SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AT THE AMES LABORATORY

2009ISSUE 1

A New Dawn

FOR ENERGY RESEARCH

| Improving Transmission Capabilities |

 | Deriving Biofuels from New Sources |

 | Boosting Energy Efficiencies |

 | Building Better Batteries |
Ames Laboratory is a U.S. Department 

of Energy laboratory seeking solutions 

to energy-related problems through the 

exploration of chemical, engineering, 

materials and mathematical sciences, and 

physics. Established in the 1940s with 

the successful development of the most 

efficient process to produce high-purity 

uranium metal for atomic energy, Ames 

Lab now pursues much broader priorities 

than the materials research that has given 

the Lab international credibility. Responding to issues of national concern, Ames 

Laboratory scientists are actively involved 

in innovative research, science education 

programs, the development of applied 

technologies and the quick transfer of 

such technologies to industry. Uniquely 

integrated within a university environment, 

the Lab stimulates creative thought and 

encourages scientific discovery, providing 

solutions to complex problems and educating tomorrow’s scientific talent.

Steve Karsjen, Public Affairs Director

Kerry Gibson, Editor

Breehan Gerleman Lucchesi, 

Mark Ingebretsen, 

Contributing Editors

Grant Luhmann, Art Director

Katie Parr, Editorial Intern

Copyright 2009 by Ames Laboratory. All 

rights reserved. For additional information 

about Ames Laboratory or topics covered 

in this publication, please contact: 

Editor, Inquiry

Ames Laboratory

111 TASF

Ames, Iowa 50011-3020

515-294-9557

www.ameslab.gov

Inquiry is published biannually by the Ames 

Laboratory Office of Public Affairs. Iowa 

State University operates the Laboratory 

for the U.S. Department of Energy under 

contract DE AC02 07CH11358. Ames 

Laboratory shares a close working relationship with Iowa State University’s Institute 

for Physical Research and Technology, a 

network of scientific research centers.

Contents

FEATURES

6 A New Dawn for Energy Research Working on solutions for the state’s and the nation’s energy challenges.

8 Generation Developing biofuels from algae and waste material, better 

 solar cells and more efficient power plants.

10 Transmission Delivering power more efficiently and safely. 

 

 Storage Developing a rechargeable hydrogen storage system and building better batteries.

12 Efficient Utilization Low-input refrigeration, high-temperature magnets 

 and low-friction coatings to make energy go further.

 

14 Advancing Technology Spin-offs move technology from the laboratory

 to the real world.

DEPARTMENTS

3 Director’s Letter

4 Awards

15 Education

Cover: Iowa is second in the nation in wind-power generation. These wind turbines 

are part of a wind farm located near Colo in eastern Story County, about 25 miles 

from Ames and the Ames Laboratory. ENERGY

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF Office of

Science

THE ENERGY ISSUE

6

8

12

14

11
INQUIRY Issue 1 • 2009 3

Beauty and Utility

From the Director

he poet Robert Frost once remarked that Iowa’s dark 

soil looks good enough to eat as it is, without 

going to the bother of putting it through vegetables; 

and if you look at some of the photographs in this 

issue of Inquiry, you will see that the Iowa skies can 

be stunningly beautiful, too. Robert Frost notwithstanding, the 

beautiful Iowa soil is really at its best when it is used to grow 

vegetables like corn and beans and that sky, while beautiful to 

look at, produces a wonderful crop of wind energy.

Like the soil and the Iowa sky at sunrise, great science often 

has a dual nature. It can be, and possibly even needs to be, 

beautiful in its own right, as noted by Marie Curie, Paul Dirac, 

and many others. Especially for the science that we do in Iowa 

at the Ames Laboratory, though, there is an aspect of usefulness that goes with the beauty. The Ames Laboratory has a 

consistently outstanding record of discovering new science and 

finding ways to apply it for the economic and ecological benefit 

of humankind.

In this issue, we highlight some Ames Laboratory projects 

that focus on applying world-class science to the problems of 

providing clean, plentiful and inexpensive energy to the world. 

The needs are great in every area of energy generation, storage, transmission and conversion. Read on to see a few of the 

things that are being done to address those issues here in the 

middle of Iowa.

T

Alex King, Director
4 INQUIRY Issue 1 • 2009

 a AWARDS

Three Ames Laboratory researchers have been named AAAS 

Fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of 

Science for “their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to 

advance science or its applications.” 

• Surya Mallapragada was honored for “research in the 

field of biomaterials and biomolecular engineering, particularly 

for important scientific advances in polymer design relevant to 

nerve cell regeneration and drug delivery.”

• Klaus Schmidt-Rohr was honored for “using and developing solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance to answer important 

questions about diverse materials, including synthetic polymers, 

bone, soil and fuel-cell membranes.”

• George Kraus was honored for “developing syntheses of 

natural products and other imaginative applications of organic 

chemistry and for promoting chemistry through visionary administrative leadership in the university environment.” 

“AAAS is the premier member-driven association serving the 

field of science,” says Ames Laboratory Director Alex King. “It 

Student Intern Wins DOE Poster Prize

Brita Kilburg, a former Ames Laboratory 

intern, placed third in the environmental 

sciences division of the DOE Science and 

Energy Research Challenge competition. 

