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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 523 records · Page 29

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DOE OSTI2025

Unraveling the origin of air-stability in single-crystalline layered oxide positive electrode materials

Single-crystalline Ni-rich layered oxides present compelling advantages over conventional polycrystalline counterparts toward large-scale applications, including enhanced mechanical stability and higher energy density. Nevertheless, the deleterious effects of air exposure, which is inevitable in industrial processing, on their structure and electrochemical performance remain poorly understood. Herein, we reveal that air exposure is more detrimental to the electrochemical performance of single-crystalline layered oxide positive electrodes than polycrystalline counterparts. It is found that air-induced surface structural distortions are primarily responsible for the electrochemical performance decay of single-crystalline samples rather than the generally believed surface residual lithium. Leveraging multiscale diffraction and imaging techniques, we identify an undesirable structural transition to a metastable O1* phase, which introduces substantial lattice defects and localized strain concentrations within the layered structure. These adverse structural evolutions compromise structural integrity and promote crack initiation during electrochemical cycling, ultimately accelerating capacity fade. Our findings provide critical insights into the air-induced degradation mechanisms and emphasize the urgent need for developing effective stabilization strategies to facilitate the commercial implementation of single-crystalline Ni-rich positive electrodes.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2024

Imprinted Micelle Integration into a Commercial Platform (Progress Report)

PNNL has successfully integrated a commercial aerosol detector and the imprinted micelle technology. The integrated systems have been shown to have a limit of detection between 33-47 particles with several options for data analysis presented that vary on computational requirements. It is possible to integrate these systems and receive response data on the second time scale. While more work is needed, these technologies are compatible, which opens up a large field of air sampling looking for specific contaminates.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2023

Structuring Nutrient Yields throughout Mississippi/Atchafalaya River Basin Using Machine Learning Approaches

To minimize the eutrophication pressure along the Gulf of Mexico or reduce the size of the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico, it is important to understand the underlying temporal and spatial variations and correlations in excess nutrient loads, which are strongly associated with the formation of hypoxia. This study’s objective was to reveal and visualize structures in high-dimensional datasets of nutrient yield distributions throughout the Mississippi/Atchafalaya River Basin (MARB). For this purpose, the annual mean nutrient concentrations were collected from thirty-three US Geological Survey (USGS) water stations scattered in the upper and lower MARB from 1996 to 2020. Eight surface water quality indicators were selected to make comparisons among water stations along the MARB over the past two decades. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to comprehensively evaluate the nutrient yields across thirty-three USGS monitoring stations and identify the major contributing nutrient loads. The results showed that all samples could be analyzed using two main components, which accounted for 81.6% of the total variance. The PCA results showed that yields of orthophosphate (OP), silica (SI), nitrate–nitrites (NO 3 -NO 2 ), and total suspended sediment (TSS) are major contributors to nutrient yields. It also showed that land-planted crops, density of population, domestic and industrial discharges, and precipitation are fundamental causes of excess nutrient loads in MARB. These factors are of great significance for the excess nutrient load management and pollution control of the Mississippi River. It was found that the average nutrient yields were stable within the sub-MARB area, but the large nitrogen yields in the upper MARB and the large phosphorus yields in the lower MARB were of great concern. t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) revealed interesting nonlinear and local structures in nutrient yield distributions. Clustering analysis (CA) showed the detailed development of similarities in the nutrient yield distribution. Moreover, PCA, t-SNE, and CA showed consistent clustering results. This study demonstrated that the integration of dimension reduction techniques, PCA, and t-SNE with CA techniques in machine learning are effective tools for the visualization of the structures of the correlations in high-dimensional datasets of nutrient yields and provide a comprehensive understanding of the correlations in the distributions of nutrient loads across the MARB.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS1993

FTIR quantification of industrial hydraulic fluids in perchloroethylene

The purpose of this summer research project was to investigate whether perchloroethylene can be used as a solvent for the quantitative analysis of industrial hydraulic fluids by infrared spectroscopy employing Beer's law. Standard calibration curves using carbon-hydrogen stretching (generic) and ester absorption peaks were prepared for a series of standard dilutions at low ppm levels of concentration of seven hydraulic fluids in perchloroethylene. The absorbance spectras were recorded with 1.5-10 mm fixed and variable path length sample cells made of potassium bromide. The results indicate that using ester infrared spectral peak, it is possible to detect about 20 ppm of the hydraulic fluid in perchloroethylene.

