University Research | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

Professor Creates New Materials for Gas Separations

In response to future energy challenges, chemical engineers at The University of Alabama are creating new materials to more efficiently separate gases related to energy processes.

Gene Improves Plant Growth and Conversion to Biofuels

A research team led by the University of Georgia has discovered that manipulation of the same gene in poplar trees and switchgrass produced plants that grow better and are more efficiently converted to biofuels.

Rapid Decompression Key to Making Low-Density Liquid Water

New work from Carnegie high-pressure geophysicists Chuanlong Lin, Jesse Smith, Stanislav Sinogeikin, and Guoyin Shen found evidence of the long-theorized, difficult-to-see low-density liquid phase of water.

Advances in Fabricating Nanocrystalline Diamonds to Study Materials Under Extreme Conditions

University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers working with the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory manufactured nanocrystalline-diamond micro-anvils at a pressure nearly two times greater than that found at the center of the Earth.

Climate Change Game-Changer? USC Scientists Find More Efficient Way to Convert Methane into Useful Chemicals

USC scientists have unlocked a new, more efficient pathway for converting methane — a potent gas contributing to climate change — directly into basic chemicals for manufacturing plastics, agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals.

Research Team Publish Work on Solar Cell Film Phase Transitions

A Purdue University professor and a multi-institution team of researchers recently published a paper on solar cells in Nature Materials titled “Thermochromic halide perovskite solar cells,” which focuses on the team’s research of the structural-phase transition behaviors in mixed halide perovskite thin films.

Computational Astrophysics Team Uncloaks Magnetic Fields of Cosmic Events

Computational astrophysicists at the University of Chicago describe a new method for acquiring information on experiments using laser beams to reproduce cosmic conditions.

Texas A&M-Led Team Doubles Down on Energy Storage with Novel Metal-Oxide Magnesium Battery

A multi-institution team of scientists led by Texas A&M University chemist Sarbajit Banerjee has discovered an exceptional metal-oxide magnesium battery cathode material, moving researchers one step closer to delivering batteries that promise higher density of energy storage on top of transformative advances in safety, cost and performance in comparison to their ubiquitous lithium-ion (Li-ion) counterparts.

Mysteries of Nickel Oxide – a Promising Spintronic Material – Are Revealed

Researchers at UC Riverside used an unconventional approach to determine the strength of the electron spin interactions with the optical phonons in antiferromagnetic nickel oxide (NiO) crystals.

Unexpected Natural Source of Methane Discovered

Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine have discovered some nitrogen-fixing microorganisms contain an enzyme for the simultaneous production of ammonia and methane.

Using Data Mining to Make Sense of Climate Change

Researchers at Georgia Tech have developed a new way of mining data from climate data sets that is more self-contained than traditional tools. The methodology brings out commonalities of data sets without as much expertise from the user, allowing scientists to trust the data and get more robust — and transparent — results.

Prediction of Titanic Nitride Proved Unsinkable

A team of experimental and computational scientists led by Carnegie’s Tim Strobel and Venkata Bhadram have synthesized a long sought-after form of titanium nitride, Ti3N4, which has promising mechanical and optoelectronic properties.