Chemical Sciences Division Research Highlights

Research Highlights

This research was featured on the back cover of the journal on April 7, 2015, (volume 54, issue 15)

Textural Engineering of Phenolic Polymers with a Robust Mesoporous Framework

April 5, 2016

A hypercrosslinked polymer was synthesized by a Friedel-Crafts alkylation of a phenolic resin with a robust mesoporous framework to avoid framework shrinkage and maximize retention of organic functional groups. ORNL researchers successfully developed a so

Multidimensional transient absorption microscopy data shows regions with either excitons (red) or free charge carriers (blue), but the majority of the image contains a mixture. Isolating the signatures of these distinct photoexcitations enables quantitati

Spatially Resolving the Coexistence of Photoexcitations in Complex Materials

March 25, 2016

Spatial localization of distinct photoexcited species were identified in light harvesting perovskite based materials using ultrafast transient absorption microscopy (TAM).

Doping strengthens magnetism in an iron-based crystal

March 8, 2016

Thallium-doping (5%) of BaFe2As2 crystal causes a surprising rise of the antiferromagnetic transition temperature (TN), related to magneto-elastic coupling. This is the first example of the increase of TN with chemical doping in BaFe2As2.

Single axis strain provides a new level of control over optical bandgap

March 8, 2016

Helium implantation allows for continuous control of optical band gaps in semiconducting films through the resultant strain — an impossibility with traditional strain engineering.

Single axis strain provides a new level of control over optical bandgap

March 8, 2016

Helium implantation allows for continuous control of optical band gaps in semiconducting films through the resultant strain — an impossibility with traditional strain engineering.

Alloy Engineering Cleans Up a New Class of Semiconductors

March 7, 2016

Dramatic Compositional Effects on Transport in Concentrated Solid Solution Alloys

February 19, 2016

Compositional complexity is found to strongly affect electrical, thermal, and magnetic properties of nickel-containing face-centered cubic concentrated alloys.

Compositional Complexity Effectively Modifies Defect Migration Barriers

February 19, 2016

Compared to pure nickel, tuning chemical composition in binary alloys has altered migration barriers of defects, and significantly affected defect dynamics under ion irradiation.

Listening to Materials at the Nanoscale

February 2, 2016

The detection of local phase transitions remains challenging, and to date most techniques can detect properties that change at macroscopic scales or at atomic scales, but virtually no technique offers the ability to monitor and map bias-induced phase trans

Epitaxial Strain Activates Oxygen in Complex Oxides

February 2, 2016

Researchers demonstrated that straining the crystal lattice of strontium cobaltite reduces oxygen content even under highly oxidizing conditions, enabling formation of functional oxygen defects at lower temperatures than previously possible.

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