The MMIC is a cross-cutting collaborative of Argonne scientists and engineers dedicated to accelerating the precision scale-up of advanced materials and chemistries. The mission of MMIC is to cultivate new partnerships between Argonne and the private sector, the Department of Energy, universities, and other stakeholders to accelerate the commercialization of advanced materials and chemical manufacturing technologies.

Argonne carries out this mission with a wealth of expertise and unique facilities, including the recently expanded Materials Engineering Research Facility (MERF), a 28,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art process R&D and scale-up facility. Researchers and partners also have the opportunity to investigate underlying science at three of the Laboratory’s national scientific user facilities, the Advanced Photon Source, Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, and Center for Nanoscale Materials, through their normal user proposal processes.

More than 50 Argonne scientists and engineers based at the MERF, and dozens more across the laboratory, advance the frontiers of materials manufacturing, applying innovative process technologies, advanced in situ/operando characterization, high-performance computing, and artificial intelligence to problems in energy storage, materials for air and water purification, industrial catalysis, printed electronics, and more. MERF researchers have worked with more than 60 companies during the past 10 years to accelerate the scale-up of their most challenging materials, chemistries and processes, helping to drive innovative products to the market faster.