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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 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2014

Singlet fission efficiency in tetracene-based organic solar cells

Singlet exciton fission splits one singlet exciton into two triplet excitons. Using a joint analysis of photocurrent and fluorescence modulation under a magnetic field, we determine that the triplet yield within optimized tetracene organic photovoltaic devices is 153% ± 5% for a tetracene film thickness of 20 nm. The corresponding internal quantum efficiency is 127% ± 18%. These results are used to prove the effectiveness of a simplified triplet yield measurement that relies only on the magnetic field modulation of fluorescence. Despite its relatively slow rate of singlet fission, the measured triplet yields confirm that tetracene is presently the best candidate for use with silicon solar cells.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

High-efficiency, flexible CdTe solar cells on ultra-thin glass substrates

Flexible, high-efficiency, low-cost solar cells can enable applications that take advantage of high specific power, flexible form factors, lower installation and transportation costs. Here, we report a certified record efficiency of 16.4% for a flexible CdTe solar cell that is a marked improvement over the previous standard (14.05%). The improvement was achieved by replacing chemical-bath-deposited CdS with sputtered CdS:O and also replacing the high-temperature sputtered ZnTe:Cu back contact layer with co-evaporated and rapidly annealed ZnTe:Cu. We use quantum efficiency and capacitance-voltage measurements combined with device simulations to identify the reasons for the increase in efficiency. Both device simulations and experimental results show that higher carrier density can quantitatively account for the increased open circuit voltage (V{sub OC}) and Fill Factor (FF), and likewise, the increase in short circuit current density (J{sub SC}) can be attributed to the more transparent CdS:O.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2019

Improving Silicon Solar Cell Efficiency Through Advanced Cell Processing, Highly Uniform Texturing, and Thinner Cells

This CRADA is aimed at developing silicon solar cell technologies that can yield higher efficiency solar cells. Specifically, this CRADA cover three technologies: (i) developing a high temperature process for dissolution of oxygen precipitates, (ii) uniform texturization of diamond wire sawn wafers, and (iii) evaluation of techniques to bond techniques thin wafers and thin films.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Remnant PbI{sub 2}, an unforeseen necessity in high-efficiency hybrid perovskite-based solar cells?

Perovskite-containing solar cells were fabricated in a two-step procedure in which PbI{sub 2} is deposited via spin-coating and subsequently converted to the CH{sub 3}NH{sub 3}PbI{sub 3} perovskite by dipping in a solution of CH{sub 3}NH{sub 3}I. By varying the dipping time from 5 s to 2 h, we observe that the device performance shows an unexpectedly remarkable trend. At dipping times below 15 min the current density and voltage of the device are enhanced from 10.1 mA/cm{sup 2} and 933 mV (5 s) to 15.1 mA/cm{sup 2} and 1036 mV (15 min). However, upon further conversion, the current density decreases to 9.7 mA/cm{sup 2} and 846 mV after 2 h. Based on X-ray diffraction data, we determined that remnant PbI{sub 2} is always present in these devices. Work function and dark current measurements showed that the remnant PbI{sub 2} has a beneficial effect and acts as a blocking layer between the TiO{sub 2} semiconductor and the perovskite itself reducing the probability of back electron transfer (charge recombination). Furthermore, we find that increased dipping time leads to an increase in the size of perovskite crystals at the perovskite-hole-transporting material interface. Overall, approximately 15 min dipping time (∼2% unconverted PbI{sub 2}) is necessary for achieving optimal device efficiency.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Tuning charge-discharge induced unit cell breathing in layer-structured cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries

For LiMO 2 (M=Co, Ni, Mn) cathode materials, lattice parameters, a(b), contract during charge. Here we report such changes in opposite directions for lithium molybdenum trioxide (Li 2 MoO 3 ). A ‘unit cell breathing’ mechanism is proposed based on crystal and electronic structural changes of transition metal oxides during charge-discharge. Metal–metal bonding is used to explain such ‘abnormal’ behaviour and a generalized hypothesis is developed. The expansion of the metal-metal bond becomes the controlling factor for a(b) evolution during charge, in contrast to the shrinking metal-oxygen bond as controlling factor in ‘normal’ materials. The cation mixing caused by migration of molybdenum ions at higher oxidation state provides the benefits of reducing the c expansion range in the early stage of charging and suppressing the structure collapse at high voltage charge. These results may open a new strategy for designing layered cathode materials for high energy density lithium-ion batteries.

