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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 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2012

Efficient laser-induced 6-8 keV x-ray production from iron oxide aerogel and foil-lined cavity targets

The performance of new iron-based laser-driven x-ray sources has been tested at the OMEGA laser facility for production of x rays in the 6.5-8.5 keV range. Two types of targets were experimentally investigated: low-density iron oxide aerogels (density 6-16 mg/cm{sup 3}) and stainless steel foil-lined cavity targets (steel thickness 1-5 {mu}m). The targets were irradiated by 40 beams of the OMEGA laser (500 J/beam, 1 ns pulse, wavelength 351 nm). All targets showed good coupling with the laser, with <5% of the incident laser light backscattered by the resulting plasma in all cases (typically <2.5%). The aerogel targets produced T{sub e}=2 to 3 keV, n{sub e}=0.12-0.2 critical density plasmas yielding a 40%-60% laser-to-x-ray total conversion efficiency (CE) (1.2%-3% in the Fe K-shell range). The foil cavity targets produced T{sub e}{approx} 2 keV, n{sub e}{approx} 0.15 critical density plasmas yielding a 60%-75% conversion efficiency (1.6%-2.2% in the Fe K-shell range). Time-resolved images illustrate that the volumetric heating of low-density aerogels allow them to emit a higher K-shell x-ray yield even though they contain fewer Fe atoms. However, their challenging fabrication process leads to a larger shot-to-shot variation than cavity targets.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Enhanced quantum efficiency from hybrid cesium halide/copper photocathodes

The quantum efficiency (QE) of Cu is found to increase dramatically when coated by a CsI film and then irradiated by a UV laser. Over three orders of magnitude quantum efficiency enhancement at 266 nm is observed in CsI/Cu(100), indicating potential application in future photocathode devices. Upon laser irradiation, a large work function reduction to a value less than 2 eV is also observed, significantly greater than for similarly treated CsBr/Cu(100). The initial QE enhancement, prior to laser irradiation, is attributed to interface interaction and the intrinsic properties of the Cs halide film. Further QE enhancement following activation is attributed to formation of inter-band states and Cs metal accumulation at the interface induced by laser irradiation.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2013

Strategies for Energy-Efficient Resource Management of Hybrid Programming Models

Many scientific applications are programmed using hybrid programming models that use both message passing and shared memory, due to the increasing prevalence of large-scale systems with multicore, multisocket nodes. Previous work has shown that energy efficiency can be improved using software-controlled execution schemes that consider both the programming model and the power-aware execution capabilities of the system. However, such approaches have focused on identifying optimal resource utilization for one programming model, either shared memory or message passing, in isolation. The potential solution space, thus the challenge, increases substantially when optimizing hybrid models since the possible resource configurations increase exponentially. Nonetheless, with the accelerating adoption of hybrid programming models, we increasingly need improved energy efficiency in hybrid parallel applications on large-scale systems. In this work, we present new software-controlled execution schemes that consider the effects of dynamic concurrency throttling (DCT) and dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) in the context of hybrid programming models. Specifically, we present predictive models and novel algorithms based on statistical analysis that anticipate application power and time requirements under different concurrency and frequency configurations. Furthermore, we apply our models and methods to the NPB MZ benchmarks and selected applications from the ASC Sequoia codes. Overall, we achieve substantial energy savings (8.74 percent on average and up to 13.8 percent) with some performance gain (up to 7.5 percent) or negligible performance loss.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2012

Towards Efficient Supercomputing: Searching for the Right Efficiency Metric

The efficiency of supercomputing has traditionally been in the execution time. In early 2000 s, the concept of total cost of ownership was re-introduced, with the introduction of efficiency measure to include aspects such as energy and space. Yet the supercomputing community has never agreed upon a metric that can cover these aspects altogether and also provide a fair basis for comparison. This paper exam- ines the metrics that have been proposed in the past decade, and proposes a vector-valued metric for efficient supercom- puting. Using this metric, the paper presents a study of where the supercomputing industry has been and how it stands today with respect to efficient supercomputing.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Efficiency and Loading Evaluation of High Efficiency Mist Eliminators (HEME) - 12003

High efficiency mist eliminators (HEME) are filters primarily used to remove moisture and/or liquid aerosols from an air stream. HEME elements are designed to reduce aerosol and particulate load on primary High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters and to have a liquid particle removal efficiency of approximately 99.5% for aerosols down to sub-micron size particulates. The investigation presented here evaluates the loading capacity of the element in the absence of a water spray cleaning system. The theory is that without the cleaning system, the HEME element will suffer rapid buildup of solid aerosols, greatly reducing the particle loading capacity. Evaluation consists of challenging the element with a waste surrogate dry aerosol and di-octyl phthalate (DOP) at varying intervals of differential pressure to examine the filtering efficiency of three different element designs at three different media velocities. Also, the elements are challenged with a liquid waste surrogate using Laskin nozzles and large dispersion nozzles. These tests allow the loading capacity of the unit to be determined and the effectiveness of washing down the interior of the elements to be evaluated. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2016

