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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 613 records · Page 34
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Substitutional doping of 2D transition metal dichalcogenides for device applications: Current status, challenges and prospects

Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have emerged as a class of materials with exceptional electronic, optical, and mechanical properties, making them highly tunable for diverse applications in nanoelectronics, optoelectronics, and catalysis. Here, this review focuses on substitutional doping of TMDs, a key strategy to tailor their properties and enhance device performance, with a focus on its applications over the past five years (2019–2024). We delve into both theoretical and experimental doping approaches, including established methods like chemical vapor transport (CVT) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) alongside liquid phase exfoliation (LPE) and post-synthesis treatments. Advanced growth techniques are also explored. Challenges like dopant uniformity, concentration control, and stability are addressed. The influence of various dopants on the electronic band structure, carrier concentration, and defect engineering is analyzed in detail. We further explore recent advancements in utilizing doped TMDs for field-effect transistors (FETs), photodetectors, sensors, photovoltaics, optoelectronic devices, energy storage and conversion, and even quantum computers. By examining both the potential and limitations of substitutional doping, this review aims to propel future research and technological advancements in this exciting field.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Extreme Water Uptake of Hygroscopic Hydrogels through Maximized Swelling‐Induced Salt Loading

Abstract Hygroscopic hydrogels are emerging as scalable and low‐cost sorbents for atmospheric water harvesting, dehumidification, passive cooling, and thermal energy storage. However, devices using these materials still exhibit insufficient performance, partly due to the limited water vapor uptake of the hydrogels. Here, the swelling dynamics of hydrogels in aqueous lithiumchloride solutions, the implications on hydrogel salt loading, and the resulting vapor uptake of the synthesized hydrogel–salt composites are characterized. By tuning the salt concentration of the swelling solutions and the cross‐linking properties of the gels, hygroscopic hydrogels with extremely high salt loadings are synthesized, which enable unprecedented water uptakes of 1.79 and 3.86 gg −1 at relative humidity (RH) of 30% and 70%, respectively. At 30% RH, this exceeds previously reported water uptakes of metal–organic frameworks by over 100% and of hydrogels by 15%, bringing the uptake within 93% of the fundamental limit of hygroscopic salts while avoiding leakage problems common in salt solutions. By modeling the salt‐vapor equilibria, the maximum leakage‐free RH is elucidated as a function of hydrogel uptake and swelling ratio. These insights guide the design of hydrogels with exceptional hygroscopicity that enable sorption‐based devices to tackle water scarcity and the global energy crisis.

Graeber, Gustav↗
DOE OSTI2018

A programmable shared-memory system for an array of processing-in-memory devices

Processing in memory (PIM), the concept of integrating processing directly with memory has been attracting a lot of attention, since PIM can assist in overcoming the throughput limitation caused by data movement between CPU and memory. The challenge, however, is that it requires the programmers to have a deep understanding of the PIM architecture to maximize the benefits such as data locality and parallel thread execution on multiple PIM devices. In this study, we present AnalyzeThat, a programmable shared-memory system for parallel data processing with PIM devices. Thematic to AnalyzeThat is a rich PIM-aware data structure (PADS), which is an encapsulation that integrally ties together the data, the analysis tasks and the runtime needed to interface with the PIM device array. The PADS abstraction provides (i) a sophisticated key-value data container that allows programmers to easily store data on multiple PIMs, (ii) a suite of parallel operations with which users can easily implement data analysis applications, and (iii) a runtime, hidden to programmers, which provides the mechanisms needed to overlay both the data and the tasks on the PIM device array in an intelligent fashion, based on PIM-specific information collected from the hardware. We have developed a PIM emulation framework called AnalyzeThat. In conclusion, our experimental evaluation with representative data analytics applications suggests that the proposed system can significantly reduce the PIM programming effort without losing its technology benefits.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2018