Zhou, Yong-Ning↗
DOE OSTI2017

Systematic evaluation of structure–property relationships in heteroacene – diketopyrrolopyrrole molecular donors for organic solar cells

Improved understanding of fundamental structure–property relationships, particularly the effects of molecular shape and intermolecular packing on film morphology and active layer charge transport characteristics, enables more rational synthesis of new p-type small molecules. Here we investigate a series of small molecules consisting of an acene-based electron-rich core flanked by one or two electron-deficient diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) moieties. Through minor changes in the molecule structures, measurable variations in the crystal structure and sizable differences in macroscopic properties are achieved. The molecular symmetry as well as the conformation of the side chains affects the unit cell packing density and strength of the intermolecular electronic coupling in single crystals of all molecules in this series. Here, the addition of a second DPP unit to the benzodithiophene (BDT) core increases molecular planarity leading to decreased reorganization energy, strong cofacial coupling, and moderate hole mobility (2.7 × 10 –4 cm 2 V –1 s –1 ). Increasing the length of the acene core from benzodithiophene to naphthodithiophene (NDT) results in a further reduction in reorganization energy and formation of smaller crystalline domains (~11 nm) when mixed with PCBM. Decreasing the aspect ratio of the core using a “zig-zag” naphthodithiophene (zNDT) isomer results in the highest hole mobility of 1.3 × 10 –3 cm 2 V –1 s –1 due in part to tight lamellar (d = 13.5 Å) and π–π stacking (d = 3.9 Å). The hole mobility is directly correlated with the short-circuit current (11.7 mA cm –2 ) and solar cell efficiency (4.4%) of the highest performing zNDT:PCBM device. For each of these small molecules the calculated π-coupling constant is correlated with the hole mobility as a function of crystal structure and orientation indicating the importance of designing molecules that create extended crystalline networks with maximal π-orbital overlap.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2018

CD4 + T cells promote renal cell carcinoma proliferation via modulating YBX1

Highlights: • RCC cells had better capacity than its surrounding normal kidney epithelial cells to recruit the CD4 + T cells. • Infiltrating CD4 + T cells promoted TGFβ1 expression in both RCC and T cells. • Infiltrating CD4 + T cells regulated RCC cells proliferation via modulating TGFβ1/YBX1/ HIF2α signals. • Targeting CD4 + T cell, TGFβ1, YBX1 and HIF2α may allow us to develop new and better therapies to suppress RCC progression and might be a potential target for the further research of RCC. Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is a common urologic tumor and the third leading cause of death among urological tumors. Recent studies demonstrate that RCC tumors are more heavily infiltrated by lymphocytes than other cancers. However, the exact roles played by CD4 + T cells in RCC proliferation remain unknown. In this study, we cocultured RCC cells with CD4 + T cells. Stable knockdown of YBX1 in RCC cells was constructed. The effects of CD4 + T cells, TGFβ1 and YBX1 on RCC cells were investigated using cell viability assays. In situ RCC nude mouse model was used to observe the tumor growth. The potential mechanisms of CD4 + T cells and YBX1 in RCC cells proliferation were explored by qRT-PCR and western blot. Expression of CD4, Foxp3 and TGFβ1 in RCC were quantified by immunohistochemical staining. The results indicated that CD4, Foxp3 and TGFβ1 were significantly up-regulated in RCC tissues. Human clinical sample and in vitro cell lines studies showed that RCC cells had better capacity than its surrounding normal kidney epithelial cells to recruit the CD4 + T cells. In vivo mouse model studies were consistent with the results by in vitro cell lines studies showing infiltrating T cells enhanced RCC cell proliferation. qRT-PCR and western blot exhibited that CD4 + T cells could enhance RCC cell proliferation via activating YBX1/HIF2α signaling pathway. Furthermore, CD4 + T cells functioned through inducing TGFβ1 expression. In a word, infiltrating CD4 + T cells promoted TGFβ1 expression in both RCC and T cells and regulated RCC cells proliferation via modulating TGFβ1/YBX1/ HIF2α signals.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

