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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 577 records · Page 32
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Scaleup of Microwave Powder Bed Fusion for Lunar Infrastructure Construction

NASA and its partners are seeking to establish a sustainable and permanent presence on the Moon. Like explorers on Earth, making use of natural resources upon arrival at the destination will be paramount. In-situ resource utilization of the lunar regolith will enable efficient construction of lunar infrastructure. Transforming the granular regolith into a solid can be achieved in many ways. One method is to use microwave energy to sinter the regolith into various structures. The lunar regolith has a low thermal conductivity, but microwaves can volumetrically heat it to bind the granular particles together in an energy efficient manner. One concept that is being developed and evaluated to sinter the regolith into infrastructure uses the Moon’s surface as a powder bed. Regolith would be added to the sintered lunar structure to build up layers to create structures such as landing pads, blast shields, roads, etc. Microwave systems, concept of operations, and sintering protocols are being developed to create a sub-element structure targeted for a lunar demonstration mission.

microwave↗
DOE OSTI2020

New Construction and UESCs

Presentation at the Federal Utility Partnership Working Group Seminar held November 7-8, 2019, in Washington, DC, reviews the implementation of utility energy service contracts in new federal construction projects.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Commercial PACE Financing for New Construction

This fact sheet provides an overview for building owners and developers to take advantage of commercial property assessed clean energy (CPACE) financing for new construction, adaptive reuse, or renovation projects.

Commercial PACE, CPACE, Microgrid, Renewables, new↗
DOE OSTI2021

DOE Zero Energy Ready Home Case Study HIA 2021: Martha Rose Construction, Abbot’s Alley Net Zero, Sedro Wooley, WA

Case study of a DOE 2021 Housing Innovation Award winning custom home in a marine climate that got a HERS -13 with PV, with 1,804 square feet, highly efficient construction; high-efficiency ductless minisplit heat pumps, appliances, and lighting; triple-pane windows; and 9.9 kW of solar panels on each of the monoplane roofs.

Building America, residential construction, home b↗
DOE OSTI2023

New Residential Construction Carbon Emissions

This fact sheet will help homebuilders better understand the largest sources of carbon emissions in constructed homes and see the comparative impact of those sources on overall emissions. Opportunities are highlighted for innovation and carbon reduction through material choices.

carbon emissions↗
DOE OSTI2023

New Residential Construction Carbon Emissions

This fact sheet will help homebuilders better understand the largest sources of carbon emissions in constructed homes and see the comparative impact of those sources on overall emissions.

carbon, emissions, residential housing, constructi↗
DOE OSTI2021

Idaho National Laboratory Annual Report for Permit to Construct P-2015.0023 for Calendar Year 2020

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Site operates facilities with potential emissions criteria and hazardous air pollutants. This report documents the calendar year 2020 criteria and hazardous air pollutants emissions and has been prepared to comply with permit to construct (PTC) P-2015-0023, Condition 2.9 and Idaho Administrative Procedures Act (IDAPA) 58.01.01.178, Standard Contents of Permits Establishing a Facility Emissions Cap (FEC). IDAPA 58.01.01.178.04 requires that all permits establishing a FEC shall include sufficient reporting to assure compliance with the permit establishing the FEC. Total hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emissions for the year were 0.59 tons in aggregate and the maximum individual HAP was hydrochloric acid at 0.35 tons. Criteria pollutant emissions were 1.23 tons for sulfur dioxide, 40.96 tons for oxides of nitrogen, 11.7 tons of carbon monoxide, 3.01 tons of total particulate matter and 1.98 tons of volatile organic compounds (VOC).

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Dual‐Gradient Construction on Li‐Rich Cathodes for High Stability Lithium Battery

Abstract The practical applications of high‐energy Li‐rich layered oxides (LLOs) have been hindered by the severe performance degradation including voltage decay and capacity fading. The gradient construction toward high‐activity interior and high‐stability exterior, typically realized by gradually changed transition metal (TM) gradient in LLOs, can alleviate the performance degradation to certain degrees. In this study, a gradient design of Al/Mg dopants is demonstrated for the TM‐gradient LLOs to further harmonize the high‐activity interior and high‐stability exterior, thereby forming the dual (TM and doping) gradient. As a result, superior capacity retention of 86% and a minor voltage decay of 0.54 mV cycle −1 are achieved at 1 C after 300 cycles. The improved electrochemical stability of the dual‐gradient LLO is attributed to the enhanced surface stability and suppressed bulk structure degeneration of LLOs upon electrochemical cycling. The dual‐gradient design serves as an important approach to fabricate high‐performance bulk LLOs toward applications.

