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At least 631 records · Page 35
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Design of AlGaN-Zn(Si,Ge)N2 quantum wells for high-efficiency ultraviolet light emitters

The effect of inserting a nm-scale layer of Zn(Si,Ge)N2 into an AlGaN quantum well structure designed for light emission in the wavelength range from 255 to 305 nm is investigated here. The enhanced confinement of the hole within the quantum well results in an enhancement of the overlap of the hole and electron wave functions, resulting in an enhancement of the radiative recombination rate. In this theoretical calculation, for emission at a 270 nm wavelength, the enhancement in the wavefunction overlap can reach a factor of 7 when compared to an AlGaN quantum well device specifically engineered for optimal emission at the identical wavelength. Increases of almost an order of magnitude in both the peak spontaneous emission intensity and the radiative recombination rate are predicted. The peak emission wavelength can be tuned from 255 to 305 nm by adjusting the width and/or the composition of the inserted layer. The proposed structures provide a route to higher efficiency ultraviolet practical light emitting diodes and lasers.

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2012

Structure-Guided Lead Optimization of Triazolopyrimidine-Ring Substituents Identifies Potent Plasmodium falciparum Dihydroorotate Dehydrogenase Inhibitors with Clinical Candidate Potential

Drug therapy is the mainstay of antimalarial therapy, yet current drugs are threatened by the development of resistance. In an effort to identify new potential antimalarials, we have undertaken a lead optimization program around our previously identified triazolopyrimidine-based series of Plasmodium falciparum dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (PfDHODH) inhibitors. The X-ray structure of PfDHODH was used to inform the medicinal chemistry program allowing the identification of a potent and selective inhibitor (DSM265) that acts through DHODH inhibition to kill both sensitive and drug resistant strains of the parasite. This compound has similar potency to chloroquine in the humanized SCID mouse P. falciparum model, can be synthesized by a simple route, and rodent pharmacokinetic studies demonstrated it has excellent oral bioavailability, a long half-life and low clearance. These studies have identified the first candidate in the triazolopyrimidine series to meet previously established progression criteria for efficacy and ADME properties, justifying further development of this compound toward clinical candidate status.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Pathway to tune sputter coated Nb$_3$Sn with Zr

Superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities are essential elements of many modern-day particle accelerators such as, European XFEL (DESY), LCLS II-HE (SLAC) and PIP II (Fermilab). Nb$_3$Sn superconducting material promises significant potential to exceed the performance of conventional niobium based SRF cavities. We aim to advance the ongoing R$&$D efforts to achieve Nb$_3$Sn coated cavities with high material quality. In this work, we have developed to achieve a route for effectively reducing the intrinsic defects in magnetron sputter coated Nb$_3$Sn SRF cavities and eventually improve the overall RF performance. We have observed that Zr is mainly being incorporated as ZrO$_2$ precipitates of average dimensions ranging from 20-100nm. By increasing the concentration of Zr, we have three major effects in the physical properties. Firstly, we noted that the density of the surface and bulk voids as well as their average dimensions are dramatically reduced on increasing the Zr content in Nb$_3$Sn. These surface voids are believed to be detrimental to cavity applications due to increase the local dissipation of electric and magnetic fields. These results indicate that inclusion of Zr in Nb$_3$Sn sputtered coating will improve the material quality and might help to reduce the overall RF power dissipation. Secondly, we observed that increasing Zr concentration from 0 to 2.4% substantially improves both superconducting transition temperature (Tc) and upper critical magnetic field (Hc2). However, on further increasing the Zr concentration to 24%, we noticed a small decrement in the Hc2 value. These results infer that the increase in Zr concentration up to an optimal concentration will be beneficial to enhance the superconducting properties. Increase in Tc promises lesser RF losses and improvement in accelerating gradient, whereas the increase in Hc2 suggests more efficient flux pinning which could give rise to high quality factors in presence of multi-Tesla magnetic field. Additionally, we also observed that increasing Zr concentration possibly prevents the oxygen diffusion and leads to thinner formation of primary surface oxide (Nb$_2$O$_5$ and SnO). This study gives a route to tune Zr fraction in Nb3Sn to modify the physical properties that control the high field performance of Nb3Sn RF cavities.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2018