Kilburg, a student at Loras College who 

was mentored by ISU scientist Forrest Nutter, was a participant in the Lab’s Science 

Undergraduate Laboratory Internship, or 

SULI, program. 

SERCh is a poster competition that 

showcases the research projects of DOE-funded students 

and interns at the national laboratories. Students presented 

posters in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Cash prizes of $3,000, $1,500 

and $1,000 were given for first, second and third place, 

respectively, in five categories.

Harmon, Finnemore Outstanding Referees

Three Ames Laboratory scientists were recognized for their 

exceptional efforts in assessing manuscripts for American Physical Society journals. Doug Finnemore, senior physicist; Bruce 

Harmon, deputy Lab director and senior physicist; and a third 

physicist who requested to remain anonymous were in the inaugural group of Outstanding Referee award winners.

APS initiated the Outstanding Referee award to express 

appreciation to all referees whose efforts in peer review both 

maintain the high standards of APS journals and help authors 

improve the quality and readability of their articles.

“Manuscript reviewers often operate in the background 

without much recognition, but their contributions to their fields 

of research are enormously important,” says Alex King, Ames 

Laboratory director. “We are pleased that three Ames Laboratory 

scientists have been recognized for their service.”

Brita Kilburg

has incredible breadth, depth and impact, and the people who 

represent the association make significant contributions in an 

exceptionally wide range of ways.” 

“The recognition of Surya, Klaus and George with AAAS Fellowships is especially significant because AAAS crosses all fields 

of science, and standing out from the crowd is so much harder 

when the crowd is that large,” King continues. “It’s a real distinction, and we are very proud of the outstanding work that they 

are doing at the Ames Laboratory.”

The new Fellows were presented with official certificates and 

pins on Feb. 14 in Chicago at the association’s annual meeting. 

The Fellows honor is bestowed on association members by their 

scientific peers. 

The three new Fellows join nine other Ames Laboratory 

researchers who are currently listed as AAAS Fellows: Andreja 

Bakac, John Corbett, John Hill, David Lynch, Gordon Miller, 

Marit Nilsen-Hamilton, Jacob Petrich, Klaus Ruedenberg and 

Costas Soukoulis. 

Surya Mallapragada Klaus Schmidt-Rohr George Kraus

Three Ames Laboratory 

Researchers Named AAAS Fellows
INQUIRY Issue 1 • 2009 5

Royal Society of Chemistry Fellow

John Corbett, a senior chemist, has 

been named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Fellowship is the RSC’s 

most senior category of membership, 

and the Fellow award honors those who 

have made substantial contributions to 

advancing the wider application of chemical science.

NSF Career Award 

Zhiqun Lin, associate scientist, received 

a National Science Foundation CAREER 

award, the organization’s most prestigious award for junior researchers. The 

five-year, $400,000 award will support 

Lin’s research in nanomaterials. Specifically, Lin plans to develop an evaporative 

self-assembly method for creating hierarchically ordered nanostructured materials.

Fulbright Scholar

Mufit Akinc, an Ames Laboratory 

associate scientist and an ISU professor of 

materials science and engineering, was 

awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant. 

He will lecture on processing of 

advanced materials at Turkey’s Koc 

University in Istanbul.

ACS Computer Award

Mark Gordon, director of the Applied 

Mathematics and Computational Sciences program at Ames Laboratory and Iowa 

State’s Frances M. Craig Distinguished 

Professor of Chemistry, has won the 

American Chemical Society’s Award for 

Computers in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research. The society called Gordon 

“a ubiquitous contributor to the field of 

computational chemistry.”

Mufit Akinc

Yeung Receives ACS Analytical 

Chemistry Award

Ed Yeung, Ames Laboratory senior chemist, has been 

selected to receive the American Chemical Society’s Division 

of Analytical Chemistry Award for Distinguished Service in the 

Advancement of Analytical Chemistry. The award, sponsored by 

Waters Corp., with its $2,500 cash prize, will be presented at 

the 238th ACS National Meeting to be held in Washington, D.C., 

Aug. 16-20, 2009.

Yeung, a longtime director of Ames Laboratory’s Chemical 

and Biological Sciences Program, currently serves as the program’s deputy director and is a Distinguished Professor in Liberal 

Arts and Sciences and holds the Robert Allen Wright Chair at 

Iowa State University. He has a distinguished career in the field 

of analytical chemistry. He pioneered separation analysis techniques, including multiplexed capillary electrophoresis, that won 

R&D 100 Awards in 1989, 1991, 1997 and 2001. He was also 

named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1992. 

“In a stunningly productive career now exceeding three 

decades, Ed Yeung has time and again defined, then pushed 

beyond, the outer boundaries of chemical measurement science,” says Paul Bohn, Arthur J. Schmitt Professor of Chemical 

and Biomolecular Engineering and Professor of Chemistry and 

Biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame and a longtime 

colleague of Yeung’s. “From his early work mapping cutting edge 

laser spectroscopies onto molecular separations to a decade 

spent defining what can be learned from the study of single molecules, Ed has consistently moved into fruitful new areas and, 

by so doing, catalyzed enormously important developments by 

large numbers of researchers. I cannot think of a more deserving 

recipient of the Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Analytical Chemistry.”