Wu, Tianhao↗
DOE OSTI2021

Graphitic Aza-Fused π-Conjugated Networks: Construction, Engineering, and Task-Specific Applications

2D π-conjugated networks linked by aza-fused units represent a pivotal category of graphitic materials with stacked nanosheet architectures. Extensive efforts have been directed at their fabrication and application since the discovery of covalent triazine frameworks (CTFs). Besides the triazine cores, tricycloquinazoline and hexaazatriphenylene linkages are further introduced to tailor the structures and properties. Diverse related materials have been developed rapidly, and a thorough outlook is necessitated to unveil the structure–property–application relationships across multiple subcategories, which is pivotal to guide the design and fabrication toward enhanced task-specific performance. Herein, the structure types and development of related materials including CTFs, covalent quinazoline networks, and hexaazatriphenylene networks, are introduced. Advanced synthetic strategies coupled with characterization techniques provide powerful tools to engineer the properties and tune the associated behaviors in corresponding applications. Case studies in the areas of gas adsorption, membrane-based separation, thermo-/electro-/photocatalysis, and energy storage are then addressed, focusing on the correlation between structure/property engineering and optimization of the corresponding performance, particularly the preferred features and strategies in each specific field. In the last section, the underlying challenges and opportunities in construction and application of this emerging and promising material category are discussed.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Neutralizing Antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 Selected from a Human Antibody Library Constructed Decades Ago

Combinatorial antibody libraries not only effectively reduce antibody discovery to a numbers game, but enable documentation of the history of antibody responses in an individual. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has prompted a wider application of this technology to meet the public health challenge of pandemic threats in the modern era. Herein, a combinatorial human antibody library constructed 20 years before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is used to discover three highly potent antibodies that selectively bind SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and neutralize authentic SARS-CoV-2 virus. Compared to neutralizing antibodies from COVID-19 patients with generally low somatic hypermutation (SHM), these three antibodies contain over 13–22 SHMs, many of which are involved in specific interactions in their crystal structures with SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor binding domain. The identification of these somatically mutated antibodies in a pre-pandemic library raises intriguing questions about the origin and evolution of these antibodies with respect to their reactivity with SARS-CoV-2.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Reconfigurable Magnetic Liquid Building Blocks for Constructing Artificial Spinal Column Tissues

All-liquid molding can be used to transform a liquid into free-form solid constructs, while maintaining internal fluidity. Traditional biological scaffolds, such as cured pre-gels, are normally processed in solid state, sacrificing flowability and permeability. However, it is essential to maintain the fluidity of the scaffold to truly mimic the complexity and heterogeneity of natural human tissues. Here, this work molds an aqueous biomaterial ink into liquid building blocks with rigid shapes while preserving internal fluidity. The molded ink blocks for bone-like vertebrae and cartilaginous-intervertebral-disc shapes, are magnetically manipulated to assemble into hierarchical structures as a scaffold for subsequent spinal column tissue growth. It is also possible to join separate ink blocks by interfacial coalescence, different from bridging solid blocks by interfacial fixation. Generally, aqueous biomaterial inks are molded into shapes with high fidelity by the interfacial jamming of alginate surfactants. The molded liquid blocks can be reconfigured using induced magnetic dipoles, that dictated the magnetic assembly behavior of liquid blocks. The implanted spinal column tissue exhibits a biocompatibility based on in vitro seeding and in vivo cultivating results, showing potential physiological function such as bending of the spinal column.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Construction of Reconfigurable and Polymorphic DNA Origami Assemblies with Coiled‐Coil Patches and Patterns

Abstract DNA origami nanodevices achieve programmable structure and tunable mechanical and dynamic properties by leveraging the sequence‐specific interactions of nucleic acids. Previous advances have also established DNA origami as a useful building block to make well‐defined micron‐scale structures through hierarchical self‐assembly, but these efforts have largely leveraged the structural features of DNA origami. The tunable dynamic and mechanical properties also provide an opportunity to make assemblies with adaptive structures and properties. Here the integration of DNA origami hinge nanodevices and coiled‐coil peptides are reported into hybrid reconfigurable assemblies. With the same dynamic device and peptide interaction, it is made multiple higher‐order assemblies (i.e., polymorphic assembly) by organizing clusters of peptides into patches or arranging single peptides into patterns on the surfaces of DNA origami to control the relative orientation of devices. The coiled‐coil interactions are used to construct circular and linear assemblies whose structure and mechanical properties can be modulated with DNA‐based reconfiguration. Reconfiguration of linear assemblies leads to micron scale motions and ≈2.5‐10‐fold increase in bending stiffness. The results provide a foundation for stimulus‐responsive hybrid assemblies that can adapt their structure and properties in response to nucleic acid, peptide, protein, or other triggers.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

