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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 109 records · Page 6

NASA's Long-Term Astrophysics Data Archives

NASA regards data handling and archiving as an integral part of space missions, and has a strong track record of serving astrophysics data to the public, be-ginning with the IRAS satellite in 1983. Archives enable a major science return on the significant investment required to develop a space mission. In fact, the presence and accessibility of an archive can more than double the number of papers resulting from the data. In order for the community to be able to use the data, they have to be able to find the data (ease of access) and interpret the data (ease of use). Funding of archival research (e.g., the ADAP program) is also important not only for making scientific progress, but also for encouraging authors to deliver data products back to the archives to be used in future studies. NASA has also enabled a robust system that can be maintained over the long term, through technical innovation and careful attention to resource allocation. This article provides a brief overview of some of NASA's major astrophysics archive systems, including IRSA, MAST, HEASARC, KOA, NED, the Exoplanet Archive, and ADS.

L Rebull↗

Developing a Vision for Maturing the Heliophysics Infrastructure towards Open Science: The DIARieS Analysis Ecosystem

In the dawn of open science and the upcoming requirements, we speak about the existing state of Heliophysics infrastructure and detail the evolution required to address capability or interconnection shortcomings. Such a daunting barrier calls for an analysis ecosystem with multi-faceted capability. We propose such an ecosystem, called DIARieS, to be built upon five conceptual pillars: Discovery, Implementation, Analysis, Reproducibility, and Sharing of results. The combination of these concepts in a single platform will enable users to more intuitively combine recent advances in technology to create ‘DIARieS’ of their workflows, which can be easily made open to others in the community. The DIARieS ecosystem will also increase our efficiency by streamlining our various workflow processes, including automatic incorporation of the impending requirements of open science. The various components of the ecosystem will simplify software installation and data implementation, including automatically generated citation lists based on the components included. Automatic containerization and version control of the ecosystem will make the custom workflows easily reproducible. Employing widget technology will ease the difficulty of producing publication and commercial quality visualizations and applying common analyses techniques. Incorporating multiple technologies will streamline the various sharing methods common in our work environments today. Overall, the totality of capabilities to be offered by this analysis ecosystem will drastically simplify the application of open science principles to our work in addition to improving our efficiency and ease of collaboration. This talk summarizes a vision of the proposed ecosystem, which is described in more detail in Ringuette et al. (2022: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2022.05.012).

infrastructure↗

Using A Guided Interview to Create an Individual Exposure Profile for The Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health (LSAH)

BACKGROUND To support NASA’s Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health (LSAH) project, Individual Exposure Profiles (IEPs) were developed to record an astronaut’s pre-, in-, and post-NASA exposures. NASA astronauts were invited to participate in a one-time guided interview to review known hazard exposures and medical history documented in NASA records and to add new information not otherwise reported. The purpose of the IEP project was to determine if any significant information was gained from these interviews and identify potential trends in long-term health. METHODOLOGY The pre-filled exposure profile data was extracted from several sources including medical records, biographies, and LSAH records. The information that was pre-filled before the interview included occupational exposures prior to selection to the Astronaut Corps, during active astronaut career (e.g., EVA and ground-based training, on-orbit exposures), and after active career. The IEPs also contained relevant medical history (e.g., audiometry, illnesses, injuries) and significant non-occupational exposures. 189 interviews were conducted from 2012-2014. A Microsoft Access database was created to store the information collected in the IEPs before and after the interviews. The database houses the information from the IEPs to track the updates made to the original data. By analyzing which astronauts supplied additional information and which kinds of data were consistently added, potential gaps and trends in missing data may be identified. In designing the database, an efficient structure was implemented for ease of inputting data and to create variables that would generate quantifiable data. Creating standardized variables within the structure helped ease the process of inputting, organizing data, and analyzing data. Additional updates/data were denoted and were categorized by type of update. The categories identified were “Confirmed”, “Confirmed & Supplemented”, “Supplemented”, “Denied”, “Denied & Supplemented”, and “Other”. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND RESULTS To assess frequency of exposure updates, descriptive statistics will be generated and stratified by relevant factors such as astronaut selection decade, age at selection, and program/era. Hypothesis testing will be performed to understand the associations between updates to exposure information and population characteristics.

