Science Highlights

Transforming carbon monoxide into an energy dense liquid fuel is hard to accomplish in a single step, so researchers instead use multi-step reactions. Recently, scientists improved this multi-step process by using recyclable organic reductants. They also identified two key intermediates in the transformation of carbon monoxide to methanol. These advances provide for a domino-style cascade of reactions for generating fuel.

Shale has complex chemical and physical characteristics that make fluid flow through rock extremely complex and difficult to both measure and model. Researchers are now building new tools to examine, characterize, and simulate shale, especially shale cap rock. This work aids efforts at geological carbon storage, the storage of alternative fuels, and the extraction of oil and gas.

Scientists face challenges in their understanding of nuclei. For instance, they have not connected the description of the size of nuclei with the theory of the strong nuclear force, and it is not clear if theories of atomic nuclei can provide a reliable description of nuclear matter. In this research, scientists precisely measured the radii of stable and unstable silicon isotopes to help answer these questions.

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have demonstrated that small molecular tweaks to surfaces can improve absorption technology for direct air capture, or DAC, of carbon dioxide. 

 

Converting dinitrogen into ammonia is critical for making fertilizer. Conventional conversion processes use adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Researchers are now working on processes that instead use sunlight, which reduces energy use and greenhouse gas production relative to the ATP process. In this research, scientists created a unique biohybrid that couples nanocrystals to nitrogen-catalyzing enzymes to produce ammonia using sunlight.

The collision of neutron stars creates an enigmatic object called a remnant. These remnants can, but don’t always, collapse into a black hole. This research used supercomputer simulations to examine the internal structure of these remnants and their cooling process, primarily through neutrino emissions, and what that means for black hole formation.

Neutrinos can change their identities or “flavors” when they interact. Researchers recently found that the neutrinos in a very dense environment such as a core collapse supernova can develop strong correlations through mutual interactions. This means that over time, neutrinos with different initial flavors reach a similar equilibrium flavor and energy distribution.

Fuel density in fusion tokamak devices has historically been constrained by limits in device design. Now, however, researchers at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility have for the first time gone beyond these density limits while simultaneously maintaining high confinement quality. These conditions have in the past been mutually exclusive. The result points to a possible solution for a common challenge for tokamak devices.