Argonne’s collaborations in Texas and across the United States have led to groundbreaking discoveries and development of new technologies that help meet the nation’s needs for reliable energy, economic prosperity, and security.
Rice University and Argonne pursue a middle path to scientific discovery
In electronic technologies, key material properties change in response to stimuli like voltage or current. Scientists aim to understand these changes in terms of the material’s structure at the nanoscale (a few atoms) and microscale (the thickness of a piece of paper). Often neglected is the realm between, the mesoscale — spanning 10 billionths to 1 millionth of a meter.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, in collaboration with Rice University and DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, have made significant strides in understanding the mesoscale properties of a ferroelectric material under an electric field.
The material is an oxide containing a complex mixture of lead, magnesium, niobium and titanium. It is a material that scientists refer to as relaxor ferroelectric. It is characterized by tiny pairs of positive and negative charges, or dipoles, that group into clusters called polar nanodomains. Under an electric field, these dipoles align in the same direction, causing the material to change shape, or strain. Similarly, applying a strain can alter the dipole direction, creating an electric field.
The team’s insights into the mesoscale structures of this material provide a new approach to the design of nanoscale electromechanical devices that work in ways not thought possible.
Argonne, International Atomic Energy Agency conduct workshop at Prairie View A&M University
The International Atomic Energy Association and its U.S. partners are dedicated to improving nuclear science and technology (NST) education, including an October 2023 workshop for secondary school educators from across the continent of Africa, held at Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) in Texas. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of International Security and Non-Proliferation, Ann Ganzer, provided opening remarks. While Argonne has been involved with IAEA efforts to expand NST education at the secondary school level since 2018, this was the first course focused on Africa.
Godlove Fonjweng, the Executive Director for International & Intercultural Programs, and Sunaree Hamilton, Office Director for IAEA Programs at Argonne, in connection with the U.S. Department of State, made the arrangements to set up this year’s workshop just outside of Houston. PVAMU’s location provided a number of fantastic opportunities for students, from tours of nearby nuclear reactors, to medical facilities that use radiation for treatment.
Argonne, Hewlett Packard Enterprise prepare for exascale computing with Polaris supercomputer
The Argonne and Houston-based Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced plans for a new leading-edge “testbed” supercomputer called Polaris. Polaris will allow researchers to test codes and applications intended for projects using the upcoming exascale supercomputer Aurora, to be built by Intel Corporation and HPE. Polaris, built by HPE, will be hosted at and managed by the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, a DOE Office of Science user facility. Polaris boasts performance four times faster than Argonne’s current systems and will allow scientists and developers to prepare for a diverse range of projects planned for Aurora.
Polaris promises to advance investigations into society’s most complex and pressing issues, from understanding viruses to revealing the secrets of the universe. It will also expand Argonne’s ongoing work in such areas as energy and manufacturing. Polaris also will be used to help researchers integrate artificial intelligence and high performance computing with experimental facilities, such as the DOE Office of Science’s X-Ray Light Sources.
Argonne helps AT&T safeguard its infrastructure
Dallas, Texas-based AT&T turned to the Argonne to use its science at scale capabilities and generate hyperlocalized climate projections to help it better safeguard its infrastructure against extreme weather. It also helped the company to make more informed decisions about future infrastructure after natural disasters cost the telecommunications giant about $847 million from 2016 to 2019, including $626 million in 2017 alone.
The company piloted its work with Argonne in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, where it was hardest hit with hurricanes, flooding and other extreme weather. Utilizing rare supercomputing resources and cutting-edge modeling techniques, Argonne climate scientists delivered neighborhood-level projections 30 years into the future. AT&T overlaid Argonne’s climate projection maps with maps of AT&T’s infrastructure to identify vulnerabilities and areas that are attractive for future infrastructure. AT&T then made Argonne’s forecasting insights available to universities, municipalities and others for their own climate risk analyses to benefit communities.
Texas researchers use Argonne facilities to target bacterium
Dallas researchers from Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center made a pivotal discovery with a pathogenic bacteria found in shellfish that is used to sense when they are in the human gut, where they release toxins that cause food poisoning.
The researchers used the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a DOE Office of Science user facility at Argonne, to study Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a globally spread bacterium that contaminates shellfish in warm saltwater, a leading cause of acute gastroenteritis. When humans eat raw or undercooked shellfish contaminated with Vibrio parahaemolyticus, the bacteria use bile salts as a signal to release toxins. Until now, the mechanism that those pathogens use had remained unknown. Future experiments will aim to understand how binding of bile salt by this protein complex induces the release of toxins.
Greyhorse, Argonne, collaborate on pivotal technology to reduce hydrocarbons inside wells
Houston-based Greyhorse Engineering and Technology is collaborating with Argonne on a pivotal new technology that could improve the recovery of oil and natural gas from shale wells located across the United States. The Argonne-patented technology is a treatment that would be used in conjunction with the industry’s current completion practices. Increasing recovery from each well is analogous to farmers obtaining a greater crop yield from their land. This improves the economics for both the operators and farmers and for the consumers.
The technology is inserted deep inside the well during the completion stage of the well, where it creates a chemical reaction that literally chops up the hydrocarbons. The technology then remains inside the well while converting previously solid materials into liquids that otherwise would have been unavailable. The technology is continuing to be developed for use across America in about three years. The research received funding from the Technology Commercialization Fund, managed by DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions.