Projects

Hydrogen Bonds in Solid Hydrates of Aqueous Salts studied by
Quantum Simulations and Sub-picosecond Infrared Spectroscopy

Lead Institution

Technische Universität München

Principal Investigator

Alfred Laubereau

Project type

Exploratory Research

Solid hydrates of salts containing a fixed ratio of water molecules in their crystal structures have attracted special interest due to their importance in geology, chemistry, and physics. The quest…

From molecules to nanoparticles, site specific reactivity from poly-aluminum oxyhydroxide clusters

Lead Institution

Corning, Inc.

Principal Investigator

James Rustad

Project type

Exploratory Research

Aqueous aluminum chemistry is rich in polymeric species that possess properties that mimic mineral nanoparticles. The purpose of this project is to calculate the pKa constants for a set of aluminum…

Exploring the Radiation Damage Resistance of Nanoscale Interfaces

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Richard Kurtz

Project type

Exploratory Research

The objective of this research is to rigorously test the hypothesis that internal interfaces can be manipulated at the nanoscale to enhance recombination of radiation-produced defects to dramatically…

The role of U(V) during heterogeneous reduction of aqueous U(VI) to U(IV).

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Eugene Ilton

Project type

Exploratory Research

This proposal is being submitted in response to the Science theme call: Biogeochemistry and Subsurface Science, understanding the chemistry of radionuclides in the subsurface. It directly relates to…

XPS and DFT Study on the Surface Properties of Carbon-Resistant and Sulfur-Tolerant Bimetallic Ni-Rh Reforming Catalysts for Hydrogen Production and Fuel Cell Applications

Lead Institution

Pennsylvania State University

Principal Investigator

Chunshan Song

Project type

Exploratory Research

Fuel cells, in which hydrogen can be effectively converted to electricity, are expected to play a critical role in the future of power generation. Consequently, a huge amount of hydrogen is needed to…

WSU Tri-Cities Electron Microscopy Course

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Edgar Buck

Project type

Exploratory Research

Electron Microscopy (EM) has long been an important experimental tool in materials science, biological sciences, and geosciences. At PNNL, electron microscopes, both SEM and TEM, are used in nearly…

Europium Uptake in Various SAM Coated Mesoporous Silica

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

John Bays

Project type

Exploratory Research

A variety of self assembled monolayers (SAM) may be applied to mesoporous silica substrates. These SAMs may bind europium or other lanthanides from solution. It is important to quantify the…

Thermal Stability of Silicalite and Zeolite Molecular Sieves Exposed to CO2 with SO2 & H2O Impurities

Lead Institution

Ohio University

Principal Investigator

David Young

Project type

Exploratory Research

Access to simultaneous differential scanning calorimetry/thermal gravimetric analysis (DSC/TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and, if available, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) equipment at EMSL is requested for…

TRLIF Studies of Eu(III) Sorption to Quartz and Uranophane

Lead Institution

Washington State University

Principal Investigator

Aurora Clark

Project type

Exploratory Research

To complement and provide much needed experimental benchmarks to ongoing computational studies at the EMSL supercomputing facility, we propose to use four weeks of time at the facilities at EMSL to…

Hydrogen Materials Compatibility Studies

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Kyle Alvine

Project type

Exploratory Research

We propose to use the world-class ion scattering facilities at EMSL to advance the understanding of the effects of high-pressure hydrogen on nanolaminate low friction coatings and piezoelectric…

Mass spectrometry analysis of nucleotides/nucleosides

Lead Institution

Washington State University Tri-Cities

Principal Investigator

Kathleen McAteer

Project type

Exploratory Research

We wish to synthesize a number of specifically-labeled DNA oligomers that will be valuable in characterizing the structure and dynamics of damaged DNAs. In order to do this we will isolate 13C and…

Dopamine Replacement Therapy and Parkinson's Disease

Lead Institution

Uppsala University

Principal Investigator

Malin Andersson

Project type

Exploratory Research

Dopamine (DA) replacement therapy with L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) is currently the most efficient pharmacotherapy for patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), but with disease…

DFT and Ab Initio Studies of the size dependent structure and properties of Boron and Gold Nanoclusters

Lead Institution

Brown University

Principal Investigator

Lai-Sheng Wang

Project type

Exploratory Research

Clusters provide intermediate molecular systems bridging the gap between atoms and condensed matter. Their finite and controllable size in principle makes them ideal candidates for molecular-level…

Structural Genomics Center for Infectious Diseases - Year III

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Garry Buchko

Project type

Exploratory Research

New medicines are urgently needed against infectious diseases that are becoming increasingly more resistant to current therapies. The strategy being used by the National Institute of Health (NIH) to…

Ab Initio Calculations of Charge Carrier Properties and Excited-State Processes in Scintillator Materials

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Renee Van Ginhoven

Project type

Exploratory Research

The development of new and improved materials for radiation detection is driven by unmet detector requirements for nuclear non-proliferation, homeland security, imaging for medical diagnosis and…

Zeta Potential Analysis of various metal oxide powders and mixed oxide simulants

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Carolyn Burns

Project type

Exploratory Research

The IEP of a range of metal oxides will be determined under different ionic strengths. This work is required to support EM-31 WP-2 Alternative Waste Pretreatment sub-task 2.3.6 for the FY10 EM31…

Semi-Experimental Equilibrium Structures for Molecules of Biological Significance

Lead Institution

Oberlin College

Principal Investigator

Norman Craig

Project type

Exploratory Research

Polyenes are important in vision, in natural pigments, and in light-harvesting for photosynthesis. Putting fluorine substituents in medicinal substances has become an important strategy for tuning…

Investigation into Sculpted Film Metamaterials for Designed Electromagnetic Behavior

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Kyle Bunch

Project type

Exploratory Research

Sculpted thin films are a class of nanoengineered surfaces that have been designed to exhibit specific scattering characteristics in a particular electromagnetic band. The particular surfaces…

Enamel biomineralization: Solution- and solid-state NMR

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Garry Buchko

Project type

Exploratory Research

Dental enamel, the layer of elongated carbonated hydroxyapatite on the outer layer of the tooth, is the hardest tissue in the human body. It needs to be strong because it cannot repair itself nor can…

Multi-Resolution Structure and Reactivity of Kinetically
Roughened Oxide Surfaces: Nanometric Scaling Behavior
and Molecular-Scale Controls (Rosso BES,PNNL Scope #43862. Rosso BES)

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Kevin Rosso

Project type

Exploratory Research

Surfaces of Fe oxides, Mn oxides and Si oxides (quartz) minerals in natural settings exhibit a significant degree of morphological heterogeneity on scales from 1-1000 nm. Surface roughness and its…