When the COVID-19 pandemic stunned the world in 2020, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory wondered how they could extend their support and help. The health crisis demanded medical professionals to work on the front lines caring for ill patients; but, what about those not in medicine? ORNL researchers who focus on human security quickly turned to what they do best: They crunched data to provide actionable information for the COVID-19 response.

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory used neutron scattering to determine whether a specific material’s atomic structure could host a novel state of matter called a spiral spin liquid. By tracking tiny magnetic moments known as “spins” on the honeycomb lattice of a layered iron trichloride magnet, the team found the first 2D system to host a spiral spin liquid.

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are tackling a global water challenge with a unique material designed to target not one, but two toxic, heavy metal pollutants for simultaneous removal.

ORNL’s Santa Jansone-Popova of the Chemical Sciences Division, and Ping Li, now at Elementis Global, have discovered an adsorbent with high selectivity for chromium and arsenic in real conditions where water resources contain many chemically similar elements.

Chemical and environmental engineer Samarthya Bhagia is focused on achieving carbon neutrality and a circular economy by designing new plant-based materials for a range of applications from energy storage devices and sensors to environmentally friendly bioplastics.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Innovation Crossroads program welcomes six new science and technology innovators from across the United States to its sixth cohort. As the Southeast’s only research and development program for entrepreneurs based at a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory, Innovation Crossroads provides unique support to science-based startups to help advance game-changing technologies from the laboratory to the marketplace.