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At least 271 records · Page 15
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

Implementation Guide for the Revised Branch Technical Position on Concentration Averaging and Encapsulation - 16021

As a result of the research begun in 2007 to better understand the bases of the Branch Technical Position (BTP) on 'Concentration Averaging and Encapsulation' and 10 CFR 61 'Licensing Requirements for Land Disposal of Radioactive Waste', EPRI identified three regulatory initiatives that could be pursued to enhance disposal options for the industry. These initiatives directly follow the NRC strategic assessment. The first was to revise the BTP to allow broader blending of compatible waste types. The second was to examine how 10 CFR 61.58 'Alternative requirements for waste classification and characteristics' could be used to allow for an alternative disposal criterion based on site-specific hydro-geological characteristics and end land use scenarios. And, the third is to develop a technical basis for risk informed disposal regulations in anticipation of a 10CFR 61 rulemaking. By the summer of 2015 these initiatives had been broadly addressed and resulted in the NRC issuing Revision 1 to the BTP in February of 2015. Revision 1 of the BTP (BTP 2015) is a significant re-write of the draft issued in May 2012 and a significant improvement over the 1995 BTP (BTP 1995). The NRC has altered many of the positions in the interest of clarification. The development of an Implementation Guide for applying BTP 2015 to industry-specific waste streams that is vetted and supported by a EPRI sponsored working group consisting of industry participants (including utilities, disposal sites, NRC and Agreement State representatives and industry experts) will ensure compliant and consistent application during waste generation, packaging, processing and disposal activities. The Implementation Guide will provide for a comparison to previous BTP guidance and provide clarification and common understanding of the key concepts contained within the revised BTP. These include averaging constraints, hot spots, waste streams, waste types, discrete items, blending, solidification, encapsulation and alternative approaches. EPRI plans to publish the BTP Implementation Guide in the second quarter of 2016 and it will be available to the public. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2016

Preparation of Waste Fingerprints for the Miscellaneous Beta Gamma Waste Feeds to the Box Encapsulation Plant at Sellafield - 16080

There are a number of legacy pond and silo storage facilities on Sellafield Site that contain a broad range of ILW arising from the early Windscale Pile and Magnox Fuel Reprocessing Programmes. The waste comprises of solid Miscellaneous Beta Gamma Waste (MBGW) from operations (including filters, containerised waste, thermocouple wire, support struts, pumps, soft wastes) and associated sludges that have arisen from the corrosion of the fuel, Magnox Swarf cladding and the MBGW. It is intended to retrieve and package this waste to meet the requirements of interim storage and final disposal in the Box Encapsulation Plant (BEP) at Sellafield. As part of this process each package must be assigned a realistic and justifiable radionuclide and material inventory. These inventories can either be assigned by radiometric measurements including the associated errors or developed by fundamental data underpinning these assessments and a 'chain of custody' approach of knowing where the waste has been and how it has evolved. The subject of this paper is concerned with the development of the waste fingerprints for these legacy waste streams. As the wastes have arisen over a ∼70 year period there have been an assortment of different working practices and developments in equipment design that have led to significant variations in the waste condition and its composition. During storage the waste items have become mixed, corroded and sludge deposits have arisen. Because of this, and that early consignment records are either incomplete or missing, the task of assigning material and radionuclide fingerprints has been very challenging. In addition, to comply with regulatory requirements the inventory assignment has to be sufficiently robust to meet the processing envelope of the encapsulation process i.e. to allow controls to be made on the amounts of reactive materials (e.g. aluminium, Magnox and uranium) that can be processed within each product and allow identification of excluded items from being consigned from the donor plants. Also, as the waste comprises actinides, fission and activation products it was noted that whilst the UK standard inventory code FISPIN10 predicts the actinides and fission products well, there was a significant discrepancy in the prediction of activation products when compared with those predicted by the specialised fusion code FISPACT. It should be noted that the use of FISPACT to predict actinides and fission products is not recommended. To address these issues, - position statements were produced for each of the waste streams that would be consigned to BEP; - gaps within the data were assessed and where possible inactive trial work was identified to address it; - material and radionuclide fingerprint justification documents were developed from the position statements based upon available data, the experimental work and justified assumptions; - where FISPIN runs were required, these were run with a modified activation data library based on the European Activation File 2010 (EAF2010) to model the activation products. This paper summarises the BEP process, discusses examples of how the material and radionuclide waste stream fingerprints have been justified by revisiting the sample data, original consignment records, engineering drawings and recent remotely operated vehicle (ROV) pond surveys and making reasoned assumptions based on operational practices and non-active experimental work. Incorporation of the EAF2010 library within the FISPIN code has offered significant benefits to BEP and indeed other plants processing mixed fission and activated wastes as it allows comparable predictions of activation products compared with that made by FISPACT and for the plant to maintain one data processing stream rather than two if it had to utilise both modelling codes. This work will underpin the inventory submission in support of the Interim Letter of Compliance (ILoC) to Radioactive Waste Management Limited (RWM). The process of examining the original records, plant operation schedules and engineering drawings has enabled removal of some of the pessimisms that have been made in previous assessments. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2019

