The Molecular Foundry is a Department of Energy-funded nanoscience research facility that provides users from around the world with access to cutting-edge expertise and instrumentation in a collaborative, multidisciplinary environment.
Read about the Molecular Foundry's research themes in its recently developed Strategic Plan Find out more information about becoming a Molecular Foundry facilities User. Call for Proposals: The next deadline for standard proposals is September 30, 2015
Mapping Temperature at the Nanoscale
A team of users and staff working at the Molecular Foundry have created a thermal imaging technique that can “see” how temperature changes from point to point inside the smallest electronic circuits.
Oxygen: Poison to Titanium
Scientists working at the Molecular Foundry have found the mechanism by which titanium becomes brittle with just a few extra atoms of oxygen
Doug Natelson, Rice University
Vibrational and Electronic Heating in Atomic-Scale Junctions
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
67-3111 Chemla Room
Nanosheets Need Only Water, Sunlight To React
Manganese (Mn) oxides are some of the most redox reactive minerals in natural waters, breaking down natural organic matter into carbon dioxide. Recent work at the Foundry has found that photoexcitation could lead to net reduction in water without any organic molecule present.
Elaine Chan Fosters New Collaborations with ALS
In an ongoing effort to build closer working relationships between Berkeley Lab’s nanoscale science research center and light source, Elaine Chan has recently been appointed to a new role as a joint Molecular Foundry/ALS project scientist.
Foundry Scientist Bruce Cohen Receives Cal-BRAIN Seed Grants
The Cal-BRAIN program, which aims to revolutionize our understanding of the brain, has awarded $120,000 to 16, including one to Bruce Cohen of the Foundry, who’s project will look at nano-optogenetic control of neuronal firing with targeted nanocrystals.
On the Road to Spin-orbitronics
Molecular Foundry researchers at NCEM have led the discovery of a technique by which the so-called “spin textures” of magnetic domain walls in ultrathin magnets can be switched between left-handed, right-handed, cycloidal, helical and mixed structures.
MRS Article Highlights Molecular Foundry's Contributions to NNI
Director, Jeff Neaton, and recent work on Smart Windows were featured in an MRS Bulletin article discussing the nation's investment in nanotechnology and progress that has been made.
Foundry Group Attends Upward Bound Nanoscience Conference
Molecular Foundry senior staff scientist Ron Zuckermann and two of his undergraduate students delivered a lecture on the Wonders of Nanoscience at the Upward Bound Nanoscience conference, a college prep program for Bay Area high school students.
Robot Chemist Enables Fast, High-Yield Chemistry
Foundry scientist, Ron Zuckermann, was featured in an LBL story about his career pioneering the use of robots to discover and produce biomimetic polymers.
DOE Deputy Secretary Visits the Molecular Foundry
New DOE Deputy Secretary Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall met with Foundry scientists and visited several labs during her visit to LBL on Tuesday, March 24.
Molecular Foundry Users Develop A Technique to Map Temperature at the Nanoscale
A team of researchers working at the Foundry have created a thermal imaging technique that can “see” how temperature changes from point to point inside the smallest electronic circuits.
Taeghwan Hyeon, Seoul National University
Designed Chemical Synthesis and Assembly of Uniform-sized Nanoparticles for Medical and Energy Applications
Friday, April 3, 2015 at 11am
67-3111 Chemla Room
A Better Way of Scrubbing CO2
Foundry researchers team up to find a way to improve the cost effectiveness of carbon capture through the use of MOFs.
Research Could Lead to More Efficient Electrical Energy Storage
Users of the Molecular Foundry have identified electrical charge-induced changes in the structure and bonding of graphitic carbon electrodes that may one day affect the way energy is stored.
Andy Minor Recieves 2015 Burton Medal from the Microscopy Society of America (MSA)
The Burton Medal has been given since 1975 to recognize a scientist under the age of 40 who has made distinguished contributions to the field of microscopy and microanalysis.
Bacterial Armor Holds Clues for Self-Assembling Nanostructures
Study by a multidisciplinary team of Foundry researchers reveals key details in the formation of S-layer nanosheets.
