1. Explain the importance of nanoscale research.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory is renowned for its research centers in energy and environmental science, computation and biosciences, and national security.
Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM) studies the behavior of nanoscale materials (nano.anl.gov). Nanoscale materials are slightly larger than the size of atoms and need to be studied with the CNM’s nanoscope, the world’s most powerful X-ray microscope (shown in Figure 14.8). The CNM’s mission is to find new energy technologies and to understand and mitigate the environmental impacts of energy use.
Researchers study nanoscale materials and devices to learn how to harvest solar energy more efficiently and to enable next-generation computing.