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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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Over the last five years substantial progress has been made in defining the realm of new chlorine chemistry in the polar stratosphere. Application of existing experimental techniques to potentially important chlorine-containing compounds has yielded quantitative kinetic and spectroscopic data as well as qualitative mechanistic insights into the relevant reactions.
Jet fuels are typically used for endothermic cooling in practical engines where their thermal stability is very important. In this work the thermal stability of Sasol IPK (a synthetic jet fuel) with varying levels of naphthalene has been studied on stainless steel substrates using spectroscopic ellipsometry in the temperature range 385-400 K. Ellipsometry is an optical technique that measures the changes in a light beam’s polarization and intensity after it reflects off of a thin film to determine the film’s thickness and optical properties. All of the tubes used were rated as thermally unstable by the color standard portion of the Jet Fuel Thermal Oxidation Test, and this was confirmed by the deposit thicknesses observed using ellipsometry. A new amorphous model on a stainless steel substrate was used to model the data and obtain the results. It was observed that, as would be expected, increasing the temperature of the tube increased the overall deposit amount for a constant concentration of naphthalene. The repeatability of these measurements was assessed using multiple trials of the same fuel at 385 K. Lastly, the effect of increasing the naphthalene concentration in the fuel at a constant temperature was found to increase the deposit thickness.In conclusion, ellipsometry was used to investigate the thermal stability of jet fuels on stainless steel substrate. The effects of increasing temperature and addition of naphthalene on stainless steel tubes with Sasol IPK fuel were investigated. It was found, as expected, that increasing temperature lead to an increase in deposit thickness. It wasAmerican Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics6also found that increasing amounts of naphthalene increased the maximum deposit thickness. The repeatability of these measurements was investigated using multiple tests at the same conditions. The present work provides as a better quantitative tool compared to the widely used JFTOT technique. Future work will expand on the fuel types, temperature, and substrate materials.
Accurately determining the properties of stars is of prime importance for characterizing stellar populations in our Galaxy. The field of asteroseismology has been thought to be particularly successful in such an endeavor for stars in different evolutionary stages. However, to fully exploit its potential, robust methods for estimating stellar parameters are required and independent verification of the results is mandatory. With this purpose, we present a new technique to obtain stellar properties by coupling asteroseismic analysis with the InfraRed Flux Method. By using two global seismic observables and multi-band photometry, the technique allows us to obtain masses, radii, effective temperatures, bolometric fluxes, and hence distances for field stars in a self-consistent manner. We apply our method to 22 solar-like oscillators in the Kepler short-cadence sample, that have accurate Hipparcos parallaxes. Our distance determinations agree to better than 5%, while measurements of spectroscopic effective temperatures and interferometric radii also validate our results. We briefly discuss the potential of our technique for stellar population analysis and models of Galactic Chemical Evolution.
Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) has brought scientific exploration, visualization, and control to nanoscale. A plethora of measurement approaches and techniques devised around SPM enabled probing structure and functionalities crucial for virtually all areas of science. While high-resolution electron microscopy techniques preceded scanning probes, SPM effectively opened the door to probing the structure–property relationship on length scales spanning 100s of micrometers down to a single atom. As the complexity of the material systems and the scientific questions increased, so too did the SPM techniques. Substantial efforts have been dedicated toward the development of better instrumentation platforms, probes, and novel spectroscopic measurements; however, many opportunities related to data processing and acquisition in SPM are just being realized now. This chapter will describe the recent progress in data-driven SPM by giving a broad overview of the field, the foundation of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) and the atomic force microscope (AFM), as well as a description behind the operating principles and dynamic modes. A comprehensive overview of the multi-frequency techniques, Band excitation, and general acquisition mode SPM is given, setting the context for the application of big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence in the field of dynamic SPM.
Red shift determinations for quasi-stellar radio sources using spectrographic techniques
This article presents a versatile easy-to-use electrochemical cell suitable for in operando , in situ measurements of battery materials during electrochemical cycling using a variety of X-ray techniques. Argonne's multi-purpose in situ X-ray (AMPIX) cell provides reliable electrochemical cycling over extended periods owing to the uniform stack pressure applied by rigid X-ray windows and the formation of a high-fidelity hermetic seal. The suitability of the AMPIX cell for a broad range of synchrotron-based X-ray scattering and spectroscopic measurements has been demonstrated with studies at eight Advanced Photon Source beamlines to date. Compatible techniques include pair distribution function analysis, high-resolution powder diffraction, small-angle scattering and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. These techniques probe a broad range of electronic, structural and morphological features relevant to battery materials. The AMPIX cell enables experiments providing greater insight into the complex processes that occur in operating batteries by allowing the electrochemical reactions to be probed at fine reaction intervals with greater consistency (within the charge–discharge cycle and between different methodologies) with potential for new time-dependent kinetic studies or studies of transient species. Representative X-ray and electrochemical data to demonstrate the functionality of the AMPIX cell are presented.
