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Projects

As a scientific user facility, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) provides expertise, instrumentation, and resources to 250 projects each year. 

Projects displayed below reflect information and abstracts that were published before April 30, 2024. To review current EMSL user projects, visit Science Central™.

  • Projects beginning at or after given date.
    Projects ending at or before given date.

Stopping power measurements of heavy ions over a wide range of energy

Lead Institution
Universidade de Sao Paulo
Principal Investigator
Roberto Linares
Project type
Exploratory Research
The passage of charged particles through matter continues to be a subject of great interest and importance to atomic and nuclear physics. Also, ion interaction in matter is crucial for development…

Time resolved study of photoluminescence from gold nanostructures

Lead Institution
University of Rochester
Principal Investigator
Michael Beversluis
Project type
Exploratory Research
Under intense pulsed laser illumination, gold photoluminesces, showing a wavelength dependence in the visible which depends on the morphology and shape of the gold surface or nanostructure. On the…

Determination of the C-terminus of p110 sEGFR

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Richard Zangar
Project type
Exploratory Research
A 110 kDa, soluble fragment of the EGFR protein (p110 sEGFR) has been identified as a circulating marker of cancer (Maihle and coworkers, 1998, 1999). The p110 sEGFR is released into the serum as…

Analysis of Clays Reacted with Simulated Hanford Tank Waste

Lead Institution
University of Arizona
Principal Investigator
Sunkyung Choi
Project type
Exploratory Research
As part of an EMSP-funded study, we have reacted clay minerals (illite, vermiculite, montmorillonite and kaolinite) in batch systems with synthetic solutions characteristic of tank waste leachate at…

Molecular Beam Epitaxy Growth of Barium Strotium Titanate

Lead Institution
Idaho National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
James (Bill) Rogers
Project type
Exploratory Research
Use molecular beam epitaxy for the deposition of barium strontium titanate thin films. Deposition on Pt substrates will allow formation of capacitor structures for measurement of electrical…

Determining the Phase Behavior of polarizable Water Models

Lead Institution
Princeton University
Principal Investigator
Athanassios Panagiotopoulos
Project type
Exploratory Research
Molecular simulation is used as a tool in the understanding of macroscopic observations from microscopic events. However, the results of a simulation are dependent on the underlying potential…

Determining the Phase Behavior of polarizable Water Models

Lead Institution
Princeton University
Principal Investigator
Athanassios Panagiotopoulos
Project type
Exploratory Research
Molecular simulation is used as a tool in the understanding of macroscopic observations from microscopic events. However, the results of a simulation are dependent on the underlying potential…

Radical Mechanisms for Antibiotic and Herbicide Biosynthesis

Lead Institution
Washington State University
Principal Investigator
Susan Wang
Project type
Exploratory Research
Antibiotic resistance is a major public health issue; hospital-acquired infections are now the fourth-leading cause of death in the United States. To address this problem, new antibiotics for…

Studies of the effect of particle size on LA/ICP/MS of Heterogeneous Samples

Lead Institution
University of Florida
Principal Investigator
James Winefordner
Project type
Exploratory Research
We will be using various sample presentation methods combined with a particle impactor to control the size distribution of particles produced by laser ablation of heterogeneous soild samples and to…

Characterization of Mn Oxidation State with Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Edgar Buck
Project type
Exploratory Research
A number of Hanford?s waste storage tanks contain organic complexants that increase the solubility of radioactive strontium (Sr90) and transuranic (TRU) elements. Before this liquid fraction of the…

Immobilizing Enzymes for Useful Service

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Michael Perkins
Project type
Exploratory Research
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have discovered a method to harness the power of enzymes by successfully immobilizing high…

Effect of Porosity and Surface Finish on Whisker Growth and Morphology

Lead Institution
Washington State University
Principal Investigator
Uttara Sahaym
Project type
Exploratory Research
Pb free coatings of electronic component leads and lead frames bring up the reliability issues of these components since pure Sn platings are highly prone to spontaneous whisker formation…

Structure and reactivity of the basal and edge surfaces of gibbsite.

Lead Institution
Brigham Young University
Principal Investigator
Barry Bickmore
Project type
Exploratory Research
Density functional theory molecular orbital calculations will be used to compute the structures of various hypothetical protonated basal and edge surfaces of gibbsite. Computed bond length data will…

Single-Molecule Enzymatic Reaction Dynamics

Lead Institution
Bowling Green State University
Principal Investigator
H. Peter Lu
Project type
Exploratory Research
T4 lysozyme catalyzes the hydrolization of the bacterial cell wall and involves complex conformational changes. Although this hydrolization is one of the most important enzymatic reactions, its…

SEM on electrode surface/Electrode preparation and testing

Lead Institution
Oregon Health & Science University
Principal Investigator
Wassana Yantasee
Project type
Exploratory Research
Polyaniline was grown on the electrode (Ti and Au) surface. SEM analysis is needed to see if the polyaniline film on the surface is uniform. Electrode modified with functional materials will be…

ETD LDRD project for Uranium sensor test

Lead Institution
Oregon Health & Science University
Principal Investigator
Wassana Yantasee
Project type
Exploratory Research
The lab space in EMSL 1410 is needed for testing chemically modified electrodes as Uranium sensors.

Modification and Characterization of Radiation Behaviour of Zircon (ZrSiO4)

Lead Institution
University of Cambridge
Principal Investigator
Ming Zhang
Project type
Exploratory Research
Zircon (ZrSiO4) is of great interest in the field of materials science, mineralogy and geochemistry, and it is also widely used in ceramic, foundry, welding rod coatings, refractory industries and U…