From Molecules to Materials: Accelerating Solutions

We’re developing new understandings and approaches that accelerate the discovery of new materials and chemical processes – including time-resolved measurements, machine learning, artificial intelligence, automated lab systems, and electron microscopy – in search of a clean, affordable, and resilient energy future.

Brown-eyed person with glasses wearing a blue plaid suit.

Heavy Element Research Laboratory

A scientist operating a machine to obtain a small sample of einsteinium.

Berkeley Lab researchers are broadening our understanding of heavy element chemistry to advance new technologies for health, energy, medical countermeasures, environmental cleanup, and hazardous waste reduction.

Catalysis Laboratory

Supports the Berkeley Lab Catalysis Program’s pursuit of fundamental knowledge about the synthesis, reactions, and mechanisms of catalysts and catalytic reactions.

The Materials Project

Accelerating innovation in materials research for batteries, solar cells, and computer chips.

Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA)

Orange droplet of water and rippling pool.

Advancing new systems to efficiently generate liquid fuels from sunlight, water, CO2, and nitrogen.

HydroGEN Advanced Water-Splitting Materials Consortium

Accelerating advanced water-splitting technologies for clean, sustainable hydrogen production.

Center for Novel Pathways to Quantum Coherence in Materials

Artist’s illustration of hydrodynamical behavior from an interacting ensemble of quantum spin defects in diamond.

Developing new approaches to quantum information science and technology.

Joint Center for Energy Storage Research

People looking at scientific instrumentation in a lab.

Developing next-gen batteries from the bottom up — atom by atom and molecule by molecule.

Center for Computational Study of Excited-State Phenomena in Energy Materials (C2SEPEM)

Developing theories, methods, and general software to elucidate and predict excited-state phenomena in energy-related materials.

Data-Driven Synthesis Science (D2S2) program

Abstract collage of code overlaid on data centers.

Developing a data-driven approach to synthesis science by combining text mining and machine learning.

Center for Advanced Mathematics for Energy Research Applications (CAMERA)

Developing fundamental new mathematics required to capitalize on experimental investigations at scientific facilities.

Polly Arnold, a person with short brown hair wearing glasses and a purple collared top, photographed in a lab.

Polly Arnold is the director of Berkeley Lab's Chemical Sciences Division and a faculty professor in UC Berkeley's Chemistry department. Her research is focused on exploratory synthetic chemistry of heavy elements, the f-block of the periodic table, and the development of homogeneous catalysis using the earth-abundant rare earths.

Ting Xu, a person with medium-length black hair wearing a dark top with a colorful scarf, photographed in the Hearst Memorial Mining Building.

Ting Xu is a faculty senior scientist and professor of chemistry and materials science and engineering at UC Berkeley. Her lab is designing, characterizing, and understanding complex systems of synthetic polymers, nanoparticles, and biomolecules to develop new functional materials that exhibit novel electronic, photonic, and biological properties.

Brett Helms, a person with short gray hair and a beard wearing a dark colored blazer over a dark collared shirt, photographed outdoors, with a view of the Bay Area.

Brett Helms is a staff scientist in the Molecular Foundry's Organic and Macromolecular Synthesis facility. His research focuses on designing and applying organic and polymeric materials to solve problems in energy and sustainability, including next-generation batteries, membrane separations, and more recyclable polymers for the circular economy.

Atomic models in shades of green and gold appear on a dark green background.

Omar Yaghi’s pioneering work on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) opened up a new class of transformative materials. Researchers at Berkeley Lab and our user facilities are designing MOFs for next-generation energy, health, and environmental technologies.

Berkeley Lab researcher Natalia Molchanova is working on advancing low-cost biotech solutions through synthetic protein molecules called peptoids at the Molecular Foundry.

The Molecular Foundry is a state-of-the-art user facility that provides expertise, methods, and instrumentation for scientists to study materials at the nanoscale. In this episode, Director Ashfia Huq shares with us the Foundry’s mission, its capabilities, and some of the groundbreaking research that has been conducted there. From developing new tools and techniques to pushing the boundaries of what we can see at the atomic level, the Molecular Foundry is at the forefront of nanoscience research.