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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 307 records · Page 17

Sub-millitesla magnetic field effects on the recombination reaction of flavin and ascorbic acid radicals

Even though the interaction of a <1 mT magnetic field with an electron spin is less than a millionth of the thermal energy at room temperature (k{sub B}T), it still can have a profound effect on the quantum yields of radical pair reactions. We present a study of the effects of sub-millitesla magnetic fields on the photoreaction of flavin mononucleotide with ascorbic acid. Direct control of the reaction pathway is achieved by varying the rate of electron transfer from ascorbic acid to the photo-excited flavin. At pH 7.0, we verify the theoretical prediction that, apart from a sign change, the form of the magnetic field effect is independent of the initial spin configuration of the radical pair. The data agree well with model calculations based on a Green’s function approach that allows multinuclear spin systems to be treated including the diffusive motion of the radicals, their spin-selective recombination reactions, and the effects of the inter-radical exchange interaction. The protonation states of the radicals are uniquely determined from the form of the magnetic field-dependence. At pH 3.0, the effects of two chemically distinct radical pair complexes combine to produce a pronounced response to ∼500 μT magnetic fields. These findings are relevant to the magnetic responses of cryptochromes (flavin-containing proteins proposed as magnetoreceptors in birds) and may aid the evaluation of effects of weak magnetic fields on other biologically relevant electron transfer processes.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Biocomposite thermoplastic polyurethanes containing evolved bacterial spores as living fillers to facilitate polymer disintegration

The field of hybrid engineered living materials seeks to pair living organisms with synthetic materials to generate biocomposite materials with augmented function since living systems can provide highly-programmable and complex behavior. Engineered living materials have typically been fabricated using techniques in benign aqueous environments, limiting their application. In this work, biocomposite fabrication is demonstrated in which spores from polymer-degrading bacteria are incorporated into a thermoplastic polyurethane using high-temperature melt extrusion. Bacteria are engineered using adaptive laboratory evolution to improve their heat tolerance to ensure nearly complete cell survivability during manufacturing at 135 °C. Furthermore, the overall tensile properties of spore-filled thermoplastic polyurethanes are substantially improved, resulting in a significant improvement in toughness. The biocomposites facilitate disintegration in compost in the absence of a microbe-rich environment. Finally, embedded spores demonstrate a rationally programmed function, expressing green fluorescent protein. This research provides a scalable method to fabricate advanced biocomposite materials in industrially-compatible processes.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Impact of Assimilating GOES-Derived Land Surface Variables into the PSU/NCAR MM5

Land surface processes are known to have a profound impact on the overlying atmosphere over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Many atmospheric numerical models include special parameterizations to improve the specification and partitioning of surface fluxes which are critical to the accurate prediction of warm season boundary layer behavior, organized mesoscale circulations, and convective precipitation. However, the added degrees of freedom resulting from the inclusion of vegetation and soil schemes require the specification of additional surface parameters such as vegetative resistances, green vegetation fraction, leaf area index, soil physical and hydraulic characteristics, and the vertical distribution of soil moisture. As satellite data have become more readily available in recent years, many investigations have attempted to use these new measurements to infer missing components of the surface energy budget. Sensitivity studies have shown land-skin temperature (LST) tendencies during the mid-morning hours are strongly sensitive to the surface moisture availability (a function of soil wetness and vegetation) and less sensitive to other parameters such as surface roughness. Based upon results from these and other studies, developed a simple technique that dynamically assimilates Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) derived land-surface products into the surface energy budget of a mesoscale model. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that assimilating the GOES satellite data has the potential to improve the representation of land surface characteristics within the model without prior knowledge of the land surface characteristics. The assimilation technique is presented in Section 2 and the numerical experiments are detailed in Section 3. Preliminary results and conclusions are presented in Sections 4 and 5, respectively.