The Performance of CH3NH3PbI3 - Nanoparticles based – Perovskite Solar Cells Fabricated by Facile Powder press Technique

Highlights: • Perovskite nanoparticles (PNs) were prepared using simple solid-state technique. • Perovskite layer has been deposited by facile powder press technique - a solution cum vacuum-free. • Fabricated device structure: FTO/c-TiO{sub 2}/mp-TiO{sub 2}/Perovskite/CuI/Cr/Pt-coated FTO. • 1:3 M ratio of PbI{sub 2} in MAI resulted in achieving a PCE of 3.90%. • From the stability test, it is inferred that deterioration in ‘η’ and ‘V{sub OC}’ was by 27.87% and 29.23% respectively. - Abstract: Here, we have introduced a facile solid-state route assisted method to prepare CH{sub 3}NH{sub 3}PbI{sub 3} perovskite nanoparticles (PNs) and together with a facile - powder press technique, for the deposition of prepared PNs - a solution cum vacuum-free route. The perovskite layer was prepared using different lead iodide (PbI{sub 2}) precursor molar concentrations (0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 mmol) and the PbI{sub 2} concentration was found to have a significant impact on the structural, optical, morphological and electrical properties. The sample prepared using molar ratio PbI{sub 2}: MAI at 1:3 shows the optimal bandgap value (∼1.51 eV), broader band edge peak at 755 nm and found have good optical property for photovoltaic (PV) applications. The J–V performance of the fabricated perovskite device with FTO/c-TiO{sub 2}/mp-TiO{sub 2}/Perovskite/CuI/ Cr/Pt-coated FTO counter electrode has been studied. The device fabricated using the concentration at PbI{sub 2}:MAI 1:3 achieved a PCE of 3.9% and resulted in better long-term stability with deterioration in η and V{sub OC} by 27.87% and 29.23% after 15 days.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Phosphoketolase overexpression increases biomass and lipid yield from methane in an obligate methanotrophic biocatalyst

Microbial conversion of methane to high-value bio-based chemicals and materials offers a path to mitigate GHG emissions and valorize this abundant-yet -underutilized carbon source. In addition to fermentation optimization strategies, rational methanotrophic bacterial strain engineering offers a means to reach industrially relevant titers, carbon yields, and productivities of target products. The phosphoketolase pathway functions in heterofermentative bacteria where carbon flux through two sugar catabolic pathways to mixed acids (lactic acid and acetic acid) increases cellular ATP production. Importantly, this pathway also serves as an alternative route to produce acetyl-CoA that bypasses the CO 2 lost through pyruvate decarboxylation in the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas pathway. Thus, the phosphoketolase pathway can be leveraged for carbon efficient biocatalysis to acetyl-CoA-derived intermediates and products. Here, we show that the industrially promising methane biocatalyst, Methylomicrobium buryatense , encodes two phosphoketolase isoforms that are expressed in methanol- and methane-grown cells. Overexpression of the PktB isoform led to a 2-fold increase in intracellular acetyl-CoA concentration, and a 2.6-fold yield enhancement from methane to microbial biomass and lipids compared to wild-type, increasing the potential for methanotroph lipid-based fuel production. Off-gas analysis and metabolite profiling indicated that global metabolic rearrangements, including significant increases in post-translational protein acetylation and gene expression of the tetrahydromethanopterin-linked pathway, along with decreases in several excreted products, coincided with the superior biomass and lipid yield observed in the engineered strain. Further, these data suggest that phosphoketolase may play a key regulatory role in methanotrophic bacterial metabolism. As a result, given that acetyl-CoA is a key intermediate in several biosynthetic pathways, phosphoketolase overexpression offers a viable strategy to enhance the economics of an array of biological methane conversion processes.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Fabrication and Spark plasma sintering of nanostructured bismuth telluride (Bi{sub 2}Te{sub 3})

