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Advanced Materials and Manufacturing
Lab researchers win R&D 100 award
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers are among the developers of the top 100 industrial inventions worldwide, winning an R&D 100 award at this year’s annual event. The trade journal R&D World Magazine announced the winners of the awards, often called the “Oscars of invention,” during a virtual event and on the magazine’s website. With this year…
Four LLNL scientists honored as APS fellows
Four Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists have been selected as 2020 fellows of the American Physical Society (APS). The new fellows represent a selection of physics expertise, ranging from laser plasma physics to magnetic fusion plasmas, to theoretical and computational understanding of plasma interactions and soft X-ray and free electron laser…
LLNL team solves 100-year-old metallurgy puzzle
To solve a 100-year puzzle in metallurgy about why single crystals show staged hardening while others don’t, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists took it down to the atomistic level. The research appears in the Oct. 5 edition of Nature Materials. For millennia, humans have exploited the natural property of metals to become stronger or harden when…
Measuring electrical properties of methane hydrates leads to better understanding of gases in seafloors
Methane hydrate is a crystalline solid formed from methane gas and water that occurs naturally in the seafloor of the continental shelves worldwide. Hydrate is considered a source of natural gas, a natural hazard or a potential contributor to ocean acidification and climate change. Its presence lowers the electrical conductivity of the seafloor in comparison to hydrate…
Going with the flow for water purification
Membrane separations have become critical to human existence, with no better example than water purification. As water scarcity becomes more common and communities start running out of cheap available water, they need to supplement their supplies with desalinated water from seawater and brackish water sources. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have…
LLNL team wins FLC national award
A shape memory foam material developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers is the foundation of a lifesaving medical device that has won a national technology transfer award. Researchers from LLNL, Santa Clara-based Shape Memory Medical Inc. and Texas A&M University incorporated the foam technology into the IMPEDE® Embolization Plug that…
Lab earns 'A' grade in OPCW test
In another month-and-a-half, a score of chemists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Forensic Science Center (FSC) will start two weeks of long days to undertake the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) environmental proficiency test. Livermore chemists have been taking the proficiency tests each October since 2001, with LLNL serving as one…
LLNL an OPCW-designated lab for biomedical samples
In addition to maintaining its Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) laboratory designation for analyzing suspect environmental samples, LLNL also is an OPCW-designated laboratory for the analysis of biomedical samples. (See "Lab earns 'A' in OPCW test) In this instance, OPCW inspectors have the ability to collect biomedical samples for cases of…
Addressing electrolyte composition effects in CO2 electroreduction
The electrochemical conversion of CO2 into chemical fuels and other commodity products is an attractive strategy for mitigating carbon emissions while offsetting the use of fossil resources. Nevertheless, the adoption of such approaches in industrial settings has been limited by the poor efficiency and selectivity of the electrochemical cells that are used to drive CO2…
Formation of high-purity uranium via laser-induced thermal decomposition
Producing gram quantities of uranium metal in a controlled manner by traditional methods is challenging due to the complex chemistry of precursor material and extreme thermal requirements. In a recent study, LLNL researchers demonstrated a novel approach that combines modeling and an advanced experimental technique for extracting uranium from a uranium-containing compound…
Simulations, high-speed videos help researchers see crack formation in 3D-printed tungsten in real time
Boasting the highest melting and boiling points of all known elements, tungsten has become a popular choice for applications involving extreme temperatures, including lightbulb filaments, arc welding, radiation shielding and, more recently, as plasma-facing material in fusion reactors such as the ITER Tokamak. However, tungsten’s inherent brittleness, and the microcracking…
Lab steps on the gas to enhance chemical production
To optimize catalyst performance, a team of scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and collaborators has developed a detailed understanding of the effect of pretreatment-induced nanoscale structural and compositional changes on catalyst activity and long-term stability. The research could make the production of the important industrial feedstock…
Wheels keep turning on innovations for clean vehicles
The Co-Optima FY19 Year in Review report released by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) describes recent accomplishments to improve efficiency while reducing emissions and cost for the entire on-road fleet of combustion-powered vehicles under the Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines program. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is playing a key role in this…
R&D 100 Winner: Expanding Embolization Success
Scientists from Livermore and Texas A&M University, along with California-based startup Shape Memory Medical, Inc., have improved upon existing technologies with the IMPEDE® embolization plug, winner of a 2019 R&D 100 Award.
Compressive shearing may start life on other planets
Massive compressive shearing forces generated by the tidal pull of Jupiter-like planets on their rocky ice-covered moons may form a natural reactor that drives simple amino acids to polymerize into larger compounds. These extreme mechanical forces strongly enhance molecule condensation reactions, opening a new arena of possibilities for the chemical origins of life on…
LLNL researchers achieve greater understanding of color origins in low-power electronic displays
Today’s low-power, electronic ink displays such as e-book readers produce text through a process called electrophoretic deposition (EPD). Each pixel of the display contains charged black and white particles suspended in a liquid solvent. These particles are moved by electrodes embedded in the devices, causing particles to stick to the electrodes to form words or images…
3D nanometer-thin membrane borrows from biology
Mimicking the structure of the kidney, a team of scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) have created a three-dimensional nanometer (nm)-thin membrane that breaks the permeance-selectivity trade-off of artificial membranes. Highly permeable and selective membranes are useful for a wide range of…
Diving into the structure of molten salts in tight spaces
Room temperature ionic liquids (ILs), a special class of molten salts, promise far greater electrochemical performance compared to conventional aqueous solutions due to a suite of novel and tunable properties. Over the past two decades, ILs have been explored as a means of improving a range of different technologies, from energy storage and conversion to catalysis to…
Summer students shine in desalination research
Capacitive deionization (CDI) is an emerging class of water desalination technologies that use cyclic charging and discharging of electrodes to reduce or enrich the salinity of incoming water. The desalination characteristics of CDI are strongly influenced by the resistive components of the system. To better understand this process, a team of Lawrence Livermore National…
Researchers Develop Novel Antireflective Metasurface for Laser Optics
LLNL scientists have discovered a new method to add an antireflective metasurface layer on laser optics glass.