Lapenta, William M.↗

Homoepitaxial growth of metal halide crystals investigated by reflection high-energy electron diffraction

Here, we report the homoepitaxial growth of a metal halide on single crystals investigated with in situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) and ex situ atomic force microscopy (AFM). Epitaxial growth of NaCl on NaCl (001) is explored as a function of temperature and growth rate which provides the first detailed report of RHEED oscillations for metal halide growth. Layer-by-layer growth is observed at room temperature accompanied by clear RHEED oscillations while the growth mode transitions to an island (3D) mode at low temperature. At higher temperatures (>100 °C), RHEED oscillations and AFM data indicate a transition to a step-flow growth mode. To show the importance of such metal halide growth, green organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are demonstrated using a doped NaCl film with a phosphorescent emitter as the emissive layer. This study demonstrates the ability to perform in situ and non-destructive RHEED monitoring even on insulating substrates and could enable doped single crystals and crystalline substrates for a range of optoelectronic applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Büttiker probes for dissipative phonon quantum transport in semiconductor nanostructures

Theoretical prediction of phonon transport in modern semiconductor nanodevices requires atomic resolution of device features and quantum transport models covering coherent and incoherent effects. The nonequilibrium Green's function method is known to serve this purpose well but is numerically expensive in simulating incoherent scattering processes. This work extends the efficient Büttiker probe approach widely used in electron transport to phonons and considers salient implications of the method. Different scattering mechanisms such as impurity, boundary, and Umklapp scattering are included, and the method is shown to reproduce the experimental thermal conductivity of bulk Si and Ge over a wide temperature range. Temperature jumps at the lead/device interface are captured in the quasi-ballistic transport regime consistent with results from the Boltzmann transport equation. Results of this method in Si/Ge heterojunctions illustrate the impact of atomic relaxation on the thermal interface conductance and the importance of inelastic scattering to activate high-energy channels for phonon transport. The resultant phonon transport model is capable of predicting the thermal performance in the heterostructure efficiently.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Breaking Rayleigh’s Law with Spatially Correlated Disorder to Control Phonon Transport

Controlling thermal transport in insulators and semiconductors is crucial for many technological fields such as thermoelectrics and thermal insulation, for which a low thermal conductivity (κ) is desirable. A major obstacle for realizing low κ materials is Rayleigh’s law, which implies that acoustic phonons, which carry most of the heat, are insensitive to scattering by point defects at low energy. We demonstrate, with large scale simulations on tens of millions of atoms, that isotropic long-range spatial correlations in the defect distribution can dramatically reduce phonon lifetimes of important low-frequency heat-carrying modes, leading to a large reduction of κ—potentially an order of magnitude at room temperature. We propose a general and quantitative framework for controlling thermal transport in complex functional materials through structural spatial correlations, and we establish the optimal functional form of spatial correlations that minimize κ. Finally, we end by briefly discussing experimental realizations of various correlated structures.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Optical characteristics and parameters of gas-discharge plasma in a mixture of mercury dibromide vapor with neon

Results are presented from studies of the optical characteristics and parameters of plasma of a dielectric barrier discharge in a mixture of mercury dibromide vapor with neon—the working medium of a non-coaxial exciplex gas-discharge emitter. The electron energy distribution function, the transport characteristics, the specific power losses for electron processes, the electron density and temperature, and the rate constants for the processes of elastic and inelastic electron scattering by the working mixture components are determined as functions of the reduced electric field. The rate constant of the process leading to the formation of exciplex mercury monobromide molecules is found to be 1.6 × 10{sup −14} m{sup 3}/s for a reduced electric field of E/N = 15 Td, at which the maximum emission intensity in the blue-green spectral region (λ{sub max} = 502 nm) was observed in this experiment.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Conversion of cellulose to high-yield glucose in water over sulfonated mesoporous carbon fibers with optimized acidity

