Center for Functional Nanomaterials

12/26/2025

CFN users from the University of Pittsburgh have made an important step toward providing hospitals and water treatment facilities with a safer, greener alternative to chlorine-based disinfection.

Researchers used quantum chemistry to uncover design principles for generating sustainable alternatives to chlorine.

09/26/2025

CFN users identify a new plant-specific protein, not found in animals or fungi, that is essential for survival.

A newly identified protein — not found in animals or fungi — plays a key role in sterol synthesis. 

12/03/2024

CFN will be at the 2024 Materials Research Society (MRS) Fall Meeting!! Visit our booth ( #900) at the Hynes Convention Center, Boston, MA, December 3-5! Looking forward to seeing you there!

11/20/2024

CFN scientists and collaborators present a new method to control topological properties in 2D materials, with promise for designing better optimized electronic materials for quantum devices.

This work presents a new method to control topological properties in 2D materials, with promise for designing better optimized electronic materials for quantum devices.

09/30/2024

The September 2024 issue of iCFN, the newsletter of the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, is now available.

CFN Director Chuck Black discusses the DOE’s Energy Earthshots Initiative and how we should all be working with a sense of urgency. 

09/30/2024

A research team that used the computational resources at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials discovered a catalyst that can accelerate CO2 reduction 800-fold.

A research team led by Brookhaven chemists has discovered a catalyst that can accelerate CO reduction approximately 800-fold.

07/24/2024

Congratulation to CFN scientist Oleg Gang, who has been named a 2024 Vannevar Bush Fellow, the Department of Defense's (DoD) most prestigious single-investigator award.

Department of Defense award will support Gang’s project to explore a functional nanomaterial discovery and fabrication approach using a new concept of evolving materials.

05/10/2024

Voting for new members of the CFN's Users Executive Committee is now open! The poll will close at 5 p.m. ET on Monday, May 13, 2024!

The Users' Executive Committee (UEC) represents the scientific user community at the CFN. The UEC interacts with CFN staff, CFN management, BNL, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the public in matters of user community issues, facility operation, policies, and improvements.

12/27/2023

CFN scientists have designed a new light-sensitive, organic-inorganic hybrid material that enables high-performance patternability by EUV lithography.

CFN scientists design a new, light-sensitive, hybrid material to improve the semiconductor fabrication process for microelectronics.

11/14/2023

We're exhibiting at the Fall MRS Meeting in Boston! Stop by Booth #1004 to learn about our facility, state-of-the-art capabilities, and how you can become a CFN user!!

10/13/2023

Congratulations to CFN user Abhay Sagade from the SRM Institute of Science & Technology for receiving the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany), for his research work on Semiconductor Physics and High Frequency Electronics.

10/09/2023

October 9 is National Nanotechnology Day, celebrating 20 years of enabling the nanotechnology revolution! For more information on community-led events and activities to help raise awareness of nanotechnology, visit the National Nanotechnology Initiative website at https://bit.ly/35fDlXi.

Event Date October 09, 2023 National Nanotechnology Day is an annual event featuring community-led events and activities on or around October 9 to help raise awareness of nanotechnology, its use in products that enrich our daily lives, and the challenges and opportunities for the future. This date,....