The high volatility of the liquid electrolyte used in today's state-of-the-art lithium batteries for applications such as hybrid and all-electric vehicles makes safety engineering both difficult and expensive. JDRD researcher Stephen Paddison propose to overcome current limitations by studying the option of replacing the liquid electrolyte with an efficient, solid lithium ion conducting electrolyte.
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Working out how to release the sugar subunits from the cellulose is a challenge. The sugars needed for fermentation are trapped inside lignocellulose, which is extremely resistant to hydrolytic degradation—the reaction that occurs before cellulose is broken down into glucose. Smith's team uses computer simulations and neutron scattering experiments to examine the position and motion of atoms during the enzymatic digestion of cellulose. Full Story

Working out how to release the sugar subunits from the cellulose is a challenge. The sugars needed for fermentation are trapped inside lignocellulose, which is extremely resistant to hydrolytic degradation—the reaction that occurs before cellulose is broken down into glucose. Smith's team uses computer simulations and neutron scattering experiments to examine the position and motion of atoms during the enzymatic digestion of cellulose. Full Story

Team Tennessee entry into DOE 2011 Solar Decathlon features low energy use, a small footprint, maximum use of daylight, and passive solar design strategies. Entry into the decathlon is by invitation only; and the slots are few. Team Tennessee received notice in April 2010 that they were one of 20 finalists. In February, after weeks of uncertainty, the team was thrilled to learn that the Solar Decathlon 2011 competition will return to the National Mall. Full Story

Materials that are one-atom or one-molecule thick have increased surface area in relation to volume, which creates a different dynamic from what you'd expect to find in three-dimensional materials made of the same substance—where the atoms surround each other. The thin film's electronic and atomic movements are confined (restrained) to the interior of the nanoscale surface, a fact that changes the material's characteristics. Elbio Dagotto models the behavior of nanomaterials in the presence or absence of an electronic or magnetic field. Full Story

Today's tera- and petascale supercomputers make it possible to run extraordinarily sophisticated simulations that incorporate everything from the effect of volcanic eruptions on temperature patterns to the influence of shifting sea ice on the sunlight reflected back into space. The collaborative JDRD-LDRD projects led by Joshua Fu of UTK and David Erickson of ORNL develop computational simulations that assess the impact climate change could have on future energy demands. Full Story

Tiny drops of glue glittering from a sundew plant's hair-like tentacles mask a tantalizing but trecherous trap for insects. Just a wing grazing the sticky bubbles is enough to spell an insect's doom. When it tries to escape, the glue stretches and pulls it back to the leaf. Curious about the nanoscale characteristics of this natural adhesive, Mingjun Zhang examined it under atomic force microscopy and found a nanofiber-nanoparticle scaffolding structure deep inside. Full Story

GPS systems are not failsafe, as anyone who's been led to an empty pasture can tell you; typical rates of coverage are, at best, 85 percent, and the systems are also subject to deception or "spoofing" by an adversary or other interference. Paul Crilly and Seddik Djouadi are developing a system with robust, low-cost capabilities to substantially improve location precision, accuracy, and reliability in a multitude of applications. Full Story

In spite of being stronger and less brittle than ordinary glasses, and more resilient than conventional metal, metallic glasses have not fared as well in toughness. Scientists, however, have not been able to discover how failures occur. Initially they thought that the heat dissipated by the deformation caused the glass to melt. More recent evidence from Takeshi Egami's research group suggests the heat is simply a by-product of deformation. Full Story