Zhiqun Lin

Mark Gordon

Ed Yeung

John Corbett
6 INQUIRY issue 1 • 2009 

Energy Solutions

hen it comes to renewable energy, Iowa 

is at the forefront. The leading corn producer 

in the country, Iowa has 35 ethanol plants 

with eight more under construction for a 

total capacity of 3.5 billion gallons a year — 

about one third of the overall U.S. capacity. The state also 

ranks near the top in biodiesel production.

Most industry sources also put Iowa near the top in wind 

energy production with more than 1,100 working turbines 

spread out among 47 wind farms. The state has roughly 2,800 

megawatts of capacity with another 20 megawatts of capacity 

under construction. Yet this is only a fraction of Iowa’s average 

potential output of 62,900 megawatts. 

While these two energy sources are extremely important, 

they aren’t without their problems. While corn is renewable, 

it requires significant inputs for the initial production and 

the distillation process. Some even argue that it is wrong 

to use food crops for fuel and that doing so unnecessarily 

raises not only the cost of your breakfast cornflakes, but 

the eggs and bacon on your plate (due to increased cost 

of livestock feed) and thousands of other products using 

corn-based sweeteners. 

A New Dawn

for Energy Research

W

KERRY GIBSON, BREEHAN GERLEMAN LUCCHESI, AND 

MARK INGEBRETSEN CONTRIBUTED TO THIS SERIES OF STORIES 
INQUIRY issue 1 • 2009 7

With wind, you can only produce energy when the wind 

blows, which typically isn’t a problem in Iowa. The bigger 

problem is not being able to take full advantage of Iowa’s 

windy days. Transmission lines from wind farms have a limited 

carrying capacity, and even if they could carry more electricity, 

there aren’t enough homes, businesses, and industrial plants 

connected to the grid within a reasonable distance to consume all that power as it’s being generated. And there’s currently no way to store the excess, so that’s why on windy days, 

you’ll see only some of the turbines in a wind farm turning. 

Fortunately for Iowa, and the rest of the country, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory are 

hard at work creating energy solutions right in our own backyard. Teaming up with crop scientists at Iowa State University, 

they are looking at using other crops and innovative methods 

to turn biomass into ethanol and biodiesel. 

Our materials scientists are working to develop new materials, including superconductors, that can carry electricity 

more efficiently without significant losses. Others are looking to develop materials to store hydrogen, which could not 

only help put hydrogen-powered vehicles on the road, but 

could provide a method for storing up the energy produced 

Iowa is a national leader on the sustainable energy frontier, and Ames Laboratory 

researchers are working to help clear the stumbling blocks that prevent wider 

adoption of these new technologies.

on wind farms for use on days when the wind doesn’t blow 

or when demand jumps.

But energy research at Ames Laboratory isn’t limited to 

those areas. Our physicists are studying photonic crystals – 

lattice-packed devices – that could improve the efficiency of 

solar cells. Another group has developed a 3-D simulation of 

a power plant so engineers can explore its workings virtually to 

design plants that operate more efficiently and cleanly.

And our scientists are working to develop materials and 

technology that allow us to use energy more efficiently. 

This includes a magnetic alloy for use in electric-powered 

vehicles that retains its magnetic properties at high temperatures; a refrigerator that cools with a magnetic field and 

doesn’t require a compressor or environmentally dangerous 

refrigerants; or an ultrathin, low friction coating that reduces 

friction so machinery operates more efficiently and parts 

last longer. 

You’ll find all these research efforts and more detailed in 

the following pages, examples of how Ames Laboratory is 

helping to solve the country’s energy challenges.
8 INQUIRY Issue 1 • 2009

Energy Generation

Nanofarming oil from algae

thanol production in this country is expected to exceed 

10 billion gallons in 2009, representing about nine percent of the nation’s gasoline supply. Nearly all of that 

fuel is produced through the fermentation of biomass, with 

corn a leading feedstock. But if grain could be replaced with 

more sustainable biomass like corn stover from the field, grass, 

wood pulp or even waste materials, ethanol could see even 

greater use as a green fuel.

Ames Laboratory chemist Victor Lin is working to do just 

that by pairing high-tech nanoscale porous catalysts with gasification, a technology that turns carbon-based feedstocks, 

under high temperature and pressure in an oxygen-controlled 

atmosphere, into synthesis gas. Lin’s group is collaborating 

with engineers at Iowa State University’s Center for Sustainable 

Environmental Technology, a leader in producing high-quality 

syngas from biomass.

Syngas is made up primarily of carbon monoxide and hydrogen (more than 85 percent by volume) and smaller quantities 

of carbon dioxide and methane. In studying the chemical reactions in syngas conversion, Lin found that the carbon monoxide 

molecules that yielded ethanol 

could be “activated” in the 

presence of a catalyst with a 

unique structural feature. 

