LIVERMORE, Calif. — A team of Sandia National Laboratories researchers working on the reactor at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility is testing materials to make the next generation of fusion reactors, in the quest to develop more carbon-free energy sources. These magnetic confinement fusion reactors, called tokamaks, use magnetic fields to shape plasma into a […]
Category Archives: Materials Science
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Most Promising Engineer of the Year honor goes to Sandia scientist
October 5, 2022 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories research and development manager Bishnu Khanal was recently honored with the Most Promising Asian American Engineer of the Year award for his work in next-generation optical lithography process development for numerous technologies, along with his deep-reaching community service. According to Asian American Engineer of the Year, Khanal was selected […]
Scientists chip away at a metallic mystery, one atom at a time
September 28, 2022 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Gray and white flecks skitter erratically on a computer screen. A towering microscope looms over a landscape of electronic and optical equipment. Inside the microscope, high-energy, accelerated ions bombard a flake of platinum thinner than a hair on a mosquito’s back. Meanwhile, a team of scientists studies the seemingly chaotic display, searching […]
Through the quantum looking glass
September 12, 2022 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An ultrathin invention could make future computing, sensing and encryption technologies remarkably smaller and more powerful by helping scientists control a strange but useful phenomenon of quantum mechanics, according to new research recently published in the journal Science. Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of […]
Seashell-inspired Sandia shield protects materials in hostile environments
May 3, 2022 – 11:26 am
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-resistant enough at 1,500 degrees Celsius or 2,732 degrees Fahrenheit to shield instruments against flying debris, raises […]
Safer, more powerful batteries for electric cars, power grid
March 7, 2022 – 9:21 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Solid-state batteries, currently used in small electronic devices like smart watches, have the potential to be safer and more powerful than lithium-ion batteries for things such as electric cars and storing energy from solar panels for later use. However, several technical challenges remain before solid-state batteries can become widespread. A Sandia National […]
Sandia scientist to lead materials science organization
February 21, 2022 – 8:08 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Brad Boyce, a materials scientist at Sandia National Laboratories, was elected president of The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society. Boyce will become vice president of the society on March 3 at its annual meeting, and then serve three consecutive one-year terms as vice president, president and past president. He is the second […]
Powerful Sandia machine-learning model shows diamond melting at high pressure
January 26, 2022 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A Sandia National Laboratories supercomputer simulation model called SNAP that rapidly predicts the behavior of billions of interacting atoms has captured the melting of diamond when compressed by extreme pressures and temperatures. At several million atmospheres, the rigid carbon lattice of the hardest known substance on Earth is shown in SNAP (Spectral […]
Program in fusion energy attracted interns’ eyes
December 9, 2021 – 12:12 pm
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— A bold plan paid off this past summer when Sandia National Laboratories staff members LaRico Treadwell and Khalid Hattar combined their passions for increasing inclusion of people of color with developing materials to eventually derive energy from nuclear fusion. Standing to benefit from the pilot project were three undergraduate interns from North Carolina […]
Remote high-voltage sensor unveiled at Sandia gamma ray lab
November 10, 2021 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Ever since the first human placed a bare hand on an uninsulated electric line, people have refrained from personally testing energetic materials. Even meters made of metal can melt at high voltages. Now, using a crystal smaller than a dime and a laser smaller than a shoebox, a Sandia National Laboratories team […]
Sandia researcher awarded Early-Career Research Program grant
October 11, 2021 – 7:47 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Working to solve a problem, supercomputing researchers may encounter incomplete data or flawed programs. For both issues, Sandia researcher Drew Kouri has attracted interest from the broad computing community for his ability to mitigate uncertainty in both supercomputer programs and data, optimizing each to reach the best solutions. His research was awarded […]
High-speed alloy creation might revolutionize hydrogen’s future
September 20, 2021 – 8:39 am
LIVERMORE, Calif. — A Sandia National Laboratories team of materials scientists and computer scientists, with some international collaborators, have spent more than a year creating 12 new alloys — and modeling hundreds more — that demonstrate how machine learning can help accelerate the future of hydrogen energy by making it easier to create hydrogen infrastructure […]
Look who’s turning 25
September 2, 2021 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories is celebrating 25 years of research conducted at its Z Pulsed Power Facility — a gymnasium-sized accelerator commonly referred to as Z or the Z machine. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, only a limited number of former leaders of the pulsed power program at Sandia will gather Friday to share […]
The hidden culprit killing lithium-metal batteries from the inside
July 14, 2021 – 5:00 am
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 evidence has been sparse. Now, […]
Setting gold and platinum standards where few have gone before
June 24, 2021 – 5:00 am
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 of gold and platinum at […]