PSE Press Coverage

CNNMoney: The future of rechargeable batteries

October 10, 2012 -- Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory are developing car and smartphone batteries that can hold 50 percent more energy. Watch the video.

Aol Government: Nanomaterials Discoveries Lead to Cancer Treatment

October 3, 2012 -- Argonne National Lab researcher Elena Rozhkova and other scientists are capable of building materials atom by atom and controlling their advanced functions. Read the story.

Renewable Energy Magazine: Good week for solar, as US government strengthens backing for research

September 5, 2012 -- Building off SunShot Initiative investments in concentrating solar power announced last week, the United States Energy Department has unveiled five new research projects to accelerate innovations that could lower the cost of photovoltaic and concentrating solar power technologies. Read the story.

Gizmag: Mobile machine can make biofuel for military and humanitarian operations

August 20, 2012 -- Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) have created a device called the Endurance Bioenergy Reactor (EBR) that can produce bioenergy on location, using waste from kitchens and latrines. The fuel can go directly into engines and generators without any need for refining. Read the story.

Equities: Gov. Beshear Announces Opening of $20.7 Million Facility for Research on Renewable Energy, Advanced Batteries

August 15, 2012 -- Governor Steve Beshear today joined officials from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) and the University of Kentucky (UK) to announce the opening of a new $20.7 million facility dedicated to the research and development of renewable energy and energy storage technologies. Read the story.

The Sceptical Chymist: Reactions with Argonne's Richard Wilson

August 10, 2012 -- Richard Wilson is in the Heavy Elements and Separation Sciences Group at Argonne National Laboratory, and works on the fundamental inorganic chemistry of the actinide elements. His work focuses on correlating periodic chemical trends found in the actinide elements with their molecular structure and chemical properties to better understand the nature of bonding in these elements. Read the interview.

WGN Radio: Argonne's Hussein Khalil discusses nuclear pyroprocessing

July 21, 2012 -- Hussein Khalil, division director of nuclear engineering at Argonne National Laboratory, joins Bill Moller to talk about energy potential in nuclear fuel. Listen to the interview.

Popular Science: Hello, Higgs Boson: LHC's new particle looks like the real thing

July 4, 2012 -- "We have discovered a new particle," CERN director general Rolf Heuer said Wednesday morning. "A boson. Most probably a Higgs boson." Even the most anticipated news in science does not come without some caveats. Read the story.

Christian Science Monitor: How do you find a Higgs boson? A crash course

July 3, 2012 -- Butterfly scientists have their $24 nets. Well-heeled birders have their $2,000 Swarovski binoculars. Particle physicists have their $10 billion Large Hadron Collider. Read the story.

Reuters: Best evidence yet found for "God particle:" U.S. physicists

July 2, 2012 -- Physicists at a U.S. laboratory said on Monday they have come tantalizingly close to proving the existence of the elusive subatomic Higgs boson - often called the "God particle" because it may bring mass and order to the universe. Read the story.

SAE Vehicle Electrification: Argonne heats up Li-ion battery research

June 26, 2012 -- The U.S. Department of Energy lab near Chicago is using federal stimulus money to dive deeper in lithium battery research. Read the story.

R&D Magazine: Graphene decoupling of organic, inorganic interfaces

June 19, 2012 -- Cryogenic ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) was employed by researchers in the Center for Nanoscale Materials Electronic & Magnetic Materials & Devices Group to uncover exceptionally weak molecule-surface interactions between fullerene C60 deposited onto epitaxially grown graphene on silicon carbide substrates. Read the story.

The National Forum: The importance of facts in research -- the IFR

June 18, 2012 -- Here’s a sound principle: When writing opinion pieces that criticise internationally renowned scientists, use the best possible information. Especially when the subject is energy, and the object of your criticism sits on the panel for the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for energy: the Global Energy Prize. Read the story.

Scientific American: Better lithium ion battery aims to re-energize electric cars

June 12, 2012 -- A new lithium ion battery technology may finally make the devices cheap enough and durable enough to turn electric cars from a niche product into a mass-market mode of transport. Read the story.

