Tag Archives: berkeley lab

SOFS Take to Water

By Guest PostJanuary 5, 2014Science2d honeycomb, aka chemistry, berkeley lab, chemical signals, DNA, double helix, emergence of nanotechnology, force, metal organic frameworks, mofs, molecule, non covalent bonds, saxs, sofs, solubility in water, supramolecular chemistry, supramolecular organic frameworks, van der waals, xin zhao, yi liu, zhan ting li

Researchers at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry Create First Soluble 2D Supramolecular Organic Frameworks

Supramolecular chemistry, aka chemistry beyond the molecule, in which molecules and molecular complexes are held together by non-covalent bonds, is just beginning to come into its own with the emergence of nanotechnology. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are commanding much of the attention because of their appetite for greenhouse gases, but a new player has joined the field – supramolecular organic frameworks (SOFs). Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have unveiled the first two-dimensional SOFs that self-assemble in solution, an important breakthrough that holds implications for sensing and separation technologies, energy sciences, and, perhaps most importantly, biomimetics. (more…)

Berkeley Lab Researchers Create a Nonlinear Light-generating Zero-Index MetaMaterial

By Guest PostJanuary 3, 2014Scienceberkeley lab, chemical composition, efficient light generation, first plasmonic nanolasers, four wave mixing, future quantum networks, haim suchowski, information age, kevin obrien, light generating, multidirectional emission, nonlinear, nonlinear optics, photon direction, quantum processors, silicon nitride membrane, supercomputers, technique, vacuum, xiang zhang, zero index metamaterial, zero refractive index

Holds Promise for Future Quantum Networks and Light Sources

The Information Age will get a major upgrade with the arrival of quantum processors many times faster and more powerful than today’s supercomputers. For the benefits of this new Information Age 2.0 to be fully realized, however, quantum computers will need fast and efficient multi-directional light sources. While quantum technologies remain grist for science fiction, a team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have taken an important step towards efficient light generation, the foundation for future quantum networks. (more…)

New Spectroscopic Technique Could Accelerate the Push for Better Batteries

By Guest PostDecember 31, 2013Scienceadvanced light source, berkeley lab, better batteries, charge, charge dynamics, electrochemical state, electrolyte, electron, gao liu, ion migration, lithium ion batteries, new spectroscopic technique, phenomenon, theoretical simulations, wanli yang, xray spectroscopy

Method developed at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source measures electronic changes in a working battery electrode

A new technique developed at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source could help scientists better understand and improve the materials required for high-performance lithium-ion batteries that power EVs and other applications.

The technique, which uses soft X-ray spectroscopy, measures something never seen before: the migration of ions and electrons in an integrated, operating battery electrode. (more…)

An Inside Look at a MOF in Action

By Guest PostDecember 28, 2013Scienceals, atmosphere, berend smit, berkeley lab, carbon dioxide gas, david prendergast, gas adsorption, gas molecules, global climate change, inside look, jacs, jeff kortright, jeffrey long, jeffrey neaton, metal organic framework, mg mof 74, mof in action, molecules, nano, nexafs, open metal site, roberta poloni, thomas mcdonald, united states, vulcan, walter drisdell

Berkeley Lab Researchers Probe Into Electronic Structure of MOF May Lead to Improved Capturing of Greenhouse Gases

A unique inside look at the electronic structure of a highly touted metal-organic framework (MOF) as it is adsorbing carbon dioxide gas should help in the design of new and improved MOFs for carbon capture and storage. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have recorded the first in situ electronic structure observations of the adsorption of carbon dioxide inside Mg-MOF-74, an open metal site MOF that has emerged as one of the most promising strategies for capturing and storing greenhouse gases. (more…)

Holistic Cell Design by Berkeley Lab Scientists Leads to High-Performance, Long Cycle-Life Lithium-Sulfur Battery

By Guest PostDecember 15, 2013Scienceberkeley lab, cairns, eetd, energy, holistic cell design, lithium sulfur battery, long cycle life, min kyu song, specific energy, storage capacity loss, yuegang zhang

Battery could find use in mobile applications, and eventually, electric vehicles with 300-mile range

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have demonstrated in the laboratory a lithium-sulfur (Li/S) battery that has more than twice the specific energy of lithium-ion batteries, and that lasts for more than 1,500 cycles of charge-discharge with minimal decay of the battery’s capacity. This is the longest cycle life reported so far for any lithium-sulfur battery.

