2017 | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

Electroplating Delivers High-Energy, High-Power Batteries

Researchers at the University of Illinois, Xerion Advanced Battery Corporation and Nanjing University in China developed a method for electroplating lithium-ion battery cathodes, yielding high-quality, high-performance battery materials that could also open the door to flexible and solid-state batteries.

Growing Pains and How that Might Affect Seed Quality

A team of researchers at Michigan State University are showing how heat affects seed quality in plants targeted for producing biofuels.

Self-Healing Tech Charges Up Performance for Silicon-Containing Battery Anodes

Illinois professors Nancy Sottos and Scott White led a team that developed a silicon nanoparticle composite material for battery anodes that could lead to more reliable and longer-lasting batteries.

Hafnia Dons a New Face: Materials Research Creates Potential for Improved Computer Chips and Transistors

A collaborative University of Kentucky-Texas A&M University team has found a way to achieve this highly sought tetragonal phase at 1100 degrees Fahrenheit — think much closer to room temperature and potential holy grail for the computing industry, along with countless other sectors and applications.

Physics Graduate Student Wins National Award, Fellowship

Bethany Matthews, an Oregon State University graduate student studying physics, has recently won a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Student Research Award. This prestigious award will see her continue her work on the physics of materials at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, this summer and into the fall.

Liquid-Crystal and Bacterial Living Materials Organize and Move in their Own Way

Smart glass, transitional lenses and mood rings are not the only things made of liquid crystals; mucus, slug slime and cell membranes also contain them. Now, a team of researchers is trying to better understand how liquid crystals, combined with bacteria, form living materials and how the two interact to organize and move.

Hafnia Dons a New Face

A collaborative University of Kentucky-Texas A&M University team has observed in real-time the transformation of a hafnia nanorod from its room temperature to tetragonal phase at 1000 degrees less than its bulk temperature.

New Understanding of Superconductor's 'Normal' State May Open the Way to Solving Longstanding Puzzle

Experiments done at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the Madhavan and Abbamonte laboratories, in collaboration with researchers at six institutions in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, and Japan, have shed new light on the electronic properties of this material at temperatures 4°K above Tc.

Modified Soybeans Yield More in Future Climate Conditions

A three-year field study by University of Illinois researchers found modified soybeans yielded more when subjected to both increased temperature and carbon dioxide levels; however, they found little to no difference between the modified and unmodified soybeans grown in either increased temperature, increased carbon dioxide, or today’s climate conditions.

Scientists Discover New Method to Harness Energy

A Washington State University professor is part of a team that has unraveled the mechanism of a process that couples chemical reactions in a unique way that conserves energy and prevents loss.

High-Temperature Devices Made from Films that Bend as they “Breathe”

Carrying out maintenance tasks inside a nuclear plant puts severe strains on equipment, due to extreme temperatures that are hard for components to endure without degrading. Now, researchers at MIT and elsewhere have come up with a radically new way to make actuators that could be used in such extremely hot environments.

Sandwiched Between Superconductors, Graphene Adopts Exotic Electronic States

MIT physicists have found that a flake of graphene, when brought in close proximity with two superconducting materials, can inherit some of those materials’ superconducting qualities.