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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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Potential reactor configurations with printed TPMS scaffolds

LLNL researchers have devised a set of design principles that facilitates the development of practical TPMS-based two fluid flow reactors.; included in the design are these new concepts:

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Filled (8,8) (left) and (15,15) (right) CNTs with [EMIM+][BF4- ] using SGTI with the proposed spliced soft-core potential (SSCP) approach

LLNL researchers have developed a novel simulation methodology using slow growth thermodynamic integration (SGTI) utilizing spliced soft-core interaction potential (SSCP).  The approach to filling the molecular enclosures is a nonphysical one.  Rather than filling the pores from the open ends this method creates steps in the algorithm that allow molecules to pass through the pore…

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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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permanent_magnets

LLNL uses the additive manufacturing technique known as Electrophoretic Deposition to shape the source particle material into a finished magnet geometry. The source particle material is dispersed in a liquid so that the particles can move freely. Electric fields in the shape of the finished product then draw the particles to the desired location to form a “green body”, much like an unfired…

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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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energy_absorbing_material

To overcome limitations with cellular silicone foams, LLNL innovators have developed a new 3D energy absorbing material with tailored/engineered bulk-scale properties. The energy absorbing material has 3D patterned architectures specially designed for specific energy absorbing properties. The combination of LLNL's capabilities in advanced modeling and simulation and the additive…