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Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a leading new chemicals and materials creation with a broad array of applications including batteries, catalysts for clean technology, ceramics, composites, additives and more. The Lab’s unique Advanced Manufacturing capabilities go hand in hand with the creation of novel methods to create new concepts altogether.

Portfolio News and Multimedia

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LLNL and Partners Leveraging Microorganisms to Separate and Purify Rare-Earth Elements

LLNL, Penn State, Columbia University, Tufts University, University of Kentucky, Purdue University and industry partner Western Rare Earths will use microbial and biomolecular engineering to develop a scalable bio-based separation and purification strategy for rare-earth elements

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Three LLNL Scientists Inducted into LLNL’s Entrepreneurs’ Hall of Fame

A trio of LLNL scientists have been inducted into the laboratory's Entrepreneur's Hall of Fame. Each developed technologies during or after their Lab careers that created major economic impacts or spawned new companies.

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Inaugural Industry Forum Inspires Machine Learning Community

LLNL held its first-ever Machine Learning for Industry Forum on August 10-12. Co-hosted by the Lab’s High Performance Computing Innovation Center and Data Science Institute, the virtual event brought together more than 500 participants from the Department of Energy complex, commercial companies, professional societies and academia.

Chemicals and Materials Technologies

IPO logo over a face profile with interconnected lines

LLNL researchers have developed a method which utilizes functional alcohols to depolymerize polyurethane crosslinked networks. The functional alcohols show 5X increase in the depolymerization efficiency compared with current state of art (e.g. methanol, ethylene glycol).  The crosslinked polyurethane networks completely depolymerized into a liquid oligomer within 48 hours at ambient…

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3D printed Gyroid structure using novel long shelf-life silicone formulation

LLNL researchers have developed a novel photocurable silicone useful for producing three-dimensional objects via additive manufacturing. The resin formulations consist of a mult-component siloxane polymers with different functionalities, a platinum catalyst, a photoinitiator, and other organic peroxides.  The LLNL invention involves controlling the spatial and temporal aspects of the…

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Picture of SLA printed structures using 3D printable nitrile-containing photopolymer resins

LLNL’s invention is a photopolymerizable polymer resin that consists of one or more nitrile-functional based polymers. The resin is formulated for SLA based 3D printing allowing for the production of nitrile-containing polymer components that can then be thermally processed into a conductive, highly graphitic materials. The novelty of the invention lies in (1) the photo-curable nitrile-…

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Examples of different UV exposure patterns printed from the same multi-material resin.  Darker yellow regions have higher UV exposure times leading to tougher regions.

LLNL researchers have developed an innovative and uniform single-pot polymer multi-material system, based on a combination of 3 different reactive chemistries.  By combining the three different constituent monomers, fine control of mechanical attributes, such as elastic modulus, can be achieved by adjusting the dosage of UV light throughout the additive manufacturing process.  This…

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Colored Pills Stock Image

LLNL researchers have developed a technology suite that includes several methods for detecting trace levels of illicit drugs even in mixtures. These methods can be used as a rapid screening test for incoming samples; for the samples that were determined to contain detectable amounts, they would undergo final verification using conventional laboratory analytical techniques.

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A sample of micro-architectured graphene aerogel, made from one of the lightest materials on Earth, sits atop a flower.

To overcome challenges that existing techniques for creating 3DGs face, LLNL researchers have developed a method that uses a light-based 3D printing process to rapidly create 3DG lattices of essentially any desired structure with graphene strut microstructure having pore sizes on the order of 10 nm. This flexible technique enables printing 3D micro-architected graphene objects with complex,…

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Nanoporus gold

By combining 3D printing and dealloying., researchers at LLNL have developed a method for fabricating metal foams with engineered hierarchical architectures consisting of pores at least 3 distinct length scales. LLNL’s method uses direct ink writing (DIW), a 3D printing technique for additive manufacturing to fabricate hierarchical nanoporous metal foams with deterministically controlled 3D…

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gradient_composition_glass

LLNL researchers have developed a custom resin formulation which uses a dispersing solvent and only a multifunctional monomer as the binding agent. The dispersing solvent system typically used has multiple components meant to achieve excellent dispersal of silica in order to create a flowable resin (rather than a paste). The dispersing agent has low vapor pressure, which allows the 3D printed…