Stratification during evaporative assembly of multicomponent nanoparticle films

Multicomponent coatings with layers comprising different functionalities are of interest for a variety of applications, including electronic devices, energy storage, and biomaterials. Rather than creating such a film using multiple deposition steps, we explore a single-step method to create such films by varying the particle Peclet numbers, Pe. Our hypothesis, based on recent theoretical descriptions of the stratification process, is that by varying particle size and evaporation rate such that Pe of large and small particles are above and below unity, we can create stratified films of polymeric and inorganic particles. In this paper, we present AFM on the surface composition of films comprising poly(styrene) nanoparticles (diameter 25–90 nm) and silica nanoparticles (diameter 8–14 nm). Previous studies on films containing both inorganic and polymeric particles correspond to large Pe values (e.g., 120–460), while we utilize Pe ~ 0.3–4, enabling us to test theories that have been developed for different regimes of Pe. We demonstrate evidence of stratification and effect of the Pe ratio, although our results agree only qualitatively with theory. Finally, our results also provide validation of recent theoretical descriptions of the film drying process that predict different regimes for large-on-top and small-on-top stratification.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Room-temperature reduction of NO 2 in a Li-NO 2 battery: a proof of concept

Although considerable effort has been devoted to purifying nitrogen oxides (NO x ), it is still challenging to effectively reduce NO x , at room temperature and ambient pressure without catalysts. In this study, as a proof-of-concept, we have for the first time demonstrated the room-temperature reduction of nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) using a rechargeable lithium-nitrogen dioxide (Li-NO 2 ) battery. We report the battery shows a capacity of 884 mAh g -1 at 50 mA g -1 (an actual energy density of 666 Wh kg -1 ) and a promising electrochemical Faraday efficiency (FE) of 67%. The unique properties of Li-NO 2 rechargeable batteries not only provide a way to reduce and recycle NO 2 but also highlight the potential of oxidative air pollutants as energy sources for next-generation electrochemical energy storage (EES) systems.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Advancing ionomer design to boost interfacial and thin-film proton conductivity via styrene-calix[4]arene-based ionomers

Sub-micrometer-thick ion-conducting polymer (ionomer) layers often suffer from poor ionic conductivity at the substrate/catalyst interface. The weak proton conductivity makes the electrochemical reaction at the cathode of proton-exchange-membrane fuel cells sluggish. To address this, here we report on a class of polystyrene-based ionomers having sub-nanometer-sized, sulfonated macrocyclic calix[4]arene-based pendants (PS-calix). In films with thickness comparable to that of ionomer-based binder layers, the conductivity of PS-calix film (~41 mS/cm) is ~13 times higher than that of the current state-of-the-art ionomer, Nafion. We observe a similar improvement in proton conductivity when PS-calix interfaces with Pt nanoparticles, demonstrating the potential of PS-calix in catalyst ink. Leveraging a favorable interfacial chemical composition, PS-calix enhances proton conduction at the film-substrate interface, a shortcoming of Nafion. Moreover, the water in PS-calix films diffuses faster than bulk water and the water confined in Nafion films, suggesting an important role played by sub-nanometer-sized calix[4]arene cavities in creating unique water/ion transport pathways.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2023

Comparative Density Functional Theory Study of Magnetic Exchange Couplings in Dinuclear Transition-Metal Complexes

