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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 217 records · Page 12
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1981

Effect of type of explosives and physical-mechanical properties of explosive rock on formation of toxic gases in atmosphere of shafts

The quality of toxic gases formed during explosive work in underground shafts depends upon the type of explosives and the conditions of explosion. Several types of explosives and rocks were examined. All remaining conditions were maintained the same (sandy-argillaceous stemming, electrical method of explosions, diameter of blast holes, and the direct triggering of charges).

Mindeli, E. O.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Reproducibility of polycarbonate reference material in toxicity evaluation

A specific lot of bisphenol A polycarbonate has been used for almost four years as the reference material for the NASA-USF-PSC toxicity screening test method. The reproducibility of the test results over this period of time indicate that certain plastics may be more suitable reference materials than the more traditional cellulosic materials.

Hilado, C. J.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Non-toxic invert analog glass compositions of high modulus

Glass compositions having a Young's modulus of at least 15 million psi are described. They and a specific modulus of at least 110 million inches consist essentially of, in mols, 15 to 40% SiO2, 6 to 15% Li2O, 24 to 45% of at least two bivalent oxides selected from the group consisting of Ca, NzO, MgO and CuO; 13 to 39% of at least two trivalent oxides selected from the group consisting of Al2O3, Fe2O3, B2O3, La2O3, and Y2O3 and up to 15% of one or more tetravelent oxides selected from the group consisting of ZrO2, TiO2 and CeO2. The high modulus, low density glass compositions contain no toxic elements. The composition, glass density, Young's modulus, and specific modulus for 28 representative glasses are presented. The fiber modulus of five glasses are given.

Bacon, J. F.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Destroying Toxic Wastes

Toxic pesticides and halogenated hydrocarbons converted to fuels and harmless waste by catalyzed combustion. These product gases used directly as fuel or catalytically converted to methanol.

Voecks, G. E.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Rapid toxicity detection in water quality control utilizing automated multispecies biomonitoring for permanent space stations

The objective of this study was to evaluate proposed design characteristics and applications of automated biomonitoring devices for real-time toxicity detection in water quality control on-board permanent space stations. Simulated tests in downlinking transmissions of automated biomonitoring data to Earth-receiving stations were simulated using satellite data transmissions from remote Earth-based stations.

Morgan, E. L.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Rapid Dry Etching Of Photoresists Without Toxic Gases

Experimental dry etching technique strips photoresists from semiconductor wafers without damaging semiconductor materials. Makes use of afterglow existing downstream from plasma generated by radio-frequency electric field. Constituents of afterglow react with sacrificial polymer to make reactive gases that quickly etch-away photoresist. Strips quickly at room temperature; not necessary to heat substrates. No hazardous or toxic chemicals used.

Lerner, Narcinda R.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Space Station Freedom Toxic and Reactive Materials Handling

Viable research in materials processing in space requires the utilization of a wide variety of chemicals and materials, many of which are considered toxic and/or highly reactive with other substances. A realistic view of the experiments which are most likely to be accomplished in the early Space Station phases are examined and design issues addressed which are related to their safe implementation. Included are discussions of materials research on Skylab, Spacelab, and the Shuttle mid-deck; overviews of early concepts for specialized Space Station systems designed to help contain potential problems; descriptions of industrial experience with ground-based research; and an overview of the state-of-the-art in contamination detection systems.

Baugher, Charles R.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Low toxicity high temperature PMR polyimide

In-situ polymerization of monomer reactants (PMR) type polyimides constitute an important class of ultra high performance composite matrix resins. PMR-15 is the best known and most widely used PMR polyimide. An object of the present invention is to provide a substantially improved high temperature PMR-15 system that exhibits better processability, toughness, and thermo-oxidative stability than PMR-15, as well as having a low toxicity. Another object is to provide new PMR polyimides that are useful as adhesives, moldings, and composite matrices. By the present invention, a new PMR polyimide comprises a mixture of the following compounds: 3,4'-oxydianiline (3,4'-ODA), NE, and BTDE which are then treated with heat. This PMR was designated LaRC-RP46 and has a broader processing window, better reproducibility of high quality composite parts, better elevated temperature mechanical properties, and higher retention of mechanical properties at an elevated temperature, particularly, at 371 C.

