Feature Articles
Dan Colman
Bringing together scientists from diverse fields, institutions, and backgrounds brings challenges in forging collaborations, whether it’s the scientific approaches, geographical constraints, or simply different styles. At the EFRCs, researchers are bringing diverse teams together to solve problems. Read about just a few examples…
Timothy Plett
Taking out the “middle man” of a liquid solvent opens the possibility for energy-storing capacitors to significantly step up their storage capacity. Scientists at FIRST recently made vital discoveries concerning...
Nate Thomas
The extreme pros and cons of nuclear power make it a great candidate for basic scientific research that bridges the gap between understanding how something works and solving real world problems. At Materials Science of Actinides, scientists are using their understanding of uranium to...
Research Highlights
Creating longer-lasting, higher-capacity lithium-ion batteries means improving the cathode and now...
Metals collaborate to help overcome the oxygen challenge of biofuels…
Imagine taking your largest tablet and folding it to fit in your pocket. The materials to make this dream a reality...
A simple accounting of water can help determine how much CO2 a hot, pressure-packed reservoir can hold…
When a battery’s electrode fails, it’s done…except maybe not. What if…
Nicknamed TAD, a new technique erases tiny flaws to create near-perfect surfaces for innovations in energy…
Interviews
Editor's Note
There’s a restless nature to July in Washington, DC. The heat, humidity, and summer vacation should make people seek porch swings and iced tea, but it leads to a questing and questioning attitude. The same attitude flows through this issue, even though the Energy Frontier Research Centers as well as our editorial board members are scattered across the country. The work that’s being done, and the people doing it, want to do more, see more, learn more.
Join us and learn about how diverse teams take that questing spirt to work together and advance nuclear power, energy storage, and biofuels. See how understanding materials could change diverse areas, from storing carbon dioxide, to folding flat screens, to batteries, to solar panels. Also, learn more about how the centers work—building diverse teams that see the challenges from different angles. Because whether it is dealing with scorching hot days or the whims of lithium ions, it’s that restless spirit that sees challenges as opportunities and strangers as potential friends that makes the summer extraordinary.
Image courtesy Scott Butner Photography
Editorial Board and Writers
Editorial Board
- Varinia Bernales, Inorganometallic Catalyst Design Center and Material Science of Actinides
- Robert Call, Center for Solar Fuels
- Daniel Colman, Center for Biological Electron Transfer and Catalysis
- Matthew Gilkey, Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation
- Eric Guiltinan, Center for Frontiers of Subsurface Energy Security
- Michelle Harris, Argonne-Northwestern University Solar Energy Research Center
- Kimberly Lundberg, Center for Electrochemical Energy Science
- Tim Plett, Nanostructures for Electrical Energy Storage Energy Frontier Research Center
- Nate Thomas, Light-Materials Interactions Energy Frontier Research Center
- Eva Zarkadoula, Energy Dissipation to Defect Evolution Energy Frontier Research Center
- Kristin Manke, Center for Molecular Electrocatalysis, Editor-in-Chief
Disclaimer: The opinions in this newsletter are those of the individual authors and do not represent the views or position of the Department of Energy.