High-Performance Polymer Solar Cells Based on a Wide-Bandgap Polymer Containing Pyrrolo[3,4- f ]benzotriazole-5,7-dione with a Power Conversion Efficiency of 8.63%

A novel donor–acceptor type conjugated polymer based on a building block of 4,8-di(thien-2-yl)-6-octyl-2-octyl-5H-pyrrolo[3,4-f]benzotriazole-5,7(6H)-dione (TZBI) as the acceptor unit and 4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl)­benzo­[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene as the donor unit, named as PTZBIBDT, is developed and used as an electron-donating material in bulk-heterojunction polymer solar cells. The resulting copolymer exhibits a wide bandgap of 1.81 eV along with relatively deep highest occupied molecular orbital energy level of -5.34 eV. Based on the optimized processing conditions, including thermal annealing, and the use of a water/alcohol cathode interlayer, the single-junction polymer solar cell based on PTZBIBDT:PC71BM ([6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester) blend film affords a power conversion efficiency of 8.63% with an open-circuit voltage of 0.87 V, a short circuit current of 13.50 mA cm -2 , and a fill factor of 73.95%, which is among the highest values reported for wide-bandgap polymers-based single-junction organic solar cells. The morphology studies on the PTZBIBDT:PC71BM blend film indicate that a fibrillar network can be formed and the extent of phase separation can be mani­pulated by thermal annealing. These results indicate that the TZBI unit is a very promising building block for the synthesis of wide-bandgap polymers for high-performance single-junction and tandem (or multijunction) organic solar cells.

Lan, Liuyuan↗
DOE OSTI2016

Efficient semitransparent perovskite solar cells for 23.0%-efficiency perovskite/silicon four-terminal tandem cells

Here, we have investigated semi-transparent perovskite solar cells and infrared enhanced silicon heterojunction cells for high-efficiency tandem devices. A semi-transparent metal electrode with good electrical conductivity and optical transparency has been fabricated by thermal evaporation of 7 nm of Au onto a 1-nm-thick Cu seed layer. For this electrode to reach its full potential, MAPbI3 thin films were formed by a modified one-step spin-coating method, resulting in a smooth layer that allowed the subsequent metal thin film to remain continuous. The fabricated semi-transparent perovskite solar cells demonstrated 16.5% efficiency under one-sun illumination, and were coupled with infrared-enhanced silicon heterojunction cells tuned specifically for perovskite/Si tandem devices. A double-layer antireflection coating at the front side and MgF2 reflector at rear side of the silicon heterojunction cells reduced parasitic absorption of near-infrared light, leading to 6.5% efficiency after filtering with a perovskite device and 23.0% summed efficiency for the perovskite/Si tandem device.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Manipulating Adsorption-Insertion Mechanisms in Nanostructured Carbon Materials for High-Efficiency Sodium Ion Storage

Hard carbon is one of the most promising anode materials for sodium-ion batteries, but the low coulombic efficiency is still a key barrier. In this paper we synthesized a series of nanostructured hard carbon materials with controlled architectures. Using a combination of in-situ XRD mapping, ex-situ NMR, EPR, electrochemical techniques and simulations, an “adsorption-intercalation” (A-I) mechanism is established for Na ion storage. During the initial stages of Na insertion, Na ions adsorb on the defect sites of hard carbon with a wide adsorption energy distribution, producing a sloping voltage profile. In the second stage, Na ions intercalate into graphitic layers with suitable spacing to form NaCx compounds similar to the Li ion intercalation process in graphite, producing a flat low voltage plateau. The cation intercalation with a flat voltage plateau should be enhanced and the sloping region should be avoided. Guided by this knowledge, non-porous hard carbon material has been developed which has achieved high reversible capacity and coulombic efficiency to fulfill practical application.

