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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 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

A Joint Roman Space Telescope and Rubin Observatory Synthetic Wide-Field Imaging Survey

We present and validate 20 deg(2) of overlapping synthetic imaging surveys representing the full depth of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope High-Latitude Imaging Survey (HLIS) and 5 yr of observations of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). The two synthetic surveys are summarized, with reference to the existing 300 deg(2) of LSST simulated imaging produced as part of Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC) Data Challenge 2 (DC2). Both synthetic surveys observe the same simulated DESC DC2 universe. For the synthetic Roman survey, we simulate for the first time fully chromatic images along with the detailed physics of the Sensor Chip Assemblies derived from lab measurements using the flight detectors. The simulated imaging and resulting pixel-level measurements of photometric properties of objects span a wavelength range of similar to 0.3-2.0 mu m. We also describe updates to the Roman simulation pipeline, changes in how astrophysical objects are simulated relative to the original DC2 simulations, and the resulting simulated Roman data products. We use these simulations to explore the relative fraction of unrecognized blends in LSST images, finding that 20-30 per cent of objects identified in LSST images with i-band magnitudes brighter than 25 can be identified as multiple objects in Roman images. These simulations provide a unique testing ground for the development and validation of joint pixel-level analysis techniques of ground- and space-based imaging data sets in the second half of the 2020s - in particular the case of joint Roman-LSST analyses.

gravitational lensing↗
NASA NTRS2021

Estimating Terrestrial Snow Mass via Multi-sensor Assimilation of Synthetic AMSR-E Brightness Temperature Spectral Differences and Synthetic GRACE Terrestrial Water Storage Retrievals

This study explores multi-sensor data assimilation (DA) using synthetic Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) passive microwave brightness temperature spectral differences (∆T(B)) and synthetic Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) terrestrial water storage (TWS) retrievals to improve estimates of snow water equivalent (SWE), subsurface water storage, and TWS across snow-covered terrain. Results show that multi-sensor DA improves SWE estimates by reducing the RMSE by 14.1% relative to a model-only simulation. Multi-sensor assimilation also yields the smallest TWS RMSE (reduced by 13.0% relative to a model-only simulation). However, multi-sensor DA does not always yield complementary updates, and can sometimes lead to conflicting changes to SWE, where the assimilation of synthetic ∆T(b) generates positive SWE increments while the assimilation of synthetic TWS removes SWE, which can ultimately degrade the posterior SWE estimates. This synthetic experiment provides useful insight for future DA experiments using real-world AMSR-E/AMSR-2 ∆T(b) observations and GRACE/GRACE-FO TWS retrievals to better characterize terrestrial freshwater storage across regional scales.

Jing Wang↗
DOE OSTI2026

Synthetic soils for ecological and synthetic biology applications

Soils are heterogeneous and dynamic systems characterized by complex physical, chemical, and biological interactions. Understanding these interactions is critical, as they influence plant productivity, global biogeochemical cycles, and ecosystem resilience. While ecologists have long studied soils in field, greenhouse, and laboratory settings, their complexity and heterogeneity make it challenging to pinpoint key properties driving biological processes and derive mechanistic insights. Advancements in synthetic biology, which seeks to engineer and control biological processes in soils, have increased the demand for standardized and controllable experimental platforms. These platforms, referred to here as ‘synthetic soils’, are systems designed to reproduce selected physicochemical characteristics of natural soils in a simplified and defined format, allowing scientists to systematically change soil physicochemical properties (i.e. texture, mineralogy, pH) to study how biological components (i.e. microbes, plants, soil fauna, etc.) respond to, modify, or interact within these controlled environments. This review explores existing synthetic soils, their advantages, limitations, and applications in ecology and synthetic biology, and discusses potential directions for their future development.

artificial soils↗
DOE OSTI2019

Surface evolution of synthetic bilgewater emulsion

Bilgewater is oil-in-water emulsion emitted from shipboard and it is a source of pollution to the ocean. Wastewater treatment needs fundamental knowledge of the bilgewater surface changes; however, limited information is available. We have reported the first surface characterization of synthetic bilgewater emulsion using time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) coupled with optical microscopy. A NAVY synthetic bilgewater emulsion consisting of three oils and a detergent mixture is used as the synthetic bilgewater model. Both fresh and aged emulsion samples are analyzed to determine their droplet size distributions (DSDs) and surface chemical compositions. Our results show that fresh emulsions are largely mono-modal with hydrocarbon fragments as the main surface composition. Aged emulsions are also monomodal with slightly larger size. Both SIMS spectral comparison and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) show that some surfactant components appear on the fresh emulsion surface immediately while larger molecular weight components appear at the aged bilge droplet surface. Our results indicate that the oil-water interface evolves after emulsion droplet forms. More importantly, surface evolution not only changes the bilgewater DSD but also surface chemical composition and reactivity.

bilgewater, droplet size distribution, ToF-SIMS, s↗
DOE OSTI2020

Two-Dimensional Uranyl Borates: From Conventional to Extreme Synthetic Conditions: Two-Dimensional Uranyl Borates: From Conventional to Extreme Synthetic Conditions

