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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.

Segregation on Annealed R-Cut Sapphire Surfaces

Lead Institution
University of Maine
Principal Investigator
Steven Rivers
Project type
Exploratory Research
We are currently studying step/terrace formations on r-cut sapphire surfaces with miscuts less than 0.5°. These sapphire wafers are used as thin-film substrates in our lab. Through atomic force…

Nanoengineered Electrochemical Sensor for Mixed Wastes (PNNL Scope# 45409)

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Jun Wang
Project type
Exploratory Research
The purpose of this proposal is to develop portable electronic and optical chemical and biosensor devices integrated with novel nanoparticle materials for fast, low-cost, specific and sensitive…

Structure of the Shewanella cell surface

Lead Institution
University of Georgia
Principal Investigator
Andrew Neal
Project type
Exploratory Research
The bacterial cell surface is a complex, dynamic interface acorss which the cell interacts with its environment. From the perspective of iron reducing bacteria such as Shewanella, the cell surface…

Mechanisms of organic ions release from water droplets.

Lead Institution
University of Colorado at Boulder
Principal Investigator
Gayfree Ellison
Project type
Exploratory Research
Second Generation of Single Particle Laser Abletion Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer will be used to investigate the mechanisms by which organic ions are released from water droplets.

Growth of Thin Film Model Oxide Catalysts

Lead Institution
Yale University
Principal Investigator
Eric Altman
Project type
Exploratory Research
Although oxides are widely used to catalyze partial oxidation reactions and the selective reduction of NO, the relationship between catalytic activity and structure remains poorly understood. It has…

Characterization of Synthetic Mixed Valence U Compounds

Lead Institution
The George Washington University
Principal Investigator
Christopher Cahill
Project type
Exploratory Research
The efforts proposed herein will explore the synthetic reaction conditions necessary to produce and stabilize pentavalent uranium oxide species under hydrothermal conditions. U(V) is a fleeting…

Evaporative Co-deposition of Fluoride Materials

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Dean Matson
Project type
Exploratory Research
Electron-beam evaporation will be used to co-deposit calcium fluoride and europium fluoride in varying proportions for application in the formation of scintillator films. The project will involve…

Tapping mode AFM for real-time analysis of DNA hybridization on microarrays

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Eileen Jutras
Project type
Exploratory Research
Recent advances in AFM make visualization of surface/DNA and DNA/protein interactions possible. Presently, we are designing nucleic acid based microarrays for the detection of bacterial pathogens…

Mapping of the contaminants in soil thin sections

Lead Institution
Oregon State University
Principal Investigator
Oleg Povetko
Project type
Exploratory Research
Dynamic models of the transport and fate of radionuclides in ecosystems include many parameters that can not be easily estimated and often their estimates vary by many orders of magnitude. This…

Plasma Coating for Surface Passivation of Silica-coated Wafers

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Suresh Baskaran
Project type
Exploratory Research
he surface of silica coating prepared by Sol-gel process contains large amount of adsorbed water molecules. The presence of these polar molecules adversely affect the properties of the Silica…

Roughness Measurements of Microchannel Surfaces

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
David Pfund
Project type
Exploratory Research
Surface roughness may influence the heat transfer coefficients in microchannel heat exchangers, particularly in cases of boiling. Roughness may also influence flow regimes in two-phase flow. We…

Surface films on molybdenum

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
James Cowin
Project type
Exploratory Research
We are looking at surfaces of molybdenum with the scanning electron microscope, to look at the quality of overlayer films on the molybdenum and to check their chemical composition.

SEM X-ray mapping of ceramic joints

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Charles Lewinsohn
Project type
Exploratory Research
The objective is to understand the microstructure of ceramic joints fabricated by a novel method. The method was developed at PNNL and the current work involves an SBIR contract at Sienna…

Surface Characterization of Iron Bearing and Matrix Minerals

Lead Institution
Montana State University
Principal Investigator
Brent Peyton
Project type
Exploratory Research
Using Atomic Force Microscopy, the surfaces of various iron bearing and matrix minerals will be examined to determine the topography and degree of roughness. Images will be collected of the…

Surface Characterization of Iron Bearing and Matrix Minerals

Lead Institution
Montana State University
Principal Investigator
Brent Peyton
Project type
Exploratory Research
Using Atomic Force Microscopy, the surfaces of various iron bearing and matrix minerals will be examined to determine the topography and degree of roughness. Images will be collected of the…