Astronaut health↗

Developing a Vision for Maturing the Heliophysics Infrastructure towards Open Science

In the dawn of open science and the upcoming requirements, we speak about the existing state of Heliophysics infrastructure and detail the evolution required to address capability or interconnection shortcomings. Such a daunting barrier calls for an analysis ecosystem with multi-faceted capability. We propose such an ecosystem, called DIARieS, to be built upon five conceptual pillars: Discovery, Implementation, Analysis, Reproducibility, and Sharing of results. The combination of these concepts in a single platform will enable users to more intuitively combine recent advances in technology to create ‘DIARieS’ of their workflows, which can be easily made open to others in the community. The DIARieS ecosystem will also increase our efficiency by streamlining our various workflow processes, including automatic incorporation of the impending requirements of open science. The various components of the ecosystem will simplify software installation and data implementation, including automatically generated citation lists based on the components included. Automatic containerization and version control of the ecosystem will make the custom workflows easily reproducible. Employing widget technology will ease the difficulty of producing publication and commercial quality visualizations and applying common analyses techniques. Incorporating multiple technologies will streamline the various sharing methods common in our work environments today. Overall, the totality of capabilities to be offered by this analysis ecosystem will drastically simplify the application of open science principles to our work in addition to improving our efficiency and ease of collaboration.

Infrastructure↗

Mixed Reality Training and Workspace Integration

Mixed reality technology is being used across Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to enhance training and workforce development. Projects involving mixed reality such as lockout/tagout , the Industrial Control System Laboratory , and a Department of Defense microreactor demonstration have benefited from these innovative approaches. Several key concerns exist with integrating this new technology, including ease of use, ease of setup, and maintenance through the lifecycle. These aspects need to be properly addressed to ensure that this technology remains attractive and useful to operations teams as well as engineers and researchers at INL. Primarily, this requires buy-in from information technology management, designing software/hardware-agnostic tools, and reducing friction with technology integration. To be successful, regular operational use of this new and unfamiliar technology will require straightforward user interfaces, simple setup processes, and feature-rich experiences that reduce the time needed to benefit from the technology. INL is improving its toolset to allow for a streamlined deployment and use of mixed reality technologies that are directly available to researchers and engineers.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Spatially Precise Light‐Activated Dedoping in Wafer‐Scale MoS 2 Films

2D materials, particularly transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), have shown great potential for microelectronics and optoelectronics. However, a major challenge in commercializing these materials is the inability to control their doping at a wafer scale with high spatial fidelity. Interface chemistry is used with the underlying substrate oxide and concomitant exposure to visible light in ambient conditions for photo-dedoping wafer scale MoS 2 . It is hypothesized that the oxide layer traps photoexcited holes, leaving behind long-lived electrons that become available for surface reactions with ambient air at sulfur vacancies (defect sites) resulting in dedoping. Additionally, high fidelity spatial control is showcased over the dedoping process, by laser writing, and fine control achieved over the degree of doping by modulating the illumination time and power density. This localized change in MoS 2 doping density is very stable (at least 7 days) and robust to processing conditions like high temperature and vacuum. The scalability and ease of implementation of this approach can address one of the major issues preventing the “Lab to Fab” transition of 2D materials and facilitate its seamless integration for commercial applications in multi-logic devices, inverters, and other optoelectronic devices.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Rigid Supramolecular Aramid Nanotubes as Catalyst Supports

Solution‐phase heterogeneous catalysts benefit from nanoscale dimensions, which maximize specific surface area and enhance catalytic activity. However, the ease of recovering such nanocatalysts depends on the design of the support materials, which are often particle‐like. Rigid 1D nanomaterials are proposed as supports that can enhance separability while offering high volumetric specific surface area for greater catalyst loading and activity. Here, aramid amphiphiles (AAs) are designed to spontaneously self‐assemble in water into high‐aspect‐ratio supramolecular nanotubes with tunable surface chemistry. These AA nanotubes exhibit high persistence lengths (P = 750 ± 340 µm) and mechanical stiffnesses (3 N/m). Incorporating surface thiol groups enables immobilization of catalytic gold nanoparticles. The resulting AA nanotube‐gold nanoparticle complexes exhibit high catalytic activity, efficient recoverability via simple microfiltration, and sustained reusability over ten reaction cycles. This study demonstrates the utility of molecular self‐assembled 1D nanomaterials as versatile scaffolds for the reuse and recovery of nanoscale catalysts.

