Center for Nanoscale Materials

The Center for Nanoscale Materials is one of five Nanoscale Science Research Centers the United States Department of Energy sponsors. The Center is at Argonne National Laboratory location in Argonne, Illinois.

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The Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne National Laboratory is a joint partnership between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the State of Illinois, as part of DOE’S Nanoscale Science Research Center program. The CNM will serve as a user-based center, providing tools and infrastructure for nanoscience and nanotechnology research. The CNM's mission includes supporting basic research and the development of advanced instrumentation that will help generate new scientific insights and create new materials with novel properties. The existence of the CNM, with its centralized facilities, controlled environments, technical support, and scientific staff, will enable researchers to excel and significantly extend their reach.

CNM researchers will work at the leading edge of science and technology to develop capabilities and knowledge that complement those of industry. The challenges the CNM faces involve fabricating and exploring novel nanoscale materials and, ultimately, employing unique synthesis and characterization methods to control and tailor nanoscale phenomena. The unique capabilities of Argonne's Advanced Photon Source (APS) play a key role. APS's hard X-rays, harnessed in a nanoprobe beamline, will provide unprecedented capabilities to characterize extremely small structures.

Argonne's long-standing culture of outreach to, and inclusion of, the academic and industrial communities will help support regional and national goals and strategic interests. The CNM welcomes outside users, both as independent investigators and as collaborators, from a wide range of scientific fields. This accessibility ensures a cross-disciplinary approach to nano-related research that will help ideas and activities to cross-pollinate, mature, and evolve over time into the pathways of scientific investigation and discovery that will help shape the future of our society.