Energy Transfer Induced by Dye Encapsulation in a Hybrid Nanoparticle‐Purple Membrane Reversible Assembly

Abstract The purple membrane (PM) isolated from the bacteria Halobacterium salinarum ( H. salinarum ) arranges the transmembrane proton pump bacteriorhodopsin (bR) in a 2D hexagonal crystalline lattice. Here, PM sheets containing native bR bend into tube‐like structures with open edges under acidic pH conditions. When decorated with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), these same PM sheets yield a sealed tube assembly. Upon Rhodamine B (Rh B) sequestration inside the sealed tube, a dramatic decrease in Rh B fluorescence lifetime (τ f ) from 1.5 ns (unencapsulated) to 14 ps (encapsulated) is observed. The dramatic decrease in lifetime is attributed to energy transfer between AuNPs and Rh B. Subsequent release from the AuNP–PM capsules triggered by an increase in pH shows that 93% of Rh B is recovered (τ = 14 min) due to the capsules' unfolding. The hybrid AuNP–PM material highlights the utility of multicomponent ensembles (i.e., lipid bilayer, protein array, and NPs) by demonstrating that complex, multistimuli 3D responses can lead to multiplexed functions such as controlling energy transfer in the confined, encapsulated state and breaking the energy pair via molecular release in response to a change in pH.

de Q. Silveira, Gleiciani↗
DOE OSTI2018

Concerted Bimetallic Nanocluster Synthesis and Encapsulation via Induced Zeolite Framework Demetallation for Shape and Substrate Selective Heterogeneous Catalysis

Abstract Bimetallic nanoparticle encapsulation in microporous zeolite crystals is a promising route for producing catalysts with unprecedented reaction selectivities. Herein, a novel synthetic approach was developed to produce PtZn x nanoclusters encapsulated inside zeolite micropores by introducing Pt 2+ cations into a zincosilicate framework via ion exchange, and subsequent controlled demetallation and alloying with framework Zn. The resulting zeolites featured nanoclusters with sizes of approximately 1 nm, having an interatomic structure corresponding to a PtZn x alloy as confirmed by pair distribution function (PDF) analysis. These materials featured simultaneous shape and substrate specificity demonstrated by the selective production of p ‐chloroaniline from the competitive hydrogenation of p ‐chloronitrobenzene and 1,3‐dimethyl‐5‐nitrobenzene.

Iida, Takayuki↗
DOE OSTI2025

Encapsulation Enhances the Quantum Coherence of a Solid‐State Molecular Spin Qubit

Spins within molecules benefit from the atomistic control of synthetic chemistry for the realization of qubits. One advantage is that the quantum superpositions of the spin states encoding the qubit can be coherently manipulated using electromagnetic radiation. The main challenge is the fragility of these superpositions when qubits are to partake of solid-state devices. We address this issue with a supramolecular approach for protecting molecular spin qubits against decoherence. The molecular qubit [Cr(ox)3]3- has been encapsulated inside the diamagnetic triple-stranded helicate [Zn2L3]4+ (L is a bis-pyrazolylpyridine ligand). The quantum coherence of the protected qubit is then analyzed with pulsed EPR spectroscopy and compared with the unprotected qubit, both in solution and in the solid state. Crucially, the spin-spin relaxation in the solid state has been examined within diamagnetic crystal lattices of the isostructural ([Al(ox)3]@[Zn2L3])+ or [Al(ox)3]3- assemblies, respectively, doped with the Cr3+ qubit in two different (<10%) concentrations. The study unveils a surprising increase of the phase memory time of the qubit upon encapsulation only in the solid. Spin-lattice relaxation times also exhibit a significant enhancement, as established from inversion recovery pulse sequences and from slow relaxation of the magnetization of the protected qubit, not featured by the free qubit.

