Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “STORAGE DEVICE”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 649 records · Page 36

Electrostatic generator electrode-centering and seismic-isolation system for flywheel-based energy storage modules

Robust electro-static (ES) device embodiments, with application to energy storage flywheels as an example, are described that provide reliable, high-efficiency operation in the presence of thermal and mechanical perturbations, as well as seismic events. Electro-static generators and motors, when augmented with magnetic bearings, passive three-dimensional stabilization techniques and dynamic touch-down bearings, enable robust performance in the face of these environmental concerns, as well as efficient operation during typical operational sequences, including spin-up and steady-state modalities.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Electrostatic generator electrode-centering and seismic-isolation system for flywheel-based energy storage modules

Robust electro-static (ES) device embodiments, with application to energy storage flywheels as an example, are described that provide reliable, high-efficiency operation in the presence of thermal and mechanical perturbations, as well as seismic events. Electro-static generators and motors, when augmented with magnetic bearings, passive three-dimensional stabilization techniques and dynamic touch-down bearings, enable robust performance in the face of these environmental concerns, as well as efficient operation during typical operational sequences, including spin-up and steady-state modalities.

Post, Richard F.↗

Defect analysis in low temperature atomic layer deposited Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} and physical vapor deposited SiO barrier films and combination of both to achieve high quality moisture barriers

Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} [20 nm, atomic layer deposition (ALD)] and SiO films' [25 nm, physical vacuum deposition (PVD)] single barriers as well as hybrid barriers of the Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/SiO or SiO/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} have been deposited onto single 100 nm thick tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (AlQ{sub 3}) organic films made onto silicon wafers. The defects in the different barrier layers could be easily observed as nonfluorescent AlQ{sub 3} black spots, under ultraviolet light on the different systems stored into accelerated aging conditions (85 °C/85% RH, ∼2000 h). It has been observed that all devices containing an Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} layer present a lag time τ from which defect densities of the different systems start to increase significantly. This is coherent with the supposed pinhole-free nature of fresh, ALD-deposited, Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} films. For t > τ, the number of defect grows linearly with storage time. For devices with the single Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} barrier layer, τ has been estimated to be 64 h. For t > τ, the defect occurrence rate has been calculated to be 0.268/cm{sup 2}/h. Then, a total failure of fluorescence of the AlQ{sub 3} film appears between 520 and 670 h, indicating that the Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} barrier has been totally degraded by the hot moisture. Interestingly, the device with the hybrid barrier SiO/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} shows the same characteristics as the device with the single Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} barrier (τ = 59 h; 0.246/cm{sup 2}/h for t > τ), indicating that Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} ALD is the factor that limits the performance of the barrier system when it is directly exposed to moisture condensation. At the end of the storage period (1410 h), the defect density for the system with the hybrid SiO/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} barrier is 120/cm{sup 2}. The best sequence has been obtained when Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} is passivated by the SiO layer (Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/SiO). In that case, a large lag time of 795 h and a very low defect growth rate of 0.032/cm{sup 2}/h (t > τ) have been measured. At the end of the storage test (2003 h), the defect density remains very low, i.e., only 50/cm{sup 2}. On the other hand, the device with the single PVD-deposited SiO barrier layer shows no significant lag time (τ ∼ 0), and the number of defects grows linearly from initial time with a high occurrence rate of 0.517/cm{sup 2}/h. This is coherent with the pinhole-full nature of fresh, PVD-deposited, SiO films. At intermediate times, a second regime shows a lower defect occurrence rate of 0.062/cm{sup 2}/h. At a longer time span (t > 1200 h), the SiO barrier begins to degrade, and a localized crystallization onto the oxide surface, giving rise to new defects (occurrence rate 0.461/cm{sup 2}/h), could be observed. At the end of the test (2003 h), single SiO films show a very high defect density of 600/cm{sup 2}. Interestingly, the SiO surface in the Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/SiO device does not appeared crystallized at a high time span, suggesting that the crystallization observed on the SiO surface in the AlQ{sub 3}/SiO device rather originates into the AlQ{sub 3} layer, due to high humidity ingress on the organic layer through SiO pinholes. This has been confirmed by atomic force microscopy surface imaging of the AlQ{sub 3}/SiO surface showing a central hole in the crystallization zone with a 60 nm depth, deeper than SiO thickness (25 nm). Using the organic AlQ{sub 3} sensor, the different observations made in this work give a quantitative comparison of defects' occurrence and growth in ALD-deposited versus PVD-deposited oxide films, as well as in their combination PVD/ALD and ALD/PVD.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Scaling Effects in Perovskite Ferroelectrics: Fundamental Limits and Process-Structure-Property Relations

