SEARCH · Search NASA
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.
The release and diffusion of corrosive iodine species limit perovskite solar cell (PSC) stability. An organic-MoO 3 composite hole transport layer (HTL) with enhanced thermal stability is devised to suppress iodine diffusion and improve PSC stability.
High-entropy (HE) design emerged as a promising path for discovering multivalent superionic conductors. This work provides a computational exploration of the synthesizability of HE spinel-based electrolytes among the typical chemical space. Design principles have been established, while experimental synthesis has supported the stability rules predicted by computational data.
LiMnxFe1−xPO4 (LMFP) is a promising high-voltage, thermally stable, and earth-abundant cathode material, yet its practical application is limited by interphase instability and Mn dissolution. In this work, we systematically evaluate LiMn0.6Fe0.4PO4/graphite pouch cells using three electrolyte formulations including control carbonate electrolyte, control + 2 wt% vinylene carbonate (VC), and control + 2 wt% VC + 1 wt% 1,3,2-dioxathiolane 2,2-dioxide (DTD), to establish how electrolyte composition governs interphase chemistry and long-term degradation. Electrochemical testing shows that both additives are preferentially reduced prior to ethylene carbonate (EC) during cell formation, generating robust cathode-electrolyte interphase (CEI) and solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) layers that suppress gas evolution and raise the first-cycle coulombic efficiency to 89.3%. Additionally, the dual-additive electrolyte delivers the most stable performance, retaining over 85% capacity after 600 cycles while minimizing impedance growth under long-term cycling at C/3 and 40 °C. Soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy confirms that VC + DTD effectively suppresses electrolyte oxidation at the cathode surface, and micro-X-ray fluorescence shows substantially reduced Mn dissolution and deposition on the graphite anode. Density functional theory simulations further provided insights into the structural and energetic influences of alkoxide species on the cathode surface, proposing a Mn2+ extraction mechanism. The combined experimental and computational findings establish a mechanistic link between electrolyte composition and interphase evolution, highlighting the effectiveness of electrolyte engineering for extending the operational lifetime of LMFP-based lithium-ion batteries.
The practical deployment of lithium–sulfur batteries (LSBs) is hindered by fundamental limitations in conventional slurry-cast cathodes, including poor sulfur utilization, sluggish ion transport, and low areal capacity, particularly in thick electrodes required for high energy density. To address these challenges, we present direct ink writing (DIW) as an additive manufacturing strategy to fabricate advanced current-collector-free, 3D-printed sulfur cathodes (3DP S@CoNi-DSACs/NC) with hierarchically porous architectures that enhance lithium-ion diffusion, promote electrolyte penetration, and reduce interfacial resistance. The synergistic effects of Co/Ni dual-atom sites accelerate redox kinetics and mitigate polysulfide shuttling. As a result, the optimized 3DP cathode with a sulfur loading of 5.4 mg cm −2 demonstrated excellent rate capability, delivering a high reversible capacity of 1041.4 mAh g −1 at 1C with 85.5% capacity retention after 1000 cycles, significantly outperforming its cast counterpart. Remarkably, even at a higher sulfur loading of 8.1 mg cm −2 , the 3DP cathode maintains outstanding performance, achieving a discharge capacity of 1538.4 mAh g −1 and an areal capacity of 12.5 mAh cm −2 at 0.1C. This study not only demonstrates the functional integration of catalytically active materials into 3D printable sulfur cathode architectures but also offers a scalable and transformative platform for building high-performance LSBs beyond conventional electrode manufacturing methods.
Abstract Modern power grid is evolving towards carbon neutrality by deploying increasing amount of renewable energy resources. However, the impact of renewable generation on power system planning and operation is not sufficiently investigated, especially the capability of renewable penetrated power systems to resist and recover from major disturbances, which is a critical concern for system operators. Novel metrics and evaluation methodologies are needed to depict systems’ ability in response to events caused by natural disasters, and quantitatively evaluate system performance in various time scales. In this paper, operational resilience metrics are proposed for power systems with penetration of renewable energy resources based on transient stability principles. A systematic methodology is proposed to quantitatively assess the evolution of system performance during various stages of the disaster process. Based on the proposed metrics, a resilience‐oriented disaster management strategy is designed and validated using the modified IEEE 39‐bus test system. The simulation results demonstrate the validity of the proposed metrics and strategy, and show that the system resilience is enhanced during the mitigation of fault conditions.