Reprogramming of enteroendocrine K cells to pancreatic β-cells through the combined expression of Nkx6.1 and Neurogenin3, and reaggregation in suspension culture

Highlights: •K cells were selected from STC-1 cells, a heterogeneous enteroendocrine cell line. •K cells did not express Nkx6.1 and Neurogenin3. •Combined expression of Nkx6.1 and Neurogenin3 reprogrammed K cells to β-cells. •Reprogramming of K cells to β-cells was not complete. -- Abstract: Recent studies have demonstrated that adult cells such as pancreatic exocrine cells can be converted to pancreatic β-cells in a process called cell reprogramming. Enteroendocrine cells and β-cells share similar pathways of differentiation during embryonic development. Notably, enteroendocrine K cells express many of the key proteins found in β-cells. Thus, K cells could be reprogrammed to β-cells under certain conditions. However, there is no clear evidence on whether these cells convert to β-cells. K cells were selected from STC-1 cells, an enteroendocrine cell line expressing multiple hormones. K cells were found to express many genes of transcription factors crucial for islet development and differentiation except for Nkx6.1 and Neurogenin3. A K cell clone stably expressing Nkx6.1 (Nkx6.1{sup +}-K cells) was established. Induction of Neurogenin3 expression in Nkx6.1{sup +}-K cells, by either treatment with a γ-secretase inhibitor or infection with a recombinant adenovirus expressing Neurogenin3, led to a significant increase in Insulin1 mRNA expression. After infection with the adenovirus expressing Neurogenin3 and reaggregation in suspension culture, about 50% of Nkx6.1{sup +}-K cells expressed insulin as determined by immunostaining. The intracellular insulin content was increased markedly. Electron microscopy revealed the presence of insulin granules. However, glucose-stimulated insulin secretion was defective, and there was no glucose lowering effect after transplantation of these cells in diabetic mice. In conclusion, we demonstrated that K cells could be reprogrammed partially to β-cells through the combined expression of Nkx6.1 and Neurogenin3, and reaggregation in suspension culture.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

Quantification of Hepatitis C Virus Cell-to-Cell Spread Using a Stochastic Modeling Approach

It has been proposed that viral cell-to-cell transmission plays a role in establishing and maintaining chronic infections. Thus, understanding the mechanisms and kinetics of cell-to-cell spread is fundamental to elucidating the dynamics of infection and may provide insight into factors that determine chronicity. Because hepatitis C virus (HCV) spreads from cell to cell and has a chronicity rate of up to 80% in exposed individuals, we examined the dynamics of HCV cell-to-cell spread in vitro and quantified the effect of inhibiting individual host factors. Using a multidisciplinary approach, we performed HCV spread assays and assessed the appropriateness of different stochastic models for describing HCV focus expansion. To evaluate the effect of blocking specific host cell factors on HCV cell-to-cell transmission, assays were performed in the presence of blocking antibodies and/or small-molecule inhibitors targeting different cellular HCV entry factors. In all experiments, HCV-positive cells were identified by immunohistochemical staining and the number of HCV-positive cells per focus was assessed to determine focus size. We found that HCV focus expansion can best be explained by mathematical models assuming focus size-dependent growth. Consistent with previous reports suggesting that some factors impact HCV cell-to-cell spread to different extents, modeling results estimate a hierarchy of efficacies for blocking HCV cell-to-cell spread when targeting different host factors (e.g., CLDN1 > NPC1L1 > TfR1). This approach can be adapted to describe focus expansion dynamics under a variety of experimental conditions as a means to quantify cell-to-cell transmission and assess the impact of cellular factors, viral factors, and antivirals. IMPORTANCE. The ability of viruses to efficiently spread by direct cell-to-cell transmission is thought to play an important role in the establishment and maintenance of viral persistence. As such, elucidating the dynamics of cell-to-cell spread and quantifying the effect of blocking the factors involved has important implications for the design of potent antiviral strategies and controlling viral escape. Mathematical modeling has been widely used to understand HCV infection dynamics and treatment response; however, these models typically assume only cell-free virus infection mechanisms. Here, we used stochastic models describing focus expansion as a means to understand and quantify the dynamics of HCV cell-to-cell spread in vitro and determined the degree to which cell-to-cell spread is reduced when individual HCV entry factors are blocked. Finally, the results demonstrate the ability of this approach to recapitulate and quantify cell-to-cell transmission, as well as the impact of specific factors and potential antivirals.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Involvement of LPA receptor-5 in the enhancement of cell motile activity by phorbol ester and anticancer drug treatments in melanoma A375 cells