The hydrolysis of cellulose to high-yield glucose in water remains challenging owing to the limited acidity and substrate contact of sulfonated carbons. In this study, we report a unique sulfonated mesoporous carbon fiber with optimized acidity prepared by the pyrolysis of FeCl 3 -impregnated wipe fibers followed by acid treatment. The Bronsted acidity (especially for SO 3 H) was produced by sulfonation of the magnetic carbon fiber intermediate, while Lewis acidity originated from small Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles and the remaining defects. The balanced Bronsted and Lewis acidity combined with hydrophilic functionalities was simultaneously tailored by varying the Fe/wipe fiber (WF) feed ratio and pyrolysis temperature to change the porous structure of the final catalysts. The elaborately fabricated MCF-SO 3 H-20-500 (20% Fe/WF feed ratio and pyrolysis at 500 degrees C) delivered 66.0% glucose yield as cellulose was completely converted. This is the highest glucose yield achieved by the hydrolysis of untreated cellulose in water over a sulfonated carbon catalyst. The optimized Bronsted and Lewis acidity was mainly responsible for the controlled conversion of cellulose to glucose, while the rich hydrophilic functionalities and superior mesoporous structure of the catalyst facilitated contact to cellulose and mass transfer. This investigation will open new avenues to design high-performance carbon sulfoacid catalysts toward cellulose hydrolysis.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Two-color pyrometry based flame to fuel surface radiative heat flux diagnostic using flamelets

In this study, a non-intrusive two-color pyrometry based radiative heat flux diagnostic is presented that accounts for the self-absorption effects. This diagnostic relies on looking up the flame temperature and soot volume fraction using the ratio of color intensities obtained from digital cameras and numerical solutions of 1D steady-state diffusion flames. Virtual two color pyrometry of computed flame show a unique one-to-one mapping of strained flames with intensity ratio; thereby allowing flames to be indexed and creation of a two-color flamelet manifold (TCFM). The TCFM is a function of two variables; the ratio of red to green intensities (flame index) and physical distance to the stoichiometric surface defined using a level-set function. The developed diagnostic is used in upward flame spread experiments where an approximate flame hull reconstruction method is applied to provide the 3D level-set function and intensity ratio for use of TCFM to provide radiative absorption properties for 3D ray tracing. Accounting for self- absorption effects provide improved soot volume fraction estimates. In conclusion, the radiative heat flux estimates are found to be in very good agreement with literature and improved results are obtained near the flame base.

42 ENGINEERING↗

First-principles study of L -shell iron and chromium opacity at stellar interior temperatures

Recently developed free-energy density functional theory (DFT)-based methodology for optical property calculations of warm dense matter has been applied for studying L-shell opacity of iron and chromium at T = 182 eV. We use Mermin–Kohn–Sham density functional theory with a ground-state and a fully temperature-dependent generalized gradient approximation exchange-correlation (XC) functionals. It is demonstrated that the role of XC at such a high-T is negligible due to the total free-energy of interacting system being dominated by the noninteracting free-energy term in agreement with estimations for the homogeneous electron gas. Furthermore, our DFT predictions are compared to the radiative emissivity and opacity of dense plasmas model, to the real-space Greens function method, and to experimental measurements. Good agreement is found between all three theoretical methods, and in the bound–continuum region for Cr when compared to the experiment, while the discrepancy between direct DFT calculations and the experiment for Fe remains essentially the same as for plasma-physics models.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Green synthesis of reduced Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene nanosheets with enhanced conductivity, oxidation stability, and SERS activity