The differences in the radiation durabilities of two polyimide materials, Du Pont Kapton and General Electric Ultem, are compared. An explanation of the basic mechanisms which occur during exposure to electron radiation from analyses of infrared (IR) and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopic data for each material is provided. The molecular model for Kapton was, in part, established from earlier modeling for Ultem (pp. 1293-1298 of IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, December 1984). Techniques for understanding the durability of one complex polymer based on the understanding of a different and equally complex polymer are demonstrated. The spectroscopic data showed that the primary radiation-generated change in the tensile properties of Ultem (a large reduction in tensile elongation) was due to crosslinking, which followed the capture by phenyl radicals of hydrogen atoms removed from gem-dimethyl groups. In contrast, the tensile properties of Kapton remained unchanged because radical-radical recombination, a self-mending process, took place.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has begun preparations for the flight of the Mars Observer Mission in the early 1990s. An advanced ground-based study is being conducted on a usefully limited suite of Mars Soil Analog Materials (MarSAM) intended to simulate the aeolian material covering the surface of Mars. A series of variably proportioned iron/calcium smectite clays were prepared from a typical montmorillonite clay using the Banin method. The effect of increasing iron on a diverse set of chemical and spectroscopic properties of the suite of clays is discussed. In order to chemically characterize the MarSAM and compare them with the Martian soil studied by Viking, the clays were analyzed for their major and minor elemental compositions by X-ray fluorescence and ion-coupled plasma techniques. It was concluded that the surface iron has a complex and hitherto uninvestigated impact on the catalytic and spectroscopic properties of clays and on the ability of these material to store energy.
Accurate relative spectrophotometry is critical for many science applications. Small wavelength-scale residuals in the flux calibration can significantly impact the measurements of weak emission and absorption features in the spectra. Using Sloan Digital Sky Survey data, we demonstrate that the average spectra of carefully selected red-sequence galaxies can be used as a spectroscopic standard to improve the relative spectrophotometry precision to 0.1% on small wavelength scales (from a few to hundreds of Angstroms). We achieve this precision by comparing stacked spectra across tiny redshift intervals. The redshift intervals must be small enough that any systematic stellar population evolution is minimized and is less than the spectrophotometric uncertainty. This purely empirical technique does not require any theoretical knowledge of true galaxy spectra. It can be applied to all large spectroscopic galaxy redshift surveys that sample a large number of galaxies in a uniform population.
Galaxy cross-correlations with high-fidelity redshift samples hold the potential to precisely calibrate systematic photometric redshift uncertainties arising from the unavailability of complete and representative training and validation samples of galaxies. However, application of this technique in the Dark Energy Survey (DES) is hampered by the relatively low number density, small area, and modest redshift overlap between photometric and spectroscopic samples. We propose instead using photometric catalogs with reliable photometric redshifts for photo-z calibration via cross-correlations. We verify the viability of our proposal using redMaPPer clusters from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to successfully recover the redshift distribution of SDSS spectroscopic galaxies. We demonstrate how to combine photo-z with cross-correlation data to calibrate photometric redshift biases while marginalizing over possible clustering bias evolution in either the calibration or unknown photometric samples. We apply our method to DES Science Verification (DES SV) data in order to constrain the photometric redshift distribution of a galaxy sample selected for weak lensing studies, constraining the mean of the tomographic redshift distributions to a statistical uncertainty of $\Delta z \sim \pm 0.01$. We forecast that our proposal can in principle control photometric redshift uncertainties in DES weak lensing experiments at a level near the intrinsic statistical noise of the experiment over the range of redshifts where redMaPPer clusters are available. Here, our results provide strong motivation to launch a program to fully characterize the systematic errors from bias evolution and photo-z shapes in our calibration procedure.
