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™.

Developing a Parallel Blochl Code

Lead Institution

Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Marat Valiev

Project type

Exploratory Research

This project will develop a massively parallel version of Bloch's PAW method. PAW is an all-electron method that combines the adaptability of linear augmented plane wave methods with the…

Post Growth Analysis of GaN Grown with Low Temperature MOCVD

Lead Institution

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Michael Johnson

Project type

Exploratory Research

GaN thin films (1-2 microns) have been grown using MOCVD at low temperatures (415-460 C). During growth, disturbances in processing conditions have been purposely introduced to induce changes in…

Novel Catalytic Materials for the Hydrodesulfurization and Water-Gas Shift Processes

Lead Institution

Western Washington University

Principal Investigator

Mark Bussell

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

This proposal for the use of instrumentation at the EMSL User Facility addresses two critical processes in the production of clean fuels: hydrodesulfurization (HDS) and water-gas shift (WGS)…

Amorphous Semiconductor Analysis using Ion Beam Tools

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Charles Henager

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The goal of this proposal is to develop new materials for high resolution, room temperature gamma radiation detection. We propose to develop high Z, high resistivity, amorphous, semiconductors to be…

Fundamental Studies of Nitrogen Oxide Surface chemistry: A Model System approach

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Janos Szanyi

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

In our proposed research we will employ a model system approach to elucidate the structure-reactivity relationships of base-metal oxide nanostructures supported on planar oxide substrates. The major…

Environmental proteomic analysis of anaerobic methane oxidizing systems

Lead Institution

University of British Columbia

Principal Investigator

Steven Hallam

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Prokaryotic microorganisms represent the majority of living things on Earth. In many cases, interdependent constituents of this vast microbial biota play decisive roles in defining biogeochemical…

Post Growth Analysis of GaN and InGaN Grown with MOCVD

Lead Institution

University of Washington

Principal Investigator

Tai-Chang Chen

Project type

Exploratory Research

InGaN alloy system is appropriate for light detection due to its direct bandgap and high absorption coefficient. The bandgap energies of wurtzite GaN and InGaN are 3.39 and 1.89 eV, respectively. …

Post Growth Analysis of GaN and InGaN Grown with MOCVD

Lead Institution

University of Washington

Principal Investigator

Tai-Chang Chen

Project type

Exploratory Research

InGaN alloy system is appropriate for light detection due to its direct bandgap and high absorption coefficient. The bandgap energies of wurtzite GaN and InGaN are 3.39 and 1.89 eV, respectively. …

SEM analysis of doped lanthanum

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Steven Simner

Project type

Exploratory Research

2-4 lanthanum chromite samples to be analyzed using SEM and EDX

Hydrogen Materials Compatibility Studies

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Charles Henager

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The hydrogen internal combustion engine (H2ICE), based on direct injection (DI) technology has the best potential to provide very high power density with diesel-like efficiency and very low emissions…

Near-Surface Analysis of Geologic Media for Implications of Carbon Sequestration

Lead Institution

Battelle Columbus

Principal Investigator

Bruce Sass

Project type

Exploratory Research

Deep saline geologic formations are considered to be among the largest and most widely available potential reservoirs for long-term to permanent storage of CO2. This study will investigate CO2-brine…

Characterization of Oxides on Granular Iron by Raman Spectroscopy

Lead Institution

Oregon Health & Science University

Principal Investigator

Paul Tratnyek

Project type

Exploratory Research

See attached PDF file (There was no indication of a 2000 character limit until after I tried to submit the text, so I have included the text as an attachment)

Determination of mineral phases from X-ray diffraction patterns collected from Oyster sediment isolates.

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Tom Resch

Project type

Exploratory Research

Use JADE X-ray mineral identification program to determine mineral phases from X-ray diffaction data. X-ray diffraction patterns have already been collected.

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…