Mehta, Narinder K.↗

NASA NTRS2017

New Developments in NASA's Rodent Research Hardware for Conducting Long Duration Biomedical and Basic Research in Space

Animal models, particularly rodents, are the foundation of pre-clinical research to understand human diseases and evaluate new therapeutics, and play a key role in advancing biomedical discoveries both on Earth and in space. The National Research Councils Decadal survey emphasized the importance of expanding NASA's life sciences research to perform long duration, rodent experiments on the International Space Station (ISS) to study effects of the space environment on the musculoskeletal and neurological systems of mice as model organisms of human health and disease, particularly in areas of muscle atrophy, bone loss, and fracture healing. To accomplish this objective, flight hardware, operations, and science capabilities were developed at NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) to enhance science return for both commercial (CASIS) and government-sponsored rodent research. The Rodent Research Project at NASA ARC has pioneered a new research capability on the International Space Station and has progressed toward translating research to the ISS utilizing commercial rockets, collaborating with academia and science industry, while training crewmembers to assist in performing research on orbit. The Rodent Research Habitat provides a living environment for animals on ISS according to standard animal welfare requirements, and daily health checks can be performed using the habitats camera system. Results from these studies contribute to the science community via both the primary investigation and banked samples that are shared in publicly available data repository such as GeneLab. Following each flight, through the Biospecimen Sharing Program (BSP), numerous tissues and thousands of samples will be harvested, and distributed from the Space Life and Physical Sciences (SLPS) to Principal Investigators (PIs) through the Ames Life Science Data Archive (ALSDA). Every completed mission sets a foundation to build and design greater complexity into future research and answer questions about common human diseases. Together, the hardware improvements (enrichment, telemetry sensors, cameras), new capabilities (live animal return), and experience that the Rodent Research team has gained working with principal investigator teams and ISS crew to conduct complex experiments on orbit are expanding capabilities for long duration rodent research on the ISS to achieve both basic science and biomedical research objectives.

Shirazi, Yasaman↗

DOE OSTI2024

In-line, High-Throughput Quality Monitoring for Fuel Cell and Electrolyzer Components Based on Transmission and Reflection Imaging

During the manufacturing of fuel cell and electrolyzer membranes and membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs), real-time, in-line, high-throughput optical-based quality monitoring methods are essential for detecting defects and monitoring thickness variations, thus improving the performance and increasing the durability of fuel cell and electrolyzer in the hydrogen industry. For the MEAs with very opaque coatings, optical transmission-based imaging has been developed and applied in the Roll-to-Roll system using a flashlight and a high-sensitivity CCD camera. We observed high signal-to-noise ratio images while the Roll-to-Roll system ran at 5 ft/min. The entire sample image could quickly be recovered from the discrete frames using customized Python codes for automatic frame cropping and stitching. We detected significant non-uniformities in our experimental MEAs specimen. For fuel cell and low-temperature electrolysis (LTE) transparent membranes, we used optical reflectance hyperspectral imaging with interference fringe-based thickness mapping. We set up a hyperspectral camera to measure various rolls of commercial membranes. The measurement results are analyzed to find the thickness distribution of each roll and to check for defects. Transmission and reflection imaging-based quality monitoring techniques demonstrated in this project can be widely used in the mass production environment to improve the production yield and performance of hydrogen devices.

DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION,ENGINEERING↗

NASA NTRS2003

Sensory characterization of a ready-to-eat sweetpotato breakfast cereal by descriptive analysis

The sweetpotato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam], an important industry in the United States, has been selected as a candidate crop to be grown on future long-duration space missions by NASA. Raw sweetpotato roots were processed into flour, which was used to formulate ready-to-eat breakfast cereal (RTEBC). Twelve trained panelists evaluated the sensory attributes of the extruded RTEBC using descriptive analysis. The samples were significantly different (P<0.05) for all attributes. Twelve perceived sensory attributes, which could be used to differentiate the appearance, texture, and flavor of sweetpotato RTEBC, were described. The data could be used to optimize the RTEBC and for designing studies to test its consumer acceptance.