We develop a series of N-body data challenges, functional to the final analysis of the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) Data Release 16 (DR16) galaxy sample. The challenges are primarily based on high-fidelity catalogues constructed from the Outer Rim simulation - a large box size realization (3h(-1) Gpc) characterized by an unprecedented combination of volume and mass resolution, down to 1.85 x 10(9) h(-1)M(circle dot). We generate synthetic galaxy mocks by populating Outer Rim haloes with a variety of halo occupation distribution (HOD) schemes of increasing complexity, spanning different redshift intervals. We then assess the performance of three complementary redshift space distortion (RSD) models in configuration and Fourier space, adopted for the analysis of the complete DR16 eBOSS sample of Luminous Red Galaxies (LRG5). We find all the methods mutually consistent, with comparable systematic errors on the Alcock-Paczynski parameters and the growth of structure, and robust to different HOD prescriptions - thus validating the robustness of the models and the pipelines used for the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) and full shape clustering analysis. In particular, all the techniques are able to recover and alpha(11) to within 0.9 per cent, and f sigma(8) to within 1.5 per cent. As a by-product of our work, we are also able to gain interesting insights on the galaxy-halo connection. Our study is relevant for the final eBOSS DR16 'consensus cosmology', as the systematic error budget is informed by testing the results of analyses against these high-resolution mocks. In addition, it is also useful for future large-volume surveys, since similar mock-making techniques and systematic corrections can be readily extended to model for instance the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) galaxy sample.
Over 3000 exoplanets and hundreds of exoplanetary systems have been detected to date and we are now rapidly moving toward an era where the focus is shifting from detection to direct imaging and spectroscopic characterization of these new worlds and their atmospheres. NASA is currently studying several exoplanet characterization mission concepts for the 2020 Decadal Survey ranging from probe class to flagships. Detailed and comprehensive exoplanet characterization, particularly of exo-Earths, leading to assessment of habitability, or indeed detection of life, will require significant advances beyond the current state-of-the-art in high contrast imaging and starlight suppression techniques which utilize specially shaped precision optical elements to block the light from the parent star while controlling scattering and diffraction thus revealing and enabling spectroscopic study of the orbiting exoplanets in reflected light. In this paper we describe the two primary high contrast starlight suppression techniques currently being pursued by NASA: 1) coronagraphs (including several design variations) and 2) free-flying starshades. These techniques are rapidly moving from the technology development phase to the design and engineering phase and we discuss the prospects and projected performance for future exoplanet characterization missions utilizing these techniques coupled with large aperture telescopes in space.
It is known that photosystem II (PSII) catalyzes the photo-oxidation of water to molecular oxygen and protons. The water splitting reaction occurs inside the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) via a Mn 4 CaO 5 cluster. To elucidate the reaction mechanism, detailed structural information for each intermediate state of the OEC is required. Despite the current high-resolution crystal structure of PSII at 1.85 Å and other efforts to follow the structural changes of the Mn 4 CaO 5 cluster using X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) crystallography in addition to spectroscopic methods, many details about the reaction mechanism and conformational changes in the catalytic site during water oxidation still remain elusive. In this study, we present a rarely found successful application of the conventional macroseeding method to a large membrane protein like the dimeric PSII core complex (dPSIIcc). Combining microseeding with macroseeding crystallization techniques allowed us to reproducibly grow large dPSIIcc crystals with a size of ~3 mm. These large crystals will help improve the data collected from spectroscopic methods like polarized extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) and single crystal electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) techniques and are a prerequisite for determining a three-dimensional structure using neutron diffraction.
Graphical abstract: Projection of the CsSm(PO{sub 3}){sub 4} structure viewing along the a axis. - Highlights: • Single crystal of a new polyphosphate CsSm(PO{sub 3}){sub 4} has been synthesized. • The obtained compound has been characterized by several techniques. • The crystal structure of CsSm(PO{sub 3}){sub 4} has been resolved. • Spectroscopic properties of Sm{sup 3+} in CsSm(PO{sub 3}){sub 4} have been performed. - Abstract: A new alkali metal-rare earth polyphosphate CsSm(PO{sub 3}){sub 4} has been synthesized by flux method. The obtained compound has been characterized by means of single crystal X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman scattering spectroscopies. It crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P2{sub 1}/n with the following unit-cell parameters: a = 10.382(2), b = 8.978(6), c = 11.205(4) Å, β = 106.398(3)° and Z = 4. The structure of CsSm(PO{sub 3}){sub 4} is an infinite three-dimensional framework made up of double spiral (PO{sub 3}){sub n} chains linked with neighboring SmO{sub 8} and CsO{sub 11} polyhedra. Spectroscopic properties of Sm{sup 3+} in this new compound including excitation, emission, and kinetic measurement have been performed. The emission spectrum shows four transitions characteristics of Sm{sup 3+} in the orange–red region by excitation wavelength at 400 nm. The decay time curve of {sup 4}G{sub 5/2} → {sup 6}H{sub 7/2} transition has been also registered and fitted to a single exponential function.
