Two MSE PhD candidates, Valerie Garcia-Negron & Dayton Kizzire, are collaborating with researchers at the Center for Renewable Carbon to develop a lignin-based nanostructured carbon composite suitable for use as a high-performance anode in lithium ion batteries and other applications. To investigate the relationship between lignin feedstocks, processing conditions and the resulting nanoscale and mesoscale structure, these researchers traveled to the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, just outside of Chicago, Illinois.