NASA Discipline Life Support Systems↗

NASA NTRS2013

Hermetic Seal Designs for Sample Return Sample Tubes

Prototypes have been developed of potential hermetic sample sealing techniques for encapsulating samples in a ≈1-cm-diameter thin-walled sample tube that are compatible with IMSAH (Integrated Mars Sample Acquisition and Handling) architecture. Techniques include a heat-activated, finned, shape memory alloy plug; a contracting shape memory alloy activated cap; an expanding shape memory alloy plug; and an expanding torque plug. Initial helium leak testing of the shape memory alloy cap and finned shape memory alloy plug seals showed hermetic- seal capability compared against an industry standard of <1×10-8 atm-cc/s He. These tests were run on both clean tubes and dirty tubes dipped in MMS (Mojave Mars Simulant). The leak tests were also performed after thermal cycling between -135 and +55 ºC to ensure seal integrity after Martian diurnal cycles. Developmental testing is currently being done on the expanding torque plug, and expanding shape memory alloy plug seal designs. The finned shape memory alloy (SMA) plug currently shows hermetic sealing capability based on preliminary tests.

Younse, Paulo J.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Automating analog design: Taming the shrew

The pace of progress in the design of integrated circuits continues to amaze observers inside and outside of the industry. Three decades ago, a 50 transistor chip was a technological wonder. Fifteen year later, a 5000 transistor device would 'wow' the crowds. Today, 50,000 transistor chips will earn a 'not too bad' assessment, but it takes 500,000 to really leave an impression. In 1975 a typical ASIC device had 1000 transistors, took one year to first samples (and two years to production) and sold for about 5 cents per transistor. Today's 50,000 transistor gate array takes about 4 months from spec to silicon, works the first time, and sells for about 0.02 cents per transistor. Fifteen years ago, the single most laborious and error prone step in IC design was the physical layout. Today, most IC's never see the hand of a layout designer: and automatic place and route tool converts the engineer's computer captured schematic to a complete physical design using a gate array or a library of standard cells also created by software rather than by designers. CAD has also been a generous benefactor to the digital design process. The architect of today's digital systems creates the design using an RTL or other high level simulator. Then the designer pushes a button to invoke the logic synthesizer-optimizer tool. A fault analyzer checks the result for testability and suggests where scan based cells will improve test coverage. One obstinate holdout amidst this parade of progress is the automation of analog design and its reduction to semi-custom techniques. This paper investigates the application of CAD techniques to analog design.

Barlow, A.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Feasibility study of a synthesis procedure for array feeds to improve radiation performance of large distorted reflector antennas

There were several tangible products that resulted from the reflector antenna research program. The initial technical effort was to develop techniques to compensate for distortions over the surface of the main reflector of a large reflector antenna system. An in-depth investigation of this problem resulted in a new technique for the electronic correction of surface errors. A journal article on the findings describe the use of the iterative sampling method. Shortly after the 'Mission to Planet Earth' program started, we began investigating the use of large reflector antennas in geostationary orbit for passive earth remote sensing. A study panel was coordinated by Virginia Tech to set technical goals for the effort. These were used to guide the design of several antennas. The original interest stemmed from an industrial (Reynolds Metals) need and currently involves work with industry (Prodelin Corporation) on high technology, low cost reflectors. The intervening years (1987 - 1993) is the period of this report and Virginia Tech's reflector antenna activity then was exclusively with NASA LaRC.

Stutzman, W. L.↗

DOE OSTI2025

Evaluation of an Accident Tolerant Fuel Leak in the Advanced Test Reactor

Accident Tolerant Fuels (ATF), which are nuclear fuel sources designed to withstand operational irregularities and incidents, have been a topic of interest in the nuclear industry for several decades. Interest in ATF technology surged following the 2011 accident at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan. At the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR), one of Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL) four operating nuclear reactors, the ATF program is a collaborative effort between the national laboratory and various stakeholders within the nuclear industry. This program focuses on the research and development of novel fuel compositions, cladding, and component materials with enhanced accident-resistant properties. During one of ATR’s 60-day operating cycles in 2024, the reactor experienced five unplanned shutdowns. Following the fifth shutdown, radiation monitors detected an increase in radiation levels coming from the loop piping. Subsequent water samples confirmed the cause was a leak of fission products from the ATF experiment, designated as ATF-2C. The source of the leak was identified as the instrumented section of the test train. The primary discussions in this paper are 1) the design of the ATF test train, 2) the operating parameters leading up to and following the detection of the leak, and 3) the quantification and characterization of the released fission products.

