User-friendly facilities help business and industry

In addition to advancing basic science, Argonne's dynamic user facilities help business and industry develop new commercial products and services. Open to researchers throughout the nation, these facilities also provide access to Argonne staff and to research tools that are too scientifically complex and expensive for a single company to operate on its own.

Advanced Photon Source

A significant product now on the market as a result of research conducted at Argonne is Abbott Laboratories' anti-human-immunodeficiency-virus (HIV) drug, Kaletra®, currently the most prescribed drug in its class for AIDS therapy. Critical to the development of Kaletra ® was research conducted at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne. The APS is the Western Hemisphere's most powerful source of X-rays for research.

Abbott researchers knew that creating an effective anti-HIV drug required precise design: The drug had to be highly target-specific so that it impacted only the point where the drug could be most effective. Also important are the lock-and-key requirements for drug designers: A new drug's molecular structure must lock tightly to the particular structure of the target molecule, while being flexible enough to accommodate changes in that structure. Using the powerful X-rays from the APS to determine precise molecular structures, researchers developed a biochemical molecule that stops HIV from making new copies of itself by blocking the virus's ability to replicate. (More...)

Another family of products on the market today, thanks to research at the APS, is DuPont's Suva ® brand HFC refrigerants. DuPont researchers were trying to develop replacements for HCFC-22, the most common air-conditioning refrigerant in the world, which is being phased out because it attacks the stratospheric ozone layer that protects the earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation. The APS enabled DuPont researchers to improve the structure of mixed metal oxide materials being developed as substitute catalysts to reduce energy consumption and waste products in the production of their Suva ® HFC refrigerants. Suva ® is currently used in refrigerators and freezers, fire extinguishers, propellants and air conditioning and has the potential for zero impact on ozone depletion.

Another potential commercial application of APS research came from Illinois Tool Works, Inc. The company collaborated with Argonne researchers to capture the first images to reveal liquid breakup in the complex and transient multiphase spray flow just millimeters from the nozzle of a high- speed industrial spray, taking them one step closer to improved high-speed industrial sprays. Redesigning the spray nozzle increases the efficiency of industrial sprays, including paint, varnishes and stains, and makes them more environmentally friendly.

Intense Pulsed Neutron Source

Argonne user facilities also spawned a computer control system in use at major scientific facilities such as Argonne's Advanced Photon Source and Intense Pulsed Neutron Source, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The system, called the Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System, or EPICS, is a set of software tools, libraries and applications developed collaboratively and used worldwide to create distributed real-time control systems for large scientific instruments, such as particle accelerators and telescopes. The software is used by more than 100 sites worldwide, including water distribu tion networks, oil field extraction systems and plants for wastewater treatment and gas liquefaction.

EPICS was created by researchers at Argonne and Livermore to give designers a universal solution to computerized control of large complex operations. A major factor in EPICS' success is its tool-based approach, which minimizes the need for custom coding. EPICS' software “tools” support independent development, as well as the use of appropriate protocols and the maintenance of well chosen boundaries between modules. New software tools can be developed to replace existing ones or to serve new purposes; EPICS is designed so the presence or absence of any particular tool has no impact on other tools or functions.

Argonne Leadership Computing Facility

Industry is using the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) to improve existing products or develop new ones. Established in 2006, the ALCF offers world-leading computing capabilities dedicated to breakthrough science and engineering. ALCF is deploying a series of massively parallel com puters with increasing capabilities, including a 100 teraflops IBM Blue Gene/P system later in 2007 that will be expanded in 2008. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research, the ALCF's mission is to provide the largest-scale advanced computing resources possible for computationally intensive research projects from academia, laboratories and industry.

Two industrial research projects already have been awarded computing time on the current IBM Blue Gene/L system at the ALCF. Researchers from Procter & Gamble are investigating the molecular mechanisms of bubble for mation in foams; this research will help develop better fire-control chemicals and environmentally friendly consumer products. Pratt & Whitney scientists are conducting high-fidelity simulations of an aircraft engine combustor; their goal is to produce new designs that reduce emissions and improve operability.

This computing time is made available to all researchers through the Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program, sponsored by the Department of Energy's Office of Science. INCITE enables scientists to run large-scale simulations and gain greater insight into the most challenging problems in science and engineering. Argonne encourages industry to propose its toughest problems for the ALCF's Blue Gene system.

Center for Nanoscale Materials

As one of Argonne's newest user facilities, the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM) is already attracting attention from industrial researchers and is seeking to partner with industry through R&D agreements that involve close, active collaboration between industry researchers and Argonne staff. In operation since September 2006, the CNM is one of five innovative Nanoscale Science Research Centers built by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Basic Energy Sciences to provide tools and infrastructure for nanoscience and nano technology research—fields that study the properties of materials measured in billionths of a meter. In the coming decades, these fields are expected to drive a revolution in nanomaterials that will create new materials, products and technologies that will help spur economic development in the United States and around the world.

CNM's world-class facilities and staff have attracted Advanced Diamond Technologies, Inc. to conduct research aimed at integrating ultrananocrystalline diamond technology (UNCD ® ) with complementary metal-oxide semiconductors for nanoscale machines known as micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS). Complementary metal-oxide semiconductors are used in digital logic circuits, such as microprocessors and microcontrollers. The ultra-nanocrystalline diamond coating technology, invented and developed at Argonne, captures many natural diamond properties in thin-film form. UNCD films are being developed for a broad range of applications, such as energy-saving ultra-low friction and wear coatings for mechanical pump seals and tools, high-performance MEMS/NEMS-based telecommunication devices, high-definition flat-panel displays, biomedical implants and biosensors.

The Center for Nanoscale Materials provides users with access to 85,000 square feet of office and laboratory space, advanced instrumentation and world-class scientists—all dedicated to helping create new materials with novel properties and generating visionary, innovative scientific insights.

By Catherine Foster.

For more information, please contact Dave Baurac (630/252-5584 or media@anl.gov) at Argonne.