High‐Speed Embedded Ink Writing of Anatomic‐Size Organ Constructs

Embedded ink writing (EIW) is an emerging 3D printing technique that fabricates complex 3D structures from various biomaterial inks but is limited to a printing speed of ∼10 mm s −1 due to suboptimal rheological properties of particulate-dominated yield-stress fluids when used as liquid baths. In this work, a particle-hydrogel interactive system to design advanced baths with enhanced yield stress and extended thixotropic response time for realizing high-speed EIW is developed. In this system, the interactions between particle additive and three representative polymeric hydrogels enable the resulting nanocomposites to demonstrate different rheological behaviors. Accordingly, the interaction models for the nanocomposites are established, which are subsequently validated by macroscale rheological measurements and advanced microstructure characterization techniques. Filament formation mechanisms in the particle-hydrogel interactive baths are comprehensively investigated at high printing speeds. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed high-speed EIW method, an anatomic-size human kidney construct is successfully printed at 110 mm s −1 , which only takes ∼4 h. This work breaks the printing speed barrier in current EIW and propels the maximum printing speed by at least 10 times, providing an efficient and promising solution for organ reconstruction in the future.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Molecular Interlocking Multidimensional Modulations of Cathode‐Electrolyte Interface for Constructing High Energy Density Quasi‐Solid‐State Batteries

Gel polymers are regarded as a promising candidate electrolyte for lithium-metal quasi-solid-state batteries, primarily due to their high ionic conductivity and solid-liquid synergistic properties. However, challenges such as interfacial side reactions, limitations in Li + transport caused by interfacial issues, and leaching of transition metals from the cathode have yet to be effectively solved. Herein, a novel gel electrolyte modulation strategy based on electrostatic filler assembly is proposed to address the issues of ineffective capacity utilization and inadequate cycling stability of high-energy-density cathode materials in solid-state lithium-ion batteries. It constructs a 3D interpenetrating charge-bridge network that effectively tackles the phase-separation challenge between fillers and electrolytes at the molecular level. Meanwhile, the molecular interlocking structure effectively inhibits the electrolyte erosion. More critically, it optimizes and stabilizes the cathode-electrolyte interface film, which facilitates the conduction of Li + -ions through a size-sieving mechanism. Consequently, this strategy enables effective adaptation across diverse high-energy-density cathode materials with satisfactory capacity performance (170.4 mAh g −1 at 4.5 V/1 C for LiNi 0.6 Co 0.2 Mn 0.2 O 2 and 194.0 mAh g −1 at 4.3 V/1 C for LiNi 0.9 Co 0.08 Mn 0.02 O 2 ). In conclusion, this investigation offers a straightforward and effective reference for addressing the critical challenges of ionic transport and interface stabilization in the design of gel electrolytes.

cathode-electrolyte interface↗
DOE OSTI2021

Machine‐learning‐based construction of barrier functions and models for safe model predictive control

Abstract In this paper, we propose a control Lyapunov‐barrier function‐based model predictive control method utilizing a feed‐forward neural network specified control barrier function (CBF) and a recurrent neural network (RNN) predictive model to stabilize nonlinear processes with input constraints, and to guarantee that safety requirements are met for all times. The nonlinear system is first modeled using RNN techniques, and a CBF is characterized by constructing a feed‐forward neural network (FNN) model with unique structures and properties. The FNN model for the CBF is trained based on data samples collected from safe and unsafe operating regions, and the resulting FNN model is verified to demonstrate that the safety properties of the CBF are satisfied. Given sufficiently small bounded modeling errors for both the FNN and the RNN models, the proposed control system is able to guarantee closed‐loop stability while preventing the closed‐loop states from entering unsafe regions in state‐space under sample‐and‐hold control action implementation. We provide the theoretical analysis for bounded unsafe sets in state‐space, and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy using a nonlinear chemical process example with a bounded unsafe region.

Chen, Scarlett↗
DOE OSTI2023

Activity coefficient acquisition with thermodynamics–informed active learning for phase diagram construction

This work explores the use of thermodynamics-informed Gaussian processes (GPs) and active learning (AL) to model activity coefficients and construct phase diagrams. Relying on synthetic data generated from an excess Gibbs energy model, GPs were found to accurately describe the activity coefficients of several binary mixtures across large composition and temperature ranges. Moreover, GPs could estimate their own uncertainty and identify composition/temperature regions where activity coefficient data provide the most information to the models. This was leveraged to build AL algorithms targeted at modeling phase equilibria. In many cases, a single active-learning-acquired data point was sufficient to describe the phase diagrams studied. Lastly, the ability of AL to greatly reduce the amount of data needed to obtain accurate models was further verified on experimental case studies, namely individual ion activity coefficients, the solid–liquid and vapor–liquid equilibrium of deep eutectic solvents, and phase equilibria in ternary mixtures.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