1D nanomaterials↗

Hybrid Additive and Subtractive Manufacturing of Dual‐Wavelength Photopolymer Thermosets

Additive manufacturing (AM) techniques such as digital light processing (DLP) AM and stereolithography enable the production of highly complex structures with speed and ease as not previously possible. However, many traditional thermosetting photopolymers used in these processes result in a permanently crosslinked structure incapable of being broken down or modified without the use of energy-intensive processes such as mechanical machining or ablation. To overcome this limitation, this production is described of thiol-ene photopolymer thermosets with dual-wavelength photopolymerization and photodegradation reaction pathways. The dual wavelength selectivity of the polymerization (405 nm) and degradation (365 nm) processes, combined with dual-wavelength DLP AM technology, enables hybrid manufacturing with the ability to add and sequentially subtract material with excellent spatiotemporal control. 2D lithographs and complex 3D architectures with soft elastomeric properties are produced with resolutions as small as 50 µm. Furthermore, the ability to selectively subtract supports from 3D printed structures with deliberate and accurate control is demonstrated. In conclusion, the ability to correct or modify existing structures enables a new paradigm of adaptable materials for corrective manufacturing techniques and temporary structures.

3D Printing↗

A New Class of Oxyhalide Solid Electrolytes NaNbCl 6‐2x O x for Solid‐state Sodium Batteries

Abstract Sodium‐based batteries are gaining momentum due to the abundance and lower cost of sodium compared to lithium. Solid‐state sodium batteries can also provide further safety advantages. However, sodium‐based solid‐state electrolytes (SSEs) that meet all the rigorous requirements, such as high ionic conductivity, oxidative stability with the cathode, and ease of processability, are lacking. We present here a new class of sodium‐based oxyhalide electrolytes NaNbCl 6‐2x O x with a facile mechanochemical synthesis. The oxyhalide NaNbCl 4 O exhibits close to two orders of magnitude higher ambient‐temperature sodium‐ion conductivity (1.03×10 −4 S cm −1 ) compared to the halide counterpart NaNbCl 6 (3×10 −6 S cm −1 ). Structural motifs unique to the oxygen content in NaNbCl 6‐2x O x are identified with 23 Na and 93 Nb magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS NMR) spectroscopy and x‐ray diffraction (XRD). Solid‐state sodium batteries assembled with NaNbCl 4 O electrolyte and the cobalt‐ and nickel‐free layered Na 0.70 Fe 0.3 Mn 0.65 Al 0.05 O 2 cathode exhibit a maximum discharge capacity of 155 mAh g −1 with good cycle life at ambient temperature.

Kmiec, Steven↗

A New Class of Oxyhalide Solid Electrolytes NaNbCl 6‐2x O x for Solid‐state Sodium Batteries

Abstract Sodium‐based batteries are gaining momentum due to the abundance and lower cost of sodium compared to lithium. Solid‐state sodium batteries can also provide further safety advantages. However, sodium‐based solid‐state electrolytes (SSEs) that meet all the rigorous requirements, such as high ionic conductivity, oxidative stability with the cathode, and ease of processability, are lacking. We present here a new class of sodium‐based oxyhalide electrolytes NaNbCl 6‐2x O x with a facile mechanochemical synthesis. The oxyhalide NaNbCl 4 O exhibits close to two orders of magnitude higher ambient‐temperature sodium‐ion conductivity (1.03×10 −4 S cm −1 ) compared to the halide counterpart NaNbCl 6 (3×10 −6 S cm −1 ). Structural motifs unique to the oxygen content in NaNbCl 6‐2x O x are identified with 23 Na and 93 Nb magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS NMR) spectroscopy and x‐ray diffraction (XRD). Solid‐state sodium batteries assembled with NaNbCl 4 O electrolyte and the cobalt‐ and nickel‐free layered Na 0.70 Fe 0.3 Mn 0.65 Al 0.05 O 2 cathode exhibit a maximum discharge capacity of 155 mAh g −1 with good cycle life at ambient temperature.