To maximize the surface 

area of this catalyst to promote 

the conversion reaction, Lin 

developed nanoscale catalyst 

particles dispersed widely within 

the structure of mesoporous 

nanospheres, tiny sponge-like 

balls with thousands of channels 

running through them. The total 

surface area of these dispersed 

catalyst nanoparticles is roughly 

100 times greater than the 

surface area of the same quantity of catalyst material in larger, 

macro-scale particles.

Converting syngas to ethanol

E lgae is widely touted as one of the next best sources for 

fueling the world’s energy needs. But one of the greatest challenges in creating biofuels from algae is how to 

economically extract and isolate fuel-related chemicals from 

algae. Also, the current methods for extracting the oil from 

algae kill the organisms, dramatically raising production costs. 

Now researchers at Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University have developed groundbreaking “nanofarming” technology that safely harvests oil from the algae so the pond-based 

“crop” can keep on producing. 

The so-called “nanofarming” technology uses sponge-like 

nanoparticles to extract oil from the algae. The process doesn’t 

harm the algae like other methods being developed, which 

helps reduce both production costs and the production cycle. 

Once the algal oil is extracted, a separate and proven solid catalyst from Catilin, Inc., a nanotechnology-based company that 

specializes in biofuel production, will be used to produce certified biodiesel.

The three-year project is being funded with $885,000 from 

the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Industrial Technology Program as part of the 2008 Nanomanufacturing for Energy Efficiency program, $216,000 from Catilin and 

$16,000 from Iowa State University in matching funds. Phases 

one and two of the project will cover the culturing and selection of microalgae as well as the development of the specific 

nanoparticle-based extraction and catalyst technologies for the 

removal of algal oil and the production of biodiesel, respectively. 

Phase three will focus on scale-up of the catalyst and pilot plant 

testing on conversion to biodiesel. 

The driving force behind this combination of nanotechnology 

and biofuels is Ames Laboratory Chemical and Biological Sciences Program Director Victor Lin. Since 2000, Lin, who is also 

a chemistry professor at Iowa State University, has been leading 

research on using nanotechnology to dramatically change the 

production process of biodiesel. This successful technology led 

Lin to found Catilin one and a half years ago. 

Ground corn stover is one of 

the feedstocks being studied 

for conversion into syngas, which is then converted into 

ethanol with the use of nanoscale catalysts.

Victor Lin’s research group is growing several strains of algae 

in the laboratory and testing how the organisms respond to 

introduction of the nanoparticles.

A
INQUIRY Issue 1 • 2009 9

f a picture is worth a thousand words, a 3-D virtual 

environment could equal a thousand blueprints. That’s the 

hope of an Ames Lab research effort known as the Virtual 

Power Plant program. When completed, the project will allow 

planners to see a 3-D representation of every pipe, wire and 

bolt they design into a power-generating facility. 

That kind of visualization is eons beyond computer-aided 

design, because instead of seeing their plans displayed on a 

computer screen, engineers can virtually walk through them, 

simply by stepping inside a 3-D theater, such as the V6 Cube 

located inside Howe Hall at the Iowa State University College of 

Engineering. The Virtual Power Plant Program will let engineers 

spot problems simply by eyeing them. Does a pipe need to be 

rerouted? If so, engineers can quickly change it using a simple 

control interface. 

Nearby, a supercomputer-like cluster of PCs will redraw the 

plans. Driving those computers is an open-source program 

called VE-Suite being developed by Ames Lab Program Director 

for Simulation, Modeling, and Decision Science Mark Bryden. 

VE-Suite is more than a rendering program. It can calculate the 

physics behind a power plant’s operation. So when changes 

get made, engineers can assess how those changes will affect 

temperatures, pressures and other operational elements of the 

plant – a fact that meshes exactly with the Virtual Power Plant’s 

overarching goal: building a platform to design the next generation of cleaner, safer and more efficient power plants that come 

on line faster and cost consumers less. But even that might be 

just for starters. 

“We are working to create an interactive visual engineering 

environment that can be used to design new products, better 

power plants, new ships, new tractors, or any other engineered 

product. I believe this is how we will be doing engineering 10 

years from now,” Bryden says.

n paper, solar energy is a nearly perfect energy source: 

it’s abundant, free, and produces no air or water pollutants. But in practice, solar energy conversion technologies 

still face cost and efficiency challenges that must be overcome 

before clean solar energy production can edge out fossil fuel 

use in the United States.

Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University researchers are 

collaborating to develop the next generation of solar energy 

technologies that are highly efficient and can be produced at 

a fraction of the cost of other solar conversion products on 

the market today. In the short term, the group plans to create thin-film solar cells from silicon alloys and to develop new 

solar cell structures using cutting-edge photonic technologies, 

an area where Ames Laboratory has world-leading expertise. 

Using such photonic crystal substrates enhances the absorption of red and near infrared photons and increases the current 

generated by the solar cell. 

Theoretically, several photonic crystal designs with submicron 

periods have demonstrated a boost in solar cell performance. 

And, based on the designs, the group recently began fabricating 

amorphous silicon cells that show impressive performance 

improvements. 