Pater, Ruth H.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Toxic substances registry system. Index of material safety data sheets

The January 1995 revision of the index of material safety data sheets is presented. The index of toxic substances is divided by maufacturer, tradename, stock number, and distributor. This index provides a means of accessing information including hazards, uses, and chemical composition of materials stored and used at KSC's Biomedical Operations and Research Office.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1995

Application of Ni-63 photo and corona discharge ionization for the analysis of chemical warfare agents and toxic wastes

Over the past decade, advances in instrumental design and refinements in the understanding of ion molecule reactions at atmospheric pressure enabled the application of Ion Mobility Spectrometry (IMS) as a simple inexpensive and sensitive analytical method for the detection of organic trace compounds. Positive and negative gas-phase ions for ion mobility spectrometry have been produced by a variety of methods, including photo-ionization, laser multi photon ionization, surface ionization, corona discharge ionization. The most common ion source used in ion mobility spectrometry is a radioactive Ni-63 foil which is favored due to simplicity, stability, convenience, and high selectivity. If reactant ions like (H2O(n)H)(+) or (H2O(n)O2)(-) dominate in the reaction region, nearly all kinds of compounds with a given proton or electron affinity; are ionized. However, the radioactivity of the Ni-63 foil is one disadvantage of this ion source that stimulates the development and application of other ionization techniques. In this paper, we report analyses of old chemical warfare agents and toxic wastes using Bruker RAID ion mobility spectrometers. Due to the modular construction of the measuring cell, the spectrometers can be equipped with different ion sources. The combined use of Ni-63, photo- and corona discharge ionization allows the identification of different classes of chemical compounds and yields in most cases comparable results.

Stach, J.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Improved Controllers For Heaters In Toxic-Gas Combustors

Commercial electronic proportional controllers installed in place of mechanical power controllers for electric heaters in toxic-gas combustors at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Designed to maintain temperature of heater at preset value by turning power fully on or fully off when temperature falls below or rises above that value, respectively. Solid-state power controllers overcome deficiencies of mechanical power controllers.

Wishard, James↗
NASA NTRS1996

Semiautomated Motility Assay For Determining Toxicity

Improved method of assessing toxicities of various substances based on observation of effects of those substances on motilities of manageably small number of cells of protozoan species Tetrahema pyriformis. Provides repeatable, standardized tests with minimal handling by technicians and with minimal exposure of technicians to chemicals. Rapid and economical alternative to Draize test.

Noever, David A.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Sample Diluter for Detecting Hypergolic Propellants and Other Toxic or Hazardous Gases

Hardware was developed to dilute vapor samples of purged hypergolic propellants (with air) into the range of existing instruments for detection of such toxic vapors. Since these detectors are normally used to monitor at the threshold limit value (TLV), most do not have quantitative capability at percent levels which relate to lower explosion limit (LEL) and fire hazards. For example, the upper limits of Energetic Sciences (ESI) 6000 series detectors used at KSC are 200 parts per million (ppm) for monomethyl hydrazine (MMH) and 500 ppm for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) arising from decomposition of nitrogen tetroxide (N2O4). Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) personnel servicing Shuttle thrusters need to measure up to 250 ppm MMH and 7,500 ppm NO2 with portable, intrinsically safe instruments. Our objective was to quickly fabricate a sample diluter out of existing materials as a temporary measure while other parallel efforts were conducted to provide a commercial or in-house-developed instrument to detect high propellant levels. A 3 to 1 diluter would bring 500 ppm MMH into the range of the existing fuel ESI, and a 30 to 1 diluter would do the same for NO2. In this way, familiar equipment already available would be used, resulting in minimal paperwork, safety, and training impacts and low cost. An MMH vapor sample-diluter was constructed from a 1/4-inch Kynar tee, along with specially designed lengths of sample and dilution tubing. The sample line was 3 feet of Bev-A-Line 4, 1/4-inch tube leading to the straight run of the tee. The side run of the tee had a 17-inch length of Bev-A-Line 4, 1/4-inch tube, for nominal 3 to 1 dilution. A gas sample bag was prepared and assayed at 113 ppm ppm MMH, and diluted vapor samples were assayed at 39.5 ppm, or a measured dilution of 2.9 to 1. For NO2, a 316 stainless steel (SS) 1/8-inch tee with 49.5 inches of coiled, 1/8-inch outside diameter (OD) 316 SS tubing was used as the sampling end of the dilution system. The side run of the tee was open. The measured dilution ratio, based on the input value of 6,480 ppm NO2, and the average output value of 233 ppm, was 28 to 1. Thus, sample-diluters were successful in diluting concentrated hypergolic propellant vapors, both MMH and N2O4 into the ranges of existing TLV detectors.