Iron(III) oxalate, Fe 3+ (C 2 O 4 ) 3 3– , is a photoactive metal organic complex found in natural systems and used to quantify photon flux as a result of its high absorbance and reaction quantum yield. It also serves as a model complex to understand metal carboxylate complex photolysis because the mechanism of photolysis and eventual production of CO 2 is not well understood for any system. Here, we employed pump/probe mid-infrared transient absorption spectroscopy to study the photolysis reaction of the iron(III) oxalate ion in D 2 O and H 2 O up to 3 ns following photoexcitation. We find that intramolecular electron transfer from oxalate to iron occurs on a sub-picosecond time scale, creating iron(II) complexed by one oxidized and two spectator oxalate ligands. Within 40 ps following electron transfer, the oxidized oxalate molecule dissociates to form free solvated CO 2 (aq) and a species inferred to be CO 2 •– based on the appearance of a new vibrational absorption band and ab initio simulation. Our work provides direct spectroscopic evidence for the first mechanistic steps in the photolysis reaction and presents a technique to analyze other environmentally relevant metal carboxylate photolysis reactions.
Infrared-responsive doped metal oxide nanocrystals are an emerging class of plasmonic materials whose localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPR) can be resonant with molecular vibrations. This presents a distinctive opportunity to manipulate light-matter interactions to redirect chemical or spectroscopic outcomes through the strong local electric fields they generate. Here we report a technique for measuring single nanocrystal absorption spectra of doped metal oxide nanocrystals, revealing significant spectral inhomogeneity in their mid-infrared LSPRs. Our analysis suggests dopant incorporation is heterogeneous beyond expectation based on a statistical distribution of dopants. The broad ensemble linewidths typically observed in these materials result primarily from sam ple heterogeneity and not from strong electronic damping associated with lossy plasmonic materials. In fact, single nanocrystal spectra reveal linewidths as narrow as 600 cm -1 in aluminium-doped zinc oxide, a value less than half the ensemble linewidth and markedly less than homogeneous linewidths of gold nanospheres.
The BaO{sup +} cation is of interest from the perspectives of electronic structure and the potential for cooling to ultra-cold temperatures. Spectroscopic data for the ion have been obtained using a two-color photoionization technique. The ionization energy for BaO was found to be 6.8123(3) eV. The ground state of BaO{sup +} was identified as X{sup 2}Σ{sup +}, and both vibrational and rotational constants were determined. Vibrationally resolved spectra were recorded for A{sup 2}Π, the first electronically excited state. These data yielded the term energy, vibrational frequency, and the spin-orbit interaction constant. Relativistic electronic structure calculations were carried out using multi-reference configuration interaction (MRCI), coupled cluster and density functional theory methods. Transition moments for the pure vibrational and A{sup 2}Π-X{sup 2}Σ{sup +} transitions were predicted using the MRCI method.
We conduct a deep mid-infrared (mid-IR) census of nine massive galaxy clusters at (0 < z < 1.3) with a total of {approx}1500 spectroscopically confirmed member galaxies using Spitzer/IRAC photometry and established mid-IR color selection techniques. Of the 949 cluster galaxies that are detected in at least three of the four IRAC channels at the {>=}3{sigma} level, we identify 12 that host mid-IR-selected active galactic nuclei (IR-AGNs). To compare the IR-AGNs across our redshift range, we define two complete samples of cluster galaxies: (1) optically selected members with rest-frame V{sub AB} magnitude < - 21.5 and (2) mid-IR-selected members brighter than (M*{sub 3.6} + 0.5), i.e., essentially a stellar mass cut. In both samples, we measure f{sub IR-AGN} {approx} 1% with a strong upper limit of {approx}3% at z < 1. This uniformly low IR-AGN fraction at z < 1 is surprising given that the fraction of 24 {mu}m sources in the same galaxy clusters is observed to increase by about a factor of four from z {approx} 0 to z {approx} 1; this indicates that most of the detected 24 {mu}m flux is due to star formation. Only in our single galaxy cluster at z = 1.24 is the IR-AGN fraction measurably higher at {approx}15% (all members; {approx}70% for late-types only). In agreement with recent studies, we find that the cluster IR-AGNs are predominantly hosted by late-type galaxies with blue optical colors, i.e., members with recent/ongoing star formation. The four brightest IR-AGNs are also X-ray sources; these IR+X-ray AGNs all lie outside the cluster core (R{sub proj} {approx}> 0.5 Mpc) and are hosted by highly morphologically disturbed members. Although our sample is limited, our results suggest that f{sub IR-AGN} in massive galaxy clusters is not strongly correlated with star formation at z < 1 and that IR-AGNs have a more prominent role at z {approx}> 1.