“These performance improvements are very cost effective 

and can be incorporated into manufacturing processes to boost 

solar cell performance,” says Rana Biswas, an Ames Laboratory physicist. “Using alloys and nanocrystalline materials is an 

area where we can make progress that will help improve solar 

energy technologies.”

The project brings together Ames Laboratory and ISU 

researchers in chemistry, physics, electrical and computer 

engineering and private industry leaders in thin-film solar 

cells. Ultimately, the research team hopes that their work will 

help make solar energy more cost-competitive with other 

forms of energy and help to spur Iowa’s economic development in the solar energy sector.

Seeking a brighter solar energy future

I

Visualizing tomorrow’s power plants

O

Using 3-D visualization, engineers can walk inside a virtual 

power plant design and see and correct problems before the 

plans leave the drawing board.

An amorphous silicon solar cell incorporating a photonic crystal 

lattice fabricated to reflect light back into solar cells is shown in 

the bright square area.
Energy Transmission & Storage

10 INQUIRY Issue 1 • 2009 

s demand for electricity in urban areas grows, power 

transmission lines are increasingly strained by growing 

currents. Fault-current limiters protect power grids from 

sudden spikes in power, much like household surge protectors 

save televisions and computers from damage during a lightning 

strike. Superconductors enable a novel and promising type of 

fault-current limiter — or “firewall” — that rapidly switches to a 

resistive state when the current exceeds the superconductor’s 

critical current. At the same time, in normal operation, the superconductor’s near-zero AC resistance minimizes power loss 

and makes the fault-current limiter effectively “invisible” in the 

electric grid.

Ames Laboratory physicist John Clem has developed a 

theory that identifies a design strategy to reduce costs and 

improve efficiency in bifilar fault-current limiters, a new and 

promising type of superconducting fault-current limiter being 

developed by Siemens and American Superconductor Corp. 

Clem’s work, funded by the Department of Energy’s Office of 

Science, Basic Energy Sciences Office, shows how to predict 

changes in AC losses in relationship to changes to components 

in fault-current limiters.

“My theoretical work shows that the AC losses in bifilar 

fault-current limiters could be reduced by using wider superconducting tapes,” says Clem. “This may encourage American 

Superconductor to manufacture a new line of products.”

A

Designing superconducting fault-current limiters

Research by Ames Laboratory physicist John Clem will 

help protect power-grid transmission lines from sudden 

power spikes. 

Heating up the search for zero-resistance transmission

uperconductors, materials that have zero resistance at 

low temperatures, have the potential to dramatically increase the energy efficiency of high-field magnets – like 

those in the MRI machines found in most hospitals – and to 

improve the power grid in surge protection and even, possibly, 

electrical transmission lines. But what is needed to make this 

S happen is the design, discovery, and, ultimately, control over a 

superconducting material that carries a high current densities 

in high magnetic fields and requires little cost and cooling.

The 2008 discovery of a new type of superconductor based 

on iron and arsenic sparked a fast-paced, worldwide race to 

understand, modify and control iron-arsenic superconductors. 

Ames Laboratory scientists have been right in the thick of things, 

discovering new compounds and properties, and leading several parts of the effort to characterize and improve these complex compounds. Ames Laboratory scientists have racked up 

an impressive list of firsts including the first growth and characterization of single crystals of several classes of iron-arsenic 

compounds; the first discovery of pressure induced superconductivity; and the first experimental determinations of electronic 

structure and magnetic anisotropy, both of which indicate that 

these materials may well become practical superconductors. 

Within the span of about a year, Ames Laboratory researchers have once again done that at which they excel: they have 

used the intellectual as well as material resources uniquely 

available within a national lab setting to assemble a focused, 

multidisciplinary team to address key problems associated 

with a new and vital material. Since 2008, nearly 70 scientific 

papers have been submitted to journals, with over half of them 

published, drawing over 1,000 citations.

An iron-arsenic crystal grown by Ames Laboratory senior 

physicist Paul Canfield’s crystal-growth group. 
INQUIRY Issue 1 • 2009 11

ramatic breakthroughs in battery technology will be 

needed to fully harness the potential of sun and wind 

energy sources, power the next generation of electric 

and hybrid cars, and enable future portable electronics. Lithium 

batteries are one promising type of storage technology, but as 

anyone with a cell phone knows, today’s rechargeable lithium 

batteries are limited in capacity and charging lifetimes.

To help develop tomorrow’s stronger, longer-lasting batteries, an Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University research 

team plans to prepare and characterize a new class of particulate anode alloys for lithium batteries. To date, most other 

anode materials have been developed by chemists, electrochemists, and ceramics specialists. But, current lithium battery 

material challenges call for a broader combination of expertise, 

especially in metallurgy. So, Ames Lab created a multidisciplinary team that brings together experts in metal alloy processing, materials characterization, and the electrochemistry of 

lithium batteries.

The group, with funding from Ames Laboratory’s seed 

funding program, will use materials processing technologies 

at the Lab’s Materials Preparation Center to create nanosized 

“core-shell” particles of metal alloys and carbon. The resulting 

materials may help not only to boost the capacity of lithium 

batteries, but to also increase the recharge cycle life as well. 