Kmiec, Steven↗

Cobalt–Nickel Exchange in Exfoliated Battery Layered Cathode Sheets with Application to Recycling

With the emerging dominance of electric vehicles (EV) in the transportation sector, recycling or upcycling spent battery materials will be required to reduce EV costs, lessen waste, and ease critical material supply chain issues for EV batteries. Here, motivated by work in the literature describing the exfoliation of layered oxides, first‐principles calculations are performed to show that Li x CoO 2 , if exfoliated into nanosheets, can readily undergo transition metal cation exchange in aqueous media. The substitution of Co 3+ or Co 4+ cations inside the sheet by Ni 2+ is associated with modest reaction barriers (Δ G* ≈ 0.3–0.7 eV) and is at most mildly endothermic (Δ G ≈ 0.2–0.3 eV). In contrast, previous battery degradation studies have shown that Co 3+ diffusion is strongly inhibited inside bulk layered oxides. This suggests that processing spent layered oxides as nanosheets can provide a potentially low‐energy‐cost pathway to altering the transition metal and/or dopant stoichiometry, which can be used toward developing new room‐temperature upcycling routes for cathodes from end‐of‐life batteries.

battery recycling↗

Data as a Key Resource in Catalysis: A Community Account

The deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the scientific fields central to interdisciplinary catalysis research. By enabling more effective use of data, AI (including simpler machine learning and data science tools) holds great promise for accelerating discoveries. However, progress has so far been modest, largely due to the lack of standardized, machine-readable, and openly shared catalysis data. This perspective, accounting for community insights emerging at conferences, analyses the underlying reasons for these challenges and proposes solutions to a future whereFAIR data management becomes an integral part of research in catalysis. In the short-term, we deem that mandatory FAIR data depositing prior to scientific publications along with consensualized top-down guidelines on data sharing powered by ease-to-use tools can make the necessary step change happen to catalyse data as key resource in our community.

36 - MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Self‐Standing Carbon Nanofibers@Carbon Felt Electrodes to Boost Electrolyzer Productivity: Application to the Electro‐Manufacturing of trans ‐3‐Hexenedioic Acid and Adipic Acid

The industrial implementation of electrosynthesis for chemical manufacturing remains constrained by the limited surface area of conventional electrodes. Herein, this challenge is addressed by designing a carbon nanofiber@carbon felt (CNF@CF) electrode platform that combines the high conductivity, flexibility, and ease of handling of commercial carbon felts (CF) with the large surface area and tunable surface chemistry of carbon nanofibers (CNFs). CNFs are deliberately grown onto the CF scaffold to form a sword-in-sheath structure, where entangled nanofibers wrap the felt macrofibers to provide excellent mechanical stability and electrical conductivity without binders. CNF@CF is evaluated both as an electrode and as a catalyst support for the electrochemical hydrogenation of cis,cis-muconic acid (ccMA), a biobased platform molecule key to the production of performance polyamides and renewable Nylon 6,6. As a noncatalytic electrode for the partial hydrogenation to trans-3-hexenedioic acid, CNF@CF achieves a threefold increase in both cumulative productivity and Faradaic efficiency (FE) compared to bare CF. A similar boost in catalytic activity and energy efficiency is observed using Pd/CNF@CF for the hydrogenation of ccMA to adipic acid. These results highlight the opportunities of the CNF@CF platform for electro-organic synthesis and sustainable chemical manufacturing.

electrochemical hydrogenation↗

ReactionMechanismSimulator.jl: A modern approach to chemical kinetic mechanism simulation and analysis

Abstract We present ReactionMechanismSimulator.jl (RMS), a modern differentiable software for the simulation and analysis of chemical kinetic mechanisms, including multiphase systems. RMS has already been applied to problems in combustion, pyrolysis, polymers, pharmaceuticals, catalysis, and electrocatalysis. RMS is written in Julia, making it easy to develop and allowing it to take advantage of Julia's extensive numerical computing ecosystem. In addition to its extensive library of optimized analytic Jacobians, RMS can generate and use Jacobians computed using automatic differentiation and symbolically generated analytic Jacobians. RMS is demonstrated to be faster than Cantera and Chemkin in several benchmarks. RMS also implements an extensive set of features for analyzing chemical mechanisms, including a library of easy‐to‐call plotting functions, molecular structure resolved flux diagram generation, crash analysis, traditional sensitivity analysis, transitory sensitivity analysis, and an automatic mechanism analysis toolkit. RMS implements efficient adjoint and parallel forward sensitivity analyses. We also demonstrate the ease of adding new features to RMS.