Swain, Abinash↗
DOE OSTI2013

Stepwise Encapsulation of Sulfate Ions by Ferrocenyl-Functionalized Tripodal Hexaurea Receptors

Three ferrocenyl-functionalized tripodal hexaurea anion receptors with ortho- (L 2 ), meta- (L 3 ), and para- phenylene (L 4 ) bridges, which showed strong binding affinities toward sulfate ions, have been designed and synthesized. In particular, meta- phenylene-bridged ligand L 3 , owing to its trigonal bipyramidal structure, can encapsulate two SO 4 2- ions in its “inner” and “outer” tripodal clefts, respectively, as supported by their clearly distinct NMR resonances and by molecular modeling. The sulfate complex of ortho- ligand L 2 , (TBA) 2 [SO 4 &sub;L2]&middot;2 H 2 O (1), displays a caged tetrahedral structure with an encapsulated sulfate ion that is hydrogen bonded by the six urea groups of ligand L 2 . CV studies showed two types of electrochemical response of the ferrocene/ferrocenium redox couple upon anion binding, that is, a shift of the wave and the appearance of a new peak. Quantitative binding data were obtained from the NMR and CV titrations.

Huang, Xiaojuan↗
DOE OSTI2017

Different and Often Opposing Forces Drive the Encapsulation and Multiple Exterior Binding of Charged Guests to a M 4 L 6 Supramolecular Vessel in Water

Abstract The supramolecular assembly [Ga 4 L 6 ] 12− acts as a nanoscale flask to mediate the reactivity of encapsulated reactive guests and also functions as a catalyst to carry out enzyme‐like chemical transformations. The guest binding to the interior cavity and exterior of this host is difficult to untangle because multiple equilibria occur in solution, and only when refining simultaneously data obtained from different techniques, such as NMR, UV/Vis, and calorimetry, can the accurate solution thermodynamics of these host–guest systems be determined. This study reports the driving forces for the inclusion and stepwise exterior guest binding of different aliphatic quaternary ammonium guests to the [Ga 4 L 6 ] 12− assembly. Encapsulation into the host cavity was found to be an entropy‐driven process, whereas exterior ion association is driven either by enthalpically favorable attractive forces or by the entropy gain due to desolvation, depending on guest size and character. The analysis of the energetics of reaction may help predicting and understanding the intimate role and contribution of the transition state in those rate‐accelerated reactions involving this supramolecular assembly as an enzyme‐like molecular flask.

Sgarlata, Carmelo↗
DOE OSTI2019

Degradation in photovoltaic encapsulant transmittance: Results of the first PVQAT TG5 artificial weathering study

Reduced optical transmittance of encapsulants resulting from ultraviolet (UV) degradation is frequently identified as a cause of decreased performance through the service life of photovoltaic modules. However, the present module safety and qualification standards apply short UV doses, only capable of examining design robustness and 'infant mortality' failures. Furthermore, essential information remains unknown that might be used to screen encapsulants through product lifetime. We conducted an interlaboratory study to provide the understanding that will be used toward developing a higher-fidelity, more-rigorous UV weathering test. Five representative known formulations of poly (ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) were studied, in addition to one thermoplastic polyurethane material. Replicate laminated silica/polymer/silica specimens were examined at seven institutions using a variety of indoor chambers (including xenon, UVA-340, and metal-halide light sources). Specimens were artificially weathered for 180 cumulative days at steady-state accelerated test conditions, predesignated relative to the default irradiance of 1.0 W m-2 nm-1 at 340 nm, chamber temperature of 60 degrees C, and chamber relative humidity of 30%. The solar-weighted transmittance, yellowness index, and the UV cut-off wavelength - each determined from the measured hemispherical transmittance - are examined to provide understanding and guidance for the UV light source (type lamp and filters), temperature, and humidity used in accelerated UV aging tests. The relative efficacy of xenon-arc and UVA-340 fluorescent sources and the typical range of activation energy for degradation is quantified from the experiments.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Ceramic encapsulated metal phase change material for high temperature thermal energy storage

