Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

DOE’s recent energy materials meeting underlines importance of MCARE conference

By / February 24, 2012

The MCARE meeting, Feb. 26-March 1, will bring private sector, government and academic stakeholders together to discuss materials challenges in energy. Credit: ACerS. Next week I will be attending the…

Read More

Other materials stories that may be of interest

By / February 20, 2012

Berkeley Lab researchers synthesized a molecule that mimics catalytically active triangular molybdenum disulfide edge-sites. The result is an entire layer of catalytically active material. Molybdenum atoms are shown as green,…

Read More

Other materials stories that may be of interest

By Eileen De Guire / December 20, 2011

Check ’em out: Red, green and blue OLEDs with an active surface area of 2×2 millimeters, being tested for performance. Credit: Deutscher Zukunftpreis/Ansgar Pudenz. Electronics made of plastic Researchers at…

Read More

NERSC also partnering in ‘Materials Project’ effort

By / November 4, 2011

Kristin Persson is one of the experts behind the Materials Project, the new computational tool aimed at taking the guesswork out of new materials discoveries. Credit: Roy Kaltschmidt, LBL. Right…

Read More

With ‘Materials Project,’ DOE and MIT launch new materials properties search engine

By / November 3, 2011

The details on this are a little skimpy at this point, however the DOE caught my attention this afternoon when it announced that a “first-of-its-kind” online search tool for materials…

Read More

Black or white? Fuel economy may be linked to car’s color

By Eileen De Guire / October 27, 2011

Honda Civic test vehicles. The higher solar reflectance of the solar vehicle makes it more fuel efficient than its black cousin. Credit: EETD; LBNL If you’ve had the experience of…

Read More

Berkeley Lab, Imperial College make progress on strong glass scaffolds for bone repairs

By / October 13, 2011

3D visualization of the sintered 6P53B glass scaffolds using the Advanced Light Source’s synchrotron X-ray microcomputed tomography (left and top right) and a corresponding scanning electron microscopy image (bottom right).…

Read More

Two new candidates for the lithium-ion battery anode job

By Eileen De Guire / September 28, 2011

Mesoporous titania-bronze microspheres show promise as lithium-ion battery anodes. Credit: M. Paranthaman; ORNL Conceptually, lithium-ion batteries are simple devices comprising the anode, cathode and electrolyte. The anode’s job is to…

Read More

Bismuth ferrite research sheds light on increasing PV efficiency

By Eileen De Guire / September 19, 2011

At top, domains with opposite electrical polarization, averaging about 140 nanometers wide and separated by walls 2 nanometers thick, form a well-aligned array in a thin film of bismuth ferrite.…

Read More

Two approaches for using nanowires, including core–shell structures, to improve photovoltaics

By / September 2, 2011

Schematic shows how to make core/shell nanowire solar cell starting from left with a CdS nanowire (green) that is dipped in CuCl where cation exchange reaction creates a Cu2S shell…

Read More