“The race is on all across the world to develop new lithium 

battery technologies, and by combining expertise at the Ames 

Laboratory and ISU we think our new approaches may be very 

competitive,” says ISU Anson Marston Distinguished Professor 

of Engineering and Ames Lab associate scientist Steve W. Martin, who leads the project.

ne of the biggest stumbling blocks to hydrogen fuel 

technology is finding a way to store enough hydrogen 

on-board to make a hydrogen-powered vehicle viable. Storing hydrogen as a compressed gas or even a liquid 

would still require a prohibitively large tank to give a vehicle 

the driving range of a gasoline-powered car. It also requires 

considerable energy to either compress or liquefy hydrogen.

There are ways to store hydrogen in solid materials, 

such as complex metal hydrides, but because hydrogen 

forms such strong chemical bonds, it requires a high energy input to break those bonds to release the hydrogen. 

That problem can be overcome, but the net hydrogen yield 

isn’t great. The ideal would be to find a way to “saturate” a 

material with hydrogen to boost the yield, but also make it 

easily “rechargeable.”

Ames Laboratory senior scientist Vitalij Pecharsky and 

colleagues Marek Pruski, Scott Chumbley and Victor Lin 

have been working to solve those issues using a somewhat 

unorthodox method of forming those metal hydrides in the 

first place. Using a technique he calls “mechano-chemistry,” 

Pecharsky and his research team form the complex hydride 

compounds without traditional solvents, opting to use highenergy ball milling to combine the materials.

To boost the hydrogen storage capacity, the team is 

forming the materials in specially designed equipment that 

allows the milling to be done in an extremely high-pressure 

(350 bar) hydrogen environment. The work is still in its early stages, but preliminary results show promise. 

Boosting the power of lithium batteries

Getting more hydrogen in and back out

O

D

Ames Laboratory scientist Steve Martin is working on improving 

lithium battery technology using nanosized particles to boost 

the storage capacity of all types of batteries. 

This specially constructed ball mill allows Ames Laboratory 

researcher Vitalij Pecharsky’s group to mechanically combine 

metal hydrides under a high-pressure hydrogen environment 

to boost the amount of hydrogen the materials can store. 
Efficient Utilization

12 INQUIRY Issue • 2009 

Reducing friction with nanocoatings

riction is the bane of any machine. When moving parts 

are subject to friction, it takes more energy to move them. 

But if you could manufacture parts with tough, “slippery” 

surfaces, there’d be less friction, requiring less input energy 

and the parts would also last longer. 

“When a hydraulic pump moves fluid, the friction between 

the turbine vanes and the housing translates into additional 

torque needed to operate the pump, particularly at start-up,” 

says Bruce Cook, an Ames Laboratory scientist and co-principal 

investigator on the four-year, $3 million project. “It takes extra energy to get the pump started, and you can’t run it at its 

optimum (higher speed) efficiency because it would wear out 

more quickly.” 

Coating the blades to reduce friction and increase wear 

resistance could have a significant effect in boosting the efficiency of all kinds of industrial and commercial pumps. According to Cook, a modest increase in pump efficiency could 

reduce U.S. industrial energy usage by 31 trillion BTUs annually 

by 2030, or a savings of $179 million a year.

Using a technique called pulsed laser deposition, Cook’s team 

is depositing an ultrathin layer of a boron-aluminum-magnesium 

ceramic alloy, nicknamed BAM, on hydraulic pump vanes as well 

as tungsten carbide cutting tools. Eaton Corporation, a leading 

manufacturer of fluid power equipment, and Greenleaf CorporaF

tion, a leading industrial cutting-tool maker, are also involved in 

the project. 

Initial tests at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, one of 

the nation’s leading friction and wear research facilities, show 

a decrease in friction relative to an uncoated surface of at least 

an order of magnitude with the AlMgB14-based coating. In 

preliminary tests, the coating also appears to outperform other 

coatings such as diamond-like carbon and titanium diboride. 

The project is funded by the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency 

and Renewable Energy. 

he switch from gas- to electric-powered vehicles will 

come about thanks to advancements in many fields, 

among them magnets. Electric motors found in vehicles typically use both permanent and electromagnets. The 

permanent magnets provide the continuous force that rotates 

the electro magnets located at the motor’s center. Unfortunately, 

ordinary permanent magnets won’t work efficiently in cars. The 

reason: cars get hot. Common magnets made from neodymiumiron-boron lose half their power when temperatures reach 100 to 

125 degrees Celsius. But an Ames Lab team led by Iver Anderson and colleagues, Bill McCallum and Matthew Kramer, created 

an alloy from neodymium, yttrium and dysprosium that holds 

most of its strength at 200 degrees Celsius. 

Creating vehicle-friendly 

magnets was only half the 

battle for Anderson’s team. 

