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A Look At Topics and Topic Clusters for DOE Laboratories, 1996 - 2021 [Slides]

Beginning in 2018, Elsevier through its Scopus database introduced topics to further refine its classification of publications: Previous classification schemes used concepts such as subject areas, e.g., physics and astronomy, chemistry, computer science, etc.; Topics, in contrast, are much more granular. There are over 96,000 and their titles/contents are very specific, e.g., “Multilayers; Interfaces (materials); Individual layer." Elsevier topic clusters or Clarivate citation topics represent good approaches to examining an institution’s scientific productivity areas. These approaches have the granularity that is not present in the previous categorization approaches used by these databases. The Elsevier topic clusters for the DOE Laboratories do not appear to vary that much over the 1996 – 2021 period. In some cases (ANL, LBNL, LANL, ORNL, and PNNL), there were over 1000 topic clusters at these Laboratories, but a consistent set formed the core of the publication activity. Diversity is viewed as a desirable property of a research portfolio. Examining the balance component of the DOE laboratories, the spread is uneven or not diverse. This may be due to the missions of these laboratories. The balance of a single university was unequal too.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗

FY2017 annual report: Roll-to-Roll Advanced Materials Manufacturing DOE Laboratory Consortium Project

The following report provides a description of the program structure and technical accomplishments made during FY 2017 to overcome challenges for expanding use of R2R technologies and processing for clean energy applications. Technologies are under development that enable enhanced manufacturing of battery electrodes, fuel cells and water separation membranes that take advantage of advancements in new functional materials. Data mining, visualization, modeling and simulation for the materials, technologies and processes being developed allow for improvements in R2R manufacturing applications. This report documents the research conducted by four DOE national laboratories as a consortium in collaboration with industry partnerships. The research is directly applicable to AMM strategies that apply the National Science and Technology Council’s Materials Genome Initiative (NSTC 2011) approach to enhance the performance of battery, fuel cell and water membrane materials. This effort supports building the foundation of technologies, processes and a U.S. manufacturing base that will enable an order of magnitude in shorter process development cycles with the pathway for initial commercialization within months instead of years.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Roll-to-Roll Advanced Materials Manufacturing DOE Laboratory Collaboration - FY2018 Final Report