Ferroelectric materials are well-suited for a variety of applications because they can offer a combination of high performance and scaled integration. Examples of note include piezoelectrics to transform between electrical and mechanical energies, capacitors used to store charge, electro-optic devices, and non-volatile memory storage. Accordingly, they are widely used as sensors, actuators, energy storage, and memory components, ultrasonic devices, and in consumer electronics products. Because these functional properties arise from a non-centrosymmetric crystal structure with spontaneous strain and a permanent electric dipole, the properties depend upon physical and electrical boundary conditions, and consequently, physical dimension. The change of properties with decreasing physical dimension is commonly referred to as a size effect. In thin films, size effects are widely observed, while in bulk ceramics, changes in properties from the values of large-grained specimens is most notable in samples with grain sizes below several microns. It is important to note that ferroelectricity typically persists to length scales of about 10 nm, but below this point is often absent. Despite the stability of ferroelectricity for dimensions greater than ~10 nm, the dielectric and piezoelectric coefficients of scaled ferroelectrics are suppressed relative to their bulk counterparts, in some cases by changes up to 80%. The loss of extrinsic contributions (domain and phase boundary motion) to the electromechanical response accounts for much of this suppression. In this article the current understanding of the underlying mechanisms for this behavior in perovskite ferroelectrics are reviewed. We focus on the intrinsic limits of ferroelectric response, the roles of electrical and mechanical boundary conditions, grain size and thickness effects, and extraneous effects related to processing. Ultimately, in many cases, multiple mechanisms combine to produce the observed scaling effects.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Evaluating Burst Buffer Placement in HPC Systems

Burst buffers (BBs) are increasingly exploited in contemporary supercomputers to bridge the performance gap between compute and storage systems. The design of BBs, particularly the placement of these devices and the underlying network topology, impacts both performance and cost. As the cost of other components such as memory and accelerators is increasing, it is becoming more important that HPC centers provision BBs tailored to their workloads.This work contributes a provisioning system to provide accurate, multi-tenant simulations that model realistic application and storage workloads from HPC systems. The framework aids HPC centers in modeling their workloads against multiple network and BB configurations rapidly. In experiments with our framework, we provide a comparison of representative Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) I/O workloads against multiple BB designs. We analyze the impact of these designs on latency, I/O phase lengths, contention for network and storage devices, and choice of network topology.

Khetawat, Harsh↗

Integrated Heat Pump Thermal Storage and Power Cycle for CSP (Final Technical Report)

Pumped thermal energy storage (PTES) is a storage system that stores electricity in thermal reservoirs. In this project, methods of integrating PTES with concentrating solar power (CSP) systems were investigated and their feasibility evaluated. Hybrid "solar-PTES" devices can provide both flexible renewable power generation as well as a variety of electricity storage services. Techno-economic models of PTES and solar-PTES were developed and used to assess their performance, cost, and commercial viability. Systems were optimized using multi-objective optimization techniques. The value that these storage devices provide to the grid was estimated using production cost modelling. Key advances made in this project include the development of detailed techno-economic models that improve state-of-the-art assessments of these technologies. Off-design models were developed and used in grid-analysis models. This work describes for the first time how PTES and solar-PTES behave over a range of operating points and assesses the value that these systems can provide to the electrical grid. Feedback was obtained from experts in the field, which clarified key technological and economic barriers that must be addressed to improve the feasibility of these devices.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

High-Performance Flexible Supercapacitors obtained via Recycled Jute: Bio-Waste to Energy Storage Approach

In search of affordable, flexible, lightweight, efficient and stable supercapacitors, metal oxides have been shown to provide high charge storage capacity but with poor cyclic stability due to structural damage occurring during the redox process. Here, we develop an efficient flexible supercapacitor obtained by carbonizing abundantly available and recyclable jute. The active material was synthesized from jute by a facile hydrothermal method and its electrochemical performance was further enhanced by chemical activation. Specific capacitance of 408 F/g at 1 mV/s using CV and 185 F/g at 500 mA/g using charge-discharge measurements with excellent flexibility (~100% retention in charge storage capacity on bending) were observed. The cyclic stability test confirmed no loss in the charge storage capacity of the electrode even after 5,000 charge-discharge measurements. In addition, a supercapacitor device fabricated using this carbonized jute showed promising specific capacitance of about 51 F/g, and improvement of over 60% in the charge storage capacity on increasing temperature from 5 to 75 °C. Based on these results, we propose that recycled jute should be considered for fabrication of high-performance flexible energy storage devices at extremely low cost.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗

