91°µÍø

Research Highlights

Filter Research Highlights

Area of Research

Date

Default image of ORNL entry sign

Single-atom catalysts may cut costs for green technologies

Researchers discovered that isolated platinum atoms in copper surfaces efficiently catalyze the selective hydrogenation of 1,3 butadiene, a reaction important for many industrial applications.1 A new generation of catalysts with one Pt atom for approximate
JENSA gas jet target system

First Science Result from the JENSA gas jet target

Measuring the yield of radioactive decays of 18F nuclei that are produced in nova explosions and ejected into space can help diagnose the mechanism of these violent outbursts, making this a priority of billion-dollar gamma-ray astronomy observatories.
Default image of ORNL entry sign

Controlling nobility: making reactive palladium inert

While palladium, a common catalyst, oxidizes easily, it has now been shown that palladium films grown on ruthenium are surprisingly inert to oxidation when they are thinner than six atomic layers. The ability to control the binding strength of molecules t
Default image of ORNL entry sign

Precipitation in Pores: A Geochemical Frontier

Scientific Achievement The effects of porous media on precipitation reactions are shown to be important, but poorly understood. Significance and Impact Geochemical reactions within rocks and soils occur in pores.

Default image of ORNL entry sign

Guidelines Clarify Origins of Ferroelectric Signals

Recent developments in piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) and spectroscopy revealed the presence of electromechanical hysteresis loops in a variety of materials including inorganic oxides, polymers and bio systems.

Default image of ORNL entry sign

Patterning Semiconductor Building Blocks in 2D Crystals

For the first time, researchers have synthesized lateral semiconductor heterojunctions in lithographically patterned arrays within a two-dimensional semiconductor crystal monolayer by a novel process that selectively converted exposed regions

Default image of ORNL entry sign

Selective Crystallization of Sulfate-Water Clusters

An effective approach to sulfate separation from aqueous solutions was developed based on crystallization of sulfate-water clusters with a simple ligand self-assembled in situ from water-soluble subcomponents.
Default image of ORNL entry sign

Atomic Processes Control Ductility of Metallic Glasses

A novel simulation of metallic glasses demonstrates that atomic relaxation modes during deformation depend on the density of local minima in the systems’ underlying potential energy landscape (PEL).
Default image of ORNL entry sign

ORNL's Plasma-arc lamp tests instrument for NASA solar probe

To test a key instrument of a spacecraft that will fly closer to the sun than any before, engineers at 91°µÍø and the University of California–Berkeley used ORNL’s powerful plasma-arc lamp as a solar heat flux simulator.