Skip to main content

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.

Development of Procedures for Obtaining Clean, Defect-Free Ge Surfaces

Lead Institution
Yale University
Principal Investigator
Eric Altman
Project type
Exploratory Research
It is difficult to obtain clean, defect-free Ge surfaces using either standard UHV techniques such as sputter/annealing or wet chemical methods. The principal difficulty is thought to be removing C…

Selective External Accumulation for FT-ICR-MS

Lead Institution
University of Delaware
Principal Investigator
Thomas Bailey
Project type
Exploratory Research
The proposed project is to spend some time learning how to do external accumulation of ions for Fourier Transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS). The information gathered from…

Interfacing an Electrodynamic Ion Funnel with an Electrospray Ionization, Orthogonal Extraction, Time of Flight Mass Spectrometer for Improved Transmission of Single Stranded DNA Molecules.

Lead Institution
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Principal Investigator
Michael Westphall
Project type
Exploratory Research
In sequencing the Human Genome, the current technology of choice for separating Sanger DNA sequencing reactions is gel electrophoresis. This technique provides high resolution with single base…

Electron microscopy of oxide Thin Films

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
R. Smith
Project type
Exploratory Research
We are making Oxide thin films. We would like to use the electron microscope to determinine the structure and porosity of these samples.

Model oxide defects with vicinally stepped NiO(100) substrates

Lead Institution
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Principal Investigator
Marjorie Langell
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
We propose atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies of vicinally-stepped NiO(001) substrates designed to present periodic surface atomic edge sites and narrow terraces of constant atomic width. The…

Infrared Spectral Library of Bacterial Spores (Sharpe's NNSA, PNNL Scope #28727)

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Timothy Johnson
Project type
Exploratory Research
It has been demonstrated that bacterial endospores have unique infrared (IR) signatures that can be identified to the species-, and in some cases, to the strain-level using Fourier Transform Infrared…

Directed Self-Assembly of Metal Oxide Island Nanostructures

Lead Institution
University of Virginia
Principal Investigator
James Groves
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
This Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Nanocrystalline Oxide Film Structures Proposal focuses on oxide Quantum Dots (QDs). Interface controlled, self-assembled oxide quantum dots (QDs) are…

Electron Microscopy and XPS analysis of Porous Silicon

Lead Institution
The Scripps Research Institute
Principal Investigator
Gary Siuzdak
Project type
Exploratory Research
The proposed research is designed to generate SEM and XPS data on porous silicon surfaces. The purpose is to correlate desorption/ionization on porous silicon (DIOS) mass spectrometry signals …

Gratings calibration and characterization

Lead Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Principal Investigator
Dean Matson
Project type
Exploratory Research
We are laser machining optical gratings in sputtered coatings for a client. Use of EMSL's optical profilometer is needed to calibrate the depth of the laser machined grooves in the gratings and…

Characterization of silicon carbide coating silicon wafer surface

Lead Institution
Oregon State University
Principal Investigator
Shoichi Kimura
Project type
Exploratory Research
This research looks into the possibility of coating the surface of silicon wafers with silicon carbide that is synthesized via the pyrolysis of polymethyl silane (PMS). The PMS is obtained by the…

High Resolution Spectra of Methane and its Isotopes

Lead Institution
College of William and Mary
Principal Investigator
Malathy Venkataraman
Project type
Exploratory Research
The purpose of this proposal is to incorporate the very high-resolution (better than 0.0025 cm-1) spectra of methane obtainable with the Bruker 120HR FTS in our multispectrum least squares analysis…

Low Temperature Imaging of Metal-Organics

Lead Institution
Washington State University
Principal Investigator
Kerry Hipps
Project type
Exploratory Research
Previous work in the laboratory of Professor Hipps has shown that the image contrast of metal-organics depends strongly on the nature of the metal center. Several mechanisms, such as resonant…

Photochemical Investigation of Adsorbed Biomolecules

Lead Institution
Private Industry (Roop)
Principal Investigator
Bobbi Roop
Project type
Exploratory Research
The research effort will focus on biomaterial adsorption, structural morphology, and growth processes on surfaces. A biomolecule which is involved in naturally occurring photosynthetic processes…