Tennessee describe a photon-sensing scheme for a detector that would behave much like a miniature trampoline.

Journal: Physical Review A

Samsung licenses ORNL transparent superhydrophobic glass coatings for electronic devices

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Business Announcement

Samsung Electronics has exclusively licensed optically clear superhydrophobic film technology from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory to improve the performance of glass displays on smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices. ORNL's development of a transparent coating that repels water that carries away dust and dirt, reduces light reflection and resists fingerprints and smudges resulted from approximately three years of superhydrophobic research on glass-based coatings.

Complex materials can self-organize into circuits, may form basis for multifunction chips

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Business Announcement

Researchers studying the behavior of nanoscale materials at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have uncovered remarkable behavior that could advance microprocessors beyond today's silicon-based chips. The study, featured on the cover of Advanced Electronic Materials, shows that a single crystal complex oxide material, when confined to micro- and nanoscales, can act like a multi-component electrical circuit.

Journal: Advanced Electronic Materials

Electron beam microscope directly writes nanoscale features in liquid with metal ink

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are the first to harness a scanning transmission electron microscope to directly write tiny patterns in metallic 'ink,' forming features in liquid that are finer than half the width of a human hair. The automated process is controlled by weaving a STEM instrument's electron beam through a liquid-filled cell to spur deposition of metal onto a silicon microchip. The patterns created are nanoscale.

Journal: Nanoscale
Funder: US Department of Energy's Office of Science, DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

GreenWood Resources licenses ORNL invention to boost biofuel yield

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Business Announcement

GreenWood Resources has licensed an Oak Ridge National Laboratory technology based on the discovery of a gene in poplar (Populus trichocarpa) that makes it easier to convert poplar trees into biofuels. GreenWood, a global timberland investment and asset management company based in Oregon, plans to commercialize the technology to select and breed better varieties of poplar with less lignin content, which simplifies the conversion process and ultimately lowers the overall costs of biofuel production.

ORNL licenses rare earth magnet recycling process to Momentum Technologies

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Business Announcement

The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Momentum Technologies have signed a non-exclusive licensing agreement for an ORNL process designed to recover rare earth magnets from used computer hard drives. The patent-pending process developed as part of DOE's Critical Materials Institute is designed to economically recover large amounts of magnets made using neodymium--a rare earth element that is mined outside the United States.

Story tips from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oct. 2016

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Using the Titan supercomputer, an ORNL-led team is making progress towards automated data tools for cancer research to glean unprecedented view of the US cancer population; ORNL researchers have produced the next generation of the National Hydropower Map that provides updated statistics on overall capacity and performance on the nation's hydropower fleet; ORNL-developed Autotune building energy model calibration software beat the industry's energy efficiency standards while automating the equivalent of about 45 man-hours of calibration.

Study yields new knowledge about materials for ultrasound and other applications

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and their research partners have used neutron scattering to discover the key to piezoelectric excellence in the newer materials, which are called relaxor-based ferroelectrics. (A ferroelectric material has electrical polarization that is reversed by application of an electric field.) Their findings, published online in the journal Science Advances, may provide knowledge needed to accelerate the design of functional materials for diverse applications.

Journal: Science Advances
Funder: US Department of Energy's Office of Science