To be commercially viable, 

large numbers of the magnets need to be produced 

cheaply and efficiently. And 

that required a novel proT

Boosting electric car’s potential

duction method. The researchers figured out how to process 

their alloy into a fine, spherical powder using what’s called 

gas atomization. The technique first reduces the magnetic alloy into a stream of liquefied metal, which is then blasted with 

supersonic jets of gas. The resulting immense force causes the 

metal to break up into tiny droplets, which are then deposited 

in a mold. The process is actually a high-tech variation of injection molding, a mainstay manufacturing technique. Someday 

it may prove key to making zero-emission electric cars affordable to millions.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Ames Laboratory researchers Bruce Cook and Alan Russell 

are studying the use of a ultra-hard, low-friction nanocoating 

of boron-aluminum-magnesium (BAM) can extend the life of 

cutting tools and make pumps run more efficiently. 
INQUIRY Issue 1 • 2009 13

Cooling with magnetic refrigeration

signing high-strength magnets. Since that time, more than 25 

different cooling units have been built and tested throughout 

the world, though none of the designs has taken off.

“At this point, it’s really an engineering issue,”Gschneidner 

says. “We know the concept works, it’s just a matter of working 

around some of the problems.”

One of the problems is that the giant magnetocaloric materials are brittle. And because they also change volume in 

the magnetic field, there’s a tendency for cracks to develop 

over time. Another problem is increasing or concentrating the 

strength of the magnetic field while keeping the mechanism 

reasonably compact and cost effective.

Gschneidner hoped to address those and other issues at 

Thermag III, the 3rd International Conference of IIR on Magnetic Refrigeration at Room Temperature. Hosted by Ames 

Laboratory and Iowa State University, 150 of the top researchers from around the world gathered in Des Moines in May to 

discuss emerging trends and research in the field.

hen Ames Laboratory senior metallurgist Karl

Gschneidner sees a refrigerator or an air conditioning unit, he thinks of the potential energy savings 

these essential appliances could offer if magnetic refrigeration, 

a technology he’s helped pioneer, becomes reality. 

Magnetic refrigeration isn’t a new idea. The technology is 

centered on the giant magnetocaloric effect exhibited by some 

rare-earth metals that, when placed in a magnetic field, heat up 

and, conversely, cool down when removed from the field. Such 

a system is 20 to 30 percent more energy efficient than traditional gas compression cooling and also uses environmentally 

benign coolants instead of ozone-depleting refrigerants.

Ames Lab and Astronautics Corporation of America built a 

proof-of-principle refrigerator in 1997, with Gschneidner’s group 

developing a gadolinium-germanium-silicon alloy and also deW

This diagram shows a design by Astronautics Corporation of 

America for a rotary magnetic refrigerator that’s 20 to 30 

percent more efficient than today’s gas compression designs. 

Ames Laboratory scientist Yaroslav Mudryk, left, explains how 

samples are placed in a calorimeter so the effect of magnetic 

field can be studied at low temperature during a tour of Ames 

Laboratory by participants in the Thermag III conference.
14 INQUIRY Issue 1 • 2009 

Technology Transfer

ec hnology tr ansfer professionals c all it 

“The Valley of Death,” the arduous, expensive path 

companies must follow in order to turn research-lab 

intellectual property into viable products. 

“We do the basic research here at the Lab, and 

it’s normally workbench scale,” says Ames Laboratory Associate 

Director Deb Covey. “Companies must take it from there, and 

typically, the majority of them never make it through the valley.” 

That may be true, overall. But an impressive number of 

companies spawned by Ames Lab technology have beaten the 

odds. Their success has enabled Ames Lab to earn more in licensing fees than any other Department of Energy facility, even 

though the Lab is smallest among its counterparts.

Spinoff companies using Ames Laboratory technology have 

also helped build a high-tech infrastructure destined to renew 

Iowa’s economy as the recession ends. Moreover, the technologies being commercialized by Lab spin-off companies are 

invariably green, providing new ways to preserve the planet. 

A good example is Catilin Corp. The 20-employee Nevada, 

Iowa, company promises to revolutionize how biodiesel is refined. 

Caitilin produces catalysts developed by Ames Lab researcher Victor Lin and his team. Lin’s catalysts, which Catilin sells to biodiesel 

refining operations worldwide, 

can create fuel using any number 

of substances. Importantly, the 

catalysts do their work without 

using precious water resources, 

which could make them a godsend to the world’s poorer, 

water-deprived nations. 

Larry Lenhart, Catilin’s CEO, was instrumental in launching 

the company. Lenhart serves as executive in residence at Mohr 

Davidow Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture-capital firm with 

roughly one-third of its portfolio in green tech. 

“We saw Victor Lin at a conference,” Lenhart says, “and we 

were very impressed both with his knowledge of the technology 

and his business sense.” 

Seizing the opportunity, Lenhart and his MDV colleagues 

worked with the Iowa State University Research Foundation, 

which manages tech transfer for Ames Laboratory. An agreement emerged two months later, and Catilin launched, backed 

by a combination of public and private funds. MDV is currently 

working with Catilin on another Ames Lab innovation: specially 

engineered nanoparticles that can produce biofuels from algae. 

