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view of the numerous crucial applications involving the transmission of electrons; electric current examples including cables that carry electrical power, wires that conduct current in motors and generators, and electrical conductors in devices that produce magnetic fields, such as for medicine for visualizing pathological problems in the human body. Most of the materials used for these applications currently are metals such as copper. However, recently much progress has been made in the discovery and understanding of electrically conducting organic materials. Organic materials made of non-metallic elements like carbon, hydrogen, sulfur, etc., have the potential of being cheaper, better, and lighter and could improve the operational characteristics of devices or energy systems.

During the past year, an exciting development occurred in the design, synthesis, and characterization of a new organic

superconductor.

The achievement was the result of a collaborative effort among researchers at Argonne National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and Strem Chemical Company. The achievement was the discovery of the highest ambient pressure superconducting transition temperature (5° above absolute zero) yet observed for a synthetic organic superconductor.

CHEMICAL SCIENCES ACCOMPLISHMENTS

In the Chemical Sciences subprogram, promising research is being conducted in solar photochemical energy conversion. Sunlight is used by plants in taking carbon dioxide from the air and water and converting it into food and combustible materials. Chemical

scientists are working to understand this proces which is at the same time the most common and the most complex of the processes which occur in the environment around us.

First, plant photosynthesis itself is the subject of intense investigation. Major advances have recently been made in understanding how sunlight makes the initial separation of

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electrical charges occur in the plant's "reaction center." insight is being used to design simple molecules which can absorb light and use its energy to drive useful chemical reactions. A triad of molecules recently prepared at Argonne National Laboratory sets a new record for photoinduced charge separation, 2.4 millionths of a second. Though exceedingly brief by human standards, this is a long time by molecular standards. It involves two successive electron transfers in the same molecule.

Photochemists are also exploring photoinduced, thermodynamically unfavorable fuel-forming reactions at coated semiconductor electrodes and on surfaces of very small catalyst-covered

semiconductor particles. While all of these systems are still in their infancy, there is every likelihood that at least one will become fundamental in future solar-related technology.

ADVANCED ENERGY PROJECTS ACCOMPLISHMENTS

A major recent accomplishment has been the development at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory of a laboratory-scale x-ray laser, generating an extremely narrow beam of coherent ("marching in tune") x-rays. The importance of developing a laboratory-size x-ray laser cannot be overstated. It opens up new vistas in a number of applications, including the possibility of threedimensional holographic imaging of live sub-microscopic objects. This, and other implications of short wavelength lasers for medical and other uses--for example in microlithography--make such lasers of keen practical importance. This accomplishment, listed recently by Science News Digest as one of last year's 100 outstanding innovations, can place the United States in the forefront of a new technology, that of laboratory-scale x-ray lasers.

On another front, for several years now, scientists have been exploring a new approach to generating electromagnetic radiation, known as "free electron laser." Recently, researchers from the

Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore Laboratories invented and demonstrated a method of using free electron lasers to generate, with great efficiency, extremely powerful beams of electromagnetic radiation. Their approach formed the basis for a major free electron laser development project for defense applications, now underway at Livermore.

OTHER BES ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Each of our other subprograms in BES have accomplishments similar to the ones I have just discussed. I don't want to elaborate on each of them, but I would like to mention three examples of accomplishments from the other subprograms within BES (Applied Mathematical Sciences, Engineering and Geosciences, and Biological Energy Research).

In the Applied Mathematical Sciences area, a new class of high resolution finite difference methods for modeling compressible fluid flow problems with discontinuities has been developed. These methods incorporate the nonlinear wave propagation properties into the algorithm, leading to methods that are stable and robust in the neighborhood of shock waves and slip surfaces and are still highly accurate in regions of smooth flow. These methods have resolution capabilities that are close to the theoretical maximum attainable and represent a major advance in the state-of-the-art that is unlikely to be surpassed in the near future. These methods are being incorporated into large application programs used in the weapons design and laser fusion projects.

In the Engineering subprogram, considerable progress is being made on new design methods for electrical equipment which use magnetic materials; e.g., motors, generators, and transformers. Magnetic materials suffer from hysteresis. Under cyclic excitation, such as alternating current, hysteresis causes ambiguities in the

behavior of electromagnets, with the state of the magnet depending on its past history. The presence of those ambiguities has

imposed constraints on the design of electrical equipment. In general, the constraints are reflected in more costly, less energy efficient electrical systems, ranging from power generating plants, through components for electric power distribution, down to consumer products. Recent research, involving the use of certain novel non-linear mathematical operations, has yielded a method for resolving the ambiguities, thus leading to new, more powerful design methods, and eventually to improved electrical machinery and transmission systems.

In the Biological Energy Research program, one major achievement has been the complete elaboration of the metabolic pathway of methane gas formation from carbon dioxide in organisms that inhabit various anaerobic environments including man-made systems (digestors and some sewage treatments) and natural systems (swamps, animal digestive tracts, sediments). This pathway is a unique one in which an entirely distinct set of cofactors and enzymatic reactions have been characterized and described biochemically. These contributions are crucial to designing new approaches for enhanced biological methane production and to better understanding of the position of methane in the global carbon cycle.

BASIC ENERGY SCIENCES FACILITIES

The kind of research progress depicted by the above examples is made possible, in part, by the large state-of-the-art facilities that are supported by the BES program. These facilities are not only an integral part of the Basic Energy Sciences program, but they also serve the general scientific community. Industry, university, and Government researchers have access to these facilities for promising research projects. These facilities are available at no cost to the user if the project is of high

technical merit, cannot be carried out without access to the facility and is not proprietary.

If the research requires the use

of the facility but is of a proprietary nature, a user fee is charged. This combination of laboratory, university and industry researchers working side by side is extremely beneficial. The Government gains because researchers supported by our program interact with their counterparts in the private sector and have access to the unique instrumentation and equipment that are provided at no cost to the Department by these counterparts. industry and the university communities gain by having access to some of the most advanced facilities in the world.

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Several state-of-the-art facilities are in operation. promises to open whole new areas of research opportunities. facilities include: the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) at Brookhaven National Laboratory; the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source (IPNS) at Argonne National Laboratory; the 1.5 MeV High Voltage Electron Microscope and the Atomic Resolution Microscope (ARM) located at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory's National Center for Electron Microscopy; and the Combustion Research Facility (CRF) at Sandia Livermore. As an example of the type of U.S. industrial research possible at one of the National user facilities, I would like to briefly discuss the research at NSLS.

NATIONAL SYNCHROTRON LIGHT SOURCE

There has been a very enthusiastic response to the NSLS from industrial scientists performing experiments on the x-ray and vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) storage rings. The industries presently involved with the NSLS include Allied Corporation, Ashland Oil, AT&T Bell Labs, DuPont, EXXON, General Electric, Gulf, IBM, Mobil, Stouffer Chemical, Union Carbide, Universal Oil Products, and

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