Crain's Chicago Business: Clean-tech leaders partner with aviation to rev up Midwest biofuel biz

June 7, 2012 -- A new coalition composed of a local clean tech group, airline corporations and a municipal agency aims to boost Midwest development of biofuels for commercial aviation. Seth Snyder is interviewed. Read the story.

EnergyCollective: Nuclear Roads Not Taken (Yet) in Germany, Japan and the US

May 31, 2012 -- There is another nuclear road that was not taken. Ironically, the failure to take that road can lead to global catastrophe for both humankind and many of the species with whom we share this planet. This time the problem is not nuclear war but the threat of climate change, and nuclear power can be the solution. Read the story.

Slate: Eric Isaacs on the myth of the lone inventor in the garage

May 18, 2012 -- Where are the best scientific ideas created and developed? a) A garage. b) A basement workshop. c) A dorm room. d) A kitchen. e) A full-scale laboratory equipped with the latest technology and staffed with highly trained professional researchers. It might not be romantic, but the correct answer is e). Read the story.

Scientific American: How to Build a Better Lithium Ion Battery

May 17, 2012 -- With current battery systems reaching their performance limits, researchers are scrutinizing every component of lithium-ion cells in order to develop energy storage mechanisms that can make electric vehicles better competitors to fossil-fueled engines. Read the story.

Crain's Chicago Business: Argonne to work with Northwestern, U of C on materials science research

May 14, 2012 -- Argonne National Laboratory announced plans to collaborate more closely with Northwestern University and the University of Chicago to speed up discovery of new materials. Read the story.

MarketWatch: Western Lithium Demonstrates High Performance Results From Rechargeable Lithium Ion Battery Testing at Argonne National Laboratory and Provides Operations Update

April 16, 2012 -- Western Lithium USA Corporation is pleased to announce results from electrochemical performance testing by Argonne National Laboratory of US Department of Energy of lithium carbonate extracted from the Company's Kings Valley Hectorite clay lithium deposit in Nevada, USA. Read the story.

Medill Reports: Clocks measuring Earth's formation off by millions of years

April 10, 2012 -- Timing is everything and astrophysicists at Argonne National Laboratory may reset the “clocks” that time the formation of our planet. Read the story.

Wall Street Journal: What companies can learn from Bell Labs

March 29, 2012 -- Recently, a small technology company in California named EnviaSystems unveiled something startling: A new technology that appears to cut by half the cost of lithium-ion batteries that now power our hybrid and electric cars. Read the story.

Forbes: Envia's Energy-Dense Battery Could Cut Electric Vehicle Costs

March 21, 2012 -- Envia Systems recently announced a breakthrough that could significantly reduce the price of electric vehicles. The California-based startup revealed that it had developed a rechargeable lithium-ion battery with nearly twice the energy density of today’s batteries. Read the story.

DigitalJournal: Lower Cost Lithium Battery Commercialized, Enabling Wider, More Affordable Use to Bring Huge Change in Energy Consumption News; California Lithium Battery, Inc Announces

March 15, 2012 -- California Lithium Battery Inc. (CalBattery) announced at last week’s Department of Energy’s ARPA-e Energy Innovation Summit in Washington, D.C. that they have entered into a Work for Others (WFO) agreement with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) to commercialize a breakthrough low cost “GEN3” lithium battery. Read the story.

SmartPlanet: Illinois' Burgeoning Smart Grid Hub

March 13, 2012 -- The Midwestern U.S. state is working hard to convince the rest of the country of just that as it prepares for a massive smart meter rollout that it says will lead to "the most comprehensive smart grid deployment in the U.S.," according to the Illinois Institute of Technology's Mohammad Shahidehpour. Read the story.

Time: Five Miniature Robots Designed to Travel Inside Humans

February 27, 2012 -- Robots have traveled everywhere from war zones to outer space. Now scientists in the field of miniature robots are venturing into brand-new territory — the human body. Read the story.

