2016 | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

Molecular-Like Photochemistry From Semiconductor Nanocrystals

Researchers from North Carolina State University have demonstrated the transfer of triplet exciton energy from semiconductor nanocrystals to surface-bound molecular acceptors, extending the lifetime of the originally prepared excited state by six orders of magnitude.

For This Nanocatalyst, One Atom Makes a Big Difference

Combining experimental investigations and theoretical simulations, researchers at Georgia Tech have explained why platinum nanoclusters of a specific size range facilitate the hydrogenation reaction used to produce ethane from ethylene.

New Finding May Explain Heat Loss in Fusion Reactors

Researchers at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, working with the University of California - San Diego, General Atomics, and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, say that they have found the key to the mismatch between theory and experimental results – the interactions between turbulence at the tiniest scale, that of electrons, and turbulence at a scale 60 times larger, that of ions.

New Nanoparticle Catalysts Could Reduce Need for Precious Metals

Researchers at MIT have found a less-expensive way to get the same amount of catalytic activity, using a lesser amount of platinum or palladium as an atomically-thin coating over a tiny ceramic particle.

Johns Hopkins Researcher Advance Treatment of Tuberculosis By Targeting New Enzyme

Researchers at Johns Hopkins report they have laid the foundation to develop novel antibiotics that work against incurable, antibiotic-resistant bacteria like tuberculosis by targeting an enzyme essential to the production and integrity of bacterial cell walls.

Realistic Solar Corona Loops Simulated in Lab

Caltech applied physicists have experimentally simulated the sun's magnetic fields to create a realistic coronal loop in a lab.

Atomic Imperfections

Using cutting-edge first-principles calculations, researchers at the UC Santa Barbara have demonstrated the mechanism by which transition metal impurities — iron in particular — can act as nonradiative recombination centers in nitride semiconductors.

2-D Material a Brittle Surprise

Scientists at Rice University have discovered that an atom-thick material being eyed for flexible electronics and next-generation optical devices is more brittle than they expected.

Nanoshells: Potential Catalysts and Cradles of Life

A team of researchers at the University of Michigan have found a way to coax simple, inorganic nanoparticles to spontaneously assemble into shells has been discovered, potentially paving the way for more efficient industrial chemical processing, gene delivery and clean-up of chemical contaminants in the environment

Rice U. Lab Creates Open-Source Optogenetics Hardware and Software

Rice University bioengineering graduate student Karl Gerhardt and other Rice colleagues have created the first low-cost, easy-to-use optogenetics hardware platform that biologists who have little or no training in engineering or software design can use to incorporate optogenetics testing in their labs.

New Study Finds Bacteria Attack Lignin with Enzymatic Tag Team

In a study that could point the way to biofuels processes of the future, scientists from Rice University, the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Joint BioEnergy Institute at Emeryville, Calif., have discovered how two bacterial enzymes work as a team to break apart lignin.

Clearing the Way for Floquet-Bloch States

A team at MIT demonstrates pure quantum-mechanical mixture of electrons and photons in the solid topological insulator bismuth selenide.