High-value R2R processing is used to support a wide range of products in applications which span many industrial business sectors. The overall R2R process technology can be considered as “mature” as the process methodology and has been in use for decades. This continuous processing technique traditionally involves deposition of material(s) onto moving webs or carriers or other continuous R2R, belt-fed, or conveyor-based processes that enable successive steps to build a final version which serves to support the deposited materials. Current process technologies, which typify “roll to roll”, include tape casting, silk-screen printing, reel-to-reel vacuum deposition/coating and R2R lithography. Products supported by R2R manufacturing include micro-electronics, electro-chromic window films, PVs, fuel cells for energy conversion, battery electrodes for energy storage, and barrier materials. Due to innovation in materials and process equipment, high-quality yet very low-cost multi-layer technologies can be manufactured on a very cost-competitive basis. To move energy-related products from high-cost niche applications to the commercial sector, a means must be available to enable manufacture of these products in a cost-competitive manner that is affordable by the general consumer. Fortunately, products such as fuel cells, thin- and mid-film PVs, batteries, electrochromic and piezoelectric films, water separation membranes, and other energy saving technologies readily lend themselves to manufacture using R2R approaches.Within the DOE EERE AMO, it was recognized that establishment of a program supported at the DOE National Laboratories, along with their immense design of materials and equipment modelling capabilities enabled with use of high-performance computing, could take advantage of available R2R infrastructure to manufacture new technologies. In FY 2016, a R2R Consortium was established and provided with initial “seed” funding to take an approach that was envisioned to be supportable by advanced manufacturing R2R processes. This collaborative approach was designed to foster identification and development of materials and processes related to R2R for clean-energy product development. Using computational and experimental capabilities by acknowledged subject matter experts within the supported National Laboratory system, this collaborative project would leverage the capabilities and expertise at each of four laboratories to further the development of an enabling high-volume cost-competitive platform technology. The collaboration team that is comprised of ORNL, ANL, NREL and LBNL, coordinating with EPB and other selected industry partners, was formed in April 2016 to initially address enhancing battery electrode performance and R2R manufacturing challenges. The research efforts were to predict and measure changes and results in electrode morphology and performance based on process condition changes; to evaluate mixed, active, particle size deposition and drying for novel electrode materials; to model various process condition changes and the resulting morphology and electrode performance; and to develop and validate NDE techniques for in-line measurement of battery electrode material properties. These efforts carried through FY 2017 and completed at the end of FY 2018.The approach was to look at compositions of materials with different particle sizes to make electrode samples using a R2R manufacturing process. The shape, size, and morphology of the materials, the chemistry of the formulation, the nature of slurries, their coating rate, the rate of drying all play a role in determining the final coating architecture, quality, and performance. A commercial cathode material was selected to make a series of cathodes and anodes by single pass, dual pass and slot die methods. Analysis of all the compiled results for this battery electrode development were that the best performing cathodes included: dual-pass electrode with large particles near the foil, mixed small and large particles, and small particles only. Whereas, the best performing anodes were with a mix of small and large graphite particles. An additional core project was added in FY 2017 to conduct studies of fuel cell materials that can be produced using R2R processes. The goal of this project is to explore, understand and optimize material and process parameters to support increased throughput, increased quality, and reduced cost for high volume production of gas-diffusion electrodes (GDEs) for PEMFCs. Project work in FY 2018 were to use a R2R process to fabricate electrodes without ionomer overlayer that can produce the equivalent mass activity as spray-coated electrodes with an ionomer overlayer. Oxygen-limiting current measurements were utilized to optimize oxygen mass transport. Alcohol-rich solvents were investigated, and results were that the alcohol and water ratio can be tuned to control ionomer distribution. Water-rich solvents produce a more dispersed ink which results in better high-current density performance.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Fuel Effects on Multimode Engine Operation (Sandia National Laboratories) (DOE VTO Annual Progress Report for FY21)

In total, light-duty vehicles in the United States travel on the order of 3 trillion miles annually, providing tremendous societal and personal benefits. However, the environmental burden is excessive, prompting Co-Optimization of Fuel and Engines (Co-Optima) program efforts to provide the science needed to increase engine efficiency and produce non-fossil fuels with reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Boosted spark-ignition (SI) engines provide high power density by offering high loads and engine speeds, making them light-weight and attractive for light-duty vehicles. Unfortunately, the engine efficiency drops off at lower loads and speeds, where the engine spends most time during typical driving. Multimode SI engines can use a more efficient advanced lean combustion mode at lower loads and speeds, while reverting to boosted SI under high-load conditions. Within Co-Optima, multiple advanced lean combustion modes have been explored; these include stratified-charge SI, pre-chamber lean SI, and advanced compression ignition (ACI) techniques such as spark-assisted compression ignition (SACI). For these combustion modes, focus has been on determining fuel properties that enable higher engine efficiency, clean and stable combustion, and effective exhaust aftertreatment. This report highlights recent efforts funded by the Vehicle Technologies Office at multiple National Laboratories that supported the multimode project in Co-Optima. It also includes a brief summary of biofuel production research funded by the Bioenergy Technologies Office.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Roll-to-Roll Advanced Materials Manufacturing DOE Laboratory Collaboration (FY2019 Final Report)

