Argonne National Laboratory

Press Releases

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Researchers used powerful X-rays to take a molecular look at how the Kaiser-i-Hind butterfly’s wings reflect in brilliant iridescent green. Image: Shutterstock/Butterfly Hunter.
 X-rays reveal the photonic crystals in butterfly wings that create color

Scientists used X-rays to discover what creates one butterfly effect: how the microscopic structures on the insect’s wings reflect light to appear as brilliant colors to the eye.

 June 10, 2016
Principal chemical engineer Jie Li, left, and postdoctoral researcher Alina Yan create coated nanoparticles in a continuous flow reactor. Nanoparticles are key to an ongoing effort at Argonne to create more efficient window films.
 Through a glass, warmly: Argonne nanomaterials can help make windows more efficient

A team of Argonne researchers is using nanomaterials to get closer to one of the holy grails of building efficiency technologies: single-pane windows with efficiency as good or better than multipane low-emission windows. The team recently received a $3.1 million award from DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy to develop a technology that could help achieve that goal.

 May 31, 2016
From left, researchers Ani Sumant, Ali Erdemir, Subramanian Sankaranarayanan, Sanket Deshmukh, and Diana Berman combined diamond, graphene, and carbon to achieve superlubricity.
 Argonne-developed technology for achieving superlubricity wins 2016 TechConnect National Innovation Award

A graphene-nanodiamond solution for achieving superlubricity developed at Argonne National Laboratory has won a 2016 TechConnect National Innovation Award. Using miniscule diamonds wrapped in graphene, friction can be reduced to almost zero value. This superlubricity effect is a very enticing prospect for industries making everything from computer hard drives to wind turbines.

 May 26, 2016
A depiction of magnetic charge ice. Nanoscale magnets are arranged in a two-dimensional lattice. Each nanomagnet produces a pair of magnetic charges, one positive (the red ball on the north pole) and one negative (the blue ball on the south pole). The magnetic flux lines (white) point from positive charges to negative charges. (Image credit: Yong-Lei Wang/Zhili Xiao)
 Scientists create 'magnetic charge ice'

A team of scientists working at Argonne National Laboratory, led by Northern Illinois University physicist and Argonne materials scientist Zhili Xiao, has created a new material called “rewritable magnetic charge ice” that permits an unprecedented degree of control over local magnetic fields and could pave the way for new computing technologies.

 May 25, 2016
Graduate students Gerwin Koolstra and Ge Yang (left and right), Asst. Prof. David Schuster (center), and collaborators have integrated trapped electrons with superconducting quantum circuits, an advance in the effort to develop quantum computers. (Photo by Rob Hart)
 New device steps toward isolating single electrons for quantum computing

If biochemists had access to a quantum computer, they could perfectly simulate the properties of new molecules to develop novel drugs in ways that would take the fastest existing computers decades.

 May 20, 2016
Researchers from Argonne’s Surface and Lubrication Interaction, Discovery and Engineering initiative developed a novel “diamond-like” coating that could prove of great benefit when used to coat equipment for wind turbines, like the bearing in this photo. Pictured from left, Levent Eryilmaz, Giovanni Ramirez, Ali Erdemir and Aaron Greco.
Gone with the wind: Argonne coating shows surprising potential to improve reliability in wind power

A group of researchers from Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Akron discovered that a particular form of carbon coating not necessarily designed for wind turbines may indeed prove a boon to the wind industry.

 May 17, 2016
Argonne X-ray physicist Haidan Wen received a DOE Early Career Award, a prestigious research grant for $2.5 million over five years. Photo by Wes Agresta/Argonne National Laboratory; click to view larger.
 X-ray scientist Haidan Wen wins DOE Early Career Award

Argonne X-ray physicist Haidan Wen received a DOE Early Career Award, a prestigious research grant for $2.5 million over five years.

 May 3, 2016
A team of Argonne researchers (from left, Khalil Amine, Jun Lu, Larry Curtiss, Zonghai Chen, Kah Chun Lau, and Hsien-Hau Wang) have developed a way to create stable lithium superoxide in a lithium-air battery system.
 Stable "superoxide" opens the door to a new class of batteries

Argonne scientists, working with American and Korean collaborators, produced stable crystallized lithium superoxide during battery discharging. Unlike lithium peroxide, this superoxide can easily dissociate into lithium and oxygen, leading to high efficiency and good cycle life in lithium-air batteries.

 January 12, 2016
This image shows an atomic-resolution topographic rendering of the borophene surface, taken in the scanning tunneling microscope. The borophene sheet forms large buckled wrinkles, as seen in the center, in response to the underlying silver crystal. These atomic scale wrinkles may serve to steer the flow of electrons and could lead to other surprising properties. (Click to view larger.)
 Scientists create atomically thin metallic boron

A team of scientists at Argonne, Northwestern University and Stony Brook University has, for the first time, created a two-dimensional sheet of boron – a material known as borophene.

 December 21, 2015
A schematic representation of the edge-terminated MoS2 on glassy carbon electrode (click image to enlarge)
 Promising technique improves hydrogen production of affordable alternative to platinum

Microwave heat improves nanostructured molybdenum disulfide catalyst's ability to produce hydrogen.

 October 26, 2015
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