Scientific American: New Energy-Dense Battery Could Enable Long-Distance Electric Cars

February 27, 2012 -- Envia System's new lithium-ion battery packs roughly twice as much energy per gram as present batteries. With a $4 million grant from ARPA-e, the Envia technology builds on work done at Argonne National Laboratory. Read the story.

Nanowerk: Nanostructured electrodes for rechargeable sodium-ion batteries

February 22, 2012 -- Argonne researchers have developed highly efficient 3V cathodes for rechargeable sodium-ion batteries. With a near-theoretical capacity of 250 mAh/g, excellent rate capability and cycle life, and high energy and power densities of 760 Wh/kg and 1200 W/kg, respectively, these bilayered V2O5 systems can be used in applications at ambient temperature. Read the story.

Northwestern Magazine: Something New Under the Sun

February 7, 2012 -- The Argonne-Northwestern Solar Energy Research Center (ANSER) is a Department of Energy–funded collaboration that brings together an interdisciplinary dream team of chemists, materials scientists, engineers and nanotechnologists to explore solutions to the world’s energy crisis. Read the story.

Medill Reports: 'Historic transition' to sustainability at a crossroads

February 1, 2012 -- Molecular advances in solar energy technology and a revamp of the U.S. grid are essential steps for sustainable energy. Argonne's George Crabtree gave a lecture on sustainability at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Read the story.

Pantagraph.com: Text of Quinn's State of the State speech

February 1, 2012 -- Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn delivered his State of the State address on Wednesday at the Illinois Capitol. Argonne's battery work was noted in the speech. Read the transcript.

Wake Forest Magazine: Out to Replace Petroleum

January 27, 2012 -- A former Wake Forest Reynolds Scholar, Jeff Chamberlain is the catalyst behind an electric battery blitz aimed at reducing our automobile-loving nation’s dependency on petroleum. Read the story.

Chemical & Engineering News: Quantum Dots Made to Order

January 26, 2012 -- Researchers have found a cheap, simple way to arrange quantum dots of any size in any pattern on a surface. The technique could ease the use of quantum dots in sensors, solar cells, and electronic devices, the researchers say. Argonne's Elena Shevchenko is interviewed. Read the story.

Txchnologist: What do we need from the battery of the future?

January 25, 2012 -- Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory and elsewhere are working on devices that could self-heal. The idea is to include microcapsules of liquid metal smaller than a cell of along the surface of the anode or cathode. When that surface becomes damaged the capsules burst and the liquid metal fills in the blemishes cutting off current. Read the story.

Energy.gov: Transformative Battery Technology at the National Labs

January 17, 2012 -- Eric Isaacs, director of Argonne National Lab and materials physicist, told Google engineers during a talk at the company’s Mountain View headquarters about the challenges associated with storing as much energy as is necessary to run a vehicle at extended ranges. Read the story.

Design News: Superbattery: The Next Great Triumph of Engineering

January 13, 2012 -- Fuller and his videographer brother Kirk, driving coast-to-coast in an electric car with internal-combustion backup, was something of a leap of faith. They faced swathes of America in which there exist no power stations to plug in their Volt and recharge the juice in the vehicle’s 288-cell, 16-kilowatt hour battery pack. Read the story.

Energy.gov: Secretary Chu's Remarks at Detroit Economic Club

January 11, 2012 -- It’s an exciting time to be in Detroit, the heart of America’s auto industry.  Yesterday, I toured the auto show and saw the amazing products that will hit the roads soon. Read the entire speech.

Crain's Chicago Business: Searching for what God is made of, nuclear physicist finds the color of quarks

January 9, 2012 -- If there exists a point where religion and science intersect, Kawtar Hafidi may have found it. Read the story and watch the video.

CleanTechnica: Government scientists more efficient at splitting hydrogen

January 2, 2012 -- Scientists at the Argonne National Laboratory have just made a breakthrough in bringing the hydrogen economy closer, by splitting hydrogen ten times faster. Read the story.