In 2021, the manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy accounted for over a quarter of the country’s total energy consumption, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and over 80% of that energy is still produced by fossil fuels that are contributing to a global climate-change crisis. Consequently, the Department of Energy has identified innovations in precise and scalable manufacturing as a technological priority. Addressing this need, a team of scientists led by chemist Sen Zhang, an associate professor with the University of Virginia’s College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences in collaboration with professor William Goddard from Caltech and researchers from the Department of Energy’s Argonne, Ames, and Oak Ridge National Laboratories, have announced their discovery of a process for producing a new form of synthetic materials that could have a variety of promising uses, including helping to make the manufacturing industry more energy efficient.
