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Prinz, Fritz B.

Publications and source records attributed to Prinz, Fritz B..

At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Improving intrinsic oxygen reduction activity and stability: Atomic layer deposition preparation of platinum-titanium alloy catalysts

Improved activity and stability Pt-based catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) are needed to perpetuate the deployment of polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) in the transportation sector. In this study, we use atomic layer deposition of TiO 2 and Pt coupled with thermal reductive annealing to prepare Pt 3 Ti electrocatalysts. The atomic level synthetic control resulted in Pt 3 Ti nanoparticles with high ORR performance, including a mass activity of 1.84 A/mg Pt and excellent electrochemical stability. The Pt 3 Ti nanoparticles show excellent specific activity — 5.3-fold higher than commercial Pt/C and 3-fold higher than polycrystalline Pt, exceeding the performance of any PtTi catalysts reported to date. Combined experimental and computational efforts indicate that Pt enrichment on the Pt 3 Ti enhances the activity, and the intrinsic stability of the Pt 3 Ti phase provides durability. Subsequently, this knowledge, along with the facile fabrication of alloys by atomic layer deposition, can be leveraged to designed improved performance catalysts.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Direct Integration of Strained-Pt Catalysts into Proton-Exchange-Membrane Fuel Cells with Atomic Layer Deposition

The design and fabrication of lattice-strained platinum catalysts achieved by removing a soluble core from a platinum shell synthesized via atomic layer deposition, is reported. The remarkable catalytic performance for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), measured in both half-cell and full-cell configurations, is attributed to the observed lattice strain. By further optimizing the nanoparticle geometry and ionomer/carbon interactions, mass activity close to 0.8 A mg Pt -1 @0.9 V iR-free is achievable in the membrane electrode assembly. Nevertheless, active catalysts with high ORR activity do not necessarily lead to high performance in the high-current-density (HCD) region. More attention shall be directed toward HCD performance for enabling high-power-density hydrogen fuel cells.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Elucidating the Evolving Atomic Structure in Atomic Layer Deposition Reactions with in Situ XANES and Machine Learning

Precision synthesis of thin films requires an improved mechanistic understanding of the structural evolution of materials at the atomic scale. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a critical nanofabrication technique that enables fine-tuning of atomic structure and thickness as a result of its layer-by-layer growth behavior. In this study, in situ X-ray absorption spectra of the S K-edge during ALD growth of ZnS thin films on TiO 2 nanoparticles were collected and analyzed. The experimental results show that both sulfide and sulfate species form during the nucleation phase of ZnS on TiO 2 . As film growth proceeds, the S K-edge of the in situ ZnS film converges to that of a representative ex situ ALD ZnS film. By building representative atomistic models, a high-throughput screening method was developed to determine the most probable atomic configurations as the film structure evolves. Specifically, the screening method consisted of a supervised machine learning analysis of thousands of simulated X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectra. Atomic-level insight was gained into changes in the coordination environment of surface species as they transitioned from the nucleation phase toward the crystalline ZnS phase. The experimental and computational strategies presented herein provide an example of how in situ synchrotron-based characterization can be leveraged using robust modeling approaches to elucidate the ordering of atoms during thin-film growth.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2017

Revealing the Bonding Environment of Zn in ALD Zn(O,S) Buffer Layers through X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy

Zn(O,S) buffer layer electronic configuration is determined by its composition and thickness, tunable through atomic layer deposition. The Zn K and L-edges in the X-ray absorption near edge structure verify ionicity and covalency changes with S content. A high intensity shoulder in the Zn K-edge indicates strong Zn 4s hybridized states and a preferred c-axis orientation. 2–3 nm thick films with low S content show a subdued shoulder showing less contribution from Zn 4s hybridization. Here, a lower energy shift with film thickness suggests a decreasing bandgap. Further, ZnSO 4 forms at substrate interfaces, which may be detrimental for device performance.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Topological semimetal in honeycomb lattice LnSI

Significance We show that fruitful topological states can be realized in a special honeycomb lattice model. Guided by this model, we find that GdSI, the long perceived ideal Weyl semimetal, has only two pairs of Weyl nodes and that LuSI (YSI) is a topological insulator with the right-handed helical surface states. Our work provides a mechanism to study topological semimetals and proposes a platform for exploring the physics of Weyl semimetals as well as related device designs.