A Flexible, Redox-Active, Aqueous Electrolyte-Based Asymmetric Supercapacitor with High Energy Density Based on Keratin-Derived Renewable Carbon

This work exploits the advantage of asymmetric configuration over symmetric supercapacitor in designing high energy density flexible devices from two active electrode materials–keratin-based renewable-resource hierarchically porous carbon and hydrous ruthenium oxide (RuO 2 ). Here, the asymmetric device exhibits significantly high capacitance. Conventional estimation of energy storage parameters, however, cannot be applied for devices with a Faradaic energy storage contribution via redox charge transfer mechanism. Therefore, this work applies a precise measurement of pseudocapacitance contribution at various scan rates to correct the device data that reveals effective capacitance of 120 F g –1 with the energy density of 37 W h kg –1 at 776 W kg –1 . It also retains excellent rate capability, >74% at high current density 25 A g –1 . The charge storage activity and device stability can be further enhanced by introducing redox-active electrolytes that improve specific capacitance, but the rate capabilities deteriorate at high current densities. Further, the principle of asymmetric electrode design is applied to fabricate a bending-tolerant, flexible device by depositing active electrode material on wire-shaped current collector followed by coupling those separated with polyvinyl alcohol gel containing redox electrolyte; it yields 36.8 mF cm –1 specific capacitance at a 0.2 mA cm –1 current density.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Materials, devices and systems for piezoelectric energy harvesting and storage

Materials and systems that enable high efficiency conversion of mechanical stress to electrical energy and methods of use thereof are described herein. The materials and systems are preferably used to provide power to medical devices implanted inside or used outside of a patient's body. For medical devices, the materials and systems convert electrical energy from the natural contractile and relaxation motion of a portion of a patient's body, such as the heart, lung and diaphragm, or via motion of body materials or fluids such as air, blood, urine, or stool. The materials and systems are capable of being bent, folded or otherwise stressed without fracturing and include piezoelectric materials on a flexible substrate. The materials and systems are preferably fashioned to be generally conformal with intimate apposition to complex surface topographies.

Dagdeviren, Canan↗

Assessing Nonlinear Polarization in Electrochemical Cells using AC Impedance Spectroscopy

AC impedance spectroscopy is widely used to evaluate performance limitations in energy storage and conversion devices (e.g., batteries, supercapacitors, and fuel cells). This work shows that integrating the resistive elements in an equivalent circuit as functions of steady-state current enables one to recover overpotentials associated with different processes (e.g., ion migration, charge transfer, and diffusion) in nonlinear electrochemical power supplies. Closed form expressions for diffusion overpotentials are derived using this method for transmissive and reflective boundary conditions and three electrode symmetries (planar, cylindrical, and spherical). Discussion is also extended to macroscopically homogenous porous electrodes which are relevant for most real-world devices. Overall, the approach described herein is a powerful tool to identify rate-limiting steps and guide material/component design.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Evaluation of lithium as a tritium storage medium for betavoltaics

Lithium foils were demonstrated to absorb surrogate protium for tritium-powered betavoltaics. 20μm thick lithium foils were hole-punched from a ribbon of electrodeposited lithium on copper foil. The lithium foils were loaded with hydrogen in a custom Sievert apparatus where the pressure drop showed full hydriding at a hydrogen pressure of 2 bar and at all loading temperatures above the lithium melting point at 190, 200, 225, 250, and 300. Lithium hydride formation was confirmed with Raman spectroscopy after hydrogen loading. The kinetics of experimental hydride formation was compared to the diffusion-limited Mintz–Bloch model. While the Mintz–Bloch model showed good fit with the experimental loadings, the model overpredicted the loading kinetics starting at 250 °C and at higher temperatures. In conclusion, The overprediction was either caused by lithium hydride outgassing due to some reduction with some residual lithium hydroxide created from brief air exposure when sealing the lithium in the reactor or a transition from diffusion-limited hydride growth to surface or metal–hydride interface-limited hydride growth.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Electrospun Nanofiber Electrodes and Membrane for Energy Conversion and Storage