Thermal energy storage (TES) is a broad-based technology for reducing CO₂ emissions and advancing concentrating solar, fossil, and nuclear power through improvements in efficiency and economics. Phase change materials (PCMs) are of interest as TES media because of their ability to store large amounts of heat in relatively small volumes. The volume expansion during a phase change, typically between a solid and liquid, can cause breakage of protective coatings. This paper reports on the fabrication of a ceramic encapsulated metal (CEM) high temperature TES technology using a rotary calcining furnace and a fluidized bed chemical vapor deposition coating technique. Aluminum beads were chosen as the PCM because Al has a high melting point (660 °C), low cost, high heat of fusion, and an ability to form a thin, strong alumina layer capable of supporting the Al melt for subsequent processing. Quite remarkably, this study shows that 1 mm diameter Al can be fluidized up to at least 1500 °C in an appropriate atmosphere while maintaining a spheroid geometry. This allowed for producing a first of a kind CEM whereby Al particles were encapsulated in pyro-carbon (PyC) and high purity, dense chemical vapor deposited SiC. The CEM with a PyC only coating was exposed to thermal cycling to test the performance with a differential scanning calorimeter; the melting point and latent heat were measured to be 648.4 ± 2.8 °C and 293.3 ± 6.2 J/g respectively. It was demonstrated that the CEM design is possible to produce, laying the foundation for manufacturing of high temperature, tunable, TES media.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Empirical validation and comparison of methodologies to simulate micro and macro-encapsulated PCMs in the building envelope

Thermal Energy Storage (TES) has the potential to shift peak electricity demand. Passive TES is usually implemented in building envelope as micro and macro encapsulated phase change materials (PCM) to shift electric energy demand and therefore requires careful heat transfer analysis. Whole building energy modelling with simplified heat transfer analysis has become extremely important for designers, architects, engineers, and researchers to predict energy performance of buildings. It is important to validate PCM modelling algorithms used in building energy programs to quantify their error and prove their capacity to model different PCM encapsulation types. This study uses data from a microencapsulated PCM and two macroencapsulated PCMs (Bio based PCM and hydrate salts) tested in full-scale using the Advanced Multiscale Building Energy Research (AMBER) Lab located at the Colorado School of Mines and is used to validate a numerical algorithm written in MATLAB language. To approximate the heat transfer through a wall assembly with macroencapsulated PCM pouches, several modelling techniques that can reduce 3D heat transfer characteristics to 1D are explored in this research. A parallel path heat transfer modelling approach is found to give the closest agreement with the experimental data for the pouched PCMs in building envelope applications.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2025

Thermal and mechanical performance of gypsum composites containing fly ash cenosphere encapsulated phase change materials

Utilizing phase change materials (PCMs) within construction materials improves the thermal energy storage capabilities in the built environment. Notably, integrating PCMs into drywalls presents a promising avenue to reduce building energy use. However, incorporating PCMs into drywalls poses challenges, particularly reduced mechanical properties and workability limitations as it can adversely affect the hardening and cohesiveness of gypsum composites. To address these challenges, this study explores a novel strategy to incorporate PCMs into gypsum composites through fly ash cenosphere-encapsulated PCM, namely CenoPCM, aiming to enhance the mechanical properties and thermal conductivity over existing commercial counterparts. An experimental program was conducted to study the impact of the inclusion of CenoPCM on the mechanical and thermal performance of gypsum composites, and the results were compared to those of commercially available polymerencapsulated PCM benchmark (Micronal). The findings highlighted that PCM-charged samples exhibited up to 95.90 J/g (CenoPCM) of latent heat with 70 % CenoPCM loading. The results of mechanical tests also showed that CenoPCM outperformed its polymer-encapsulated counterpart, achieving 55 % higher mechanical strength on average. Here, this improvement is attributed to the rigid shell of fly ash cenosphere (FAC) serving as a PCM carrier, providing a skeleton-like structure to gypsum composites for higher load-bearing capacity. Additionally, hotbox tests demonstrated that the CenoPCM-charged wall panels yielded a 20 % higher thermal conductivity and a 22 % increased time lag compared to Micronal PCM-charged panels, indicating its potential to shift the peak load in buildings.