Multicenter transition-metal complexes (MCTMs) with magnetically interacting ions have been proposed as components for information-processing devices and storage units. For any practical application of MCTMs as magnetic units, it is crucial to characterize their magnetic behavior, and in particular, the isotropic magnetic exchange coupling, J, between its magnetic centers. Due to the large size of typical MCTMs, density functional theory is the only practical electronic structure method for evaluating the J coupling. Here, we assess the accuracy of different density functional approximations for predicting the magnetic couplings of eight dinuclear transition-metal complexes, including five dimanganese, two dicopper, and one divanadium with known reliable experimental J couplings spanning from ferromagnetic to strong antiferromagnetic. The density functionals considered include global hybrid functionals which mix semilocal density functional approximations and exact exchange with a fixed admixing parameter, six local hybrid functionals where the admixing parameters are extended to be spatially dependent, the SCAN and r 2 SCAN meta-generalized gradient approximations (GGAs), and two widely used GGAs. We found that global hybrids tested in this work have a tendency to over-correct the error in magnetic coupling parameters from the Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof (PBE) GGA as seen for manganese complexes. The performance of local hybrid density functionals shows no improvement in terms of bias and is scattered without a clear trend, suggesting that more efforts are needed for the extension from global to local hybrid density functionals for this particular property. The SCAN and r 2 SCAN meta-GGAs are found to perform as well as benchmark global hybrids on most tested complexes. We further analyze the charge density redistribution of meta-GGAs as well as global and local hybrid density functionals with respect to that of PBE, in connection to the self-interaction error or delocalization error.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

Three-dimensional Zn-based alloys for dendrite-free aqueous Zn battery in dual-cation electrolytes

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries, in terms of integration with high safety, environmental benignity, and low cost, have attracted much attention for powering electronic devices and storage systems. However, the interface instability issues at the Zn anode caused by detrimental side reactions such as dendrite growth, hydrogen evolution, and metal corrosion at the solid (anode)/liquid (electrolyte) interface impede their practical applications in the fields requiring long-term performance persistence. Despite the rapid progress in suppressing the side reactions at the materials interface, the mechanism of ion storage and dendrite formation in practical aqueous zinc-ion batteries with dual-cation aqueous electrolytes is still unclear. Herein, we design an interface material consisting of forest-like three-dimensional zinc-copper alloy with engineered surfaces to explore the Zn plating/stripping mode in dual-cation electrolytes. The three-dimensional nanostructured surface of zinc-copper alloy is demonstrated to be in favor of effectively regulating the reaction kinetics of Zn plating/stripping processes. The developed interface materials suppress the dendrite growth on the anode surface towards high-performance persistent aqueous zinc-ion batteries in the aqueous electrolytes containing single and dual cations. This work remarkably enhances the fundamental understanding of dual-cation intercalation chemistry in aqueous electrochemical systems and provides a guide for exploring high-performance aqueous zinc-ion batteries and beyond.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Tuning magnetoelectricity in a mixed-anisotropy antiferromagnet

Control of magnetization and electric polarization is attractive in relation to tailoring materials for data storage and devices such as sensors or antennae. In magnetoelectric materials, these degrees of freedom are closely coupled, allowing polarization to be controlled by a magnetic field, and magnetization by an electric field, but the magnitude of the effect remains a challenge in the case of single-phase magnetoelectrics for applications. We demonstrate that the magnetoelectric properties of the mixed-anisotropy antiferromagnet LiNi 1-x Fe x PO 4 are profoundly affected by partial substitution of Ni 2+ ions with Fe 2+ on the transition metal site. This introduces random site-dependent single-ion anisotropy energies and causes a lowering of the magnetic symmetry of the system. In turn, magnetoelectric couplings that are symmetry-forbidden in the parent compounds, LiNiPO 4 and LiFePO 4 , are unlocked and the dominant coupling is enhanced by almost two orders of magnitude. Our results demonstrate the potential of mixed-anisotropy magnets for tuning magnetoelectric properties.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2017

Refurbishment of a used in-vacuum undulator from the National Synchrotron Light Source for the National Synchrotron Light Source-II ring

The National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) ceased operation in September 2014 and was succeeded by NSLS-II. There were four in-vacuum undulators (IVUs) in operation at NSLS. The most recently constructed IVU for NSLS was the mini-gap undulator (MGU-X25, to be renamed IVU18 for NSLS-II), which was constructed in 2006. This device was selected to be reused for the New York Structural Biology Consortium Microdiffraction beamline at NSLS-II. At the time of construction, IVU18 was a state-of-the-art undulator designed to be operated as a cryogenic permanent-magnet undulator. Due to the more stringent field quality and impedance requirements of the NSLS-II ring, the transition region was redesigned. The control system was also updated to NSLS-II specifications. As a result, this paper reports the details of the IVU18 refurbishment activities including additional magnetic measurement and tuning.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2018