Johnson, Matthew S.↗

New Synthetic Route to 4,6‐Diamino‐5,7‐dinitro‐benzo‐furazan, Important Decomposition Product of 1,3,5‐Triamino‐2,4,6‐trinitrobenzene

The important 1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TATB) decomposition byproduct, 4,6-diamino-5,7-dinitro-benzo-furazan (F 1 ), was prepared in a four-step reaction sequence starting with commercially available materials through a key intermediate, 4,6-dichloro-5,7-dinitro-benzo-furazan. The introduction of azido to 4,6-dichloro-benzo-furazan, followed by nitration and amination gave F 1 in good yield. This new method showed a greatly improved yield and ease of purification than previous methods (the total yield was 30%–40% in seven steps). F 1 is a stable yellow solid with a melting point of 308.7°C and a thermal decomposing temperature of 310.3°C (differential scanning calorimetry at 10°C/min heating rate). The solid-state structure was solved by single-crystal X-ray analyses at low temperatures (100 K). The compound crystallizes in a P 2 1 c space group with the formula C 6 H 4 N 6 O 5 •H 2 O with 12 molecules of F 1 /H 2 O in the unit cell. This compound has eluded complete characterization for almost 50 years. With this information, more advanced decomposition models can be created to further improve critical safety margins in handling the energetic material, TATB.

decomposition↗

Tunable Crosslinked Ether Polymer Network Electrolytes for High‐Performance All‐Solid‐State Sodium Batteries

All-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) are critical for achieving high energy density and enhanced safety. Solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) offer key advantages over other electrolytes, including improved safety, flexibility, and interfacial contact. Among the SPEs, ether-based polymers are widely studied due to their ease of processing and high ionic conductivity (σi) in the amorphous state. In this work, the introduction of poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (PEGMEMA) into an SPE matrix composed of poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA), poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG2k), and sodium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (NaFSI) salt is investigated to facilitate the formation of amorphous, high σ i SPEs through end-group engineering and polymer ratio optimization. PEGMEMA enhances structural integrity via crosslinking with PEGDA through its methacrylate group, while its methyl end group aids ion conduction. A 2:1:7 ratio of PEGDA:PEGMEMA:PEG2k exhibits a σi of 1.16 x 10 -4 S cm -1 and oxidative stability up to 4.4 V at 60 °C. A solid-state cell incorporating this SPE, a Na 2/3 Ni 1/3 Mn 2/3 O 2 (NM12) cathode, and a sodium-metal anode demonstrates excellent cycling stability, retaining over 80 % of its initial capacity for 150 cycles at 60 °C. The findings highlight the potential of end-group engineering in improving the electrochemical performance of SPEs.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Techno‐Economic Analysis of Additively‐Manufactured Wind Turbine Blade Tips That Enable Technology Integration

The Additively‐Manufactured, System‐Integrated Tip (AMSIT) project is leveraging the flexibility of 3D printing to integrate several technologies in a wind turbine blade tip, while reducing the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) produced. The design integration is demonstrated for a 200‐kW–scale turbine with 13‐m blades, with the outer 15% of the blade replaced with a 3D‐printed design. Aerodynamic performance is enhanced without increasing swept area through inclusion of a winglet and surface texturing, both challenging for traditional manufacturing. Longevity and durability are improved through integrated lightning and leading edge erosion protection. Increased power, reduced repair frequency, and ease of repair through blade modularity all contribute to reduced LCOE. The analysis is also extended to modern MW‐scale designs to estimate the impact of the technology at scale, demonstrating the potential to reduce LCOE significantly for modern onshore turbines, with even higher potential savings offshore.

3D printing↗

Aviation security screening optimizer for risk and throughput (ASSORT)

The increasing number of air travelers each year presents a challenge as many airports are near their capacity in terms of resources and space for passenger screening. Fortunately, advancements in technologies like next-generation millimeter wave scanning offer solutions to ease this strain. The focus remains on managing risk while enhancing the passenger experience for the traveling public. The risk model presented in this paper known as the Aviation Security Screening Optimizer for Risk and Throughput (ASSORT) is designed to assess risk-based approaches for passenger screening and checkpoint operations. Additionally, ASSORT is exploring various traveler categories — general, trusted, and trusted-plus — along with different checkpoint screening Concept of Operations tailored to each traveler type. For instance, travelers with a higher trust level may experience fewer screening technologies, resulting in quicker processing times at the checkpoint. The output of ASSORT provides a risk score for predefined threat scenarios, as well as the overall risk to the checkpoint, aircraft, and airport by traveler type. In conclusion, benefits of using this tool include assessing the trade-offs between the overall risk associated with checkpoints and the throughput rate of passengers screened. We show for example the impact that different passenger volumes at the checkpoint can have on risk.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