Feature Articles

Research by Idaho National Laboratory scientists could help the nation accommodate more electric vehicles, while lessening the impact of vehicle charging on the electrical grid system.

Many high-performance technologies like nuclear reactors or spacecraft require advanced materials. In the past, these materials were typically manufactured from a process called hot pressing, which results in excess waste and contributes to high costs. The costs have limited the widespread use of advanced materials in everyday items such as automobiles. More recently, engineers have developed a cost-saving process called spark plasma sintering (SPS), and now, INL has developed capabilities to help industry design efficient SPS manufacturing processes.

New research from Idaho National Laboratory suggests that potato wastewater might serve well as a low-cost food source for a special bacterium that could be used to recycle high tech devices, industrial catalysts and other sources of rare earth elements.

Five Idaho National Laboratory researchers and their partners at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) took 'Best Paper' honors at the International Resilience Week conference in mid-October. The researchers examined how hydropower's flexibility can provide stability and resilience in the face of events such as rolling blackouts, hurricanes and earthquakes.

In light of growing challenges and opportunities, Idaho National Laboratory (INL) aims to make the recycling of lithium-ion batteries easier, more efficient, and potentially greener. Encouraging results of these efforts recently appeared in the journal Resources, Conservation and Recycling.

For scientists and engineers, the best way to understand a new or unknown material -- whether it's an alloy, a pharmaceutical or a meteorite -- is to delve into its atoms. But, analyzing data from these methods, especially diffraction patterns, is a time-consuming process. Now, Idaho National Laboratory researchers have helped develop a computer model that can interpret diffraction patterns in hours instead of weeks.

Figuring out what happens to a material over time can be tough - especially in harsh environments. Scientists would like to probe materials while subjecting them to heat, radiation, and other extreme environmental conditions. Now, researchers are one step closer to this capability, with a demonstration to show that light-generated sound waves can remotely and nondestructively reveal a material's inner structure.

A group of researchers at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) have conducted a study that could lead to improved methods to fine-tune the carbon microstructure. The scientists reported on their work in a June 2020 Materials Today Chemistry paper.