Highlights: • The cell motility and LPAR5 gene expression was increased by TPA in melanoma A375 cell. • The high cell motile activity of TPA treated cells was suppressed by LPA{sub 5} knockdown. • The cell motility of A375 cells was stimulated by the long-term CDDP and DTIC treatment. • LPAR5 gene expression was markedly elevated in the long-term CDDP and DTIC treated cells. . • LPA{sub 5} is involved in the activation of cell motility by phorbol esters and anticancer drugs in A375 cells. Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) signaling through six subtypes of LPA receptors (LPA{sub 1} to LPA{sub 6}) regulates a variety of biological responses in cancer cells. The aim of our study was to evaluate an involvement of LPA receptors in the activation of cell motility by phorbol ester and anticancer drug treatments in melanoma A375 cells. Cells were treated with 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol- 13-acetate (TPA) and phorbol-12,13-dibutyrate (PDBu) for 3 days. The cell motile activity of TPA treated cells was significantly higher than that of PDBu treated cells, correlating with LPAR5 expression levels. LPA{sub 5} knockdown suppressed the high cell motile activity induced by TPA. To assess whether the cell motile activity of A375 cells is stimulated through LPA{sub 5} induced by anticancer drugs, the long-term cisplatin (CDDP) and dacarbazine (DTIC) treated cells were generated from A375 cells (A375-CDDP and A375-DTIC cells, respectively). The expression levels of LPA receptor genes were changed in A375-CDDP and A375-DTIC cells. In particular, CDDP and DTIC treatment markedly elevated LPAR5 expressions. The cell motile activities of A375-CDDP and A375-DTIC cells were significantly higher than that of untreated cells. These results suggest that the cell motile activity is regulated through the induction of LPA{sub 5} by phorbol ester and anticancer drug treatments in A375 cells.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

Association Mapping of Cell Wall Synthesis Regulatory Genes and Cell Wall Quality in Switchgrass