Accident Tolerant Fuels↗

DOE OSTI2025

Evaluation of an Accident Tolerant Fuel Leak in the Advanced Test Reactor

Accident Tolerant Fuels (ATF), which are nuclear fuel sources designed to withstand operational irregularities and incidents, have been a topic of interest in the nuclear industry for several decades. Interest in ATF technology surged following the 2011 accident at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan. At the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR), one of Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL) four operating nuclear reactors, the ATF program is a collaborative effort between the national laboratory and various stakeholders within the nuclear industry. This program focuses on the research and development of novel fuel compositions, cladding, and component materials with enhanced accident-resistant properties. During one of ATR’s 60-day operating cycles in 2024, the reactor experienced five unplanned shutdowns. Following the fifth shutdown, radiation monitors detected an increase in radiation levels coming from the loop piping. Subsequent water samples confirmed the cause was a leak of fission products from the ATF experiment, designated as ATF-2C. The source of the leak was identified as the instrumented section of the test train. The primary discussions in this presentation are 1) the design of the ATF test train, 2) the operating parameters leading up to and following the detection of the leak, and 3) the quantification and characterization of the released fission products.

11 - NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

DOE OSTI2024

3D printed carbon fiber reinforced carbon as an energy efficient alternative to graphite for EFAS tooling

As Electric Field Assisted Sintering (EFAS) gains more industrial acceptance and use, it becomes more important to develop more efficient means to implement this technology. To this aim, 3D printed continuous carbon fiber reinforced carbon (CCC) was manufactured and fabricated into tooling for EFAS systems as an alternative to traditional graphite tooling. The impact of fiber orientation on the thermal and electrical properties of the CCC was characterized. Sample material was sintered in Tokai G535 graphite tooling, under common processing conditions and compared with CCC tooling. There was nearly 50 % energy savings compared to graphite while maintaining equivalent sample density and microstructure plus keeping ram temperatures 39 % cooler. This is due to spatial control of generated heat and thermal diffusivity within the molds, by means of fiber orientation anisotropy. Finite element modeling of the tooling design supported the experimental results as well as displays the effect of optimization of this 3D printed CCC material.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2022

Development and performance of INCONEL® alloy 740H® seam-welded piping

INCONEL® alloy 740H® is an age-hardenable nickel-based alloy approved for pressure vessels and piping within ASME Section I, VIII, and B31.1. Currently, the code applies a weld strength reduction factor (WSRF) of 0.7 to the allowable stresses for longitudinal seam welds in the time dependent creep regime. In this work, a full-scale seam weld was successfully produced using typical industrial practices. The component was solution heat-treated and aged after fabrication to improve the performance of the weldment. Tensile, bend, impact, and low-cycle fatigue tests showed the component met all the specification requirements and elevated temperature properties were within base metal expectations with failures predominately in the weld metal. Long-term creep tests, including large samples more representative of the entire weldment, were fabricated and tested to times in excess of 10,000 h at multiple temperatures. Analysis of the creep data supports a WSRF of 0.9 for the solution annealed + aged weldments in contrast to the WSRF of 0.7 currently applied to welded + aged weldments. Metallurgical analysis shows that the solution annealing causes recrystallization of the weld metal and reduces the chemical compositional and microstructural gradients in the weldments resulting in acceptable short-term performance. In long-term creep, evidence for coarsened zones in the weldments due to discontinuous coarsening reactions were identified as the mechanism leading to accelerated creep damage formation in the weld metal and sample failure.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2023