Transition metal carbides (MXenes) are an emerging family of highly conductive two-dimensional materials with additional functional properties introduced by surface terminations. Further modification of the surface terminations makes MXenes even more appealing for practical applications. Herein, we report a facile and environmentally benign synthesis of reduced Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene (r-Ti 3 C 2 T x ) via a simple treatment with L-ascorbic acid at room temperature. r-Ti 3 C 2 T x shows a six-fold increase in electrical conductivity, from 471 ± 49 for regular Ti 3 C 2 T x to 2819 ± 306 S m -1 for the reduced version. Additionally, we show an enhanced oxidation stability of r-Ti 3 C 2 T x as compared to regular Ti 3 C 2 T x . An examination of the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity reveals that the SERS enhancement factor of r-Ti 3 C 2 T x is an order of magnitude higher than that of regular Ti 3 C 2 T x . The improved SERS activity of r-Ti 3 C 2 T x is attributed to the charge transfer interaction between the MXene surface and probe molecules, re-enforced by an increased electronic density of states (DOS) at the Fermi level of r-Ti 3 C 2 T x . The findings of this study suggest that reduced MXene could be a superior choice over regular MXene, especially for the applications that employ high electronic conductivity, such as electrode materials for batteries and supercapacitors, photodetectors, and SERS-based sensors.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Predicted viscosity of liquid HMX up to 40 GPa

Viscous flow serves as a significant heating mechanism during the formation of hot spots, but the shear viscosity which determines this response is poorly characterized for most high explosives. Most recently, a model was proposed for the shear viscosity of liquid HMX (1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocane) that was fit to pressures reaching 5 GPa, but this work uncovered uncertainties in the viscosity at 0 GPa and remains untested at higher pressures. We use molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and the Green-Kubo formalism to predict the temperature- and pressure-dependent shear viscosity of HMX over the pressure interval 0 GPa≤P≤40 GPa. Reassessment of the viscosity at 0 GPa rules out several potential explanations for discrepancies between earlier reports; we attribute these differences to details of MD trajectory integration impacting molecular flexibility. The shear viscosity of HMX exhibits an Arrhenius temperature dependence at each pressure considered, with exponential prefactor and activation energy terms that are also strong functions of pressure. An analytic form for the viscosity is developed based on an extension of the well-known Andrade equation that simultaneously captures the temperature and pressure dependencies in the MD data up to 40 GPa. Comparison against a recently developed model for the viscosity of liquid RDX (1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazinane) shows that both materials exhibit similar functional dependencies with the viscosity of HMX being higher by roughly an order of magnitude at a given temperature-pressure state.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Moderate temperature sintering of BaZr 0.8 Y 0.2 O 3-δ protonic ceramics by A novel cold sintering pretreatment

The state-of-the-art protonic ceramic conductor BaZr 0.8 Y 0.2 O 3-δ (BZY20) requires an extremely high sintering temperature (≥1700 °C) to achieve the desired relative density and microstructure necessary to function as a proton conducting electrolyte. In this work, we developed a cold sintering pretreatment assisted moderate-temperature sintering method for the fabrication of high-quality pure BZY20 pellets. BZY20 pellets with high relative density of ~94% were fabricated with a final sintering temperature of 1500 °C (200 °C lower than the traditional sintering temperature). A comparison with BZY20 control samples indicated that the proper amount of BaCO 3 introduced on the BZY20 particle surface and the high green density achieved by cold sintering pretreatment were the main drivers for lowering the sintering temperature. The electrical conductivity measurement by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy showed that the as-prepared BZY20 pellets have a proton conductivity comparable to the state-of-the-art values. The cold sintering pretreatment outlined in this work has the potential to lower the sintering temperatures for similar types of protonic ceramic materials under consideration for a wide range of energy conversion and storage applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Analysis of spin frustration in an Fe III 7 cluster using a combination of computational, experimental, and magnetostructural correlation methods

