2018 | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

Multi-Institutional Team of Scientists Mix the Unmixable to Create ‘Shocking’ Nanoparticles

Making a giant leap in the ‘tiny’ field of nanoscience, a multi-institutional team of researchers is the first to create nanoscale particles composed of up to eight distinct elements generally known to be immiscible, or incapable of being mixed or blended together.

Light ‘Relaxes’ Crystal to Boost Solar Cell Efficiency

A collaboration led by Rice University and Los Alamos National Laboratory found that constant illumination relaxes the lattice of a perovskite-like material, making it more efficient at collecting sunlight and converting it to energy.

Fluorescent Dye Could Enable Sharper Biological Imaging

A new technique developed by a team of researchers at MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital could allow doctors and researchers to generate clearer images of blood vessels and other tissues.

From Lotion to Ocean Liner

Researchers at RiKarbon, a University of Delaware start-up company, are combining plant scraps and natural oils, through chemistry, to engineer a bio-based oil that can be used as a renewable alternative to typical petroleum-based resources used in everything from popular skin lotions and sunscreens to lubricants for shipping, agriculture, food processing and hydropower production, among other things.

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$6.8M Initiative to Enable American Laser Renaissance

In an effort to improve American competitiveness in high-intensity laser research, the Department of Energy has established LaserNetUS, a $6.8 million initiative that involves the University of Michigan—one of the field’s pioneers.

Fast-flowing Electrons May Mimic Astrophysical Dynamos

Victor Galitski, a Fellow of the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), in collaboration with two other scientists, has proposed a radical new approach to studying dynamos, one that could be simpler and safer. The proposal, which was published Oct. 25 in Physical Review Letters, suggests harnessing the electrons in a centimeter-sized chunk of solid matter to emulate the fluid flows in ordinary dynamos.

First Two-dimensional Material that Performs as Both Topological Insulator and Superconductor

A transistor based on the 2-D material tungsten ditelluride (WTe2) sandwiched between boron nitride can switch between two different electronic states — one that conducts current only along its edges, making it a topological insulator, and one that conducts current with no resistance, making it a superconductor — researchers at MIT and colleagues from four other institutions have demonstrated.

The Ohio State University Selected for New Nationwide High-intensity Laser Network

The Ohio State University announced that it is part of a new research network called LaserNetUS. Ohio State’s Scarlet Laser Facility, co-directed by Department of Physics professors Douglass Schumacher and Linn Van Woerkom, will receive $1 million to fund its part of the network.

Standing in for a Kidney, MXene Materials Could Give Dialysis Patients the Freedom to Move

Researchers are working to restore some normalcy for kidney dialysis patients, by developing a wearable system that would give them freedom of movement, are encouraged by a new finding about a material that could vastly reduce the size of the blood filtration system.

Rochester Joins New Nationwide High-intensity Laser Network

To help foster leadership in the application of high-intensity lasers, the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) is partnering with eight other high-intensity laser facilities across the country in a new national research network called LaserNetUS.

Cornell Joins Battery Research Partnership

Chemist Geoffrey Coates will be part of the $120 million, five-year second phase of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), an interdisciplinary project aimed at realizing next-generation batteries.

Red-hued Yeasts Hold Clues to Producing Better Biofuels

A team based at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center describe the genetic machinery that yeasts use to make pulcherrimin, which binds iron, an essential nutrient. The work is a key step toward harnessing the synthesis pathway for large-scale production of isobutanol as a biofuel.