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A quantitative look at electron collisions with excited state molecules
Post, September 9, 2026 • The details of electron interactions with excited-state molecules can be important in plasma processes but are experimentally elusive. CRF researchers Jonathan Frank and Dave Chandler, together with postdocs Haw-Wei Lin and Eric Smoll, developed a way to measure these interactions and employed it in their paper "Electron-ionization-dissociation dynamics of laser-excited SO2 (B 1B1/A 1A2) studied using velocity map imaging," published...

Announcing the continuation of the Spray Combustion Consortium
Post, June 8, 2018 • We invite you to join the next phase – transferring basic research into more predictive spray combustion CFD models thereby reducing development time and costs of future high-efficiency engines. Background The Spray Combustion Consortium (SCC) is an industry-funded activity aiming to improve engine combustion system design and optimization tools. Formed...
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Automated Development of a Comprehensive Microkinetic Model for Catalysis
Post, June 16, 2026 • Combustion Research Facility researchers Chris Kliewer, Judit Zádor, Shinae Kim and Eric Smoll published a paper in "The Journal of Physical Chemistry C" on "Automated Theoretical Investigation of the Ammonia Decomposition Reaction Network on Pt(111)". In this work, the authors mapped out the potential energy surfaces of ammonia decomposition and...

CRF Recognizes Researchers for Outstanding Contributions
Post, August 5, 2026 • The CRF awards, given every two years to recognize researchers that have made outstanding contributions in fundamental research, applied science, and technological support, were presented on July 8, 2026 at an all-hands meeting of Sandia’s Chemistry, Combustion, & Materials Science Center, which includes the CRF. Named after Bill Adams, the...

CRF Researcher Recognized for Outstanding Mentorship from ORISE
Post, February 9, 2026 • Pieterjan Robbe received recognition as an outstanding mentor on the ORISE (Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education) website in celebration of National Mentoring Month (January 2026). Pieterjan was nominated by his former SCGSR grad student intern, Aleksei Sorokin, who summarized, “Dr. Pieterjan Robbe was my collaborating scientist and mentor...
Pieterjan looking off in the distance smiling

Fast, Accurate Turbulent Combustion Simulations
Post, April 1, 2026 • Cristian Lacey and Jackie Chen, together with researchers from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (Korea) and Pukyong National University (Korea), have published a paper entitled "Time-dependent-bases with local CUR decomposition method for accelerating turbulent combustion simulations" in Combustion and Flame. This work presents a reduced-order modeling framework that...

Foundation Models Accelerate Gas-Phase Kinetics Calculations
Post, June 16, 2026 • Judit Zádor, together with CRF summer intern Daniel Kendall (UCLA), published a paper in "The Journal of Physical Chemistry A" on "Benchmarking the UMA Foundation Interatomic Potential for Gas-Phase Chemical Kinetics". In this work, the authors use the automated KinBot workflow to benchmark Meta’s Universal Models for Atoms (UMA) foundation model...

Generative Design of Active Sites on Arbitrary Catalysts
Post, June 12, 2026 • Judit Zádor co-organized this year's "Faraday Discussion on Bridging the gap from surface science to heterogeneous catalysis" that was held in London, United Kingdom, April 20th-22nd. At this meeting she and fellow CRF researcher Matthew Johnson presented their development, with collaborator Richard West from Northeastern University, of an interpretable machine-learning framework...

Hydrogen Peroxide Formation Mechanisms in Liquid Anode and Cathode Discharges
Post, May 27, 2026 • In order to better understand the mechanism for plasma-induced formation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), a key reactive species in plasma processing, Jonathan Frank, Erxiong Huang and Sebastian Pfaff from the CRF, with colleagues Jae Hyun Nam and Peter J Bruggeman from the University of Minnesota, carried out spatially and time-resolved...

Improving understanding of advanced Light-Emitting Materials
Post, December 3, 2025 • Laura McCaslin, CRF postdocs Varun Rishi and Ali Abou Taka and Hrant Hratchian (UC Merced), published a paper in "The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters" on "Quantifying Design Principles for Light-Emitting Materials with Inverted Singlet–Triplet Energy Gaps." Most organic light-emitting materials lose efficiency because 75% of excitons are non-emissive triplets....

Judit Zádor awarded a Gauss Professorship
Post, February 4, 2026 • Judit Zádor (DMTS 8353) was awarded a Gauss Professorship by the Göttingen Academy of Sciences in Lower Saxony. The Gauss Professorship, established on the 100th anniversary of Carl Friedrich Gauss’ death, offers outstanding scientists from outside Germany the opportunity to temporarily, and in a sense symbolically, occupy the chair of...

Laser-Driven Control of Bond-Breaking
Post, September 3, 2026 • Controlling the course of a chemical reaction by mode-selective laser excitation is typically thwarted by the rapid delocalization of the energy, especially in large molecules. CRF researchers Tim Zwier, Kendrew Au, Chin Lee, and Kyung-Chul Woo, together with colleagues from Purdue University, University of Nevada, Reno, and Fairfield University, discovered a...

Measurements via Double-resonance Ion Imaging Mass Spectrometry
Post, May 27, 2026 • CRF researchers Haw-Wei Lin, Eric Smoll, Jonathan Frank and Dave Chandler published a paper in Journal of Physics B entitled, "Absolute Cross Section Measurements via Double Resonance Ion-Imaging Mass Spectrometry: The mp51/2 n(p′/f′) Autoionizing Rydberg States of Argon." Employing a novel in situ double-resonance scheme using an ion-imaging mass spectrometer...