The synthesis, structure, and magnetic properties are reported for [Fe 7 O 3 (O 2 C t Bu) 9 (mda) 3 (H 2 O) 3 ] ( 1 ), where mdaH 2 is N -methyldiethanolamine. 1 was prepared from the reaction of [Fe 3 O(O 2 C t Bu) 6 (H 2 O) 3 ](NO 3 ) with mdaH 2 in a 1:~3 ratio in MeCN. The core of 1 consists of a central octahedral Fe III ion held within a non-planar Fe 6 loop by three μ 3 -O 2- and three μ 2 -RO - arms from the three mda 2- chelates. Variable-temperature dc and ac magnetic susceptibility studies revealed dominant antiferromagnetic coupling, leading to a ground state spin of S = 5 / 2 . The ground state was confirmed by a fit of magnetization data collected in the 0.1–7.0 T and 1.8–10.0 K ranges. The four Fe 2 pairwise exchange parameters ( J 1 - J 4 ) were estimated by independent methods: theoretical calculations using either broken symmetry energy differences (-46.3, -16.2, -3.9, and - 28.1 cm -1 , respectively) or Green’s function approximation methods (-41.4, -14.8, -13.2, and - 24.7 cm -1 ), and a magnetostructural correlation (MSC) previously developed for high nuclearity Fe III /O complexes (-39.5, -13.8, -6.7, and - 23.5 cm -1 ). Additionally, the J 1 - J 4 obtained from the MSC and theoretical methods were used with the program PHI to both simulate χ M T vs T as well as to serve as reasonable input values to fit the experimental data (-41.0, -11.4, -5.0, and - 27.3 cm -1 ). Analysis of the J ij led to identification of the spin frustration effects operative and the resultant spin vector alignments at each Fe III ion, thus allowing for the rationalization of the experimental ground state.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Combining the ensemble and Franck-Condon approaches for calculating spectral shapes of molecules in solution

The correct treatment of vibronic effects is vital for the modeling of absorption spectra of many solvated dyes. Vibronic spectra for small dyes in solution can be easily computed within the Franck-Condon approximation using an implicit solvent model. However, implicit solvent models neglect specific solute-solvent interactions on the electronic excited state. On the other hand, a straightforward way to account for solute-solvent interactions and temperature-dependent broadening is by computing vertical excitation energies obtained from an ensemble of solute-solvent conformations. Ensemble approaches usually do not account for vibronic transitions and thus often produce spectral shapes in poor agreement with experiment. Here we address these shortcomings by combining zero-temperature vibronic fine structure with vertical excitations computed for a room-temperature ensemble of solute-solvent configurations. In this combined approach, all temperature-dependent broadening is treated classically through the sampling of configurations and quantum mechanical vibronic contributions are included as a zero-temperature correction to each vertical transition. In our calculation of the vertical excitations, significant regions of the solvent environment are treated fully quantum mechanically to account for solute-solvent polarization and charge-transfer. For the Franck-Condon calculations, a small amount of frozen explicit solvent is considered in order to capture solvent effects on the vibronic shape function. We test the proposed method by comparing calculated and experimental absorption spectra of Nile red and the green fluorescent protein chromophore in polar and non-polar solvents. For systems with strong solute-solvent interactions, the combined approach yields significant improvements over the ensemble approach. For systems with weak to moderate solute-solvent interactions, both the high-energy vibronic tail and the width of the spectra are in excellent agreement with experiments

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

IC w22_phadiagractox Highlight: Composition-dependent melting temperature of a compound [Poster]

Figure 1 displays, ambient melting points of the Au-Cu system as a function of Cu atomic percent: present model vs. experimental data from four different sources. Figure 2 displays, ambient melting points of the U-O system as a function of O atomic percent: present model vs. both experiment and quantum molecular dynamics (QMD) simulations on the stoichiometric U-O compounds.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Theory of disordered Heisenberg ferromagnets

A Green's function technique is used to calculate the magnetic properties of Heisenberg ferromagnets in which the exchange interactions deviate randomly in strength from the mean interaction. Systems of sc, bcc, and fcc topologies and of general spin values are treated. Disorder produces marked effects in the density of spin wave states, in the form of enhancement of the low-energy density and extension of the energy band to higher values. The spontaneous magnetization and the Curie temperature decrease with increasing disorder. The effects of disorder are shown to be more pronounced in the ferromagnetic than in the paramagnetic phase.

Stubbs, R. M.↗