Thermoelectric (TE) devices can harvest residual low-grade waste heat energy. Bismuth telluride (Bi{sub 2}Te{sub 3}) and its alloys are mostly used TE materials in the bulk form for making TE modules. We report a simple, fast and very high yield synthetic process for the bulk Bi{sub 2}Te{sub 3} nanopowders with hexagonal plate like morphology. Spark plasma sintering (SPS) process has been optimized in order to preserve nanostructure while achieving a high compaction density of the pellets. Electron microscopy analysis was used to determine the effect of SPS parameters during compaction on the grain growth. Optimal conditions for the fabricated nanopowder was determined as 673 K, 70 MPa pressure with no holding time, which resulted in average lateral grain size in the range of 165-190 nm for a compact density of 98%. About 50% reduction of thermal conductivity was observed as compared to its bulk counterparts, revealing the feasibility of suggested route in the preservation of nanostructure and enhanced phonon scattering.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Automated scanning probe microscopy of combinatorial ferroelectric libraries: Gaussian-process-guided exploration and noise-aware experiment planning

Combinatorial materials libraries provide an efficient route for mapping composition–property relationships, but their broader impact depends on rapid, quantitative, and functionally relevant characterization. Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM), including piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM), offers significant potential for quantitative, functionally relevant combi-library readouts. Here, we implement a fully automated SPM workflow for ferroelectric combinatorial libraries and benchmark Gaussian-process-based Bayesian optimization strategies for autonomous experiment planning. The workflow integrates automated probe motion, contact optimization, imaging, and dual amplitude resonance tracking-PFM spectroscopy, and uses scalarized spectroscopic observables to guide subsequent measurements. Stage motion, probe engagement, in-contact tuning, imaging, spectroscopy, and the choice of the next measurement location all proceed without human input. We demonstrate the approach on Sm-doped BiFeO 3 and Zn x Mg 1−x O libraries. By comparing vanilla Bayesian optimization with a measured-noise variant, we show that explicit treatment of local reproducibility can improve modeling of composition-dependent response when the measured variance is physically meaningful, but can also reduce robustness when variability is dominated by outliers or topographic artifacts. Furthermore, these results establish automated SPM as a bridge between combinatorial synthesis and quantitative functional characterization.

Liu, Yu [University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (U↗
DOE OSTI2023

Final Report for ARPA-E LOCOMOTIVES Advanced Locomotive Technology and Rail Infrastructure Optimization System (ALTRIOS) Project

The Advanced Locomotive Technology and Rail Infrastructure Optimization System (ALTRIOS) is a unique, fully integrated, open-source software tool used to evaluate strategies for cost-effectively deploying advanced locomotive technologies and associated infrastructure. ALTRIOS simulates freight-demand-driven train scheduling, mainline meet-pass planning, locomotive dynamics, train dynamics, energy conversion efficiencies, and energy storage dynamics of line-haul train operations. Because new locomotives represent a significant long-term capital investment and new technologies must be thoroughly demonstrated before deployment, this tool provides guidance on the risk/reward trade-offs and operation integration of different technology rollout strategies. An open, integrated simulation tool is valuable for identifying future research needs and making decisions on technology development, routes, and train selection. This final report details the ALTRIOS software architecture, major modules and components, and data validation process. It demonstrates the software's utility through a 30-year rollout case study targeting high penetration of advanced powertrain technologies by 2050 for two BNSF Railway routes: loaded taconite ore trains from Hibbing, Minnesota, to Superior, Wisconsin, and mixed-freight trains from Superior to Minneapolis, Minnesota.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Generation of 3.3-mJ, 2.45-µm, sub-2-cycle laser pulses via hollow-core fiber pulse compression