Electrospinning is one option for the hierarchal organization of polymers and nanoparticles into membrane and electrode components for high-performance energy storage and conversion devices. Electrospinning processes are cost competitive and simple to realize on a commercial scale, with process equipment readily available for large-scale manufacturing. This paper provides a brief overview on the use of nanofiber electrospinning for fabricating fuel cell and battery components.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Ternary Nitride Materials: Fundamentals and Emerging Device Applications

Interest in inorganic ternary nitride materials has grown rapidly over the past few decades, as their diverse chemistries and structures make them appealing for a variety of applications. Due to synthetic challenges posed by the stability of N 2 , the number of predicted nitride compounds dwarfs the number that have been synthesized, offering a breadth of opportunity for exploration. This review summarizes the fundamental properties and structural chemistry of ternary nitrides, leveraging metastability and the impact of nitrogen chemical potential. A discussion of prevalent defects, both detrimental and beneficial, is followed by a survey of synthesis techniques and their interplay with metastability. Throughout the review, we highlight applications (such as solid-state lighting, electrochemical energy storage, and electronic devices) in which ternary nitrides show particular promise.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Quaternized Polynorbornene Random Copolymers for Fuel Cell Devices

Quaternized polymers are critical components for various energy devices. Vinyl-addition polynorbornenes provide high mechanical strength, high ion conductivity, and chemical stability in a wide range of pH environments due to the all-C–C bond backbone. In this paper, we present the synthesis of a series of quaternized polynorbornene random copolymers via vinyl addition polymerization and elucidate the impact of polymer composition on their properties. The quaternary ammonium alkyl tether length and the ratio of n-hexylnorbornene to unsubstituted norbornene are systemically tailored. A copolymer of 5-(3-bromopropyl)-2-norbornene and norbornene with pendant trimethylammonium groups achieved hydroxide conductivity of 109 mS/cm at 80 °C with a modest water uptake of 72%. The addition of n-hexylnorbornene to the copolymer, to make a terpolymer, allows for the polymer composition to be tailored for properties, including a decrease in water uptake and higher processability, despite a slightly decreased hydroxide conductivity. Moreover, the developed membranes are chemically robust and highly mechanically stable, enabling thin membranes to be easily fabricated. This study provides insight into important design parameters for quaternized polynorbornenes for a variety of energy storage and conversion devices, especially fuel cells.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Final Report for Project DE-FG02-05ER15718 Fluoropolymers, Electrolytes, Composites and Electrodes

This report is for a project that was initiated under the title “New Proton-Conducting Fluoropolymer Electrolytes for PEM Fuel Cells”, as part of the DOE program titled “Basic Research for the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Initiative”, Program Notice DE-FG01-04ER04-20. The project received 750,000 dollars in initial funding for a three-year term with a start date of August 15, 2005. Creager was PI and co-PIs were DesMarteau and Smith, all from Clemson. The project was renewed for a second three-year term with a start date of June 15 2008, again for 750,000 dollars, with the new title, “Fluoropolymers, Electrolytes, Composites and Electrodes”. Shortly after the renewal was put in place, co-PI Smith left Clemson to accept a position at the University of Texas at Dallas. After a period of no-cost extension the project was renewed on January 1 2013 for another three-year term, this time for a smaller amount ($525,000) and with Thrasher, a new senior hire at Clemson, as co-PI in place of Smith. DesMarteau had retired from Clemson by this time but was retained as a project advisor. After a final one-year no-cost extension for calendar year 2016, the project ended on December 31, 2016, giving it an active period of eleven and one-half years, from August 15 2005 to December 31 2016. The overall objective of this research project has been to create and understand the behavior of new fluoropolymer-based electrolytes and electrodes suitable for use in electrochemical energy storage and conversion devices. The objective was pursued via research on new fluorinated monomers, new polymers and polyelectrolytes (also known as ionomers), and new electrocatalyst supports that in some cases include chemically grafted electrolytes to promote rapid ion transport to electrocatalytically active sites (usually platinum nanoparticles) on the support. The research involved synthesis and characterization of new materials, and creation and use of new measurement techniques that address key properties of the materials, e.g. mixed electronic / ionic conduction in the absence of liquid electrolyte, that are relevant to their use in energy conversion and storage.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