One-Step Synthesis of a Hybrid of Graphene Films and Ribbons

Hybrid structures composed of graphene films and (0001) graphene ribbons perpendicular to the surface of a graphene-like film have been produced through the catalytic decomposition of a carbon-containing gas on an Al-coated SiO{sub 2}/Si substrate having Ni catalyst islands on its surface. A hybrid structure has been grown by a one-step chemical vapor deposition process, by admitting acetylene into a chamber for a short time. The hybrid structures thus produced have been used to fabricate Hall sensors with a sensitivity of 3000 Ω/T. The synthesized hybrid structures are potential candidates for use in nanoelectronic devices, energy storage systems, etc. The technique proposed for the growth of such films is compatible with technologies that are employed in the electronics industry.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Control and Information Systems for the National Ignition Facility

Orchestration of every National Ignition Facility (NIF) shot cycle is managed by the Integrated Computer Control System (ICCS), which uses a scalable software architecture running code on more than 1950 front-end processors, embedded controllers, and supervisory servers. The ICCS operates laser and industrial control hardware containing 66 000 control and monitor points to ensure that all of NIF’s laser beams arrive at the target within 30 ps of each other and are aligned to a pointing accuracy of less than 50 μm root-mean-square, while ensuring that a host of diagnostic instruments record data in a few billionths of a second. NIF’s automated control subsystems are built from a common object-oriented software framework that distributes the software across the computer network and achieves interoperation between different software languages and target architectures. A large suite of business and scientific software tools supports experimental planning, experimental setup, facility configuration, and post-shot analysis. Standard business services using open-source software, commercial workflow tools, and database and messaging technologies have been developed. An information technology infrastructure consisting of servers, network devices, and storage provides the foundation for these systems. Thus, this work is an overview of the control and information systems used to support a wide variety of experiments during the National Ignition Campaign.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Development of a Scalable Risk-informed Predictive Maintenance Cloud-based Strategy at Nuclear Power Plants

The fact that light-water reactor operation and maintenance costs are prohibitively expensive and contribute to the premature decommissioning of nuclear power plants is partly due to how the equipment is monitored. In recent years, cloud computing has emerged as a dominant technology, as its low cost, computing and storage adaptability, and ability to host applications across numerous virtual infrastructures potentially make it a cost-effective alternative to onsite storage and diagnostics. In this paper, a technological assessment is carried out on a provisional cloud deployment architecture for a nuclear power plant predictive monitoring system. This cloud-based monitoring system would enable maintenance and diagnostic analysts and other authorized plant users to remotely monitor equipment functionality, thus enabling early fault detection and effective predictive maintenance practices. To provide data processing and storage, sensor device networking, and database management, the Microsoft Azure cloud platform is utilized as part of the proposed cloud architecture; however, this analysis could be extended to other cloud computing service providers as well. The focus of this paper is on application of cloud resources for enabling predictive maintenance, identification of technological hurdles associated with moving to a cloud-computing-based architecture, and potential benefits from moving to a centralized cloud system.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2018

Cost Recovery for Standby and Ancillary Services for Distributed Generation: Considerations for New Mexico