Barile, R. G.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Sample Diluter for Detecting Hypergolic Propellants and Other Toxic or Hazardous Gases

Hardware was developed to dilute vapor samples of purged hypergolic propellants (with air) into the range of existing instruments for detection of such toxic vapors. Since these detectors are normally used to monitor at the threshold limit value (TLV), most do not have quantitative capability at percent levels which relate to lower explosion limit (LEL) and fire hazards. For example, the upper limits of Energetic Sciences (ESI) 6000 series detectors used at KSC are 200 parts per million (ppm) for monomethyl hydrazine (MMH) and 500 ppm for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) arising from decomposition of nitrogen tetroxide (N2O4). Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) personnel servicing Shuttle thrusters need to measure up to 250 ppm MMH and 7500 ppm NO2 with portable, intrinsically safe instruments. Our objective was to quickly fabricate a sample diluter out of existing materials as a temporary measure while other parallel efforts were conducted to provide a commercial or in-house-developed instrument to detect high propellant levels. A 3 to 1 diluter would bring 500 ppm MMH into the range of the existing fuel ESI, and a 30 to 1 diluter would do the same for NO2. In this way, familiar equipment already available would be used, resulting in minimal paperwork, safety, and training impacts and low cost. An MMH vapor sample-diluter was constructed from a 1/4-inch Kynar tee, along with specially designed lengths of sample and dilution tubing. The sample line was 3 feet of Bev-A-Line 4, 1/4 inch tube leading to the straight run of the tee. The side run of the tee had a 17-inch length of Bev-A-Line 4, 1/4-inch tube, for nominal 3 to 1 dilution. A gas sample bag was prepared and assayed at 113 ppm MMH, and diluted vapor sarnples were assayed at 39.5 ppm, or a measured dilution of 2.9 to 1. For NO2, a 316 stainless steel (SS) 1/8-inch tee with 49.5 inches of coiled, 1/8-inch outside diameter (OD) 316 SS tubing was used as the sarnpling end of the dilution system. The side run of the tee was open. The measured dilution ratio, based on the input value of 6,480 ppm NO2 and the average output value of 233 ppm, was 28 to 1. Thus, sample-diluters were successful in diluting concentrated hypergolic propellant vapors, both MMH and N2O4, into the ranges of existing TLV detectors.

Barile, R. G.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Highly Effective, Low Toxicity, Low Environmental Impact Total Flooding Fire Suppressants

Halon 1301 (CF3Br) has been used for decades as the primary fire suppression agent for areas where powder agents cannot be used because of concerns for sensitive equipment. Halon 1301 is an excellent extinguishing agent, effective at about 3% in air and quite non-toxic. It has an effective exposure limit much greater than its extinguishing concentration, so it can be used in normally occupied areas. The ability of a chemical to destroy stratospheric ozone is its ozone-depletion potential (ODP). ODP is the amount of ozone destroyed per pound of a chemical, relative to the standard CFC-11 with an ODP = 1.0. Because halons have been implicated in stratospheric ozone depletion, their production was stopped at the end of 1995 under the provisions of the Montreal Protocol plus later amendments. In the US, the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, Presidential directives, and DoD Directive 6050.9 implemented this phaseout. These regulations and penalties have provided strong incentives for US businesses to decrease CFC use. The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989 mandates high Federal taxes on CFCs and halons, designed to price them out of the market. The taxes also capture for the government the windfall profits that would otherwise go to producers as scarcity drives up prices. Several replacements have been developed for Halon 1301. One is carbon dioxide, which has been used as a firefighting agent for many years. However, a high concentration of carbon dioxide is necessary to inert fuels. The effective concentration for inerting with carbon dioxide is approximately 29%, which is above the concentration lethal to humans. HFC-227ea is being used extensively to replace Halon 1301 systems in nominally occupied areas and some normally unoccupied areas. However, since the effective concentration of HFC-227ea is about three to four times that of Halon 1301 the extinguishing systems have to be larger and new extinguishing systems have to be installed. HFC-125 is also being sold as an extinguishing agent (Nimitz). It has problems similar to HFC-227ea, with a greater concentration needed for effectiveness and the need to use a larger system. This is a particularly onerous penalty in aircraft and spacecraft, where weight and space are extremely important, and substitution is often impossible in existing aircraft due to space limitations.

