Materials Science Research Area
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has outstanding materials science capabilities, including
- Physics and chemistry of epitaxial oxides
- Nanomaterials synthesis and self-assembly
- Defect formation and the effect on material behavior
- Material response to extreme environments.
Our experimental and theoretical analysis draws upon advanced synthesis and characterization tools at the national laboratory and user facilities. We conduct studies at the Radiochemical Processing Laboratory, which houses specialized labs for research with microgram-to-kilogram quantities of fissionable materials and megacurie activities of other radionuclides. Also, we conduct research in EMSL, using transmission electron microscopes, nuclear magnetic spectrometers, molecular beam epitaxy, and other tools all located under one roof. When the tools do not exist, we create them.
We succeed because of our teams, which include chemists, physicists, biologists, and materials scientists. Our team members are selected for their ability to solve the problem, regardless of where they work. This allows us to bring together different scientific perspectives for our clients.
Our work also benefits from Laboratory Directed Research and Development investments, including our Transformational Materials Science Initiative, which was completed in fiscal year 2012, and our Chemical Imaging Initiative, which is building state-of-the-art imaging tools for materials science.
The U.S. Department of Energy is our chief client. We conduct work for DOE"s Office of Science, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, and Office of Nuclear Energy. We also have clients in the national security arena, focusing on sensors, and with industry.
Related Highlights
- Why Battery Electrolyte Stability Rises at High Salt-to-Solvent Ratios
- All Water Is Not the Same
- Visualizing a battery's lithium "whiskers" and their degrading effects
- For hydrogen power, two metals may be better than one
- Tuning the electrocatalytic performance of bifunctional catalysts
- Why size matters for gold as a catalyst
- Shuai Zhang Earns Best Poster Award
- Coral-shaped nanoparticles built by design using engineered peptoids
- Understanding the formation and prevention of an unusual kind of defect in films of complex materials
- Form Damages Function and Magnetism Suffers
- Research Hints at Double the Driving Range for Electric Vehicles
- Small Differences, Large Impacts, and a Classic Connection
- Tracking Mechanisms of Crystallization in Real Time
- Corralling Xenon Gas Out of Waste Streams
- Water Molecules Play Unexpected Role in Mineral Formation
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, University of Washington Team Up to Make the Materials of Tomorrow
- Water: Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way
- Let the Good Tubes Roll
- Kelsey Stoerzinger Earns Young Investigator Lectureship
- Go with the Flow: Redox Material Investigated for Non-Aqueous Flow Batteries
- Detailed Look at Hanford Site Waste Offers Insights, Ideas
- Atoms Depart When Oxides Meet
- Where Liquid Meets Air: Seeing the Details of Light, Dark, and Water
- The First Map of Switchable Liquids
- PNNL Materials Scientists Publish Review Article on STEM Analysis of Oxide Interfaces
- ShAPEing the Future of Magnesium Car Parts
- Seeing the Forest and the Trees to Find Parasitic Reactions that Lead to Battery Failure
- Crystal Growth's Driving Forces Clarified by PNNL Researchers' Innovative Computational Approach
- Tweaking a Molecules Structure Can Send It Down a Different Path to Crystallization
- Research Artwork Featured on Advanced Materials Interfaces
- Stopping "Crud" from Sticking to Surfaces by Isolating "One Cheering Voice in a Stadium"
- Taking Materials into the Third Dimension
- Using Sunlight to Activate the Flow of Electrical Current in a New Material
- New Thin Films Can Self-Repair Following Damage
- Fast and Easy Two-Step Creates New Porous Materials
- Jim De Yoreo Selected for MRS Lectureship
- Grabbing an Electron by the Tail
- Super Cement's Secret
- Materials Scientists Make Breakthrough in Biomimetic Coatings
- Scientists Create New Thin Material that Mimics Cell Membranes
- Invited Review Showcases Two Investigative Techniques for Material Formation
- New Material Has Potential to Cut Costs and Make Nuclear Fuel Recycling Cleaner
- Steven Spurgeon Wins Premier Poster Award
- It Takes Two to Make an Electrode Go Right
- Exploring Today's Research on Tomorrow's Battery
- Yingge Du Receives DOE Early Career Research Award
- Crafting Complex Materials to Solve the Mystery of Magnetism
- Metal Ions First Sneak In, then Bust Through
- Unexpected Discovery Leads to a Better Battery
- Thallapally Presents MOF Research to DOE-NE Subcommittee
- Low-cost and Lightweight
- Serving Up Fresh, Clean, and Monolayer-thin MoO3 Nanosheets
- Plastic Proteins: New Synthetic Material Mimics Essential Characteristics of Natural Proteins
- Steven Spurgeon Receives Postdoc Award from Microscopy and Microanalysis Societies
- Mix and Match MOF
- New Material Increases the Lifetime of Solar-Powered Electrons
- How Seashells Get Their Strength
- Creating an Electrical Conduit Using Two Insulators
- Creating a Super Lattice: Zipping Electrons, Jumping Holes, and the Quest for Solar Fuels
- Transformations: Waste as Energy and Opportunity, Inventions in Catalysis, ACS Catalysis Lectureship Winners Interview
- Characterization of Soft Magnetic Nanocomposites Featured on Cover of IEEE Publication
- Lou Terminello Elected AAAS Fellow
- Scientists Refrigerate Water...with Lasers!
