Brookhaven National Laboratory Receives 2016 R&D 100 Awards

Three technologies developed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have received 2016 R&D 100 Awards, recognizing innovations in microscopy, catalysis and nanomaterials.

Brookhaven physicists Yong Chu (left) and Evgeny Nazaretski led the project to develop the first multilayer Laue lens-based microscope, which is installed at the Hard X-ray Nanoprobe beamline at Brookhaven's National Synchrotron Light Source II. Courtesy of Brookhaven National Laboratory.

The R&D 100 Awards recognize the 100 most innovative technologies and services of the past year. The Brookhaven Lab winners are the Hard X-ray Scanning Microscope with Multilayer Laue Lens Nanofocusing Optics, MoSoy Catalyst, and Nanostructured Anti-Reflecting and Water-Repellent Surface Coatings.

The nanotechnology-based surface-texturing method that Charles Black and his team developed at Brookhaven Lab's Center for Functional Nanomaterials imparts perfect anti-reflection and robust water-repellency to silicon, glass and some plastics. Courtesy of Brookhaven National Laboratory.

"It is an honor for Brookhaven Lab to be recognized as among the institutions where innovative research and development is taking place," said Doon Gibbs, director of Brookhaven. "Our three winners this year illustrate the wide range of scientific discovery happening at Brookhaven. My congratulations go out to all the innovative researchers being recognized by these awards."

Brookhaven's custom-built x-ray microscope has advanced x-ray optics called multilayer Laue lenses for imaging a broad range of materials, as well as a spatial resolution of >15 nm. MoSoy Catalyst is a novel catalyst derived from low-cost, earth-abundant molybdenum metal and renewable soybeans to produce hydrogen in an environmentally friendly, cost-effective way.

(Left to right) Wei-Fu Chen, Shweta Iyer, James Muckerman, Kotaro Sasaki, Etsuko Fujita and Shilpa Iyer developed a low-cost, biomass-derived catalyst for hydrogen production called MoSoy Catalyst. Courtesy of Brookhaven National Laboratory.

The catalyst eliminates the need for expensive metal catalysts to speed up the rate at which water is split into hydrogen and oxygen. The nanotextured coatings are nanoscale features etched into the surfaces of silicon, glass and some plastics to absorb all wavelengths of light from any angle and repel water extremely efficiently, with the water droplets carrying away particles of dirt.