May 8, 2024 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories materials scientist Dorina Sava Gallis has been honored by the American Chemical Society with a 2024 Women Chemists Committee Rising Star Award, recognizing her excellence in the scientific enterprise demonstrating outstanding promise for contributions to her field. In her 14 years at Sandia, Sava...
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Bruised and bleeding: New materials show where they’re hurt
February 13, 2024 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Every over-the-counter medication bottle sports a protective seal, usually a plastic wrap or foam layer, or both. These seals offer signs of tampering attempts. In a parallel concern, the International Atomic Energy Agency relies on tamper-indicating devices to make sure it knows if containers of nuclear material...
Categories: Chemistry, Nonproliferation
Making materials more durable through science
August 24, 2023 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A team at Sandia National Laboratories developed a molecule that helps change the way some materials react to temperature fluctuations, which makes them more durable. It’s an application that could be used in everything from plastic phone cases to missiles. Polymers, which include various forms of plastics,...
Sandia scientists achieve breakthrough in tackling PFAS contamination
June 1, 2023 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A team at Sandia National Laboratories is developing materials to tackle what has become one of the biggest problems in the world: human exposure to a group of chemicals known as PFAS through contaminated water and other products. Sandia is now investing more money to take their...
Seashell-inspired Sandia shield protects materials in hostile environments
May 3, 2022 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Word of an extraordinarily inexpensive material, lightweight enough to protect satellites against debris in the cold of outer space, cohesive enough to strengthen the walls of pressurized vessels experiencing average conditions on Earth and yet heat-res…
‘I’m melting, melting’ — environmentally hazardous coal waste diminished by citric acid
October 25, 2021 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — In one of nature’s unexpected bounties, a harmless food-grade solvent has been used to extract highly sought rare-earth metals from coal ash, reducing the amount of ash without damaging the environment and at the same time increasing an important national resource. Coal ash is the unwanted but...
Pathways to production
August 30, 2021 • LIVERMORE, Calif. — Biologists at Sandia National Laboratories developed comprehensive software that will help scientists in a variety of industries create engineered chemicals more quickly and easily. Sandia is now looking to license the software for commercial use, resea…
The hidden culprit killing lithium-metal batteries from the inside
July 14, 2021 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — For decades, scientists have tried to make reliable lithium-metal batteries. These high-performance storage cells hold 50% more energy than their prolific, lithium-ion cousins, but higher failure rates and safety problems like fires and explosions have crippled commercialization efforts. Researchers have hypothesized why the devices fail, but direct...
Setting gold and platinum standards where few have gone before
June 24, 2021 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Like two superheroes finally joining forces, Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine — generator of the world’s most powerful electrical pulses — and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility — the planet’s most energetic laser source — in a series of 10 experiments have detailed the responses...
Black engineer awards expand Sandia Labs spotlight
March 3, 2021 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Ten Sandia National Laboratories engineers received Black Engineer of the Year Awards, including Most Promising Scientist, Modern Technology Leaders and Science Spectrum Trailblazers. Honorees include Sandia systems, chemical, computer, electrical, petroleum, manufacturing and mechanical engineers who excel in their respective fields, powering innovation while flexing their technological...
Sandia to put nuclear waste storage canisters to the test
December 9, 2020 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories is outfitting three 22.5-ton, 16.5-feet-long stainless-steel storage canisters with heaters and instrumentation to simulate nuclear waste so researchers can study their durability. The three canisters, which arrived in mid-November and have never contained any nuclear materials, will be used to study how much salt...
Sandia tests distillery’s hand sanitizer developed to address severe shortage
May 7, 2020, Media Advisory • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Distillery-developed hand sanitizer is leaving a New Mexico warehouse as quickly as it disappeared from grocery stores after Sandia National Laboratories helped confirm the product meets all federal requirements for distribution. In response to the severe, widespread shortage during the COVID-19 pandemic, Wayward Sons Craft-Distillery in Santa...
Sandia establishes collaborative research facility for low-temperature plasmas
December 20, 2019 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories is setting up a collaborative facility to help researchers worldwide study low-temperature plasmas, the most pervasive state of matter in the universe. The 5-year, $5.5 million project, called the Sandia Low Temperature Plasma Research Facility, is sponsored by the Department of Energy’s Office of...