Qiu, Shen↗
DOE OSTI2023

Unidirectional Sidechain Engineering to Construct Dual‐Asymmetric Acceptors for 19.23 % Efficiency Organic Solar Cells with Low Energy Loss and Efficient Charge Transfer

Abstract Achieving both high open‐circuit voltage ( V oc ) and short‐circuit current density ( J sc ) to boost power‐conversion efficiency (PCE) is a major challenge for organic solar cells (OSCs), wherein high energy loss ( E loss ) and inefficient charge transfer usually take place. Here, three new Y‐series acceptors of mono‐asymmetric asy‐YC11 and dual‐asymmetric bi‐asy‐YC9 and bi‐asy‐YC12 are developed. They share the same asymmetric D 1 AD 2 (D 1 =thieno[3,2‐ b ]thiophene and D 2 =selenopheno[3,2‐ b ]thiophene) fused‐core but have different unidirectional sidechain on D 1 side, allowing fine‐tuned molecular properties, such as intermolecular interaction, packing pattern, and crystallinity. Among the binary blends, the PM6 : bi‐asy‐YC12 one has better morphology with appropriate phase separation and higher order packing than the PM6 : asy‐YC9 and PM6 : bi‐asy‐YC11 ones. Therefore, the PM6 : bi‐asy‐YC12‐based OSCs offer a higher PCE of 17.16 % with both high V oc and J sc , due to the reduced E loss and efficient charge transfer properties. Inspired by the high V oc and strong NIR‐absorption, bi‐asy‐YC12 is introduced into efficient binary PM6 : L8‐BO to construct ternary OSCs. Thanks to the broadened absorption, optimized morphology, and furtherly minimized E loss , the PM6 : L8‐BO : bi‐asy‐YC12‐based OSCs achieve a champion PCE of 19.23 %, which is one of the highest efficiencies among these annealing‐free devices. Our developed unidirectional sidechain engineering for constructing bi‐asymmetric Y‐series acceptors provides an approach to boost PCE of OSCs.

Chemistry↗
DOE OSTI2024

Antisolvent‐Mediated Air Quench for High‐Efficiency Air‐Processed Carbon‐Based Planar Perovskite Solar Cells

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have becoma a leading low‐cost photovoltaic technology, achieving power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of up to 26.1%. However, their commercialization is hindered by stability issues and the need for controlled processing environments. Carbon‐electrode‐based PSCs (C‐PSCs) offer enhanced stability and cost‐effectiveness compared to traditional metal‐electrode PSCs, i.e., Au and Ag. However, processing challenges persist, particularly in air conditions where moisture sensitivity poses a significant hurdle. Herein, a novel air processing technique is presented for planar C‐PSCs that incorporates antisolvent vapors, such as chlorobenzene, into a controlled air‐quenching process. This method effectively mitigates moisture‐induced instability, resulting in champion PCEs exceeding 20% and robust stability under ambient conditions. The approach retains 80% of initial efficiency after 30 h of operation at maximum power point without encapsulation. This antisolvent‐mediated air‐quenching technique represents a significant advancement in the scalable production of C‐PSCs, paving the way for future large‐scale deployment.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Highly efficient Cu-decorated iron oxide nanocatalyst for low pressure CO2 conversion

We report a nanoparticulate iron oxide based catalyst for CO2 conversion with high efficiency at low pressures and on the effect of the presence of copper on the catalyst’s restructuring and its catalytic performance. In situ X-ray scattering reveals the restructuring of the catalyst at the nanometer scale. In situ X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) shows the evolution of the composition and oxidation state of the iron and copper components under reaction conditions along with the promotional effect of copper on the chemical transformation of the iron component. X-ray diffraction (XRD), XANES and Raman spectroscopy proved that the starting nanocatalyst is composed of iron oxides differing in chemical nature (α-Fe2O3, Fe3O4, FeO(OH)) and dimensionality, while the catalyst after CO2 conversion was identified as a mixture of α-Fe, Fe3C, and traces of Fe5C2. The significant increase of the rate CO2 is turned over in the presence of copper nanoparticles indicates that Cu nanoparticles activate hydrogen, which after spilling over to the neighbouring iron sites, facilitate a more efficient conversion of carbon dioxide.

Benzene↗
DOE OSTI2021

Fuel Property Effects on Knock Propensity and Thermal Efficiency in a Direct-Injection Spark-Ignition Engine

Engine knock remains one of the major barriers to further improvement in thermal efficiency of Direct-Injection Spark-Ignition (DISI) engines. While Research Octane Number and Motor Octane Number are often used as standard rating methods for knock resistance of fuels, the impacts of other fuel properties on knock propensity in modern engines such as heat of vaporization (HoV) and laminar flame speed (LFS) require better understanding in order to co-optimize fuels and engine designs to achieve higher thermal efficiency and lower CO2 emission. In the present study, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used to model a boosted DISI engine with a focus on knock prediction and fuel property effects. A level-set G-equation model is employed to capture turbulent premixed combustion, and is coupled with a transported Livengood-Wu (L-W) integral approach to predict autoignition in the unburnt region. A criterion associated with the L-W integral is developed to accurately predict knock onset and knock-limited spark-advance. This model is then applied to a sensitivity analysis of HoV and LFS on knock tendency and thermal efficiency. The pressure-temperature trajectory framework is applied and extended to study the fuel effects on auto-ignition process in the engine. An existing efficiency-based merit function, which is derived from experiments for boosted SI engines, is evaluated and improved based on the current CFD results.

