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SCIENCE AT THE CNMS
The
Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS) at Oak Ridge National
Laboratory (ORNL) is a Department of Energy / Office of Science
Nanoscale Science Research Center (NSRC) operating as a highly
collaborative and multidisciplinary user research facility. The
CNMS is one of five DOE
NSRCs that form an integrated national user network. Each NSRC
is associated with other major national research facilities at
one
of DOE’s National Laboratories, enabling their application to nanoscale
science and technology. The central organizing concept of CNMS
is to provide unique opportunities to understand nanoscale materials,
assemblies, and phenomena, by creating a set of scientific synergies
that will accelerate the process of discovery.
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AFM
images of Fe nanodots and nanowires on flat and stepped
NaCl surfaces (edge length 750nm)
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To accomplish
this, the CNMS integrates nanoscale science with three highly synergistic
national needs:
• Neutron Science, using the Spallation Neutron Source,
SNS, and the recently upgraded High Flux Isotope Reactor, HFIR.
• Synthesis
Science, or what we call “science-driven synthesis,” facilitated
by extensive and novel synthesis capabilities in the first three
CNMS Research Capabilities areas listed at the bottom of this page
and by a new Nanofabrication
Research Laboratory.
• Theory,
Modeling and Simulation, through establishing a new Nanomaterials
Theory Institute, with close connections to the staff expertise
and computational capabilities of ORNL's Center for Computational Sciences
and the new national Leadership Scientific Computing Facility.
The CNMS's
research capabilities provide a broad community of scientists, engineers,
and students from throughout the nation, but
particularly the southeastern United States, with ready access to
the full range of tools and collaborative capabilities needed for
nanoscale research, in a single location.
Scientific
Themes
Research at the CNMS focuses on understanding,
designing and controlling the dynamics, spatial chemistry, and energetics
of functionality and properties of nanoscale materials and architectures.
Imaging Nanoscale Functionality
This theme focuses on the development of instrumentation to image functionality
and couples research to develop understanding of the new emerging physics
and chemistry at the nanoscale with ORNL’s expertise in developing
tools and techniques for forefront research with scanning probes, neutron
scattering, electron microscopy, and related techniques.
Synthesis and Dynamics of Nanostructured Polymeric and Hybrid Materials
This theme focuses on advancing our fundamental understanding and control of
polymer structure, property and function that are controlled by weak forces
and whose properties are largely dependent on interfacial phenomena. This theme
is rooted in controlled synthesis of well-defined polymers, bio-inspired polymers,
and hybrid materials and in rigorous nanoscale characterization.
Emergent Behavior in Nanoscale Systems
This theme builds on a strong theoretical effort, focusing on understanding
the emergence of collective behavior at every scale from the electronic structure
to the mesoscale and includes multiscale aspects of functionality in complex
systems and assemblies of nanoscale materials such as oxides and bio-inspired
nanomaterials.
CNMS Research Capabilities
Macromolecular Nanomaterials
Catalytic Nanosystems
Functional Hybrid Nanostructures
Scanning Probes &
Nanoscale Physics
Electron Microscopy,
Neutron and X-ray Scattering
Nanomaterials Theory
Institute
Bio-Inspired Nanomaterials
Nanofabrication Research Laboratory
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