- Scott Chambers Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society
- A New Material for Transparent Electronics
- Transformations: Focus on Zeolites, Catalysis at ACS Meeting, Exploring Molecular Channels
- MS3's Heldebrant and Li Receive DOE Early Career Research Program Awards
- Mehdi Receives Post-Doctoral Researcher Award
- Shattering Bottlenecks in Ammonia Production
- Putting Batteries on Stage Spotlights Performance at the Nanoscale
- Caging Nuclear Waste
- Dendrite Eraser: New Electrolyte Rids Batteries of Short-Circuiting Fibers
- Cross-institutional Team Demonstrations Tackle Big Data Challenges in Materials Science
- Defeating Dendrites and Capturing Capacity
- How Ionic: Scaffolding in Charge of Calcium Carbonate Crystals
- Bringing Oxides into the Visible Realm
- Scott Chambers Honored by American Physical Society for Outstanding Reviews
- Chambers' Perspective on Oxide Surface Structures Appears in Science
- From Seashells to Carbon Dioxide Sealants, Molecular Alchemists at Work
- 2014 Key Scientific Accomplishments Report Now Available
- Mapping the March to Methodical Materials
- Taking Back the Angels' Share of Atoms
- Angling Chromium To Let Oxygen Through
- Stealthy and Sticky: The Chemical Battle inside Instantaneous Energy Storage Devices
- Layla Mehdi Receives Scholarship for Microscopy Conference
- A Noble Gas Cage
- Cherry Picking Molecules Based on Their Pi Electrons
- Five PNNL Researchers Named Most Cited
- Transformations: Changing the Game in Biomass Conversion, Molecular Road Rage, and Long-Lived Biofuel Catalysts
- Jim De Yoreo Elected Materials Research Society Fellow
- The Myth of Perfection
- Commercialization License To Advance Batteries for Renewable Energy Storage
- Battery Development May Extend Range of Electric Cars
- Scott Chambers Assembles Oxide Interfaces Collection for Physics Journal
- The Character of a Cathode
- Invited Review on Adding Biological Functionality to Electrodes Covers Decades of Research
- Patricia Abellan Earns International Award for Doctoral Thesis
- Controlling Oxygen May Stop Batteries from Slowly Fading
- De Yoreo Receives Outstanding Materials Science Award
- Arslan's Research Graces the North American Catalysis Society Meeting's Program
- How to Overcome the Oxide Barrier
- Jun Liu Honored by National Lab for Outstanding Materials Innovations
- Lanthanum Chromium Oxide's Energetic Dance with Light
- License Will Lead to Faster-Charging Batteries for Phones, Electric Vehicles
- Batteries Lose in Game of Thorns
- Team Led by Argonne National Lab Selected as DOE's Batteries and Energy Storage Hub
- Rewriting the Rules on Electron Affinity and Other Electrochemical Properties
- PNNL Research Featured on Cover of DOE's Basic Research Needs Report
- 2012 Fundamental & Computational Sciences Accomplishments Report Now Available
- Nickelblock: An Element's Love-hate Relationship with Battery Electrodes
- Team Wins 2012 Innovation Award
- Flexible Molecular Cages Expand to Pack in Multiple Metals
- New Metal Alloy Electrode Designed for Plus-Sized Ions
- An About-Face on Electrical Conductivity at the Interface
- Bubbles Help Break Energy Storage Record for Lithium-Air Batteries
- The Joys and Failures of Lithium-Ion Batteries