Center for Functional Nanomaterials

Center for Functional Nanomaterials
Name	Center for Functional Nanomaterials
Established	2007
Location	Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York
Type	DOE user facility
Director	(see main text)
Website	(omitted)

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Center for Functional Nanomaterials

The Center for Functional Nanomaterials is a U.S. scientific research facility located at Brookhaven National Laboratory that focuses on nanoscale materials, interfaces, and devices. It operates as a Department of Energy user facility and supports research in areas including catalysis, photovoltaics, energy storage, and quantum materials. The center connects researchers from national laboratories, universities, and industry such as Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

History

The center was established as part of a broader DOE initiative alongside facilities like National Synchrotron Light Source II, Advanced Photon Source, Linac Coherent Light Source, Spallation Neutron Source, and National Renewable Energy Laboratory programs. Its development involved collaborations with University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University, Stony Brook University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Harvard University, Yale University, and Rutgers University. Key milestones included facility planning consistent with directives from entities such as the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, coordination with the Brookhaven Science Associates management, and integration with national initiatives like the Materials Genome Initiative. The center’s building and core laboratories were completed to support experimental programs developed in partnership with centers like Center for Nanoscale Materials and institutes including Max Planck Society affiliates and Japanese Atomic Energy Agency collaborations.

The mission emphasizes controllable synthesis, characterization, and theory of functional nanomaterials for energy and information technologies. Core research themes mirror priorities promoted by organizations such as National Science Foundation, European Research Council, DARPA, NASA, and National Institutes of Health in areas including catalysis relevant to Department of Defense and industry needs. Specific technical focuses include nanoscale fabrication for applications tied to IBM Research, Intel Corporation, Google Research, Microsoft Research, and quantum efforts linked to IBM Q and Google Quantum AI. The center prioritizes multiscale studies bridging experiments at facilities like National Institute of Standards and Technology and computational efforts using resources from Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility and Argonne Leadership Computing Facility.

Facilities integrate tools comparable to those at Center for Nanoscale Materials, Molecular Foundry, National Center for Electron Microscopy, and Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies. Instrumentation spans transmission electron microscopes similar to models used at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, scanning probe microscopes akin to those at Sandia National Laboratories, ultrafast laser systems paralleling setups at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and cleanroom fabrication equipment comparable to California NanoSystems Institute facilities. The center provides specialized capabilities for thin-film deposition used in collaborations with Samsung Research, TSMC, and Applied Materials, as well as surface science chambers and spectroscopy systems like those employed at Argonne National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Major programs address catalysis, energy conversion and storage, nanophotonics, plasmonics, and quantum materials, dovetailing with initiatives at Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, Helmholtz Association projects, and European Commission-funded consortia. Projects have ranged from investigations of perovskite photovoltaics related to MIT Energy Initiative efforts to studies of two-dimensional materials linked to Graphene Flagship and National Graphene Association. Work on battery materials aligns with programs at Argonne National Laboratory and Toyota Research Institute, while spintronic and topological materials research intersects with groups at University of Cambridge, Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, and ETH Zurich.

The center hosts users and partners from a broad network including academic institutions such as Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Michigan, Stanford University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Duke University, Johns Hopkins University, and Carnegie Mellon University. Industry partnerships have involved companies like BASF, Dow Chemical Company, 3M, ExxonMobil, and Chevron for applied research. International collaborations include ties to CERN, Riken, KAIST, Tsinghua University, Peking University, and Soleil Synchrotron user communities. The center participates in consortia with entities such as National Nanotechnology Initiative member institutions and contributes to interlaboratory projects coordinated by Fermilab and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The user program supports thousands of scientists via peer-reviewed access modeled after programs at Argonne National Laboratory and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, with training links to programs at DOE Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR), NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, and internship programs involving Brookhaven National Laboratory partnerships with regional schools including Stony Brook University and Sachem area outreach. Educational outreach includes workshops and summer schools akin to those run by Materials Research Society, American Chemical Society, American Physical Society, and IEEE. The center offers tutorial series parallel to those at National Institute for Materials Science and hosts user meetings similar to gatherings at MRS Fall Meeting and Gordon Research Conferences.

Researchers at the center have published in journals and outlets such as Nature, Science, Physical Review Letters, Nature Materials, Nature Nanotechnology, ACS Nano, Advanced Materials, Nano Letters, Journal of the American Chemical Society, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Highlights include advances in nanocatalysis, atomically precise nanofabrication, ultrafast spectroscopy of correlated materials, and interface engineering for energy devices, often cited alongside work from Bell Labs, IBM Research, HP Labs, and Hitachi. Awards and recognition for affiliated scientists parallel honors from institutions such as the American Physical Society, Royal Society, European Research Council, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and Keck Foundation.