Story tips: Tailor-made molecules, better battery electrolytes, beyond Moore’s Law and improving climate model accuracy

Materials — Tailor-made molecules

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are using state-of-the-art methods to shed light on chemical separations needed to recover rare-earth elements and secure critical materials for clean energy technologies.

Bastnäsite deposits in the United States are rich in rare-earth metals but must be mined and separated from unwanted minerals through chemical processes that are not well understood. Fundamental insights are needed to improve current recovery approaches based largely on trial and error. Greater efficiency offers cost-savings as well as benefits to the environment by decreasing mining and carbon impacts.

“The path forward will require predictive modeling to help us discover the best candidates for more efficient separations,” said ORNL’s Vyacheslav Bryantsev.

The team combined theory and spectroscopy methods to design collector molecules that buoy bastnäsite out of an ore mixture to enhance recovery by froth flotation. Their study supplies missing information for modeling future collectors tailor made for efficient separations.

Media contact: Ashley Huff, 865.241.6451, [email protected]

Image: https://www.ornl.gov/sites/default/files/2022-05/cover_Bryantsev.png   

Caption: Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory shed light on chemical separations to recover rare-earth elements. Credit: Ben Doughty/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

 

Polymers — Better battery electrolytes

New polymer materials under development at Oak Ridge National Laboratory could enable safer, more stable batteries needed for electric vehicles and grid energy storage.

Polymers are promising electrolytes for solid-state lithium batteries for their low cost, flexibility and processibility, but performance needs to be improved.

“Typically, you can increase flexibility to enhance conductivity, but you sacrifice strength. Our approach bypasses this trade-off by adding flexibility selectively in ion-conducting blocks,” said ORNL’s Guang Yang.

The team designed a block copolymer that sandwiches a conductive core between rigid outer layers that protect the “filling.” The use-inspired design is nanoengineered to block dendrites, lithium growths that could pierce electrolytes and damage batteries.

Results were published in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society’s issue that honored John Goodenough, inventor of the lithium-ion battery.

“Discoveries like this can lead to robust lithium metal batteries that can help us meet clean energy goals,” said ORNL’s Jagjit Nanda.

Media contact: Ashley Huff, 865.241.6451, [email protected]

Image: https://www.ornl.gov/sites/default/files/2022-05/story_tip_battery-v3.jpg

Caption: Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists are enhancing the performance of polymer materials for next-generation lithium batteries. Credit: Adam Malin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

 

Microscopy — Beyond Moore’s Law

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Korea’s Sungkyunkwan University are using advanced microscopy to nanoengineer promising materials for computing and electronics in a beyond-Moore era.

Historically, computers have become faster and more powerful by Moore’s Law, an observation that technology advances as transistor sizes shrink. Today’s nanometer-scale transistors are reaching practical limits, and new approaches are needed to scale existing technology.

A team at ORNL’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences applied a focused beam of helium ions to locally tailor ferroelectricity in a metal oxide thin film, enhancing a useful property for transistors and memory. Results published in Science show how light ion microscopy can unlock unique functionalities in materials and create new pathways to design future devices.

“This project highlights the advanced ion beam and scanning probe capabilities available to CNMS users, which open new frontiers to locally control and understand materials properties on the nanoscale,” said ORNL’s Liam Collins.

Media contact: Ashley Huff, 865.241.6451, [email protected]

Image: https://www.ornl.gov/sites/default/files/2022-05/STORY-TIP.jpg

Caption: Collaborators at ORNL’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences used advanced microscopy to enhance materials for next-generation devices. Credit: Adam Malin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

 

Climate — Improving model accuracy

A study led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers promises to help sharpen accuracy for climate-change models and enable more reliable predictions of extreme weather.

The team’s results outline an invertible neural network, a type of artificial intelligence that mimics the human brain, to improve calibration for models that attempt to predict the pace and results of climate change based on existing climate data. Tests found the network improved models’ accuracy and consistency at a speed as much as 30 times faster than other methods.

“This network holds the potential to fundamentally change how we approach calibration and simulation in traditional earth-system modeling,” said ORNL’s Dan Lu,  the study’s lead author. “The network is efficient enough to solve problems within seconds after being trained and thus can be used to make quick, accurate predictions in scenarios that require a rapid response.”

The model will be regularly updated to ensure further improvements. – Matt Lakin

Media contact: Scott Jones, 865.241.6491, [email protected]

Image: https://www.ornl.gov/sites/default/files/2022-05/ccsd_neuro-climate.png

Caption: Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers developed an invertible neural network, a type of artificial intelligence that mimics the human brain, to improve accuracy in climate-change models and predictions. Credit: Getty Images