Materials Science

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Ingenious method enables sharper flat-panel displays at lower energy costs

April 26, 2016 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A perpetual quest of  manufacturers and viewers is for ever-brighter colors and better images for flat-panel displays built from less expensive materials that also use less electricity. An intriguing method discovered by Sandia National Laboratories researcher Alec Talin and collaborators at the Center for Nanoscale Science and...
Electrochromic

Nondestructive testing: Sandia looks inside composites

February 1, 2016 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Researcher David Moore holds a rectangle of hard carbon composite material, smooth with a faint woven pattern on its surface. The sample shows normal wear and tear until he turns it over to reveal a circular impact mark with cracks radiating from it.The…
Sandia National Laboratories technologist Andrew Lentfer passes a roller probe over a composite as researcher David Moore checks data on a screen. The nondestructive testing technique sends sound waves into the composite material, returning data with each swipe of the roller probe.

Enormous blades could lead to more offshore energy in U.S.

January 28, 2016 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A new design for gigantic blades longer than two football fields could help bring offshore 50-megawatt (MW) wind turbines to the United States and the world. Sandia National Laboratories’ research on the extreme-scale Segmented Ultralight Morphing Rotor (SUMR) is funded by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced...
Todd Griffith

Unique phononic filter could revolutionize signal processing systems

January 12, 2016 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A unique filtering technology that combines light and sound waves on a single chip is expected to better detect radar and communications frequencies. “We have developed a powerful signal filtering technology that could revolutionize signal processing systems that rely solely on conventional electronics,” said Patrick Chu, manager...
Charles Reinke

Thor’s hammer to crush materials at 1 million atmospheres

January 5, 2016 • Sophisticated features may influence eventual Z-machine rebuildALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A new Sandia National Laboratories accelerator called Thor is expected to be 40 times more efficient than Sandia’s Z machine, the world’s largest and most powerful pulsed-power accelerat…

Way cheaper catalyst may lower fuel costs for hydrogen-powered cars

October 7, 2015 • ‘ ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —Sandia National Laboratories researchers seeking to make hydrogen a less expensive fuel for cars have upgraded a catalyst nearly as cheap as dirt — molybdenum disulfide, “molly” for short — to stand in for platinum, a rare element with the moonlike price of about $900 an ounce....
Sandia researcher

Biological tools create nerve-like polymer network

August 24, 2015 • Crowdsurfing motor proteins create possible prosthetic interface ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Using a succession of biological mechanisms, Sandia National Laboratories researchers have created linkages of polymer nanotubes that resemble the structure of a nerve, with many out-thrust filaments poised to gather or send electrical impulses. “This is the first demonstration of...

Sandia researchers first to measure thermoelectric behavior by ‘Tinkertoy’ materials

May 20, 2015 • LIVERMORE, Calif. — Sandia National Laboratories researchers have made the first measurements of thermoelectric behavior by a nanoporous metal-organic framework (MOF), a development that could lead to an entirely new class of materials for such applications as cooling computer...
thermoelectric MOFs

Iron rain fell on early Earth, new Z machine data supports

March 18, 2015 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine have helped untangle a long-standing mystery of astrophysics: why iron is found spattered throughout Earth’s mantle, the roughly 2,000-mile thick region between Earth’s core and its crust. At first blush, it seemed more reasonable that iron arriving from collisions between...
An artist's concept shows a celestial body about the size of our moon slamming at great speed into a body the size of Mercury.

Asian American engineering honorees credit families for success

February 19, 2015 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Two scientists at Sandia National Laboratories thought back to their roots when they won Asian American Engineer of the Year (AAEOY) awards: Somuri Prasad to a village in India and Patrick Feng to a refuge in America. Prasad’s father helped found the first school in his native...

Sandia Labs BEYA winner listened and excelled

February 16, 2015 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Growing up in Wichita, Kansas, Jon Madison had a strong sense of who he was and where he was going. “I wasn’t an average kid,” he said. “Whatever my peers were doing, chances are I wasn’t doing it. After school and weekends I helped with my family’s...