R2R processing is used to manufacture a wide range of products for various applications which span many industrial business sectors. The overall R2R methodology has been in use for decades and this continuous technique traditionally involves deposition of material(s) onto moving webs, carriers or other continuous belt-fed or conveyor-based processes that enable successive steps to build a final version which serves to support the deposited materials. Established methods that typify R2R include tape casting, silk-screen printing, reel-to-reel vacuum deposition/coating and R2R lithography. Products supported by R2R manufacturing include micro-electronics, electro-chromic window films, PVs, fuel cells for energy conversion, battery electrodes for energy storage, and barrier and membrane materials. Due to innovation in materials and process equipment, high-quality yet very low-cost multilayer technologies have the potential to be manufactured on a very cost-competitive basis. To move energy-related products from high-cost niche applications to the commercial sector, a means must be available to enable manufacture of these products in a cost-competitive manner that is affordable. Fortunately, products such as fuel cells, thin- and mid-film PVs, batteries, electrochromic and piezoelectric films, water separation membranes, and other energy saving technologies readily lend themselves to manufacture using R2R approaches. However, more early-stage research is needed to solve the challenge of linking the materials (particles, polymers, solvents, additives) used in ink and slurry formulations, though the ink processing, coating and drying processes, to the ultimate performance of the final R2R product, especially for a process that uses multiple layers of deposition to achieve the end product.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Roll-to-Roll Advanced Materials Manufacturing DOE Laboratory Collaboration (FY2020 Final Report)

R2R processing is used to manufacture a wide range of products for various applications which span many industrial business sectors. The overall R2R methodology has been in use for decades and this continuous technique traditionally involves deposition of material(s) onto moving webs, carriers or other continuous belt-fed or conveyor-based processes that enable successive steps to build a final version which serves to support the deposited materials. Established methods that typify R2R processing include tape casting, silk-screen printing, reel-to-reel vacuum deposition/coating, and R2R lithography. Products supported by R2R manufacturing include micro-electronics, electro-chromic window films, PVs, fuel cells for energy conversion, battery electrodes for energy storage, and barrier and membrane materials. Due to innovation in materials and process equipment, high-quality yet very low-cost multilayer technologies have the potential to be manufactured on a very cost-competitive basis. To move energy-related products from high-cost niche applications to the commercial sector, the means must be available to enable manufacture of these products in a cost-competitive manner that is affordable. Fortunately, products such as fuel cells, thin- and mid-film PVs, batteries, electrochromic and piezoelectric films, water separation membranes, and other energy saving technologies readily lend themselves to manufacture using R2R approaches. However, more early-stage research is needed to solve the challenge of linking the materials (particles, polymers, solvents, additives) used in ink and slurry formulations and the coating and drying processes to the ultimate performance of the final R2R product, especially for a process that uses multiple layers of deposition to achieve the end product. To solve the problems associated with these challenges, the R2R Collaboration is executing a research program with outcomes that will ultimately link modeling, processing, metrology and defect detection tools, thereby directly relating the properties of constituent particles and processing conditions to the performance of final devices. This collaborative approach was designed to foster identification and development of materials and processes related to R2R for clean-energy materials development. Using computational and experimental capabilities by acknowledged subject matter experts within the supported National Laboratory system, this project leverages the capabilities and expertise at each of five National Laboratories to further the development of multilayer technologies that will enable high-volume, cost-competitive platforms. A typical R2R process has three steps: (1) mixing of particles and various constituents in a slurry, (2) coating of the ink/slurry mixture on a substrate, and (3) drying/curing and processing of the coating. Final performance of devices made via R2R processes is dependent on the active materials (e.g., electrochemical particles in battery or fuel cell electrodes) and the device structure that stems from the governing component interactions within the various steps. However, a fundamental understanding of the underlying mechanisms and phenomena is still lacking, which is why industrial-scale R2R process development and manufacturing is still largely empirical in nature. The FY 2019 through FY 2021 program addresses aspects of the following two targets from the AMO Multi-Year Program Plan: (1) Target 8.1 Develop technologies to reduce the cost per manufactured throughput of continuous R2R manufacturing processes. (A) Increasing throughput of R2R processes by 5 times for batteries (to 50 square feet per minute (50 ft 2 /min)) and capacitors and 10 times for printed electronics and the manufacture of other substrates and MEs used in support of these products. (B) Developing resolution capabilities to enable registration and alignment that will detect, align, and co-deposit multiple layers of coatings and print < 1-micron (1 µm) features using continuous process scalable for commercial production. (C) Developing scalable and reliable R2R processes for solution deposition of ultra-thin (<10 nm) films for active and passive materials. (D) Develop in-line multilayer coating technology on thin films with yields greater than 95%. (2) Target 8.2 Develop in-line instrumentation tools that will evaluate the quality of single and multilayer materials in-process. (A) Developing in-line QC technologies and methodologies for real-time identification of defects and expected product properties “in-use/application” during continuous processing at all size-scales with a focus on the “micro” and “nano” scale traces, lines, and devices, i.e., <1 μm at 300 ft./min for R2R processing in air and <10 nm at 20 ft./min for vacuum (B) Developing technologies to increase the measurement frequency of surface rheology without significant cost increases with a goal of a 10-nanometer in-line profilometry at a production rate of 100,000 square millimeters per minute (100,000 mm 2 /min).