Inefficient conversion of biomass to biofuels is one of the main barriers for biofuel production from such materials. Approximately half of polysaccharides in biomass remain unused by typical biochemical conversion methods. Conversion efficiency is influenced by the composition and structure of cell walls of biomass. Grasses such as wheat, maize, and rice, as well as dedicated perennial bioenergy crops, like switchgrass, make up ~55% of biomass that can be produced in the United States. Grass cell walls have a different composition and patterning compared with dicotyledonous plants, including the well-studied model plant, Arabidopsis. This project identified genetic determinants of cell wall composition in grasses using both naturally occurring genetic variation of switchgrass and gene network reconstruction and functional assays in rice. In addition, the project linked functional data in rice and other species to switchgrass improvement efforts through curation of the most abundant class of regulators in the switchgrass genome. Characterizing natural diversity of switchgrass for variation in cell wall composition and properties, also known as quality, provides an unbiased avenue for identifying biologically viable diversity in switchgrass cell walls. To characterizing natural diversity, this project generated cell wall composition and enzymatic deconstruction data for ~450 genotypes of the Switchgrass Southern Association Collection (SSAC), a diverse collection composed of 36 switchgrass accessions from the southern U.S. distribution of switchgrass. Comparing these data with other measures of cell wall quality for the same samples demonstrated the complementary nature of the diverse characterization platforms now being used for biomass characterization. Association of the composition data with ~3.2K single nucleotide variant markers identified six significant single nucleotide variant markers co-associated with digestibility and another compositional trait. These markers might be used to select switchgrass genotypes with improved composition in breeding programs for biofuel and forage production. Because the SSAC continues to be characterized by collaborators in the bioenergy community, the data generated will be used to identify additional markers in higher resolution genotyping data to approach identifying the genes and alleles that cause natural variation in switchgrass cell wall quality. For example, these markers can be surveyed in the 2100-member Oklahoma Southern and Northern Lowland switchgrass collections that this project also characterized. An orthogonal approach to biodiversity studies, using comparative functional genomics permits systematic querying of how much regulatory information is likely to be transferable from dicots to grasses and use of accumulated functional genomics resources for better-characterized grass species, such as rice, itself a biomass source in global agriculture and in certain regions. The project generated and tested a number of specific hypotheses regarding cell wall transcription factors and enzymes of grasses. To aid identification of cell wall regulators, the project assembled a novel, highdepth and -quality gene association network using a general linearized model scoring system to combine rice gene network data. Using known or putative orthologs of Arabidopsis cell wall biosynthesis genes and regulators, the project pulled from this network a cell wall sub-network that includes 96 transcription factors. Reverse genetics of a co-ortholog of the Arabidopsis MYB61 transcription factor in rice revealed that this regulatory node has evolved the ability to regulate grass-specific cell wall synthesis enzymes. A transcription factor with such activity has not been previously characterized to our knowledge, representing a major conclusion of this work. Changes in gene expression in a protoplast-based assay demonstrated positive or negative roles in cell wall regulation for eleven other transcription factors from the rice gene network. Eight of fifteen (53%) of these have not previously been examined for this function. Some of these may represent novel grass-diverged cell wall regulators, while others are likely to have this function across angiosperms. A parallel effort of this project to expand knowledge of enzymes that have evolved to function in grass cell wall synthesis, revealed that a grass-diverged enzyme in rice, OsAT 5 , ferulates monolignols that are naturally incorporated into grass cell walls. This finding opens potential natural selection avenues for improving biomass composition for downstream processing by weak base pretreatment. Thus, this project has significantly expanded knowledge of cell wall synthesis and regulation in rice, information that can be used in reverse genetics and synthetic biology approaches to re-engineer cell walls for improved production of biofuel and high-value products. To lay the foundation for translating these results directly for switchgrass improvement, the project employed a comparative phylogenetic analysis of the major group of cell wall transcription factors that have been found to function in cell wall regulation, the R 2 R 3 MYBs. This analysis concluded that known cell wall regulators are largely conserved across switchgrass, rice, maize, poplar, and Arabidopsis. This interpretation is also largely consistent with the gene network analysis described above, though both approaches provide evidence that some co-orthologs of Arabidopsis regulators have diminished or increased in importance based on gene expression patterns. Also, several clades containing dicot cell wall regulators have expanded, consistent with the evolution of new cell wall regulators. This latter result is supported by functional analysis of the R 2 R 3 MYB protein SWAM 1 in a collaboration between this project and the DOE-funded group of Dr. S. Hazen at the University of Massachusettes. The curation of the switchgrass genome through this project provides specific targets for future engineering of switchgrass cell wall regulation and may also facilitate identification of regulators that underlie the molecular markers that are genetically linked to differences in cell wall quality. With the goal of spurring further research and technological developments in lignocellulosic biofuel production, this work has been communicated to the bioenergy and cell wall communities though various presentations and publications. To date, three manuscripts have been published, two others are near to publication, three others are in an advanced state, and two to four more are likely to be written based on analyses still in progress. In addition, project participants have presented thirteen posters and talks at regional, national, and international meetings about aspects of this project. In sum, the work supported by this funding has made and communicated significant progress in identifying the genes that grasses use for cell wall synthesis and regulation, information that will be used by project participants and others to improve the efficiency of conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to biofuels.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