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Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have demonstrated that permanent magnets produced by additive manufacturing can outperform bonded magnets made using traditional techniques while conserving critical materials. Scientists fabricated isotropic, near-net-shape, neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) bonded magnets at DOE's Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL using the Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) machine.

The gap between the computational science and open source software communities just got smaller -- thanks to an international collaboration among national laboratories, universities and industry.

'Doubly magic' atomic nuclei have greater stability than their neighbors thanks to having shells that are fully occupied by both protons and neutrons. Theoretical physicists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory recently used Titan, America's most powerful supercomputer, to compute the nuclear structure of nickel-78 and found that this neutron-rich nucleus is indeed doubly magic. The results may improve understanding of the origin, organization and interactions of stable matter.

Using the Titan supercomputer, an ORNL team created models of up to 330,000 atoms that led to the discovery of a THF-water cosolvent phase separation on the faces of crystalline cellulose fiber.

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.

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.

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.