We demonstrate nonlinear compression of mid-infrared pulses from a Cr:ZnSe chirped-pulse amplifier using a gas-filled stretched hollow-core fiber followed by bulk-material compression. Starting from 90 fs, 2.45 µm pulses with 5.3 mJ energy, spectral broadening in the gas-filled capillary combined with optimized dispersion management enables compression to 15 fs, less than two optical cycles at 2.45 µm, with 3.3 mJ pulse energy, corresponding to a peak power of approximately 0.12 TW. The simplicity of the approach, based on a single hollow-core fiber stage and bulk dispersion compensation, makes it scalable to higher energies and establishes a robust route to mid-infrared drivers for high harmonic generation and attosecond applications.

Britton, Mathew [SLAC National Accelerator Laborat↗
DOE OSTI2021

One‐Pot Synthesis of Xanthone by Carbonylative Suzuki Coupling Reaction

Abstract Xanthone derivatives have a dibenzo‐y‐pyrone scaffold which has gained great interest in Medicinal Chemistry due to their diverse biological activities. Usually, its synthesis requires multi‐step synthetic routes using harsh conditions and high catalyst loadings. In this communication, we report for the first time a one‐pot synthesis of the xanthone scaffold based on a carbonylative Suzuki coupling. Iodophenol and (2‐methoxyphenyl)boronic acid were coupled under carbon monoxide, generated from a carbon monoxide surrogate. An experimental data‐based model was built to guide the reaction optimization. The optimized conditions were 1 mol% of a pincer complex as palladium catalyst, 5 equivalents of K 2 CO 3 as base, and DMF:water (7 : 3) as solvent. The robustness of the synthetic method, namely in terms of the reactants scope, was also evaluated. This approach provided the xanthone scaffold in high yields and provided a deep insight into the carbonylative Suzuki couplings.

Loureiro, Daniela R. P.↗
DOE OSTI2017

Intrinsically low thermal conductivity from a quasi-one-dimensional crystal structure and enhanced electrical conductivity network via Pb doping in SbCrSe 3

The development of new routes for the production of thermoelectric materials with low-cost and high-performance characteristics has been one of the long-term strategies for saving and harvesting thermal energy. We report a new approach for improving thermoelectric properties by employing the intrinsically low thermal conductivity of a quasi-one-dimensional (quasi-1D) crystal structure and optimizing the power factor with aliovalent ion doping. As an example, we demonstrated that SbCrSe 3 , in which two parallel chains of CrSe 6 octahedra are linked by antimony atoms, possesses a quasi-1D property that resulted in an ultra-low thermal conductivity of 0.56 W m -1 K -1 at 900 K. After maximizing the power factor by Pb doping, the peak ZT value of the optimized Pb-doped sample reached 0.46 at 900 K, which is an enhancement of 24 times that of the parent SbCrSe 3 structure. The mechanisms that lead to low thermal conductivity derive from anharmonic phonons with the presence of the lone-pair electrons of Sb atoms and weak bonds between the CrSe 6 double chains. Our results shed new light on the design of new and high-performance thermoelectric materials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Synthesis and field emission behaviour of well faceted In{sub 2}Se{sub 3} micro-crystals

Here in, we report synthesis of crystalline Indium Selenide (In{sub 2}Se{sub 3}) elegant microcrystals on Au coated Si substrates using one-step facile thermal evaporation route and their field emission investigations. The as-synthesized In{sub 2}Se{sub 3} micro-crystals were subjected to structural and morphological analysis prior to the field emission studies. The XRD spectrum of the as-synthesized product reveals formation of crystalline hexagonal phase of In{sub 2}Se{sub 3} under the prevailing experimental conditions. Under optimized process variables, the morphology of the as-synthesized product is characterized by presence of well facetted micron size particles of In2Se3. Furthermore, the EDAX analysis confirms the presence of In and Se in the as-synthesized sample. The field emission characteristic of the In{sub 2}Se{sub 3} micro-crystal emitter is found to be superior to the other metal chalcogenides micro-crystal based emitters. The synthesized In{sub 2}Se{sub 3} micro-crystals emitter delivers current density of ∼ 225 µA/cm{sup 2} at an applied electric field of ∼ 7.44 V/µm. The emission current stability investigated at pre-set value of ∼ 3 µA is observed to be fairly good. These observed results demonstrate potential of the In{sub 2}Se{sub 3} cathode as an electron source for practical applications in vacuum microelectronic devices.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Engineering isoprenoids production in metabolically versatile microbial host Pseudomonas putida