A systematic investigation of uranyl borates under different synthetic conditions resulted in five new 2D compounds, namely, (H 3 O)[(UO 2 )(BO 3 )], Li[(UO 2 )(BO 3 )] · (H 2 O), α-K 4 [(UO 2 ) 5 (BO 3 ) 2 O 4 ], β-K 4 [(UO 2 ) 5 (BO 3 ) 2 O 4 ] and K 2.5 [(UO 2 ) 5 (BO 3 ) 2 O 2.5 (OH) 1.5 ] · (H 2 O) 2.5 . (H 3 O)[(UO 2 )(BO 3 )] and Li[(UO 2 )(BO 3 )] · (H 2 O) were obtained from hydrothermal reactions at 220 °C using the same mineralizer. Both materials possess the uranophane sheet topology with different symmetry of the unit cells. In the structure of (H 3 O)[(UO 2 )(BO 3 )] and Li[(UO 2 )(BO 3 )] · (H 2 O), UO 7 pentagonal bipyramids share edges and vertexes with four BO 3 planar triangles. α-K 4 [(UO 2 ) 5 (BO 3 ) 2 O 4 ] and β-K 4 [(UO 2 ) 5 (BO 3 ) 2 O 4 ] are polytypes. α-K 4 [(UO 2 ) 5 (BO 3 ) 2 O 4 ] was synthesized from a high-temperature solid-state reaction under ambient pressure; whereas β-K 4 [(UO 2 ) 5 (BO 3 ) 2 O 4 ] was obtained from a high-temperature/high-pressure (HT/HP) reaction. Both structures have an identical anion topology, but β-K 4 [(UO 2 ) 5 (BO 3 ) 2 O 4 ] crystallizes in space group with higher symmetry. In K 2.5 [(UO 2 ) 5 (BO 3 ) 2 O 2.5 (OH) 1.5 ] · (H 2 O) 2.5 , which was obtained from a hydrothermal reaction, UO 7 polyhedra share vertexes and edges with two independent BO 3 triangles, forming the most complex uranyl borate layers among all five compounds. The different synthetic routes, novel topologies, thermal behavior and Raman spectra are discussed.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Protein-Mimetic Self-Assembly with Synthetic Macromolecules

Protein-mimetic amphiphiles have significant promise as a platform to access the complex functions of natural biological materials and incorporate the tunability and environmental resilience of synthetic materials. The fields of polymer chemistry and chemical biology have concurrently approached the development of biomimetic amphiphiles with materials ranging from random amphiphilic copolymers to peptide–lipid conjugates. In this Perspective, we incorporate strategies from diverse chemical arenas for controlling assembled morphologies and dynamics of protein-mimetic synthetic macromolecules. An overview of significant advances in peptide amphiphiles and single-chain polymer nanoparticles provides the foundation for comparing recent advances in the implementation of multiple intermolecular interactions and computational strategies to fine-tune the assembled structures. We aim to bridge these fields, combining insights from multiple disciplines to inspire new approaches for the development of protein-mimetic materials, as these assemblies have far-reaching applications including in the development of new sensors, catalysts, and therapeutics.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Versatile Synthetic Platform for Polymer Membrane Libraries Using Functional Networks

Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) diacrylate copolymer networks containing pentafluorophenyl active esters can be quantitatively substituted with a wide variety of primary amines, enabling the development of a versatile synthetic platform for the preparation of polymer hydrogel and membrane libraries. Here, by tuning the starting network, a high degree of control over cross-linking density, water uptake, and functional group incorporation can be reproducibly achieved, which is vital for elucidating structure–property relationships in ion transporting membranes. From the same cross-linked scaffold, a diversity of basic, acidic, and solute-chelating moieties were obtained through functionalization, which allows for tailored uptake of basic and acidic organic dyes and metal chloride salts. Ion permeation and sorption measurements for a series of polymer networks with controlled cross-linking density and varied imidazole grafting densities illustrate the ability of this platform to isolate the effect of chemical functionality on ion transport from the effects of cross-linking density and water content.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

A Synthetic Approach to β-Functionalized Naphtho[2,3]porphyrins

A concise synthetic method has been developed to access functionalized naphtho[2,3]porphyrins through combining two sequence reactions involving a Heck–electrocyclization–aromatization sequence and a Wittig–Knovenegal sequence. Using this method, mononaphtho[2,3]porphyrin (NP-1), opp-dinaphtho[2,3]porphyrin (NP-2), and push–pull naphtho[2,3]porphyrin (NP-3) have been prepared. These naphtho[2,3]porphyrins displayed interesting optical and electrochemical properties. As a result, excellent efficiencies of singlet oxygen generation were obtained for these naphtho[2,3]porphyrins.

Absorption↗
DOE OSTI2020

Enhanced nutrient uptake is sufficient to drive emergent cross-feeding between bacteria in a synthetic community

Abstract Interactive microbial communities are ubiquitous, influencing biogeochemical cycles and host health. One widespread interaction is nutrient exchange, or cross-feeding, wherein metabolites are transferred between microbes. Some cross-fed metabolites, such as vitamins, amino acids, and ammonium (NH4+), are communally valuable and impose a cost on the producer. The mechanisms that enforce cross-feeding of communally valuable metabolites are not fully understood. Previously we engineered a cross-feeding coculture between N2-fixing Rhodopseudomonas palustris and fermentative Escherichia coli. Engineered R. palustris excretes essential nitrogen as NH4+ to E. coli, while E. coli excretes essential carbon as fermentation products to R. palustris. Here, we sought to determine whether a reciprocal cross-feeding relationship would evolve spontaneously in cocultures with wild-type R. palustris, which is not known to excrete NH4+. Indeed, we observed the emergence of NH4+ cross-feeding, but driven by adaptation of E. coli alone. A missense mutation in E. coli NtrC, a regulator of nitrogen scavenging, resulted in constitutive activation of an NH4+ transporter. This activity likely allowed E. coli to subsist on the small amount of leaked NH4+ and better reciprocate through elevated excretion of fermentation products from a larger E. coli population. Our results indicate that enhanced nutrient uptake by recipients, rather than increased excretion by producers, is an underappreciated yet possibly prevalent mechanism by which cross-feeding can emerge.

Fritts, Ryan K.↗