Liquid-Like Motion in Crystals Could Explain Their Promising Behavior in Solar Cells
The sun delivers more energy to Earth in one hour than humanity consumes over an entire year. Scientists worldwide are searching for materials that can cost-effectively and efficiently capture this carbon-free energy and convert it into electricity.
Perovskites, a class of materials with a unique crystal structure, could overtake current technology for solar energy harvesting. They are cheaper than materials used in current solar cells, and they have demonstrated remarkable photovoltaic properties behavior that allows them to very efficiently convert sunlight into electricity.
Revealing the nature of perovskites at the atomic scale is critical to understanding their promising capabilities. This insight can help inform models to determine the optimal makeup of perovskite materials for solar cells, which can be used to power vehic
Credit: (Image by Robert Tranter.)
Tranter explores the reactions of chemicals under high temperatures and pressures.
Senior chemist Robert (Rob) Tranter of the U.S. Department of Energy s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory is no stranger to shockwave chemistry, but he received a happy shock of his own when he recently was named a Fellow of the Combustion Institute.
Members of the international combustion community who are named Fellows of the Combustion Institute are recognized by their peers as being distinguished for outstanding contributions to combustion science, whether in research or in applications.
Tranter is a member of Argonne s Gas-phase Chemical Dynamics group in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering division, in which he explores the reactions of different chemicals under high temperatures and pressures. To generate these temperatures and pressures, Tranter uses a shock tube an instrument containing a highly pressurized region of helium gas separated from a less pr
NSLS-II User Profile: Geneva Laurita, Bates College
In the Leading Lights series, visiting researchers sit down with NSLS-II staff for a Q&A on their research and user experience
May 12, 2021
Geneva Laurita
Geneva Laurita is an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Bates College, a private liberal arts college based in Lewiston, Maine. Her research is focused on inorganic materials for energy and electronics applications. To investigate the structure-property relationships of these materials, Laurita leverages the high energy x-rays, rapid data acquisition rates, and advanced research techniques available at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Lasers, Levitation and Machine Learning Make Better Heat-Resistant Materials
Argonne scientists across several disciplines have combined forces to create a new process for testing and predicting the effects of high temperatures on refractory oxides.
Cast iron melts at around 1,200 degrees Celsius. Stainless steel melts at around 1,520 degrees Celsius. If you want to shape these materials into everyday objects, like the skillet in your kitchen or the surgical tools used by doctors, it stands to reason that you would need to create furnaces and molds out of something that can withstand even these extreme temperatures.
That’s where refractory oxides come in. These ceramic materials can stand up to blistering heat and retain their shape, which makes them useful for all kinds of things, from kilns and nuclear reactors to the heat-shielding tiles on spacecraft. But considering the often-dangerous environments in which
Among the most promising therapeutic options for individuals with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). In this study, Jones et al . identified, characterized, and tested one such mAb, LY-CoV555, in vitro and in vivo. They found that LY-CoV555 bound to the severe acute respiratory distress syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein and prevented its interaction with angiotensin-converting enzyme 2. Prophylactic treatment with LY-CoV555 protected the upper and lower respiratory tracts of nonhuman primates from becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2. Together, these data support the clinical use of LY-CoV555 for treating patients with COVID-19.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) poses a public health threat for which preventive and therapeutic agents are urgently needed. Neutralizing antibodies are a key class of therapeutics that may bridge widespread vaccination campaigns and offer a treatment solution in populations less res