Grand Challenges in Basic Science for a Green Energy Future: Opportunities at PETRA III

by G. Shenoy, APS Argonne

Tuesday 7 Oct 2008, 13:30 → 14:30 Europe/Berlin

Bldg. 28c, Sem.R.

Grand Challenges in Basic Science for a Green Energy Future: Opportunities at PETRA III *

Gopal Shenoy, Argonne National Lab

This overview presentation will introduce global energy issues and illustrate the opportunities for basic research that is crucial in generating breakthroughs to provide energy security to all. Critical to this goal will be the discovery of new materials and processes with unique and efficient functionalities. One can achieve this by defining a set of Grand Challenges in basic science. The control of coherent behavior of matter is most fundamental in developing a deeper understanding of energy efficient processes. Our ability to tailor the materials using molecular building blocks to perform defined functions leads to broader goals of energy conversion, storage and utilization. Both these challenges are even more strongly emphasized through the use of soft matter, bio-inspired matter and their interfaces with inorganic matter. Most energy processes in nature are nonlinear requiring us to understand the science of matter far-away-from-equilibrium. The presentation will point to the role of third-generation hard x-ray synchrotron radiation facilities such as PETRA III in addressing the Grand Challenges during the next 10-15 years. We anticipate large teams of biologists, chemists and physicists along with engineers to perform multi-scale in situ experiments using x-rays, optical photons and electrons with spatiotemporal imaging, microscopy, scattering and spectroscopy tools.

* Work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract N0. DE-AC02-06CH11357.