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'Expert in a suitcase' cuts power bills 10 percent in small commercial buildings

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Business Announcement

The knowledge of a seasoned energy efficiency professional has been packed into a high-tech suitcase dubbed the Sensor Suitcase, which contains easy-to-to use sensors and other equipment that make it possible for nearly anyone to identify energy-saving opportunities in small commercial buildings.

Funder: US Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

More natural dust in the air improves air quality in eastern China

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Man-made pollution in eastern China's cities worsens when less dust blows in from the Gobi Desert, according to a study published May 11 in Nature Communications. That's because dust plays an important role in determining the air temperatures and thereby promoting winds to blow away man-made pollution. Less dust means the air stagnates, with man-made pollution becoming more concentrated and sticking around longer.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: Department of Energy, National Science Foundation

For first time, researchers measure forces that align crystals and help them snap together

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

For the first time, researchers have measured the force that draws tiny crystals together and visualized how they swivel and align. Called van der Waals forces, the attraction provides insights into how crystals self-assemble, an activity that occurs in a wide range of cases in nature, from rocks to shells to bones.

Journal: Science
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Video captures bubble-blowing battery in action

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

PNNL researchers have created a unique video that shows oxygen bubbles inflating and later deflating inside a tiny lithium-air battery. The knowledge gained from the video could help make lithium-air batteries that are more compact, stable and can hold onto a charge longer.

Journal: Nature Nanotechnology
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

3 small energy firms to collaborate with PNNL

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Grant and Award Announcement

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is collaborating with three small businesses to address technical challenges concerning hydrogen for fuel cell cars, bio-coal and nanomaterial manufacturing.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Changing the game

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

High performance computing researcher Shuaiwen Leon Song asked if hardware called 3-D stacked memory could do something it was never designed to do -- help render 3-D graphics.

Funder: Department of Energy/Office of Science
Meeting: 2017 IEEE Symposium on High Performance Computer Architecture

Tweaking a molecule's structure can send it down a different path to crystallization

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Silky chocolate, a better medical drug, or solar panels all require the same thing: just the right crystals making up the material. Now, scientists trying to understand the paths crystals take as they form have been able to influence that path by modifying the starting ingredient.

Journal: Nature Materials
Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

Advantage: Water

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

When water comes in for a landing on the common catalyst titanium oxide, it splits into hydroxyls just under half the time. Water's oxygen and hydrogen atoms shift back and forth between existing as water or hydroxyls, and water has the slightest advantage, like the score in a highly competitive tennis game.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: Department of Energy, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Tweaking electrolyte makes better lithium-metal batteries

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New research shows adding a pinch of chemical additive to a lithium-metal battery's electrolyte helps make rechargeable batteries that are stable, charge quickly, and go longer in between charges than lithium-ion batteries.

Journal: Nature Energy
Funder: DOE/Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Two PNNL researchers elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Grant and Award Announcement

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientists to become members of the prestigious National Academy of Engineering.

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