Study Reveals How Oxygen is Like Kryptonite to Titanium
Scientists working at the Molecular Foundry have found the mechanism by which titanium, prized for its high strength-to-weight ratio and natural resistance to corrosion, becomes brittle with just a few extra atoms of oxygen.
Yadong Yin, UC-Riverside
Responsive Nanostructured Optical Materials
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
67-3111 Chemla Room
Alec Talin, Sandia National Laboratories (Livermore)
Achieving Emergent Properties for Electronic and Energy Conversion Device Applications
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
67-3111 Chemla Room
Karsten Reuter, Technische Universität München
First-Principles Embedding Approaches for Energy Science
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
67-3111 Chemla Room
Jim Wells, UCSF
Drug Discovery at Novel Allosteric Sites
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
67-3111 Chemla Room
Michael A. Guillorn, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center
Self-assembled, self-aligned and self healing: CMOS scaling enabled by stochastic suppression at the nanoscale
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
67-3111 Chemla Room
New Molecular Foundry Logo Released
Following the merge of the Molecular Foundry and NCEM at the start of FY 2015, a new logo has been created to represent the newly integrated center. The logo, slide templates and a style guide are available for download on the redesigned website.
Wilson Ho, UCI
Molecular Foundry/ALS Joint Seminar: Imaging Bonds and Chemical Interactions
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Building 66 Auditorium
Precision Growth of Light-emitting Nanowires
Team of Molecular Foundry researchers have developed a novel approach to growing nanowires that promises a new means of control over their light-emitting and electronic properties. This technique uses specially engineered catalysts that could be used for making next-generation devices such as solar cells, light emitting diodes, and high power electronics.
Oren Scherman, Cambridge University
Dynamic Host-Guest Interactions at the Interface between Supramolecular Chemistry and Materials Science
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
67-3111 Chemla Room
Stacey Bent, Stanford
Improving Energy Conversion with Nanoscale Materials
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
67-3111 Chemla Room
Foundry Researcher Quoted in Scientific American Story
Christian Kisielowski, a staff scientist in the Molecular Foundry's National Center for Electron Microscopy, was quoted in the popular magazine for a story on blue LEDs following their Nobel Prize win in 2014.
Three Foundry Scientists Receive 2015 Lab Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Awards
Molecular Foundry Staff Scientists, Jeff Neaton, Caroline Ajo-Franklin and Brett Helms, were included among those LBNL researchers receiving funds through the FY 2015 Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program.
Foundry Winter Seminar Series Begins February 3
The popular Molecular Foundry seminar series returns with another lineup of eight distinguished speakers whose expertise span the field of nanoscience (Tuesdays at 11am). Wilson Ho from UCI will headline the group as the joint Foundry/ALS seminar speaker on February 17.
Enhanced Water Vapor Blocking for Solar Cells
Working through DOE’s Bay Area Photovoltaic Consortium, researchers at the Molecular Foundry created an optically transparent composite that improves water vapor blocking by 3000 times.
NBC News Highlights Foundry Work
Peppytides developed at the Foundry by Ron Zuckermann and his grad student, Promita Chakraborty, were recently featured in a broadly distributed story used by NBC, Fox News, and Yahoo! News about how 3-D printed molecule models are helping to solve protein puzzles.
Foundry Researchers Open a Possible Avenue to Better Electrolyte for Lithium Ion Batteries
Foundry staff and users found surprising results in the first X-ray absorption spectroscopy study of a model lithium electrolyte and in so doing, may have found a path towards improved lithium-ion batteries.
Switchable Control of Nanowire Growth
A team of multidisciplinary researchers at the Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry used catalyst composition to control the crystallographic growth of GaN nanowires
New Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) Convenes at the Molecular Foundry
To reflect the growing scientific portfolio of the Molecular Foundry following its merge with NCEM, a new SAB was created. December 11th marked the first meeting of this group of prominent scientists in Berkeley.