This paper reports on the theoretical and simulation results of a gyro-Landau-fluid extension of the BOUT++ code, which contributes to increasing the physics understanding of edge-localized-modes (ELMs). Large ELMs with low-to-intermediate-n peeling-ballooning (P-B) modes are significantly suppressed due to finite Larmor radius (FLR) effects when the ion temperature increases. For type-I ELMs, it is found from linear simulations that retaining complete first order FLR corrections as resulting from the incomplete “gyroviscous cancellation” in Braginskii's two-fluid model is necessary to obtain good agreement with gyro-fluid results for high ion temperature cases (T{sub i}≽3 keV) when the ion density has a strong radial variation, which goes beyond the simple local model of ion diamagnetic stabilization of ideal ballooning modes. The maximum growth rate is inversely proportional to T{sub i} because the FLR effect is proportional to T{sub i}. The FLR effect is also proportional to toroidal mode number n, so for high n cases, the P-B mode is stabilized by FLR effects. Nonlinear gyro-fluid simulations show results that are similar to those from the two-fluid model, namely that the P-B modes trigger magnetic reconnection, which drives the collapse of the pedestal pressure. Due to the additional FLR-corrected nonlinear E × B convection of the ion gyro-center density, for a ballooning-dominated equilibrium the gyro-fluid model further limits the radial spreading of ELMs. In six-field two fluid simulations, the parallel thermal diffusivity is found to prevent the ELM encroachment further into core plasmas and therefore leads to steady state L-mode profiles. The simulation results show that most energy is lost via ion channel during an ELM event, followed by particle loss and electron energy loss. Because edge plasmas have significant spatial inhomogeneities and complicated boundary conditions, we have developed a fast non-Fourier method for the computation of Landau-fluid closure terms based on an accurate and tunable approximation. The accuracy and the fast computational scaling of the method have been demonstrated.
An improved method is proposed to measure the jitter time of the photoconductive semiconductor switches (PCSSs). A one-to-two fiber is utilized to separate and guide the 1053 nm laser beam to trigger two identical 3-mm-gap GaAs PCSSs synchronously. The jitter time is derived from the time lags of two switches turn-on by the error transfer theory. At a bias voltage of 1 kV, the jitter time is measured as 14.41 ps, which is the lowest jitter of GaAs PCSS that has been reported so far.
We report the phase formation behavior of Be{sub x}Zn{sub 1-x}O alloys grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. We find the alloy with low- and high-Be contents could be obtained by alloying BeO into ZnO films. X-ray diffraction measurements shows the c lattice constant value shrinks, and room temperature absorption shows the energy band-gap widens after Be incorporated. However, the alloy with intermediate Be composition are unstable and segregated into low- and high-Be contents BeZnO alloys. We demonstrate the phase segregation of Be{sub x}Zn{sub 1-x}O alloys with intermediate Be composition resulted from large internal strain induced by large lattice mismatch between BeO and ZnO.
A direct Density Modulation Cathode (DMC) in magnetron is proposed in this paper. By removing the velocity modulation process, electron spokes corresponding to the dominant operating mode can be quickly formed when the DMC is used. Based on theoretical analysis, particle-in-cell simulations and experimental investigations are carried out for demonstration. The final results show that compared with conventional solid cathode and transparent cathode, the DMC can increase 68% and even 146% of relative microwave widths, respectively.
We theoretically predict magnetic superatoms in the 4d-transition-metal-doped Mg{sub 8} clusters using a spin-polarized density functional theory method. We demonstrate that TcMg{sub 8} is highly energetically stable in both structure and magnetic states, and identify it as a magnetic superatom with a magnetic moment as large as 5 μ{sub B}. The magnetic TcMg{sub 8} with 23 valence electrons has a configuration of 1S{sup 2}1P{sup 6}1D{sup 10} closed shell and 2S{sup 1}2D{sup 4} open shell, complying with Hund's rule similar to the single atom. We elucidate the formation mechanism of the magnetic TcMg{sub 8} superatom based on the detailed analysis of molecular orbitals, and attribute it to the large exchange interaction and moderate crystal field effect. Finally, we predict that the magnetic TcMg{sub 8} may exhibit semiconductor-like property with spin polarization characteristics.
An atmospheric pressure plasma jet is generated by dual sinusoidal wave (50 kHz and 2 MHz). The dual-frequency plasma jet exhibits the advantages of both low frequency and radio frequency plasmas, namely, the long plasma plume and the high electron density. The radio frequency ignition voltage can be reduced significantly by using dual-frequency excitation compared to the conventional radio frequency without the aid of the low frequency excitation source. A larger operating range of α mode discharge can be obtained using dual-frequency excitation which is important to obtain homogeneous and low-temperature plasma. A larger controllable range of the gas temperature of atmospheric pressure plasma could also be obtained using dual-frequency excitation.