Nie, Simin↗
DOE OSTI2017

High-throughput screening of inorganic compounds for the discovery of novel dielectric and optical materials

Dielectrics are an important class of materials that are ubiquitous in modern electronic applications. Even though their properties are important for the performance of devices, the number of compounds with known dielectric constant is on the order of a few hundred. Here, we use Density Functional Perturbation Theory as a way to screen for the dielectric constant and refractive index of materials in a fast and computationally efficient way. Our results constitute the largest dielectric tensors database to date, containing 1,056 compounds. Details regarding the computational methodology and technical validation are presented along with the format of our publicly available data. In addition, we integrate our dataset with the Materials Project allowing users easy access to material properties. Finally, we explain how our dataset and calculation methodology can be used in the search for novel dielectric compounds.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Direct and continuous strain control of catalysts with tunable battery electrode materials

We report a method for using battery electrode materials to directly and continuously control the lattice strain of platinum (Pt) catalyst and thus tune its catalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Whereas the common approach of using metal overlayers introduces ligand effects in addition to strain, by electrochemically switching between the charging and discharging status of battery electrodes the change in volume can be precisely controlled to induce either compressive or tensile strain on supported catalysts. Lattice compression and tension induced by the lithium cobalt oxide substrate of ~5% were directly observed in individual Pt nanoparticles with aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy. As a result, we observed 90% enhancement or 40% suppression in Pt ORR activity under compression or tension, respectively, which is consistent with theoretical predictions.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Correlation of film density and wet etch rate in hydrofluoric acid of plasma enhanced atomic layer deposited silicon nitride

The continued scaling in transistors and memory elements has necessitated the development of atomic layer deposition (ALD) of silicon nitride (SiN{sub x}), particularly for use a low k dielectric spacer. One of the key material properties needed for SiN{sub x} films is a low wet etch rate (WER) in hydrofluoric (HF) acid. In this work, we report on the evaluation of multiple precursors for plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) of SiN{sub x} and evaluate the film’s WER in 100:1 dilutions of HF in H{sub 2}O. The remote plasma capability available in PEALD, enabled controlling the density of the SiN{sub x} film. Namely, prolonged plasma exposure made films denser which corresponded to lower WER in a systematic fashion. We determined that there is a strong correlation between WER and the density of the film that extends across multiple precursors, PEALD reactors, and a variety of process conditions. Limiting all steps in the deposition to a maximum temperature of 350 °C, it was shown to be possible to achieve a WER in PEALD SiN{sub x} of 6.1 Å/min, which is similar to WER of SiN{sub x} from LPCVD reactions at 850 °C.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Benchmarking density functional perturbation theory to enable high-throughput screening of materials for dielectric constant and refractive index

We demonstrate a high-throughput density functional perturbation theory (DFPT) methodology capable of screening compounds for their dielectric properties. The electronic and ionic dielectric tensors are calculated for 88 compounds, where the eigenvalues of the total dielectric tensors are compared with single crystal and polycrystalline experimental values reported in the literature. We find that GGA/PBE has a smaller mean average deviation from experiments (MARD=16.2%) when compared to LDA. The prediction accuracy of DFPT is lowest for compounds that exhibit complex structural relaxation effects (e.g., octahedra rotation in perovskites) and/or strong anharmonicity. Despite some discrepancies between DFPT results and reported experimental values, the high-throughput methodology is found to be useful in identifying interesting compounds by ranking. This is demonstrated by the high Spearman correlation factor (ρ=0.92). Finally, we demonstrate that DFPT provides a good estimate for the refractive index of a compound without calculating the frequency dependence of the dielectric matrix (MARD=5.7%).

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Atomic layer deposition by reaction of molecular oxygen with tetrakisdimethylamido-metal precursors

Tetrakisdimethylamido (TDMA) based precursors are commonly used to deposit metal oxides such as TiO{sub 2}, ZrO{sub 2}, and HfO{sub 2} by means of chemical vapor deposition and atomic layer deposition (ALD). Both thermal and plasma enhanced ALD (PEALD) have been demonstrated with TDMA-metal precursors. While the reactions of TDMA-type precursors with water and oxygen plasma have been studied in the past, their reactivity with pure O{sub 2} has been overlooked. This paper reports on experimental evaluation of the reaction of molecular oxygen (O{sub 2}) and several metal organic precursors based on TDMA ligands. The effect of O{sub 2} exposure duration and substrate temperature on deposition and film morphology is evaluated and compared to thermal reactions with H{sub 2}O and PEALD with O{sub 2} plasma.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Grain boundary blocking of ionic conductivity in nanocrystalline yttria-doped ceria thin films

Nanocrystalline YDC thin films with grain-sizes ranging from 38 to 93-nm were prepared using pulsed laser deposition followed by thermal annealing. Ionic conductivity decreased up to four orders of magnitude as the grain size increased. Using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, we showed that the counter-intuitive reduction in conductivity with grain-size is likely due to dopant and impurity segregation near grain-boundaries. Spectroscopic evidence suggests that the blocking effect due to defect segregation is more dominant on ionic conductivity than the grain-sizes.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Variation of Energy Density of States in Quantum Dot Arrays due to Interparticle Electronic Coupling

Subnanometer-resolved local electron energy structure was measured in PbS quantum dot superlattice arrays using valence electron energy loss spectroscopy with scanning transmission electron microscopy. We found smaller values of the lowest available transition energies and an increased density of electronic states in the space between quantum dots with shorter interparticle spacing, indicating extension of carrier wave functions as a result of interparticle electronic coupling. Lastly, a quantum simulation verified both trends and illustrated the wave function extension effect.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