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Basic Energy Sciences Directorate
CFN, Chemistry, Condensed Matter Physics & Materials Science
Jim Misewich
Associate Laboratory Director for Basic Energy Sciences
BNL is
at the center of a large, vibrant research community in the Northeast,
offering access to world-class user facilities and scientists in a highly
collaborative and interdisciplinary environment. We have recognized
strengths in strongly correlated and complex systems, photon and neutron
science, chemical dynamics, and interface phenomena and catalysis. New
investments are being made in nanoscience, materials synthesis, solar
energy, soft matter and biomaterials with the underlying goal of having
impact on the nation’s energy security. We envision a BES Complex that
integrates our science and facilities, and is coupled to university and
industrial partners, and to other major research facilities at BNL.
The
major scientific themes of the BES Directorate are aligned with DOE’s “grand
challenge” initiatives and respond to the President’s recent initiatives in
energy research. Furthermore, BES work supports the Laboratory initiatives
in: Nanoscience, with the objective to become a world leader in the design,
fabrication, and characterization of materials and systems at the nanoscale,
especially focused on energy security; and the Laboratory initiative in
Energy–related R&D, with the objective to be a world-recognized laboratory
in energy R&D that is leading in the development of advanced materials and
processes for energy applications. The major research directions of BES
are: catalysis, involving substances that make chemical reactions work more
quickly; strongly correlated and complex systems, for example, trying to
understand high-temperature superconductivity; developing new programs at
the interface between life and physical sciences, for instance, using
biological ideas to design novel nanomaterials with new properties;
nanoscale phenomena, for example, developing new nanomaterials to contribute
toward energy security; photo/radiation chemistry and chemical dynamics,
including both combustion and radiation chemistry efforts. New programs are
being planned in solar energy, instrumentation, hydrogen fuels, and advanced
nuclear energy. BES scientists use many of the Lab’s premier facilities to
conduct their research, including the CFN and NSLS, and are planning to
develop programs in nanoscience, emergent phenomena and self-assembly that
benefit from NSLS II.
Nanoscience offers a new approach to address the energy security challenges
facing the U.S. through the development of materials exhibiting novel and
unprecedented functionality for energy manipulation and utilization. BNL
will focus on nanoscience for energy security in the areas of nanostructured
catalysts, electronic nanomaterials, and bio/soft nanomaterials and
interfaces in order to develop the scientific foundation and tools for the
design and creation of functional nanomaterials. The specific objectives are
to understand reactivity in nanocatalysts at the atomic level using the CFN,
NSLS, and NSLS-II; synthesize and characterize bio-inspired hybrid systems
for energy manipulation; tailor nanomaterials for solar energy conversion,
and devise non-noble fuel cell catalysts.
Through the nanoscience jumpstart program (initiated in FY 2003), users have
begun research at the coordinated CFN facilities. Building construction
started in late FY 2005 and will end with equipment installation in FY 2008
for a total cost of $81M.
The
potential benefit of BNL’s nanoscience program to DOE and the taxpayer is
transformational breakthrough science leading to revolutionary technologies
in energy conversion, storage, and utilization that will impact the
H-economy, solar energy, and environmental protection. It will enable open
access to world-leading integrated science programs and facilities, and with
the other Nanoscience Research Centers, maintain U.S. competitiveness in
nanoscience. The benefit to BNL is a source of new funding that will enhance
financial security, renew and expand core competencies in this area, and
outstanding science.
Recent Science Highlights
- Scientists Reveal Effects of Quantum “Traffic Jam” in High-Temperature Superconductors
Scientists at Brookhaven Lab, in collaboration with colleagues at Cornell University, Tokyo University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Colorado, have uncovered the first experimental evidence for why the transition temperature of high-temperature superconductors — the temperature at which these materials carry electrical current with no resistance — cannot simply be elevated by increasing the electrons’ binding energy. More...
- Controlling the Size of Nanoclusters
Melissa Patterson, a W. Burghardt Turner Fellow at Stony Brook University, will give a talk at the American Chemical Society’s national meeting in Philadelphia on controlling the size of nanoclusters, research she performed using a new instrument at Brookhaven Lab. More...
- Chemist Travels World to Study Mysterious Properties of Neutrinos
In the quest to better understand one of nature’s most “ghostly” elementary particles — the neutrino — scientists at Brookhaven Lab are spreading their expertise from the mines of Canada to the mountains of China. Richard L. Hahn, a senior chemist at Brookhaven Lab, will discuss some of the neutrino's mysterious properties and two new neutrino research projects at the 236th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society. More...
- Brookhaven Lab Chemist Radoslav Adzic Receives the U.S. Department of Energy's Hydrogen Program R&D Award
Radoslav Adzic, a senior chemist at Brookhaven Lab, has received a 2008 DOE Hydrogen Program R&D Award, which recognizes him for his “outstanding contributions in electrocatalysis for fuel cells.” Adzic was honored in June with a plaque at a DOE ceremony held in Washington, D.C. More...
- Controlling the Size of Nanoclusters: First Step in Making New Catalysts
Researchers from Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook University have developed a new instrument that allows them to control the size of nanoclusters — groups of 10 to 100 atoms — with atomic precision. They created a model nanocatalyst of molybdenum sulfide, the first step in developing the next generation of materials to be used in hydrodesulfurization, a process that removes sulfur from natural gas and petroleum products to reduce pollution. More...
- New Method Expands Tool Kit for Monitoring Body Chemistry, Disease
Brookhaven scientists have devised a simple method for adding a radioactive “tag” to formaldehyde, a common organic chemical. Scientists can now synthesize a whole new class of radiotracers, compounds that can be tracked by positron emission tomography scanners to monitor the movement and interactions of a wide range of chemicals in the human body. More...
- Peter Johnson Named Chair of Brookhaven Lab's Condensed Matter Physics & Materials Science Department
Peter Johnson has been named Chair of the Condensed Matter Physics & Materials Science Department at Brookhaven National Laboratory, effective June 1. Researchers in the department study basic, theoretical and applied aspects of materials; their uses; and their electronic, physical, mechanical and chemical properties in relation to their structure. More...
- Brookhaven Scientists Explore Brain's Reaction to Potent Hallucinogen
Brain-imaging studies performed in animals at Brookhaven National Laboratory provide researchers with clues about why an increasingly popular recreational drug that causes hallucinations and motor-function impairment in humans is abused. More...
- Battelle Honors Weiqiang Han as Brookhaven Lab's 'Inventor of the Year'
Brookhaven scientist Weiqiang Han will be honored as the Laboratory's "Inventor of the Year" on April 25, in Columbus, Ohio, by Battelle, a global science and technology company that develops and commercializes technology. Battelle and Stony Brook University comprise Brookhaven Science Associates, the company that manages Brookhaven Lab. More...
- Efficient Catalysts for Making Oxygen for 'Artificial Photosynthesis'
Scientists at Brookhaven Lab and the Institute for Molecular Science in Japan are trying to mimic part of the complex natural process of photosynthesis with the goal of making non-polluting fuels such as hydrogen, for example, for use in fuel cells. More...
Last Modified: March 4, 2008
Please forward all questions about this site to the
Mary Campbell
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