Ceno PCM↗
DOE OSTI2022

Waste to worth: A high-temperature water-gas shift magnetite catalyst with encapsulated core-shell structure from coal fly ash

In this paper, we demonstrate the synthesis of magnetite-based, encapsulated catalyst with a core-shell structure from coal fly ash, an industrial solid waste, and its application to industrially important high temperature water-gas shift reaction (HT-WGSR). The catalyst precursor was first synthesized through a leaching-precipitation-hydrothermal process, leading to the formation of a nanosheet-like hematite precursor consisting of Fe 3+ as primary element and minor cations including Al 3+ , Mg 2+ and other cations (e.g. Ca 2+ and Ti 4+ ). During the WGSR, the nanosheets broke into smaller particles with a core of magnetite with a diameter of ~20 nm, whereas the inherent impurity elements were activated and migrated to the outer surface forming a shell with a thickness of ~4 nm. Due to the protection of shell, the as-synthesized catalyst exhibited improved activity, thermal stability and long-term durability for HT-WGSR at 400 °C and 450 °C. Compared to the pure hematite, this catalyst exhibited much higher activity and stability, i.e., increased CO conversion and decreased deactivation rate constant, by a factor of four and three, respectively. Additionally, through a bottom-up reverse synthesis, we have confirmed that Al 3+ functioned as a textual promoter enhancing the interfacial area of the catalyst. On the other hand, the presence of minor impurity elements, in particular 2.58 wt% Mg 2+ and 0.18 wt% Ti 4+ , were found to increase the basicity, and promote the adsorption rate of CO, the redox of catalysts, and the alteration of the reaction mechanism from regenerative to associative with the formation of a strong intermediate formate. Finally, this study not only opens a new direction on the valorization of solid waste into high-value catalysts, promoting the sustainability of solid waste management, but also provides an alternative, cost-effective and scalable approach for the design and fine-tuning of encapsulated catalysts.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2016

Growth of encapsulating carbon on supported Pt nanoparticles studied by in situ TEM

Carbon deposition on MgO-supported Pt nanoparticles from ethylene decomposition was explored by in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) at the atomic level. An imaging strategy was established for controlling beam-gas-sample interactions that minimizes beam-induced changes of the reaction. Using this strategy, it was possible to observe how carbon encapsulation occurs on Pt nanoparticles and the role of the Pt surface morphology. The evidence indicates that multiple partial layers grew simultaneously prior to full encapsulation of the nanoparticle. The growth of carbon on Pt nanoparticles was discovered to induce significant changes in the nanoparticle shape, resulting in particles becoming rounder as coking progressed. Closer examination of the surface structure revealed that in some cases carbon growth induced step formation.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2014

Luminescence properties of LaF{sub 3}:Ce nanoparticles encapsulated by oleic acid

Highlights: • In-situ hydrophobization of water dispersible LaF{sub 3}:Ce nanoparticles was achieved. • Oleic acid surface modification of the nanoparticles was verified by IR spectra. • Quantum yields of LaF{sub 3}:Ce and OA-LaF{sub 3}:Ce nanoparticles were evaluated. • Quantum yields of LaF{sub 3}:Ce are strongly dependent on OA surface modification. - Abstract: Cerium ions doped lanthanum fluoride (LaF{sub 3}:Ce) nanopowder as well as LaF{sub 3}:Ce nanopowder whose surfaces was modified by oleic acid (OA) were synthesized by using an in-situ hydrothermal process under the various doping concentrations. Based on the XRD spectra and TEM images, it was confirmed that the crystalline structured hexagonal LaF{sub 3}:Ce nanopowder was synthesized. Oleic acid was efficient for conversion of the water dispersible LaF{sub 3}:Ce nanoparticles to hydrophobic ones. Surface modification was verified by FTIR absorption spectrum as well as TEM images, showing no agglomeration between 5 and 10 nm scaled particles. Photoluminescence based on 5d ⟶ 4f electronic transition of cerium ions excited at λ{sub ex} ∼256 nm for both neat and OA encapsulated LaF{sub 3}:Ce nanoparticles decreases as the cerium concentration increases, while the quantum yields of OA encapsulated nanoparticles were much lower than the neat particles due to low photon transmittance of OA at the range longer than ∼350 nm.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2018

Room-temperature synthesis and characterization of carbon-encapsulated molybdenum nanoparticles