In this Letter, dynamic wetting of water nano-droplets containing non-surfactant gold nanoparticles on a gold substrate is examined via molecular dynamics simulations. The results show that the addition of non-surfactant nanoparticles hinders the nano-second droplet wetting process, attributed to the increases in both surface tension of the nanofluid and friction between nanofluid and substrate. The droplet wetting kinetics decreases with increasing nanoparticle loading and water-particle interaction energy. The observed wetting suppression and the absence of nanoparticle ordering near the contact line of nano-sized droplets differ from the wetting behaviors reported from nanofluid droplets of micron size or larger.
The strong softening of the tetragonal shear elastic constant (C{sup ′}) is the main reason for the second magnetostriction peak observed in Fe{sub 100–x}Ga{sub x} alloys. Here, we study the coupling between chemical order and magnetism with the aim to understand the origin of the elastic softening. We demonstrate that C{sup ′} strongly depends on the degree of order of Ga atoms in α-Fe. The B{sub 2} type ordering proves to have an important role on the elastic softening for x<19%, whereas the extreme shear lattice softening and the anomalous temperature dependence of C{sup ′} are found to be due to the strong magnetochemical coupling in the DO{sub 3} phase.
Near infrared (NIR) emission from the Nd{sup 3+} doped zeolite Y was strongly enhanced by partially vitrifying the zeolite structure via extra loading silver ions and post annealing. Under the low annealing temperatures at 450 °C and 650 °C, the states of the loaded silver were determined to be the co-existence of the isolated Ag{sup 0} atoms, the Ag{sup +} ions, and the Ag{sub 2}{sup +} dimers. However, there was no enhancement in the NIR emission by the introduction of these small silver clusters. Under higher annealing temperature at 900 °C where the lattice of the zeolite Y was partially collapsed into the amorphous phase, strong NIR emission enhancement at 1064 nm with a factor of 6.8 was observed. The partial vitrification process by the co-loading of silver and post heat-treatment had strong effect on eliminating the H{sub 2}O molecules, which can greatly enhance the NIR emission.
In this letter, spin rectification was used to study the electric field controlled dynamic magnetic properties of the multiferroic composite which is a Co stripe with induced in-plane anisotropy deposited onto a Pb(Mg{sub 1∕3}Nb{sub 2∕3})O{sub 3}-PbTiO{sub 3} substrate. Due to the coupling between piezoelectric and magnetoelastic effects, a reversible in-plane anisotropy switching has been realized by varying the history of the applied electric field. This merit results from the electric hysteresis of the polarization in the nonlinear piezoelectric regime, which has been proved by a butterfly type electric field dependence of the in-plane anisotropy field. Moreover, the electric field dependent effective demagnetization field and linewidth have been observed at the same time.
Rutile CrO{sub 2} is the most important half-metallic material with nearly 100% spin polarization at the Fermi level, and rutile TiO{sub 2} is a wide-gap semiconductor with many applications. Here, we show through first-principles investigation that a single-unit-cell CrO{sub 2} layer on rutile TiO{sub 2} (001) surface is ferromagnetic and semiconductive with a gap of 0.54 eV, and its electronic state transits abruptly to a typical metallic state when an electrical field is applied. Consequently, this makes an interesting electrical switching effect which may be useful in designing spintronic devices.
An experimental investigation of a relativistic Magnetron with Diffraction Output (MDO) on a short voltage pulse generator, which has maximum repetition rate of 100 Hz and plateau of 2.5 ns, is detailed in this paper. Compared to the conversional solid cathode, a direct Density Modulation Cathode is capable for desired microwave radiation. When applied voltage is 200 kV and axial magnetic field is ∼0.12 T, the MDO radiates 120 MW of microwave with 2.3 GHz of central frequency. Power conversion efficiency reaches 22%. Pulse duration is 3 ns. At repetition rates of 50 Hz and 100 Hz, output microwave powers range from 90 MW to 120 MW. Life time is up to 10{sup 4} shots.
The K{sub 2}NiF{sub 4}-type structure La{sub 4}CoNiO{sub 8} (LCNO), La{sub 4}FeCoO{sub 8} (LFCO), and La{sub 4}FeNiO{sub 8} (LFNO) are studied by using the first-principle electronic structure calculations. Our results indicate that the ground state of LCNO is a ferrimagnetism (FiM) with a large energy gap about 1.9 eV, LFCO and LFNO are antiferromagnetism with energy gaps about 1.3 and 1.4 eV, respectively. Their orthorhombic distortions, out-of-plane elongation, and tilting of octahedron are discussed. It is indicated that LFCO and LFNO have stronger crystal distortion than LCNO. Our calculations indicate that the in-plane magnetic exchange interaction of LCNO is much stronger than LFCO and LFNO, thus LCNO should have much higher magnetic ordering temperature than LFCO and LFNO.