Glass, S. M.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Design and Testing of Non-Toxic RCS Thrusters for Second Generation Reusable Launch Vehicle

Under NASA sponsorship, Northrop Grumman Space Technology (NGST) designed, built and tested two non-toxic, reaction control engines, one using liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid hydrogen (LH2) and the other using liquid oxygen and ethanol. This paper presents the design and testing of the LOX/LH2 thruster. The two key enabling technologies are the coaxial liquid-on-liquid pintle injector and the fuelcooling duct. The workhorse thruster was hotfire tested at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Test Stand 500 in March and April of 2002. All tests were performed at sea-level conditions. During the test program, 7 configurations were tested, including 2 combustion chambers, 3 LOX injector pintle tips, and 4 LHp injector settings. The operating conditions surveyed were 70 to 100% thrust levels, mixture ratios from 3.27 to 4.29, and LH2 duct cooling from 18.0 to 25.5% fuel flow. The copper heat sink chamber was used for 16 burns, each burn lasting from 0.4 to 10 seconds, totaling 51.4 seconds, followed by Haynes chamber testing ranging from 0.9 to 120 seconds, totaling 300.9 seconds. The performance of the engine reached 95% C* efficiency. The temperature on the Haynes chamber remained well below established material limits, with the exception of one localized hot spot. These results demonstrate that both the coaxial liquid-on-liquid pintle injector design and fuel duct concepts are viable for the intended application. The thruster headend design maintained cryogenic injection temperatures while firing, which validates the selected injector design approach for minimal heat soak-back. Also, off -nominal operation without adversely impacting the thermal response of the engine showed the robustness of the duct design, a key design feature for this application. By injecting fuel into the duct, the throat temperatures are manageable, yet the split of fuel through the cooling duct does not compromise the overall combstion efficiency, which indicates that, provided proper design refinement, such a concept could be applied to a high-performance version of the thruster.

Calvignac, Jacky↗
NASA NTRS2003

Development of Metal-impregnated Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes for Toxic Gas Contaminant Control in Advanced Life Support Systems

The success of physico-chemical waste processing and resource recovery technologies for life support application depends partly on the ability of gas clean-up systems to efficiently remove trace contaminants generated during the process with minimal use of expendables. Highly purified metal-impregnated carbon nanotubes promise superior performance over conventional approaches to gas clean-up due to their ability to direct the selective uptake gaseous species based both on the nanotube s controlled pore size, high surface area, and ordered chemical structure that allows functionalization and on the nanotube s effectiveness as a catalyst support material for toxic contaminants removal. We present results on the purification of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) and efforts at metal impregnation of the SWCNT's.

Cinke, Martin↗
NASA NTRS2004

Impregnation of Catalytic Metals in Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes for Toxic Gas Conversion in Life Support System

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) possess extraordinary properties such as high surface area, ordered chemical structure that allows functionalization, larger pore volume, and very narrow pore size distribution that have attracted considerable research attention from around the world since their discovery in 1991. The development and characterization of an original and innovative approach for the control and elimination of gaseous toxins using single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) promise superior performance over conventional approaches due to the ability to direct the selective uptake of gaseous species based on their controlled pore size, increased adsorptive capacity due to their increased surface area and the effectiveness of carbon nanotubes as catalyst supports for gaseous conversion. We present our recent investigation of using SWNTs as catalytic supporting materials to impregnate metals, such as rhodium (Rh), palladium (Pd) and other catalysts. A protocol has been developed to oxidize the SWNTs first and then impregnate the Rh in aqueous rhodium chloride solution, according to unique surface properties of SWNTs. The Rh has been successfully impregnated in SWNTs. The Rh-SWNTs have been characterized by various techniques, such as TGA, XPS, TEM, and FTIR. The project is funded by a NASA Research Announcement Grant to find applications of single walled nanocarbons in eliminating toxic gas Contaminant in life support system. This knowledge will be utilized in the development of a prototype SWNT KO, gas purification system that would represent a significant step in the development of high efficiency systems capable of selectively removing specific gaseous for use in regenerative life support system for human exploration missions.

Li, Jing↗