Demand for high-performance batteries for electric and hybrid electric vehicles capable of matching the range and power of the combustion engine encourages scientists to develop new battery chemistries that could deliver more power and energy than lithium-ion batteries, currently the best performing battery chemistry in the marketplace. (more…)

Taking a New Look at Carbon Nanotubes

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2013Scienceactin filaments, advancing nanotube technology, anisotropic, berkeley lab, carbon nanotubes, crystal, Environment, feng wang, functional device, fused silica substrate, graphene nanoribbons, human hair, kaihui liu, molecule, na, nanobiomaterials, nanorods, numerical aperture, optical anisotropy, plethora, polarization, semiconductor nanowires, species, substrates, xiaoping hong

Berkeley Researchers Develop Technique For Imaging Individual Carbon Nanotubes

Despite their almost incomprehensibly small size – a diameter about one ten-thousandth the thickness of a human hair – single-walled carbon nanotubes come in a plethora of different “species,” each with its own structure and unique combination of electronic and optical properties. Characterizing the structure and properties of an individual carbon nanotube has involved a lot of guesswork – until now.

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have developed a technique that can be used to identify the structure of an individual carbon nanotube and characterize its electronic and optical properties in a functional device. (more…)

New Ideas Needed to Meet California’s 2050 Greenhouse Gas Targets: Berkeley Lab Study

By Guest PostDecember 2, 2013Environment2050, average fuel efficiency, berkeley lab, berkeley lab study, california, carbon dioxide, co2 equivalent, electricity generation, emissions reductions, ghgis, ghgis model, greenhouse gas emissions, greenhouse gas targets, heavy duty vehicles, hydrofluorocarbons, jeff greenblatt, light duty vehicles, methane, new model, nitrous oxide, scenario 1, scenario 2, waste

California is on track to meet its state-mandated targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions for 2020, but it will not be able to meet its 2050 target without bold new technologies and policies. This is the conclusion of the California Greenhouse Gas Inventory Spreadsheet (GHGIS), a new model developed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) to look at how far existing policies and technologies can get us in emissions reductions.

A 2005 executive order requires California to reduce its emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases—including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and hydrofluorocarbons—to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. “This is quite a stringent requirement, and even if we aggressively expand our policies and implement fledgling technologies that are not even on the marketplace now, our analysis shows that California will still not be able to get emissions to 85 million metric tons of CO₂-equivalent per year by 2050,” said Jeff Greenblatt, a Berkeley Lab researcher who created the GHGIS. (more…)

Diamond Imperfections Pave the Way to Technology Gold

By Guest PostNovember 23, 2013Scienceadvanced technology, berkeley lab, combination of theory, creation of qubits, data, dephasing, detection, diamond defects, Diamond Imperfections, diamond impurities, dmitry budker, electronic dynamic, electronic spectroscopy, electronic state phenomena, graham fleming, magnetic field, magnetometry, nanophotonics, nanoscale, nitrogen vacancy, non radiative relaxation, NV center, quantum information, quantum information processing, quantum mechanical effects, quantum spin, relaxation, spectroscopic signals, spin addressing, Technology Gold, Thomas Oliver, timescale, vanessa huxter, Vibrational, vibrational coherences

Berkeley Study Provides Unprecedented Details on Ultrafast Processes in Diamond Nitrogen Vacancy Centers

From supersensitive detections of magnetic fields to quantum information processing, the key to a number of highly promising advanced technologies may lie in one of the most common defects in diamonds. Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have taken an important step towards unlocking this key with the first ever detailed look at critical ultrafast processes in these diamond defects. (more…)