Exploring finite temperature properties of materials with quantum computers

Abstract Thermal properties of nanomaterials are crucial to not only improving our fundamental understanding of condensed matter systems, but also to developing novel materials for applications spanning research and industry. Since quantum effects arise at the nano-scale, these systems are difficult to simulate on classical computers. Quantum computers can efficiently simulate quantum many-body systems, yet current quantum algorithms for calculating thermal properties of these systems incur significant computational costs in that they either prepare the full thermal state on the quantum computer, or they must sample a number of pure states from a distribution that grows with system size. Canonical thermal pure quantum (TPQ) states provide a promising path to estimating thermal properties of quantum materials as they neither require preparation of the full thermal state nor require a growing number of samples with system size. Here, we present an algorithm for preparing canonical TPQ states on quantum computers. We compare three different circuit implementations for the algorithm and demonstrate their capabilities in estimating thermal properties of quantum materials. Due to its increasing accuracy with system size and flexibility in implementation, we anticipate that this method will enable finite temperature explorations of relevant quantum materials on near-term quantum computers.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2024

Assessment of wafer scale MoS 2 atomic layers grown by metal–organic chemical vapor deposition using organo-metal, organo-sulfide, and H 2 S precursors

Transition Metal Dichalcogenides (TMDs) are a unique class of materials that exhibit attractive electrical and optical properties which have generated significant interest for applications in microelectronics, optoelectronics, energy storage, and sensing. Considering the potential of these materials to impact such applications, it is crucial to develop a reliable and scalable synthesis process that is compatible with modern industrial manufacturing methods. Metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) offers an ideal solution to produce TMDs, due to its compatibility with large-scale production, precise layer control, and high material purity. Optimization of MOCVD protocols is necessary for effective TMD synthesis and integration into mainstream technologies. Additionally, improvements in metrology are necessary to measure the quality of the fabricated samples more accurately. In this work, we study MOCVD of wafer-scale molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) utilizing two common chalcogen precursors, H 2 S and DTBS. We then develop a metrology platform for wafer scale samples quality assessment. For this, the coalesced films were characterized using Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Kelvin probe force microscopy. We then correlate the structural analysis of these grown films with electrical performance by using aerosol jet printing to fabricate van der Pauw test structures and assess sheet resistance.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2021

Characterization and differentiation of aluminum powders used in improvised explosive devices. Part 2: Micromorphometric method refinement and preliminary statistical analysis

Abstract Aluminum (Al) powder is commonly encountered in improvised explosive devices (IEDs) as a metallic fuel due to its availability and low cost. Although available commercially in powder form, amateur bomb‐makers also produce their own Al powder via simple methods found online. In order to provide investigative leads and forensic intelligence, it is important to evaluate not only the composition of homemade devices, but also to distinguish between the various forms of Al powder they contain. To achieve this goal, a method using automated microscopy in combination with statistical techniques has been demonstrated to have the potential to provide source discrimination and investigative leads in source attribution of Al powders in IEDs. The present research refined this method and investigated 59 industrially and amateurly produced Al powder sources with seven subsamples per source using two traditional linear discriminant analyses (LDA), one with a standard data split for training and testing, and another using leave‐one‐out cross‐validation. Averaging the classification accuracies for the two LDA‐based analyses, LDA has the ability to correctly classify 59.26%, 83.35%, and 80.69% of the samples based on their powder source, type, and production method, respectively. This classification accuracy represents a 3407%, 317%, and 61.38% increase in accuracy from random class assignment, respectively. Further, in most instances of incorrect data attribution to a particular source, the subsample has been misidentified with another sample of the same powder type or production method.

Ommen, Danica M.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Bacteria Counter

Science Applications, Inc.'s ATP Photometer makes a rapid and accurate count of the bacteria in a body fluid sample. Instrument provides information on the presence and quantity of bacteria by measuring the amount of light emitted by the reaction between two substances. Substances are ATP adenosine triphosphate and luciferase. The reactants are applied to a human body sample and the ATP Photometer observes the intensity of the light emitted displaying its findings in a numerical output. Total time lapse is usually less than 10 minutes, which represents a significant time savings in comparison of other techniques. Other applications are measuring organisms in fresh and ocean waters, determining bacterial contamination of foodstuffs, biological process control in the beverage industry, and in assay of activated sewage sludge.

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