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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.

Structural characterization of Nanoporous Thin Films

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Zdenek Dohnalek
Project type
Exploratory Research
The adsorptive/reactive properties of nanoporous thin films of metals and oxides grown via ballistic deposition technique are being studied in our laboratory. We propose to utilize a variety of ex…

Chemical Characterization of Heterogeneous Inclusions in Soot Particles

Lead Institution
Stanford University
Principal Investigator
Hai Wang
Project type
Exploratory Research
The objective of the work proposed herein is to characterize the heterogeneous inclusions and their influence on the hydroscopic properties of Diesel and laboratory-generated soot. Laboratory soot…

Surface Studies of Electroctalysts in Methanol Fuel Cells

Lead Institution
Neah Power Systems
Principal Investigator
Kwang Kim
Project type
Exploratory Research
Neah Power Systems is developing small methanol fuel cells based upon a silicon architecture for mobile electronics such as laptop computers and PDAs. Neah's silicon architecture is expected to…

Passive Film Stability in Alloy 22

Lead Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Donald Baer
Project type
Exploratory Research
This program activity will involve the testing of Haynes Alloy 22 to determine if a build up of S will lead to the breakdown of a possive film. This is among the most stable alloys known and it is…

Microcharacterization of Engineered Mono-Sodium Titanate

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Edgar Buck
Project type
Exploratory Research
Mono-sodium titanate (MST) is being developed by the DOE for removal of strontium and plutonium from high salt wastes. This study looks at the chemical behavior of MST in the presence of special…

Acid vapor weathering of Mars analog surface materials

Lead Institution
Johns Hopkins University
Principal Investigator
Charles Hibbitts
Project type
Exploratory Research
We propose an experimental study of weathering by volcanic acid gases under Mars-like atmospheric conditions on terrestrial analogs to Martian minerals and rocks. We intend to characterize acidic…

Characterization of nanostructured ceramics

Lead Institution
Washington State University
Principal Investigator
Susmita Bose
Project type
Exploratory Research
Nanostructured calcium phosphates, titanium dioxide and lead zirconate titanate ceramics will be characterized using field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). This ceramics were…

X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy of Materials for Hydrogen Storage

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Barbara Tarasevich
Project type
Exploratory Research
X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy will be performed on conducting polymers such as polyaniline and polypyrole, polymer-mesoporous silica composites, and ammonium borane-mesoporous silica composites. …

synthesis of Cu2O under protein control

Lead Institution
University of Washington
Principal Investigator
Haixia Dai
Project type
Exploratory Research
The overall goal of this research is to develop a novel biomineralization strategy to engineer inorganic materials with controlled structure under mild processing conditions as nature does, for…

Structure and Performance of DNA Biosensors

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Cindy Bruckner-Lea
Project type
Exploratory Research
Biosensors typically rely on designing a surface that is functionalized with biomolecules that specifically bind analytes of interest. These surfaces often include specific oligonucleotide sequences…

Surface Analysis of IAQ VOC sensors

Lead Institution
AirAdvice Inc.
Principal Investigator
Meindert Kleefstra
Project type
Exploratory Research
IAQ sensors are used to detect low levels of volatile organic compounds in air. The sensors use an meatl oxide semiconductor later with a WO3 catalysts on an alumina substrate. The conductivity of…

Surface state characterization of
Pt/Al2O3 catalyst for the CPO Reaction

Lead Institution
Kansas State University
Principal Investigator
Keith Hohn
Project type
Exploratory Research
Catalytic partial oxidation (CPO) of hydrocarbons and alcohols is an efficient means for producing hydrogen. At high flow rates, this process can operate without the addition of any process heat,…