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 2 July 2024
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The DOE Office of Science Research News Update will go on a summer break for the rest of July. The newsletter will return in August.
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The summer sun beats down. People without air conditioning must find refuge in schools and community centers. Outdoor workers struggle to keep cool. Hot nights interrupt people’s sleep, not allowing them to get the rest needed to recover from the warmth of the day. People with cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses have these conditions worsen.
While extreme heat seems less dramatic than severe storms, heat waves can be just as deadly. As the temperature rises, heat puts stress on our bodies. Our bodies keep us cool through sweating. However, the higher the temperature and humidity, the less effective sweating is. In many places around the world, extreme heat already causes more deaths than floods, wildfires, and hurricanes. Researchers supported by the Office of Science at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are working to understand how climate change is affecting extreme heat and how it hits different groups of people harder than others.
Learn more about how heat waves will change over time and their disproportionate effects on urban areas and specific neighborhoods in those areas.
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Electrochemical reactions: Electrochemical reactions are essential to batteries, solar fuels, and photosynthesis. A team led by scientists from DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has invented a technique to study these processes at the atomic level with the highest resolution yet. The team developed a device called a polymer liquid cell. It allows them to study the interface between solids and liquids in real time as well as stop reactions at specific points to study different stages. To demonstrate the device, the researchers used it to study a catalyst that reduces carbon dioxide to make fuel. |
Profiling molecules: Observing how individual molecules behave and interact can provide major insights into how complex systems work. Researchers at University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed the most sensitive method yet for detecting and profiling single molecules. Existing methods to profile molecules use fluorescent labels, but these labels can obscure how molecules interact with each other. The new method doesn’t use labels. It could have applications that range from discovering new medicines to developing advanced materials. |
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Battery cathodes: To improve electric vehicles’ driving range, researchers have been investigating different cathodes for lithium-ion batteries. Nickel-rich nickel manganese cobalt oxide is one of the most promising ones. But batteries with cathodes made from this material degrade as they charge and recharge. Over time, the amount of current flowing out declines. With the help of a new method and three different DOE Office of Science user facilities, researchers from DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory discovered the main reason this material worsens over time. |
Hydrogen: Engineers at the University of Illinois Chicago helped design a new, more sustainable method to make hydrogen gas from water. Most methods to produce hydrogen require coal or natural gas and large amounts of electricity. This new method uses only solar power and agricultural waste, such as manure or corn husks. It reduces the energy needed to extract hydrogen from water by 600 percent. It could potentially bring down the greenhouse gas emissions from producing hydrogen to close to net zero. |
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Particle formation mechanisms: Tiny particles in the atmosphere called aerosols are an important source of cloud condensation nuclei – solid surfaces where water vapor condenses to form clouds. Understanding how these particles form is important for improving our computer models of the climate. Researchers at DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory used data from molecular-level laboratory experiments to improve how DOE’s Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) represents new particle formation. |
Squeezing infrared light: Confining infrared light is important for next-generation imaging technologies. Current techniques use bulk crystals. However, researchers at North Carolina State University have demonstrated that a specific class of oxide membrane can also confine infrared light. This new technique maintains the light’s frequency, but drastically compresses its wavelengths. This technology could allow researchers to capture infrared images with much better resolution. |
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The Office of Science posted four new highlights between 6/17/24 and 7/1/24.
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Isotope targets: Medical imaging, cancer therapy, and other applications use isotopes that do not occur naturally. To produce isotopes, production facilities aim particle beams at specialized targets. When the particle beams hit the targets, they generate heat. As temperatures can grow too high and destroy the target, water channels remove this heat. Unfortunately, radiation levels during this process are too high to make real-world measurements of the cooling system. To test the cooling system’s limits, researchers at DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory built a mock apparatus. They used deep learning tools to analyze the measurements. They then used that data to validate a model that predicts the limits of these systems. With this model, researchers may be able to increase the intensity of particle beams without risking the targets. |
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Upgraded Advanced Photon Source Sees First X-ray Light for Science
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On June 17, 2024, the upgraded Advanced Light Source (a DOE Office of Science user facility at Argonne National Laboratory) delivered its first X-ray light beams to a scientific beamline. The X-ray beams generated by the upgraded APS will be up to 500 times brighter than those of the original facility.
The APS has provided cutting-edge X-ray light beams to scientists around the world for nearly 30 years. In the past, researchers have used the APS to investigate vaccines for COVID-19, improve solar cells, and lay the groundwork for lithium-ion batteries used in many of today’s electric vehicles.
For the past year, the facility has paused operations. Technicians and engineers have been busy removing the original storage ring (which generates the X-ray beams) and installing a brand-new ring. Now the APS team is in the process of bringing each of the 71 experiment stations, called beamlines, around the ring into operation. Over the course of the next year, all of the APS beamlines will return to operation and scientists will resume research by the end of 2024.
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Sara Martinez: Keeping Structures Safe
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Many of the DOE Office of Science’s laboratories have their origins in the Manhattan Project during World War II. Some of them still have buildings that date back to that period of time. As these buildings are still useful, laboratory staff members work to ensure that they still provide a safe work environment. At DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Sara Martinez uses her expertise in structural engineering to analyze and problem solve structural issues in ORNL’s Isotope Science and Engineering Directorate. Through inspections, walkthroughs, and evaluations, she makes sure that buildings are protected from adverse conditions. By addressing upgrades and preventing potential hazards, she protects the staff members who work in isotope research as well as enables the lab to continue its important research. |
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Research News Update provides a review of recent Office of Science Communications and Public Affairs stories and features. This is only a sample of our recent work promoting research done at universities, national labs, and user facilities throughout the country.
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Please see the archive on Energy.gov for past issues.
No. 122: 2 July 2024
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