DISI↗
DOE OSTI2017

Self-consistent clustering analysis: an efficient multiscale scheme for inelastic heterogeneous materials

A predictive computational theory is shown for modeling complex, hierarchical materials ranging from metal alloys to polymer nanocomposites. The theory can capture complex mechanisms such as plasticity and failure that span across multiple length scales. This general multiscale material modeling theory relies on sound principles of mathematics and mechanics, and a cutting-edge reduced order modeling method named self-consistent clustering analysis (SCA) [Zeliang Liu, M.A. Bessa, Wing Kam Liu, “Self-consistent clustering analysis: An efficient multi-scale scheme for inelastic heterogeneous materials,” Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Engrg. 306 (2016) 319–341]. SCA reduces by several orders of magnitude the computational cost of micromechanical and concurrent multiscale simulations, while retaining the microstructure information. This remarkable increase in efficiency is achieved with a data-driven clustering method. Computationally expensive operations are performed in the so-called offline stage, where degrees of freedom (DOFs) are agglomerated into clusters. The interaction tensor of these clusters is computed. In the online or predictive stage, the Lippmann-Schwinger integral equation is solved cluster-wise using a self-consistent scheme to ensure solution accuracy and avoid path dependence. To construct a concurrent multiscale model, this scheme is applied at each material point in a macroscale structure, replacing a conventional constitutive model with the average response computed from the microscale model using just the SCA online stage. A regularized damage theory is incorporated in the microscale that avoids the mesh and RVE size dependence that commonly plagues microscale damage calculations. The SCA method is illustrated with two cases: a carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) structure with the concurrent multiscale model and an application to fatigue prediction for additively manufactured metals. For the CFRP problem, a speed up estimated to be about 43,000 is achieved by using the SCA method, as opposed to FE2, enabling the solution of an otherwise computationally intractable problem. The second example uses a crystal plasticity constitutive law and computes the fatigue potency of extrinsic microscale features such as voids. This shows that local stress and strain are capture sufficiently well by SCA. This model has been incorporated in a process-structure-properties prediction framework for process design in additive manufacturing.

Liu, Z.↗
DOE OSTI2015

Phosphoketolase pathway engineering for carbon-efficient biocatalysis

Recent advances in metabolic engineering have facilitated the development of microbial biocatalysts capable of producing an array of bio-products, ranging from fuels to drug molecules. These bio-products are commonly generated through an acetyl-CoA intermediate, which serves as a key precursor in the biological conversion of carbon substrates. Moreover, conventional biocatalytic upgrading strategies proceeding through this route are limited by low carbon efficiencies, in large part due to carbon losses associated with pyruvate decarboxylation to acetyl-CoA. Bypass of pyruvate decarboxylation offers a means to dramatically enhance carbon yields and, in turn, bioprocess economics. Here, we discuss recent advances and prospects for employing the phosphoketolase pathway for direct biosynthesis of acetyl-CoA from carbon substrates, and phosphoketolase-based metabolic engineering strategies for carbon efficient biocatalysis.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Improve First-Cycle Efficiency and Rate Performance of Layered-Layered Li 1.2 Mn 0.6 Ni 0.2 O 2 Using Oxygen Stabilizing Dopant

The poor first-cycle Coulombic efficiency and rate performance of the Li-rich layered-layered oxides are associated with oxygen gas generation in the first activation charging and sluggish charge transportation along the layers. In this work, we report that barium doping improves the first-cycle efficiency of Li-rich layered-layered Li1.2Mn0.6Ni0.2O2 via suppression of the oxidation of O2– ions in the first charging. This effect can be attributed to the stabilizing effect of the barium cations on the oxygen radical intermediates generated during the oxidation of O2–. Meanwhile, because the stabilized oxygen radicals likely facilitate the charge transportation in the layered-layered structure, the barium-doped Li1.2Mn0.6Ni0.2O2 exhibits significant improvement in rate performance. Stabilizing the oxygen radicals could be a promising strategy to improve the electrochemical performance of Li-rich layered-layered oxides.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