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE Laboratory Support for DER and Inverter-Based Resource Integration Standards (ACCEL II) (Final Report)

This report documents efforts under a project that followed work completed under Accelerating Systems Integration Standards (ACCEL). In this continuation, the project team provided support for updates to critical standards for interconnection and interoperability of distributed energy resources at the distribution level. In addition, the project contributed to development of guidance for operational best practices of the bulk power system with high levels of DERs. Additional goals of the project were to inform and develop improved recommended practices and certification standards for end-to-end interoperability of DERs, utilizing Sandia laboratory assets when needed.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Roll-to-Roll Advanced Materials Manufacturing DOE Laboratory Collaboration - Early Stage R&D: Phase 2 and FY21 (Final Report)

R2R processing is used to manufacture a wide range of products for various applications which span many industrial business sectors. The overall R2R methodology has been in use for decades and this continuous technique traditionally involves deposition of material(s) onto substrates or membranes that are on moving webs, carriers or other continuous belt-fed or conveyor-based processes that enable successive steps to build a final product. Established methods that typify R2R processing include tape casting, silk-screen printing, reel-to-reel vacuum deposition/coating, and R2R lithography. Products supported by R2R manufacturing include micro-electronics, electro-chromic window films, PVs, fuel cells for energy conversion, battery electrodes and electrolytes for energy storage, and barrier and membrane materials for decarbonization and air and water filtration. Due to innovation in materials and process equipment, high-quality yet very low-cost multilayer technologies have the potential to be manufactured on a very cost-competitive basis. To move energy-related products from high-cost niche applications to the commercial sector, the means must be available to enable manufacture of these products in a cost-competitive manner. Fortunately, products such as fuel cells, thin- and mid-film PVs, batteries, electrochromic and piezoelectric films, water separation membranes, and other energy saving technologies readily lend themselves to manufacture using R2R approaches. However, more early-stage research is needed to solve the challenge of linking the materials (particles, polymers, solvents, additives) used in ink and slurry formulations and the coating and heated drying processes to the ultimate performance of the final R2R product, especially for a process that uses multiple layers of deposition to achieve the end product.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Exploring Nontrivial Topological Superconductivity in 2M-WS2 for Topological Quantum Computation

This project has two main research goals: (1) growing the high-quality two-dimensional (2D) 2M-pahse WS 2 (2M-WS 2 ) single crystals and identifying clear signatures of the unconventional superconductivity in the 2M-WS 2 ; and (2) establishing the layer-dependence of the Majorana zero mode in the 2M-WS 2 down to the monoatomic layer limit. These goals were planned to be achieved by growing high-quality and large-scale 2M-WS 2 single crystals and transferring their thin layers onto different substrates for the proposed measurements. The layer-dependent unconventional superconductivity in 2M-WS 2 were systematically studied by different techniques, including transport measurements (charge, thermal and spin), scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM/S), angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), and theoretical calculations. The research team is comprised of researchers from University of Wyoming (UW) and three DOE National Laboratories (DOE NLs), including Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), with complete and complementary expertise: PI Tian: Handling 2D materials, nanofabrication, nanodevices, and quantum transport; Co-Is: Ackerman and Leonard: van der Waals material crystal growth and handling; Chien: Nanoimaging with STM/S; and Tang: Magnetic measurements and charge and thermal transport; National lab collaborators (NLs): Guisinger (ANL): STM/S and nanoimaging; Mo and Rotenberg (LBNL): ARPES and nano ARPES (nARPES); Lu (SNL): Quantum information science, quantum transport, and nanofabrication; and Baczewski (SNL): Theoretical modeling and calculations.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Annual Report on the State of the DOE National Laboratories

