Projects

Catalyst and Material Development for Warm Cleanup of Biomass or Coal-Derived Syngas: Tar, Methane, Inorganic Contaminant Species, and CO2 Removal

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Robert Dagle

Project type

Exploratory Research

Syngas from biomass or coal has many applications in the area of catalytic fuels and chemicals synthesis, as well as hydrogen production for petroleum refineries, ammonia synthesis and for fuel cell…

Development of Catalysts for the Selective Conversion of Biomass Derived Products to Fuels

Lead Institution

Virginia Polytechnic Institute

Principal Investigator

Ayman Karim

Project type

Exploratory Research

The large increase in energy demand by emerging economies and the environmental concerns over the use of fossil fuels has led to the focus on renewable energy sources such as biomass. Several…

XPS Investigation of Surface Passivation during Fe(II)-activated Recrystallization of Al-, Cr-, and Sn-substituted Goethite and Hematite

Lead Institution

Washington University in St. Louis

Principal Investigator

Jeffrey Catalano

Project type

Exploratory Research

Microbially-mediated iron redox cycling results in secondary abiotic reactions between aqueous Fe(II) and solid Fe(III) oxide minerals. These reactions induce iron oxide minerals such as goethite and…

In situ observation of lithiation process in lithium ion nanobatteries

Lead Institution

University of Pittsburgh

Principal Investigator

Scott Mao

Project type

Exploratory Research

Recently, massive effort has been made to promote the rapid development and commercialization of new energy storage technologies and lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is one of the most promising…

The Role of Microenvironments and Physicochemical Subsurface Components on Field Scale Biogeochemistry and Contaminant Mobility

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

James McKinley

Project type

Exploratory Research

This is a renewal proposal for a previous collaborative effort between the PNNL Scientific Focus Area (SFA) and EMSL. The research proposed will resolve critical Hanford and basic subsurface science…

Understanding the Role of Surface Metal-Oxygen Structures of Nanoalloys in Catalytic Reactions

Lead Institution

State University of New York at Binghamton

Principal Investigator

Chuan-Jian Zhong

Project type

Exploratory Research

This proposal focuses on investigating a critical hypothesis that the surface metal-oxygen structures play an essential role in the catalytic activity of nanoalloy catalysts for reactions involving…

Quantitative Characterization of Biomass Deconstruction

Lead Institution

Washington State University Tri-Cities

Principal Investigator

Bin Yang

Project type

Exploratory Research

The objective of this research is to apply advanced characterization techniques to gain a deeper understanding of lignocellulosic biomass conversion to biofuels. The proposed research will take…

The electronic structure and charge carrier driven chemistry on solid surfaces

Lead Institution

University of Pittsburgh

Principal Investigator

Hrvoje Petek

Project type

Exploratory Research

The experimental and theoretical understanding of photocatalysis is of vital importance for the solar-to-chemical energy conversion and for environmental remediation. Photocatalytic conversion of…

Development of Self-Healing Materials through Rational Design of Interfaces

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Ram Devanathan

Project type

Exploratory Research

This research proposal aims to integrate experimental and modeling efforts to advance the fundamental science of interfaces, such as nanoparticle surfaces, to understand the process of self-healing…

Probing surface hydroxyls of sub-micron FeOOH particles by Sum Frequency Generation Spectroscopy

Lead Institution

Umea University

Principal Investigator

Jean-Francois Boily

Project type

Exploratory Research

This work was devised to contribute to a new basis of understanding of mineral surface reactivity using Sum Frequency Generation (SFG) spectroscopy. As it is primordially focused on FeOOH minerals in…

Characterization of Chemical Changes Observed for Uranium Particulate Materials

Lead Institution

Savannah River National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Glenn Fugate

Project type

Exploratory Research

Small uranium particulates emanating from nuclear fuel cycle and weaponization processes can be collected at significant distances from their source. The chemical and physical characteristics of…

Investigation of Surface Coating on High Voltage Lithium Ion Cathode Materials Using Combined TEM and Atom Probe Tomography

Lead Institution

University of California, San Diego

Principal Investigator

Ying Meng

Project type

Exploratory Research

Lithium ion batteries are the top candidates for on-board energy storage in plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) and fully electric vehicles due to a higher energy density and rate capability…

Multilayered Metal/Ceramic Composites for Structural Materials Application

Lead Institution

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Principal Investigator

Jie Lian

Project type

Exploratory Research

The design of structural materials for advanced nuclear materials is limited within a window confined by radiation-induced embrittlement at low temperature and creep rupture at high temperature…

Characterization of Surface, Interfacial, and Bulk Phenomena for Next Generation Electronic Systems

Lead Institution

Oregon State University

Principal Investigator

Gregory Herman

Project type

Exploratory Research

This project aims to improve the fundamental understanding of materials, chemistries, and interfacial phenomena for novel electronic devices and systems. Our initial efforts focus on the synthesis,…

Probing the Selective Action of Cerium Oxide in Cancer and Normal Cells

Lead Institution

University of Central Florida

Principal Investigator

Sudipta Seal

Project type

Exploratory Research

There is an imminent need to determine the mechanisms that define the interaction of nanomaterials with biological systems. Several nanomaterials show unique and perplexing characteristics in…

Polarization-Induced Interfacial Reactions between Nickel and Sulfur in Fuel Cell Electrodes and Mitigation of Sulfur Poisoning via Ni Surface Modification

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Olga Marina

Project type

Exploratory Research

The purpose of this project is 1) to gain understanding how the electrode chemistry is affected by exposure to fuel gas impurities under polarization, and 2) how to efficiently minimize the negative…

Interfacial Investigations of Nuclear Waste Forms

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Joseph Ryan

Project type

Exploratory Research

EMSL resources are requested to enable an international team of collaborators to solve fundamental problems in interfacial glass corrosion chemistry. With the recent dismissal of Yucca Mountain as…

Advanced microstructural analysis of environmental degradation using site-specific transmission electron microscopy and atom-probe tomography

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Daniel Schreiber

Project type

Exploratory Research

Environmental degradation of Ni-based alloys continues to be a major problem in high-temperature water environments such as those found in nuclear reactors and steam generators. Despite several…

Probing Mechanical Deformation and Evolution of Physical/Chemical Properties in High Capacity Li Battery Materials during Electrochemical Cycling Using In-Situ TEM

Lead Institution

Stanford University

Principal Investigator

Yi Cui

Project type

Exploratory Research

The goal of this work is to probe electrochemical transformations in next-generation Li-ion battery materials in-situ to correlate morphology, structural changes, and physical degradation to…

Investigation of Surface/Interface Structure and Chemistry of Tungsten-Based Oxides and Oxynitrides

Lead Institution

University of Texas at El Paso

Principal Investigator

Chintalapalle Ramana

Project type

Exploratory Research

The focus of the present project is on the tungsten (W) based oxide and oxynitride thin-films, which will have numerous applications in energy conversion and utilization technologies. The goal of the…