Three Argonne technologies win R&D 100 awards

ARGONNE, Ill. (Aug. 8, 2003) — Three technologies developed or co-developed at Argonne have been recognized with R&D 100 Awards, which highlight some of the best products and technologies from around the world.

This is 40th year the technology awards have been given by R&D magazine. The awards recognize the "100 most technologically significant new products" from the entries the magazine receives. The judges look for products that can change people's lives for the better, improve the standard of living for large numbers of people, save lives, promote health, protect the environment or advance our ability to solve vexing problems of importance to the nation and the world.

Argonne's winning technologies are:

• Scanning Confocal Electron Microscope,
• Large-Area Ultrananocrystalline Diamond Film and
• Deposition System Nanostructured Carbide Derived Carbon

The Scanning Confocal Electron Microscope (SCEM) is an electron optical instrument that merges the principles of confocal imaging by combining the ease of a Scanning Electron Microscope and the penetration ability of both the Scanning Transmission X-ray Microscope and the Transmission/Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope.

The SCEM enables imaging of sub-surface structures of thick, optically opaque materials, that previously required an X-ray microscope. It also enables imaging at large fields of view and at small, billionths-of-a-meter or nanometer-level resolution.

The SCEM's main application is in studies of nanomaterials, particularly the next generation of electronic, magnetic and photonic devices. An example of these devices is anything from high tech consumer electronics to the latest in multi-layered high density R&D integrated circuits.

Nestor Zaluzec of Argonne's Materials Science Division (MSD) developed the SCEM.

The Large-Area Ultrananocrystalline Diamond Film and Deposition System (UNCD) is a diamond film technology and desposition system developed by Argonne and Innovation Plasma Systems. UNCD uses diamond grains only five nanometers in size to provide the first-ever affordable large-area diamond film coating, suitable for producing large area coatings for macro-devices, microelectromechanical systems and nanoelectromechanical system devices, biodevices and biosensors.

UNCD has a unique combination of mechanical, tribological, chemical, electron transport, thermal transport and biocompatible properties that enable life-improving technologies. For example, UNCD creates very smooth, ultra-thin continuous films for hermetic coatings and electrodes for a microchip-based retinal prosthesis to restore sight.

UNCD developers are MSD's Dieter Gruen, Orlando Auciello and John Carlisle, and Hildegard Sung-Spitzl and Ralf Spitzl of Innovative Plasma Systems.

The Nanostructured Carbide Derived Carbon (CDC) technology is a coating for sliding and rotating equipment applications. The coating can be grown at rates up to 100 micrometers per hour and is composed of graphite, diamond, amorphous carbon and carbon "nano-onions" (small carbon structures with concentric rings, resembling an onion). These components vary between 2 to 10 nanometers in thickness (one nanometer is one-billionth of a meter).

Because of graded interface, the coating has strong a bonding to its substrates and does not delaminate under severe loading or sliding conditions. CDC has exceptional friction and wear resistance in many environments, such as wet, dry and high-temperature environments.

Industrial partners are interested in using the coating to seal water pumps in automotive engines to prevent dry-run failure and extend the engine's lifetime. The development of this coating could save billions of dollars and reduce energy consumption.

Ali Erdemir of Argonne's Energy Technology Division developed the CDC technology along with colleagues Michael J. McNallan of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Yury Gogotsi or the A.J. Drexel Nanotechnology Institute, and students Sascha Welz and Daniel Ersoy of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

This is Erdemir's third R&D award. He received awards in 1991 and 1998 for a Boric Acid Lubricant and a Near Frictionless Carbon Coating, respectively.

All 100 winners of the award will receive a plaque at the annual awards banquet in October and a write-up in both the print and online version of the September issue of R&D magazine.

The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory conducts basic and applied scientific research across a wide spectrum of disciplines, ranging from high-energy physics to climatology and biotechnology. Since 1990, Argonne has worked with more than 600 companies and numerous federal agencies and other organizations to help advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for the future. Argonne is operated by the University of Chicago as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's national laboratory system.

For more information, please contact Steve McGregor (630/252-5580 or media@anl.gov) at Argonne.