Scientists measure speedy electrons in silicon
An international team of physicists and chemists has, for the first time, taken snapshots of band-gap jumping electrons in silicon using attosecond pulses of soft X-ray light lasting only a few billionths of a billionth of a second.
Mimicking Nature for Homeland Security
Foundry researchers are designing peptoid nanosheets that could one day be used to make sensors that detect lethal chemical agents or deadly viruses deployed during warfare or a terrorist attack.
Foundry Staff Discuss Recent Successes and Future Plans at Scientific Retreat
On November 14, all Foundry scientific and technical staff assembled for a full day meeting to review the organization's research themes, identify areas of investment, and discuss strategies to expand the impact of the organization.
Research Performed by Foundry Industrial Users Honored by Nanotechnology Journal
User work on printable photonics was selected as a Highlight of the Year by Nanotechnology in the area of “patterning and nano fabrication”.
Molecular Structure of Water at Gold Electrodes Revealed
A team utilizing three Berkeley Lab user facilities have developed a method to look at the molecules next to an electrode's surface, as well as determine how their arrangement changes depending on the voltage.
Outsmarting Thermodynamics in Self-assembly of Nanostructures
Foundry user - and Materials Sciences Division Director - reports method for symmetry-breaking in feedback-driven self-assembly of optical metamaterials.
Nanotubes that Insert Themselves into Cell Membranes
Through a Foundry user project, a team led by scientists from LLNL have integrated artificial channels that could be used for more robust DNA sequencing, drug delivery, and novel biosensors.
Tuning light to kill deep cancer tumors
Foundry staff assisted scientists at UMass Medical School in the characterization of upconverting nanoparticles developed for potential clinical applications in photodynamic therapy, an approach that could kill deep-set cancer cells in vivo with minimal damage to surrounding tissue and fewer side effects than chemotherapy.
Researchers Speak to High School Students about Materials Sciences
Three Foundry researchers presented at talk on “Materials Research at the Molecular Foundry: Working in Invisible Realms” to a local engineering high school class, touching on prominent recent discoveries at the lab and sharing career advice.
Scientists Design Protein-esque Molecules to Lock Up Carbon Dioxide
Inspired by marine organisms that take in carbon dioxide dissolved in water and turn it into protective calcium carbonate layers, a team from PNNL was able to speed and slow calcium carbonate formation by using Foundry-produced molecules that mimic proteins.
Study Reveals Molecular Structure of Water at Gold Electrodes
A combined experimental and theoretical approach at the Molecular Foundry has resulted in the ability to not only look at the molecules next to an electrode's surface, but to determine how their arrangement changes depending on the voltage.
Tarantula Venom Illuminates Electrical Activity in Live Cells
Users of the Molecular Foundry have created a probe that combines tarantula toxin with a fluorescent compound to observe electrical activity in neurons and other cells, and could help map neural activity in the human brain.
Felix Fischer, UC Berkeley
Teaching Polymers the Meaning of Life and Confining Electrons in Graphene nanoribbons
New Insights on Carbonic Acid in Water
LBL scientists using the Foundry, ALS and NERSC, have uncovered properties of aqueous carbonic acid that should benefit the development of carbon sequestration and mitigation technologies, and improve our understanding of how carbonic acid regulates the pH of blood.
Carbon Nanotube Porins Mimic Biological Channels
Users of the Molecular Foundry have demonstrated that short carbon nanotubes (CNTs) insert into cell membranes and transport molecules like biological membrane channels
Molecular Foundry and NCEM Merge Complete
At the request of DOE, the National Center for Electron Microscopy (NCEM) has become the seventh facility of the Molecular Foundry.
Dispelling a Misconception About Mg-Ion Batteries
David Prendergast and Liwen Wan at the Molecular Foundry used supercomputer simulations to dispel a popular misconception about magnesium-ion batteries that should help advance the technology in the future.
Xiang Zhang, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Molecular Foundry/ALS Joint Seminar: Metamaterials with Properties that Do Not Exist in Nature
Axel Brunger, Stanford University
Molecular Mechanisms of Neurotransmitter Release