Abstract With the increasing need for microbial bioproduction to replace petrochemicals, it is critical to develop a new industrial microbial workhorse that improves the conversion of lignocellulosic carbon to biofuels and bioproducts in an economically feasible manner. Pseudomonas putida KT2440 is a promising microbial host due to its capability to grow on a broad range of carbon sources and its high tolerance to xenobiotics. In this study, we engineered P. putida KT2440 to produce isoprenoids, a vast category of compounds that provide routes to many petrochemical replacements. A heterologous mevalonate (MVA) pathway was engineered to produce potential biofuels isoprenol (C 5 ) and epi-isozizaene (C 15 ) for the first time in P. putida . We compared the difference between three different isoprenoid pathways in P. putida on isoprenol production and achieved 104 mg/L of isoprenol production in a batch flask experiment through optimization of the strain. As P. putida can natively consume isoprenol, we investigated how to prevent this self-consumption. We discovered that supplementing l -glutamate in the medium can effectively prevent isoprenol consumption in P. putida and metabolomics analysis showed an insufficient energy availability and an imbalanced redox status during isoprenol degradation. We also showed that the engineered P. putida strain can produce isoprenol using aromatic substrates such as p -coumarate as the sole carbon source, and this result demonstrates that P. putida is a valuable microbial chassis for isoprenoids to achieve sustainable biofuel production from lignocellulosic biomass. Graphical Abstract

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Molybdenum Disilicide Oxidation Kinetics in High Temperature Steam

The Fuel Cycle Research and Development program’s Advanced Fuels Campaign is currently supporting a range of experimental efforts aimed at the development and qualification of ‘accident tolerant’ nuclear fuel forms. One route to enhance the accident tolerance of nuclear fuel is to replace the zirconium alloy cladding, which is prone to rapid oxidation in steam at elevated temperatures, with a more oxidation-resistant cladding. Several cladding replacement solutions have been envisaged. The cladding can be completely replaced with a more oxidation resistant alloy, a layered approach can be used to optimize the strength, creep resistance, and oxidation tolerance of various materials, or the existing zirconium alloy cladding can be coated with a more oxidation-resistant material. Molybdenum is one candidate cladding material favored due to its high temperature creep resistance. However, it performs poorly under autoclave testing and suffers degradation under high temperature steam oxidation exposure. Development of composite cladding architectures consisting of a molybdenum core shielded by a molybdenum disilicide (MoSi 2 ) coating is hypothesized to improve the performance of a Mo-based cladding system. MoSi 2 was identified based on its high temperature oxidation resistance in O 2 atmospheres (e.g. air and “wet air”). However, its behavior in H 2 O is less known. This report presents thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and x-ray diffraction (XRD) results for MoSi 2 exposed to 670-1498 K water vapor. Synthetic air (80-20%, Ar-O 2 ) exposures were also performed, and those results are presented here for a comparative analysis. It was determined that MoSi 2 displays drastically different oxidation behavior in water vapor than in dry air. In the 670-1498 K temperature range, four distinct behaviors are observed. Parabolic oxidation is exhibited in only 670-773 K water vapor, a temperature range in which the material pests in dry O 2 environments. From 877-1084 K in water vapor, MoSi 2 undergoes rapid mass gain resulting in oxidation throughout the bulk of the sample at 980 K and 1084 K. The resulting material displays swelling and warping after the 980-1084 K exposures. A pre-passivation heat treatment performed at 1395 K was found capable of producing a coarse SiO 2 layer that limited pesting at lower temperatures in water vapor over the time periods investigated.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Mercury Recovery at Former Lithium Production Site at the Miramas in France - 18529