The process could reduce the renewable fuel’s production costs 

– a lot. Ten thousand gallons of biofuels can be made from 

algae grown on a single acre. (See story on page 8)

The biggest Ames Laboratory technology-transfer success 

story, lead-free solder, is also a green solution to a pressing 

environmental concern. Created by Ames Lab scientist Iver Anderson, lead-free solder was developed to reduce the potential 

hazards created by the millions of electronic gadgets tossed 

in landfills. Lead found inside this electronic waste can leech 

out and poison ground-water supplies. Restrictions on lead 

content in electronic components in the European Union and 

elsewhere have helped make the Ames Lab alloy the biggest 

royalty generator of any invention commercialized by a DOE 

lab. Today it’s licensed by more than 60 companies worldwide. 

Recently, an Iowa firm, 

New Tech Ceramics, licensed 

Ames Lab-developed nanocoatings, nicknamed BAM 

and developed by Ames 

Laboratory scientist Bruce Cook and his team, that reduce friction in pumps and other devices where water is present. The 

coatings might someday cut U.S. energy use by $179 million 

annually. (See story on page 12)

Though companies like New Tech and Catilin have already 

found ripe opportunities in Ames Laboratory technologies, plenty 

of leading-edge intellectual property 

remains, says Covey. That is, if the 

acquiring company is willing to risk 

traversing the Valley of Death. 

One example: a paradigm-shifting incandescent bulb that reflects 

heat energy back to the filament. 

Although not yet prototyped, Ames 

Lab associate Kristen Constant and 

her colleagues have calculated that 

the bulb would be more efficient 

than currently popular, energysaving fluorescent and LED lights, 

while retaining an incandescent 

bulb’s pleasing glow. Any takers?

T

Spinning technology into “Gold”

Q

Catilin employees at the company’s facility in Nevada, Iowa. 

BY MARK INGEBRETSEN
 a EDUCATION

INQUIRY Issue 1 • 2009 15

Ames Laboratory Pre-Service Teacher Patrick Rodenborn (center) with mentors and Ames Lab scientists Kevin Dennis (left) 

and Bill McCallum. 

BY KATIE PARR

p r i n g 2 0 0 9 m a r k e d t h e l a u n c h o f a n e w 

education program at Ames Laboratory called PreService Teachers, or PST. The program provides Iowa 

State University pre-service science teachers a chance 

to work in a research lab and gain first-hand experience that will equip them with a better understanding of the 

scientific research process. They will then be able to carry their 

experiences to the classroom.

“Research design and analysis, critical thinking, and teamwork are essential elements to understanding the nature of 

scientific research, and a student cannot learn them from a 

textbook nor from a lecture or even a course that includes a 

lab component,” says PST coordinator Adah Leshem-Ackerman.

The program began with one student, Patrick Rodenborn, 

a senior at Iowa State University majoring in physics. He is 

currently working on becoming a certified teacher in Iowa, endorsed to teach science. Rodenborn was paired with scientist 

mentors to provide him with hands-on research experience. 

Rodenborn’s scientist mentors were senior scientist Bill McCallum, assistant scientist Kevin Dennis, and Youwen Xu, a physics 

professor at Minnesota State University-Mankato who spent her 

sabbatical year at Ames Laboratory.

 “The PST program was a really good way to see what science is really like as opposed to what it appears to be in the 

classroom,” Rodenborn says. 

Rodenborn assisted the McCallum research group in determining the best process for the synthesis of a new class of superconductors based on iron and arsenic. Their goal is produce 

a sample free from impurities that form during the standard 

processing procedures. 

McCallum says he participated in the PST program because 

“it allows a prospective teacher to experience science as a discovery process rather than an accumulation of facts taught in 

the classroom. Experiencing the excitement of discovery first 

hand should help these teachers convey to their students what 

a career in science is really about.”

The PST program also pairs students with a teacher mentor, who will helps them relate what they learn in the lab to 

teaching in the classroom. Participants’ teacher mentors must 

also be master teachers, which, Leshem-Ackerman explains, are 

“high school science teachers who have gained much experience in a particular area and are highly respected as a leader 

in his/her field.”

The Ames Laboratory PST program is currently funded by 

the Iowa Board of Regents Initiative for Math and Science Education Program (IMSEP), and a proposal to continue funding for 

a summer PST program has been submitted to the Department 

of Energy’s Office of Work Force Development. Only ISU students are allowed to apply for the fall and spring PST programs, 

but the summer program will be open to all pre-service science 

teachers who are U.S. citizens.

“We’re looking forward to making this program for pre-service teachers a prominent part of the Lab’s overall education 

strategy and to building upon our new relationship in this area 

with ISU,” says Steve Karsjen, Ames Lab’s education director

Ames Lab also has an educational program for in-service 

teachers called Academies Creating Teacher Scientists, or 

ACTS. This program is offered in the summer and gives current teachers the opportunity to work in a research lab with an 

Ames Lab scientist. 

S

Turning Lab Experience into Classroom Expertise

Q
2009ISSUE 1

Ames Laboratory

111 Technical and Administrative Services Facility

Ames, Iowa 50011-3020

515-294-9557

www.ameslab.gov