AI center to combine hardware, software for practical gains
October 31, 2019 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, and the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta are launching a research center that combines hardware design and software development to improve artificial intelligence technologies that will ultimately benefit the public. AI is an emerging field with...
Sandia research focuses on ‘switching on’ iron in clay minerals
October 11, 2019 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories researchers have discovered the mechanism to “switch on” iron residing in clay mineral structures, leading to the understanding of how to make iron reactive under oxygen-free conditions. This research will help scientists understand and predict how contaminants, such as arsenic, selenium and chromium, move...
Categories: Chemistry, Energy / Environment / Water
Portable gas detection shrinks to new dimensions
June 27, 2019 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A sensor for detecting toxic gases is now smaller, faster and more reliable. Its performance sets it up for integration in a highly sensitive portable system for detecting chemical weapons. Better miniature sensors can also rapidly detect airborne toxins where they occur, providing key information to help...
Categories: Chemistry, Science / Technology / Engineering
Thwarting oil-pipeline corrosion by identifying a nanoscale villain
June 6, 2019 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Steel pipes rust and eventually fail. To preempt disasters, oil companies and others have created computer models to predict when replacement is needed. But if the models themselves go wrong, they can be modified only through experience, a costly problem if detection comes too late. Now, researchers...
Deconstructing deleterious soot
February 7, 2019 • LIVERMORE, Calif. — In most situations, breaking things apart isn’t the best way to solve a problem. However, sometimes the opposite is true if you’re trying to characterize complex chemical compounds. That’s what Sandia National Laboratories scientists Nils Hansen a…
Sandia microneedles technique may mean quicker diagnoses of major illnesses
January 2, 2019 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — When people are in the early stages of an undiagnosed disease, immediate tests that lead to treatment are the best first steps. But a blood draw — usually performed by a medical professional armed with an uncomfortably large needle — might not be quickest, least painful or...
Large supercrystals promise superior sensors
August 1, 2018 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Using an artful combination of nanotechnology and basic chemistry, Sandia National Laboratories researchers have encouraged gold nanoparticles to self-assemble into unusually large supercrystals that could significantly improve the detection sensitivity for chemicals in explosives or drugs. “Our supercrystals have more sensing capability than regular spectroscopy instruments currently...
A splash of detergent makes catalytic compounds more powerful
May 30, 2018 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M — Researcher David Rosenberg examines images of a white powder under a powerful scanning electron microscope. Up close, the powder looks like coarse gravel, a heap of similar but irregular chunks. Then he looks at a second image — the same material produced by colleague Hongyou Fan instead...
New chemical mechanisms identified on road to cleaner, more efficient combustion
March 8, 2018 • LIVERMORE, Calif. — Sandia National Laboratories researchers have identified key chemical mechanisms for the first time that add to the fundamental knowledge of combustion chemistry and might lead to cleaner combustion in engines. Sandia researcher Nils Hansen and former postdoctoral appointee Kai Moshammer focused on low-temperature oxidation of hydrocarbons and...
Reducing power plants’ freshwater consumption with Sandia’s new silica filter
October 18, 2017 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Power plants draw more freshwater than any other consumer in the United States, accounting for more than 50 percent of the nation’s freshwater use at about 500 billion gallons daily. To help save this water, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have developed a new silica filter for...
The destructive effects of supercooled liquid water on airplane safety and climate models
November 3, 2016 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Supercooled water sounds smooth enough to be served at espresso bars, but instead it hangs out in Earth’s atmosphere, unpredictably freezing on airplane wings and hampering the simulations of climate theorists. To learn more about this unusual state of matter, Sandia National Laboratories atmospheric scientist Darielle Dexheimer and colleagues have organized an expedition to...
Topics: air safety, Alaska, arctic, balloons, climate, clouds, models, North Slope, supercooled, wing ice
Cleaning concrete contaminated with chemicals
September 19, 2016 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – In March 1995, members of a Japanese cult released the deadly nerve agent sarin into the Tokyo subway system, killing a dozen people and injuring a thousand more. This leads to the question: What if a U.S. transportation hub was contaminated with a chemical agent? The hub...
Categories: Chemistry, Homeland security
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