Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

About: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is a facility organization based out in Richland, Washington, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Catalysis & Aerosol. The organization has 11581 authors who have published 27934 publications receiving 1120489 citations. The organization is also known as: PNL & PNNL.

Short-term modulation of Indian summer monsoon rainfall by West Asian dust

Abstract: The Indian summer monsoon is influenced by numerous factors, including aerosol-induced changes to clouds, surface and atmospheric heating, and atmospheric circulation. An analysis of satellite data and global climate model simulations suggests that dust aerosol levels over the Arabian Sea, West Asia and the Arabian Peninsula are positively correlated with the intensity of the Indian summer monsoon.

Radical Compatibility with Nonaqueous Electrolytes and Its Impact on an All‐Organic Redox Flow Battery

Abstract: Nonaqueous redox flow batteries hold the promise of achieving higher energy density because of the broader voltage window than aqueous systems, but their current performance is limited by low redox material concentration, cell efficiency, cycling stability, and current density. We report a new nonaqueous all-organic flow battery based on high concentrations of redox materials, which shows significant, comprehensive improvement in flow battery performance. A mechanistic electron spin resonance study reveals that the choice of supporting electrolytes greatly affects the chemical stability of the charged radical species especially the negative side radical anion, which dominates the cycling stability of these flow cells. This finding not only increases our fundamental understanding of performance degradation in flow batteries using radical-based redox species, but also offers insights toward rational electrolyte optimization for improving the cycling stability of these flow batteries.

Effect of PCR template concentration on the composition and distribution of total community 16S rDNA clone libraries

Abstract: Total DNA from sediment samples was isolated by a direct lysis technique. Purified DNA was used as template either undiluted or diluted 1:10 prior to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of 16S rRNA genes. Full-length inserts were analysed for restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP) with the enzyme Cfo1, and the resulting distribution and abundance of RFLP patterns compared between the undiluted and diluted PCR reactions. Results indicate that for low PCR template concentrations, in the range from a few picograms to tens of picograms DNA, proportional representation of specific RFLP types was not reproducible upon template dilution, confirming that PCR amplification of 16S rDNA cannot be used directly to infer microbial abundance. In particular, only 15-24% of the RFLP types recovered from a sample were present in both the undiluted and diluted extracts. We propose that very low template concentrations in the PCR generate random fluctuations in priming efficiency, which led to the contrast in RFLP types observed in the libraries from the undiluted and diluted extracts.

Radiation Effects in Zircon

Abstract: The widespread distribution of zircon in the continental crust, its tendency to concentrate trace elements, particularly lanthanides and actinides, its use in age-dating, and its resistance to chemical and physical degradation have made zircon the most important accessory mineral in geologic studies. Because zircon is highly refractory, it also has important industrial applications, including its use as a lining material in high-temperature furnaces. However, during the past decade, zircon has also been proposed for advanced technology applications, such as a durable material for the immobilization of plutonium or, when modified by ion-beam irradiation, as an optic waveguide material. In all of these applications, the change in properties as a function of increasing radiation dose is of critical importance. In this chapter, we summarize the state-of-knowledge on the radiation damage accumulation process in zircon.

A search model for topological insulators with high-throughput robustness descriptors

Abstract: Topological insulators exhibit intriguing electronic properties that originate from protected metallic states on their surface. Experimental studies so far are based on a limited number of materials. A high-throughput approach now shows how to search for topological insulators in a variety of unexplored classes of materials.