This first Annual Report to Congress on the State of the DOE National Laboratories provides a comprehensive overview of the Lab system, covering S&T programs, management and strategic planning. The Department committed to prepare this report in response to recommendations from the Congressionally mandated Commission to Review the Effectiveness of the National Energy Laboratories (CRENEL) that the Department should better communicate the value that the Laboratories provide to the Nation. We expect that future annual reports will be much more compact, building on the extensive description of the Laboratories and of the governance structures that are part of this first report.

DOE, Annual, Report, Laboratories, Labs, National ↗

Using the H Index to Assess Impact of DOE National Laboratories

The most readily accessible elements of the Emerald Matrix by quantitative measures are the knowledge and economy related measures. In this paper, the H Index for an institution will be used to assess STE impact, which is in the knowledge generation element. The H Index was developed by Hirsch (2005) as a measure of an individual’s scientific impact. The H Index is defined as the number of publications that have been cited h or more times for a given author. It has been generalized to organizations. Doing so leads to a complication in that H index scales with the number of publications. Although this may not be problematic when comparing individual researchers, it systematically favors larger institutions. Molinari and Molinari (2008) proposed an alternative index (hm) designed to assess organizational impact. It transforms the H Index for an organization into an impact index by removing a factor dependent on the number of publications. The hm provides another approach to compare institutions provided that differences in the citation patterns associated with fields of study are addressed. Kinney (2007) used the Molinari and Molinari (2008) approach to compare various scientific institutions in nonbiomedical research areas. Kinney (2007) used the Thomson Reuters Web of Science (WoS) as the source and used publications in nonbiomedical research areas, which is very important because the research areas of universities are much broader than say a DOE national laboratory. Also there are differences in citation rates for the various research fields that make comparisons between individuals or organizations difficult. The results from Kinney (2007) are given in Table 1 and indicate that the DOE national laboratories compare favorably with the selected universities in terms of impact (hm) in the research areas used in Kinney’s analysis. This report will compare hm for DOE national laboratories using an approach similar to Kinney (2007) providing a measure of impact of the DOE national laboratories.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE National Laboratories' Computational Facilities - Research Workshop Report

DOE-ASCR researchers and computational facilities staff convened at Argonne National Laboratory for a two-day workshop on April 17–18, 2019. The intent of the workshop was to understand the requirements and challenges of the DOE computational facilities and to discuss and brainstorm research directions that can have an impact on DOE computational facilities. This report documents the background information on the workshop, its purpose and structure, the challenges the computational facilities are facing, and the key research directions of interest.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Abstract - Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between SIOX and National Energy Technology Laboratory

DOE’s Fossil Energy Program has made significant scientific advancements and provided technology solutions over the years ensuring energy security in the United States. This project highly leverages both past and current technology development efforts and utilizes the expertise of the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in a collaborative effort with SIOX. The proposed effort involves conversion of a steel manufacturing byproduct, iron oxide hematite (Fe2O3), and transforms it into a salable magnetite product applicable to a number of markets. SIOX managers have experience operating a magnetite production facility based on a rotary kiln reactor process. Unfortunately, that process is both costly and inefficient, making it difficult to achieve desired economies, purity, and throughput levels. Recent NETL innovations in multi-phase fluidization technology would allow for successful development of a continuous, fully-integrated process capable of producing synthetic magnetite products. The reactor is based upon a spouting bed technology (patent pending) that allows for the even mixing of the ultrafine hematite which normally packs with all of the reacting gas bypassing the solid particles.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE National Laboratories: Vital to U.S. science and technology [Slides]

DOE has extremely challenging and diverse missions, each born out of national need. The national labs serve as the science and technology engine for DOE missions. Each Lab stewards distinctive capabilities which DOE leverages through networks of labs address core missions, dynamic programs and rapid response needs. National lab networks have transformative impact.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