Molecular Cage Adapts its Shape to its Contents
Post, September 3, 2026 • Molecular cages that sequester certain ions can be important for designing new strategies for selective capture of critical elements from aqueous solution. Using advanced theory and unique spectroscopy methods available at Sandia, CRF researchers Tim Zwier, Chin Lee, and Kendrew Au, together with Sandia colleague Jessica Rimsza and collaborators from LANL,...

Neighboring Groups can turn Quantum Tunneling On and Off
Post, May 6, 2026 • Tim Zwier, Judit Zádor and Blair Welsh from the CRF, with colleagues Sven Herbers from the Université Paris Est and Edwin L Sibert III from University of Wisconsin Madison, published a paper on "Methyl Rotor State-Dependent Quenching of OH Tunneling in 2,6-Dimethylphenol" in "The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters". Tunneling...

New engine optics to fuel future research
Post, November 29, 2017 • by Michael PadillaSandia team develops optical diagnostic that helps improve fuel economy while reducing emissionsA new optical device at Sandia National Laboratories that helps researchers image pollutants in combusting fuel sprays might lead to clearer skies in the future.An optical setup developed by researchers at Sandia’s Combustion Research Facility and...
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New Formation Mechanism for Surface Oxide Observed in Pt Catalysis
Post, June 12, 2026 • Chris Kliewer, together with Timothy Livingston Large and Brian Patterson, published a paper in "The Journal of Physical Chemistry C" on "Kinetics of the Formation of a High-Temperature Surface Oxide on Pt(111) under Near-Ambient Pressure O2" In this work, the authors used near-ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (NAP-XPS) to investigate...

New Perspectives on Vibrational Energy Transfer in Energetic Materials
Post, May 6, 2026 • CRF researchers Daniel Carlson, Paul Schrader, Kendrew Au, and Krupa Ramasesha, together with River Leversee from CU Boulder and Sandia colleagues Neil Cole-Filipiak, Robert Knepper, and Mitchell Wood, have employed ultrafast spectroscopic tools to probe the detailed energy flow that determines initiation processes in energetic materials. Their work is highlighted...
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Paul Miles honored with Lifetime Achievement Award
Post, December 17, 2025 • For more than 30 years, Paul Miles has driven breakthroughs in engine-combustion research at Sandia National Laboratories; in recognition of his transformative contributions, he has been honored with the DOE Vehicle Technologies Office Lifetime Achievement Award. Paul’s honor is the culmination of decades of conducting and supervising research projects funded...

Plasma-assisted conversion of siloxanes
Post, July 23, 2026 • Siloxanes (organosilicon compounds with silicon–oxygen (Si–O–Si) structures) have a broad range of technology applications, and understanding their chemical transformations is important both for industrial uses and for managing their disposal. Emma Litzer and Nils Hansen, together with colleagues Tanvir I. Farouk, Prangan Nandy, Raziya S. Chowdhury and Shamia Hoque from...

Real-Time Monitoring of CO2 Reduction
Post, May 11, 2026 • CRF researchers Nils Hansen and Emma Litzer together with colleagues Jawaher Mosrati, Thomas Bierkandt, Markus Köhler (all DLR Stuttgart), and Soufiane Bahou, Malte Wasgien, and Ali Abdel-Mageed (all Leibniz Institute for Catalysis), published a paper on "Real-Time Monitoring of CO2 Reduction on Supported Catalysts Using Near-Surface Molecular Beam Mass Spectrometry...

Sandia National Laboratories Honors David Osborn’s Remarkable Career in Chemical Physics
Post, February 20, 2026 • Sandia National Laboratories recently hosted a one-day “Colloquium on Chemical Dynamics” to celebrate the extraordinary career of David Osborn, a distinguished physical chemist in the Combustion Research Facility. The event brought together 70 colleagues, collaborators, and friends—including several who traveled from Europe—to honor David’s scientific contributions, leadership, and lasting impact...

Sandians develop new Theory-Informed Kinetics Model
Post, November 25, 2025 • CRF researchers, along with colleagues from Argonne National Laboratory, University of Colorado Boulder, Southeast University Nanjing, Columbia University, Polytecnico Milano, Brown University, Baylor University, and the Technical University of Denmark, have developed a theory-informed kinetics model (ThInK) for the small molecule chemistry (H2 and C1 – C3 species) that forms...

Theory of the tunneling ‘switch’
Post, August 27, 2026 • CRF researcher Timothy Zwier, together with Edwin Sibert from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, published a paper on "On the role of symmetry in quenching OH tunneling in 2,6-dimethylphenol" in "The Journal of Chemical Physics", providing more detailed theoretical descriptions of recent experiments that were interpreted to show that certain symmetry states...

Tim Zwier Awarded Miguel Catalán Medal
Post, September 17, 2025 • Tim Zwier, was awarded the Miguel Catalán Medal at the XVIII Iberian Joint Meeting on Atomic and Molecular Physics, July 21-24, 2025 in Vigo, Spain The medal, named for Prof. Miguel Catalán (1894-1957), honors a scientist for exceptional contributions and research record in the field of Atomic and Molecular Physics....
Results 1–25 of 27