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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. 

EMSL projects displayed on the EMSL web site project page reflect project abstracts and information migrated to this page before April 30, 2024. To review current and past EMSL user projects, visit EMSL Science Central.™ 

 

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

Iron mineral and chromium reduction by Cellulomonas spp.

Lead Institution
Montana State University
Principal Investigator
Robin Gerlach
Project type
Exploratory Research
The Center for Biofilm Engineering (CBE) at Montana State University (MSU) in collaboration with the Center for Multiphase Environmental Research (CMER) at Washington State University (WSU) and the…

Developing an Initial Framework for a Regional Earth System Model

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Lai-Yung Ruby Leung
Project type
Exploratory Research
Predicting climate change at the regional scale is critically important for assessing climate change impacts and developing strategies for mitigation and adaptation. Regional climate models (RCMs)…

Regulated proteolysis and bystander effects in radiation

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
David Springer
Project type
Exploratory Research
Growing evidence suggests that the number of cells adversely influenced by radiation exposure is greater that those receiving a direct radiation hit. We hypothesize that radiation-induced bystander…

Computational study of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and their derivatives

Lead Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Principal Investigator
So Hirata
Project type
Exploratory Research
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) constitute a large class of conjugated pi-electron systems that are key molecular species in many branches of chemistry, such as, interstellar, combustion,…

Hydrogen Adsorption Characterization of Carbon Supported Catalyst

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Feng Zheng
Project type
Exploratory Research
A carbon-supported catalyst was developed at PNNL for processing biobased feedstock by hydrothermal reactions. The dispersion of catalyst metal on the support needs to be measured using the hydrogen…

Characterization Polymer Thin Films and Arrays

Lead Institution
Portland State University
Principal Investigator
Mingdi Yan
Project type
Exploratory Research
Our research at Portland State University focuses on surface chemistry and molecular imprinting. One particular area of interest is the fabrication of polymer thin film arrays that possess molecular…

Fabricate Nanoscale Thin Film Cathode with Sputter Deposition

Lead Institution
University of Washington
Principal Investigator
Yunxiang Lu
Project type
Exploratory Research
The objective of this project is 1) to fabricate nanoscale thin film cathode with sputtering and pulsed laser deposition techniques with well defined electrode geometry, 2) study transient electrode…

Computer Simulation of Radiation Effects in Zircon

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Ram Devanathan
Project type
Exploratory Research
Zircon is an extremely durable mineral proposed as a crystalline host for the disposal of high actinide waste forms. In order to minimize the release of actinides to the environment, it is essential…

Computer Simulation of Radiation Effects in Zircon

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Ram Devanathan
Project type
Exploratory Research
Zircon is an extremely durable mineral proposed as a crystalline host for the disposal of high actinide waste forms. In order to minimize the release of actinides to the environment, it is essential…

Steam Reforming of Methanol over Highly Active and Selective Pd/ZnO Catalyst

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Robert Dagle
Project type
Exploratory Research
Pd/ZnO catalysts are currently being investigated for steam reforming of methanol. Unlike precious metal-based catalysts, Pd/ZnO catalysts not only exhibited high activity, but more importantly very…

Measure fluorescence spectra from LiF film

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Mark Murphy
Project type
Exploratory Research
Fluorescence spectra from a LiF film developed at PNNL was measured and found to exhibit peaks in the green, red and infrared. These color centers have been found to perform well in uses for high…

Field effect studies of CoxTi1-xO2 thin films

Lead Institution
Yale University
Principal Investigator
Jeng-Bang Yau
Project type
Exploratory Research
Co doped TiO2 is a dilute magnetic oxide semiconductor that is potentially promising for spintronics device applications. The ferromagnetism of CoxTi1-xO2 is believed to be mediated by the doped…

Optimization of peptide identification from tandem mass spectral data

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
William Cannon
Project type
Exploratory Research
Determining the correct sequence of amino acids for a peptide starting with MS/MS spectral data can be stated as an optimization problem where the objective is to match an experimental spectrum with…

Benchmarking Localized Coupled Cluster methods in the NWchem package

Lead Institution
University of Waterloo
Principal Investigator
Martinus Nooijen
Project type
Exploratory Research
Using the Tensor Contraction Engine developed by Dr. So Hirata we have implemented a localized coupled cluster approach in NWchem. The present and near-future capabilities of this implementation …