A New Mexico statute allows investor-owned utilities to recover costs of “standby and ancillary services” resulting from distributed generation (DG). In attempting to do so, it is important to recognize both the physical and economic impacts, positive and negative, that distributed generation creates. Distributed generation has different impacts on ancillary and standby services depending on the location, capacity, and production patterns of the systems. Low penetrations of small distributed generation systems will not create significant contingencies for utilities. System impact of fluctuations in DG production may be no larger than normal fluctuations caused by customer demand, such as an air conditioner cycling. Higher penetrations and large DG system may produce noticeable impacts; so magnitude is critical when determining potential additional recoverable utility costs. Understanding DG impact on ancillary services is a relatively new and emerging area of study and as such there are not well-established formulas or protocols. Discretion is required. A hosting capacity analysis can help determine how much DG can be implemented before the impacts become substantive. Standby rates are traditionally used for large industrial generators or combined heat and power systems and threshold system size levels are often used in determining applicability of standby rates. System size thresholds may also be appropriate for standby rates and DG. Relatively small, geographically diverse DG systems are unlikely to create a noticeable coincident outage, so developing a standby charge based on assumed coincidence may not be appropriate. Individual lines and feeders may have considerable excess capacity during coincident outages, or they may be fully utilized and facing upgrades in the near future, which could vary over time. Understanding specific events that create concern for utilities is critical to developing an appropriate rate mechanism (e.g., single residential or community system outage, cascading event, clouds, eclipse). Any modeling or studies of the grid should also recognize the unique situation created when DG is coupled with a smart inverter or storage. These devices change the value proposition and can help mitigate some of the voltage and ramping issues DG can pose for a utility. Utilities can recover their fixed costs in a variety of ways, and some are better suited for DG than others. Beyond charging for standby and ancillary services, other options include fixed customer charges, demand charges, minimum bills, time-of-use rates and updated net energy-metering policies. Studies and analyses of the specific impacts that DG has on the grid should inform utilities’ decision-making process because distributed generation creates both costs and benefits for the grid. Any charge specific to DG customers should be backed up with analysis. At the heart of this conversation is utilities attempting to recover fixed costs. Allowing utilities to indiscriminately recover all stranded fixed costs can negatively affect long-term market efficiency by blunting utility incentives to lower costs and acting as a barrier to entry and exit. The current status of New Mexico’s grid, impending infrastructure updates, and likely customer adoption patterns for DG (backed up by transparent analysis) should remain at the forefront when considering charges for standby and ancillary services. Recognizing that utility regulation is largely a reactive process, it is recommended that applications for DG related standby or ancillary services cost recovery mechanisms be thoroughly reviewed by an experienced economist. If the commission has no such skill set on staff, one might be hired.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2019

Impact of Wide-Bandgap Technology on Renewable Energy and Smart-Grid Power Conversion Applications Including Storage

Wide-bandgap (WBG) semiconductor devices are making their way into large-volume applications, including pivotal domains of societal infrastructure such as sustainable energy generation and conversion. Presented for a long time mainly as a synonym of high-temperature electronics, hands-on experience has highlighted a number of gains that can be drawn from this technology even when used as a straightforward drop-in substitute of silicon in established applications and field-proven designs. Incremental in nature, these gains enable interesting progress beyond state-of-the-art forms, which, though not corresponding to the full exploitation of the potential of this technology, are oftentimes sufficient to justify its adoption. With particular reference to renewable energy power conversion and solid-state transformation, in the context of transport applications and incorporating a storage device, this paper reports on the understanding generated over the past few years and points out some specifically tailored technology and circuit design requirements to ensure overall beneficial impact of the adoption of WBG technology.

Castellazzi, Alberto↗
DOE OSTI2016

Ensuring Profitability of Energy Storage

Energy storage (ES) is a pivotal technology for dealing with the challenges caused by the integration of renewable energy sources. It is expected that a decrease in the capital cost of storage will eventually spur the deployment of large amounts of ES. These devices will provide transmission services, such as spatiotemporal energy arbitrage, i.e., storing surplus energy from intermittent renewable sources for later use by loads while reducing the congestion in the transmission network. This paper proposes a bilevel program that determines the optimal location and size of storage devices to perform this spatiotemporal energy arbitrage. This method aims to simultaneously reduce the system-wide operating cost and the cost of investments in ES while ensuring that merchant storage devices collect sufficient profits to fully recover their investment cost. Finally, the usefulness of the proposed method is illustrated using a representative case study of the ISO New England system with a prospective wind generation portfolio.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