Argonne among 10 recipients of competitive grant for ultrafast science

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has named its Argonne National Laboratory as one of 10 recipients of a multi-million dollar grant in support of its research in ultrafast chemistry and materials science.

The selected projects will take advantage of new and emerging capabilities to probe materials and chemical processes on time scales of a quadrillionth of a second or less.

Each of the projects will be funded for three years. While the exact amount of each award has not yet been announced, they will total $30 million. 

The competition was sponsored by the DOE Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences Program. The goal is to help speed up the discovery of new materials and chemical processes through better step-by-step observation and control of matter's behavior at atomic and molecular scales.

"Discoveries in materials science and chemistry have long been critical drivers of technological innovation and economic growth," said U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry. "These projects will keep American scientists on the cutting edge of one of today's most promising and potentially productive areas of research."

Lin X. Chen, senior chemist in the Chemical Science and Engineering division at Argonne and a professor of chemistry at Northwestern University, will lead the laboratory's efforts.

"This is outstanding news for Argonne and our collaborators at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the University of Washington," said Cynthia Jenks, director of Argonne's Chemical Sciences and Engineering division. "We are thrilled for the chance to bolster our efforts in this critical area of research by studying these systems at the sub-picosecond timescale. The DOE funding will help us to conduct research never before possible."

Chen said researchers will use the latest technology to better understand complex chemical processes.

"When light shines on molecules and materials, it jiggles electrons and atoms, which can result in the creation of new chemicals," she said. "But this jiggling takes place so quickly—much faster than a trillionth of a second—that scientists don't yet know much about how these electrons and atoms move."

Chen and her team will use emerging X-ray sources called X-ray free-electron lasers to take snapshots or molecular movies of the electrons and the atoms in motion to learn more about how they move.

Their findings will help enhance energy efficiency and has applications in optoelectronics (LED display), solar energy conversion and artificial photo synthesis, among other areas of study.

"This is incredibly exciting for us," Chen said. "It's wonderful to see the DOE so invested in our work."

Projects were chosen by competitive peer review under a DOE Funding Opportunity Announcement.

The resulting discoveries can enhance a wide range of technologies throughout the U.S. economy.

Provided by Argonne National Laboratory