LANL Facilities available to MPA-11

Materials Science and Technologies (MST) Division Polymers and Coatings Group (MST-7)

MST-7 participates in the Los Alamos fuel cell program through collaboration with MPA-11 in the development, synthesis and characterization of alternative polymer electrolyte membranes (PEM). Polymer aging is an expertise of the group. MST-7 also supports the national hydrogen program in the development of gas separation membranes. Specific MST-7 capabilities utilized in the alternative PEM studies include:

• Size Exclusion Chromatography for molecular weight analysis
• Quasi Elastic Light Scattering to measure diffusion coefficients in solution
• Multi Angle Light Scattering to measure size of macromolecules and particles
• Solution and Solid State NMR
• FTIR and Raman for spectroscopic materials analysis
• Dynamic Mechanical Analysis for moduli determination at variable temperatures and frequencies
• Tensile Testing for mechanical property determination
• Melt and solution rheology
• Small angle x-ray Scattering for nanostructure analysis
• Modulated Differential Scanning Calorimetry
• Modulated Thermal Gravimetric Analysis

Electron Microscopy Laboratory (EML) in the MST-6

• Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with an energy dispersive x-ray spectrometer and an electron energy-loss Gatan Imaging Filter
• Field emission high-resolution TEM equipped with an electron energy-loss spectrometer
• High-resolution SEM
• Specimen preparation facility

Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT)

CINT is one of five Department of Energy/Office of Science Nanoscale Science Research Centers (NSRC), and operates as a national user facility devoted to establishing the scientific principles that govern the design, performance, and integration of nanoscale materials. We anticipate that CINT (a collaboration between Sandia National Laboratory and LANL with facilities in Albuquerque and Los Alamos) may prove useful as the center and its capabilities develop. The CINT Los Alamos gateway is organizationally located in MPA Division.

Chemistry Division (C)

• XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy)
• TEOM (tapered element oscillating microbalance)
• BET
• DRIFTS (diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectrometer) to examine reaction chemistry of solid materials
• Ion chromatography
• MXRF (micro X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy)
• PFG NMR (pulsed field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy)

Nuclear Materials Technology Division (NMT)

• ICP/MS (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) for analysis of trace components in PEMFC product water
• Laser ablation

Theoretical Chemistry and Molecular Physics Group (T-12)  

• Staff for theory & modeling at atomic/molecular level
• T-12 supports a Beowulf type Linux cluster of 96 nodes (zinc) and about 40 desktop workstations (SGI, Windows, Linux, HP). The zinc cluster is used primarily for computationally intensive tasks such as ab initio molecular dynamics simulation, and is upgraded as the opportunity arises each year (the fuel cell program bought one node).  It is thus highly heterogeneous, and managed by T-12 staff members.
• Future - Unclassified QSC massively parallel supercomputer, part of DOE/NNSA’s Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program

Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE)

LANSCE, a DOE Office of Science national user facility, produces intense sources of pulsed spallation neutrons, which provide the United States scientific community with the capability to perform experiments that support national security and civilian research. LANSCE comprises a 3/8-mile long, high-power 800-million-electron-volt proton linear accelerator (linac), a Proton Storage Ring, production targets to the Manuel Lujan Jr. Neutron Scattering Center and the Weapons Neutron Research facility, and a variety of associated experiment areas and spectrometers. With the ability to produce neutrons with energies that range over 14 orders of magnitude using the world's most powerful proton linac, LANSCE is ideal for research in neutron scattering, neutron physics, and characterization technologies. The Lujan Center uses LANSCE's 800-MeV proton beam to produce low-energy neutrons for basic and applied research. Though not used to date, the capability for neutron and proton radiography is available.

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