Turning biological cells to stone improves cancer and stem cell research

December 8, 2014 • ‘Zombie’ method also hardens biostructures for mass production ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Changing flesh to stone sounds like the work of a witch in a fairy tale. But a new technique to transmute living cells into more permanent materials that defy decay and can endure high-powered probes is widening research opportunities...
Bryan_Kaehr

Combining ‘Tinkertoy’ materials with solar cells for increased photovoltaic efficiency

November 3, 2014 • LIVERMORE, Calif. — Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have received a $1.2 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative to develop a technique that they believe will significantly improve the efficiencies of photovoltaic materials and h…
Sandia National Laboratories researcher Vitalie Stavila inserts a substrate patterned with electrodes into a temperature-controlled liquid-phase reactor for depositing MOF thin films. Sandia's research team plans to combine MOFs with dye-sensitized solar cells, a technique it believes will lead to advancements in photovoltaic technology. (Photo by Dino Vournas)

Joint hire increases materials science collaboration for Sandia Labs, UNM

July 24, 2014 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico (UNM) have hired Fernando Garzon, a nationally recognized scientist and inventor, to work for both institutions. It is the first joint hire recruited together by Sandia and UNM. “Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico have...

American Physical Society names four Sandia fellows

May 7, 2014 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Four Sandia researchers have been named Fellows of the American Physical Society, an honor that indicates recognition by scientific peers of exceptional contributions to physics. No more than one half of 1 percent of APS membership can be elected in a given year. Those honored are: Charles...
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Engineering better machines and buildings by understanding mechanics of materials

May 5, 2014 • Sandia project to fill gaps by linking atomic structure with how parts performALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Humans have used metals for thousands of years, but there’s still a lot about them that isn’t fully understood. Just how much stretching, bending or compression a particul…
Sandia National Laboratories researcher Brad Salzbrenner tests laser-welded objects in pure tension, shear and mixed tension-shear loading. One pilot study in Sandia's long-term Predicting Performance Margins program involves laser welds, which are widely used in engineered systems.

Pioneering path to electrical conductivity in ‘Tinkertoy’ materials to appear in Science

December 9, 2013 • LIVERMORE, Calif.— Sandia National Laboratories researchers have devised a novel way to realize electrical conductivity in metal-organic framework (MOF) materials, a development that could have profound implications for the future of electronics, sensors, energy conversion…

Plasmonic crystal alters to match light-frequency source

October 30, 2013 • A device like a photonic crystal, but smaller and tunable ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Gems are known for the beauty of the light that passes through them. But it is the fixed atomic arrangements of these crystals that determine which light frequencies are permitted passage. Now a Sandia-led team has created...
Greg Dyer Plasmonic Chip

Already “outstanding poster” selected for international exhibit

July 22, 2013 • Sandia researchers score MRS “outstanding” rating two years running ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories researcher Hongyou Fan was honored for his “outstanding poster” at the 2013 Spring Meeting of the Materials Research Society (MRS) in San Francisco. His was one of only 12 posters selected out of 2,147 at...

Sandia wins three R&D 100 awards

July 8, 2013 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories researchers — competing in an international pool of universities, corporations and government labs — captured three R&D 100 Awards in this year’s contest. R&D Magazine presents the awards each year to researchers whom its editors and independent judging panels determine have developed the year’s...

‘Zombie’ replica cells may outperform live ones as catalysts and conductors

February 7, 2013 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — “Zombie” mammalian cells that may function better after they die have been created by researchers at Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico (UNM). The simple technique coats a cell with a silica solution to form a near-perfect replica of its structure. The process may...

Students painlessly measure knee joint fluids in annual Sandia contest

September 26, 2012 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Texas Tech University repeated last year’s victory in the novel design category of Sandia National Laboratories’ annual competition to design new, extraordinarily tiny devices, while Carnegie Mellon University won the educational microelectromechanical (MEMS) prize for the second year in a row. This year’s contest attracted engineering students...

Sandia solar researcher chosen as one of continent’s ten most brilliant scientists

September 24, 2012 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia researcher Greg Nielson is “one of the 10 most promising young scientists working today,” says Popular Science magazine. Nielson garnered one of the magazine’s “Brilliant 10” awards for helping lead the Sandia effort to create solar cells the size of glitter. Past Brilliant 10 honorees have...
Results 76–100 of 131