Highlights: • Carbon-encapsulated molybdenum nanoparticles were synthesized at room temperature. • Different hydrocarbons were used as carbon source for shell formation. • Increase of hydrocarbon mole ratio resulted in decrease of Mo-based nanoparticle cores. • Increase of laser pulses number resulted in increase of Mo content in CEMNPs. • Carbon shells prevented Mo nanoparticles from aggregation. - Abstract: Carbon-encapsulated molybdenum nanoparticles were synthesized by laser-assisted photolysis of gaseous precursors. In the proposed method, gas mixtures containing various hydrocarbons and molybdenum hexacarbonyl vapor diluted in argon were irradiated with a nanosecond pulsed UV laser at room temperature. Particle samples were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), electron microdiffraction (EMD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) techniques to observe the morphology and composition of the Mo/C nanoparticles. The influence of the type of hydrocarbon, its mole fraction, and the number of UV laser pulses on the resulting nanoparticles was investigated. The nanoparticles were heavily aggregated and consisted of Mo-based cores surrounded by carbon. The type of hydrocarbon did not have any visible effects on the nanoparticle structure and the size of the Mo-based cores or aggregates. Increasing the hydrocarbon mole fraction in the precursor mixture led to an increase in the carbon content and decrease of the Mo-based core size. Increasing the number of UV laser pulses led to larger Mo cores.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Encapsulating phosphorus inside carbon nanotubes via a solution approach for advanced lithium ion host

Conventional phosphorus anode materials in lithium/sodium-ion batteries are mainly based on the physical mixing and evaporation/condensation, in which external phosphorus on conductive matrix is unavoidable and hard to be removed due to the formation of crystalline phase. It has been found to break off from conductive matrix easily and deteriorate capacity rapidly. In this communication, we first report a solution processed encapsulation method which facilitates phosphorus anchored inside multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). Any possible external phosphorus adsorbents are hard to transform into crystalline and enable an easy removal by polar solvents. Eventually, the phosphorus rings and chains are successfully encapsulated only inside MWCNTs, exhibiting high cycling stability in lithium-ion battery because of the efficient physical confinement and unique discrete phosphorus segment assemblies inside MWCNTs which ensured enough vacant space for volume expansion.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Mainstream nitrogen removal from low temperature and low ammonium strength municipal wastewater using hydrogel-encapsulated comammox and anammox

Application of partial nitritation (PN)-anammox to mainstream wastewater treatment faces challenges in low water temperature and low ammonium strength. In this study, a continuous flow PN-anammox reactor with hydrogel-encapsulated comammox and anammox was designed and operated for nitrogen removal from mainstream wastewater with low temperature. Long-term operation with synthetic and real wastewater as the feed demonstrated nearly complete ammonium and total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) removal by the reactor at temperatures as low as 10 °C. A significantly decreased nitrogen removal performance and biomass activity was observed in the reactor at 4 °C before a selective heating strategy was employed. A novel heating technology using radiation to heat carbon black co-encapsulated in the hydrogel matrix with biomass was used to selectively heat biomass but not water in the treatment system. This selective heating technology enabled nearly complete ammonium removal and 89.4 ± 4.3 % TIN removal at influent temperature of 4 °C and reactor temperature 5 °C. Activity tests suggested selective heating brought the biomass activity at influent temperatures of 4 °C and reactor temperature 5 °C to a level comparable to that at 10 °C. Comammox and anammox were consistently present in the system and spatially organized in the hydrogel beads as revealed by qPCR and fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH). The abundance of comammox largely decreased by 3 orders of magnitude during the operation at 4 °C, and rapidly recovered after the application of selective heating. The anammox-comammox technology tested in this study essentially enabled mainstream shortcut nitrogen removal, and the selective heating ensured good performance of the technology at temperature as low as 5 °C.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Targeting One- and Two-Dimensional Ta–Te Structures via Nanotube Encapsulation

Fine control over material synthesis on the nanoscale can facilitate the stabilization of competing crystalline structures. In this report we demonstrate how carbon nanotube reaction vessels can be used to selectively create one-dimensional TaTe 3 chains or two-dimensional TaTe 2 nanoribbons with exquisite control of the chain number or nanoribbon thickness and width. Transmission electron microscopy and scanning transmission electron microscopy reveal the detailed atomic structure of the encapsulated materials. Complex superstructures such as multichain spiraling and apparent multilayer moirés are observed. The rare 2H phase of TaTe 2 (1H in monolayer) is found to be abundant as an encapsulated nanoribbon inside carbon nanotubes. The experimental results are complemented by density functional theory calculations for the atomic and electronic structure, which uncovers the prevalence of 2H-TaTe 2 due to nanotube-to-nanoribbon charge transfer and size confinement. Calculations also reveal new 1T' type charge density wave phases in TaTe 2 that could be observed in experimental studies.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