The former Lithium production facility located at Miramas in the South-East of France recently completed a 10-year program of process equipment removal, building demolition and soil remediation to recover mercury (Hg) that had been lost during operations at the site. After over 100 years ago chemical production, all production activities stopped in 2009, and immediately afterwards the clean-up project began. The main project focused on the demolition of all facilities and the decontamination of building materials and soil clean-up, with the goal of remediating the site for future industrial purposes. Prior to starting the decommissioning and clean-up work at the site a detailed site survey was conducted to identify the extent of the contamination of the site. After investigations into available technologies, the decision was made to install on-site treatment processes. This resulted in fewer residual environmental effects (trucking pollution, shipping containers, volume of materials, etc), a reduction in logistic complications, and, importantly, was cost effective compared to sending all untreated material to external processing facilities. This decision resulted in a need to optimize demolition waste management, while ensuring the highest clean-up and safety levels. A variety of treatment processes were investigated and compared and two technologies were finally selected and implemented. The first process was a 'thermal desorption unit (TDU),' which heated excavated soils and captured the vaporized mercury. The second was a washing process that was used to remove surface contamination. After the contaminated areas were excavated, materials were crushed, screened and sorted into different sizes, with each pile being routed to the appropriate process. The smaller-sized particles were treated in the TDU. A batch of around 12 MT was fed into a moisture evaporator and then into a mercury evaporator. The soils were then cooled, sampled to ensure no residual Hg contamination before being mixed with a binding agent, and returned to the excavation site. Larger materials with surface contamination were washed to remove the contamination. The liquid effluents were sent to a tank where the contaminated fines were removed, dried, pressed and sent for processing. If the washed, coarse materials failed to reach acceptable mercury levels, they were crushed again and sent to be treated in the TDU. The washing fluid was recycled for the next batch. (author)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2026

Active operator learning with predictive uncertainty quantification for partial differential equations

With the increased prevalence of neural operators being used to provide rapid solutions to partial differential equations (PDEs), understanding the accuracy of model predictions and the associated error levels is necessary for deploying reliable surrogate models in scientific applications. Existing uncertainty quantification (UQ) frameworks employ ensembles or Bayesian methods, which can incur substantial computational costs during both training and inference. Here, we propose a lightweight predictive UQ method tailored for Deep operator networks (DeepONets) that also generalizes to other operator networks. Numerical experiments on linear and nonlinear PDEs demonstrate that the framework’s uncertainty estimates are unbiased and provide accurate out-of-distribution uncertainty predictions with a sufficiently large training dataset. Our framework provides fast inference and uncertainty estimates that can efficiently drive outer-loop analyses that would be prohibitively expensive with conventional solvers. We demonstrate how predictive uncertainties can be used in the context of Bayesian optimization and active learning problems to yield improvements in accuracy and data-efficiency for outer-loop optimization procedures. In the active learning setup, we extend the framework to Fourier Neural Operators (FNO) and describe a generalized method for other operator networks. To enable real-time deployment, we introduce an inference strategy based on precomputed trunk outputs and a sparse placement matrix, reducing evaluation time by more than a factor of five. Our method provides a practical route to uncertainty-aware operator learning in time-sensitive settings.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

A Comparison of Electronic Structure Methods for Predicting the Hydrogenation Energies of Candidate Molecules for Hydrogen Storage

The development of novel energy materials and fuels is required to expand current available energy sources. Aiming to reach this goal, there is growing interest in using molecular hydrogen as an energy carrier due to its abundance and high energy density. Liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs) are a promising route to the large-scale storage and transport of hydrogen for use in the energy economy. The search for thermodynamically viable LOHC molecules for real world use has led to a set of constraints on the dehydrogenation enthalpy and the minimum gravimetric hydrogen capacity. These constraints allow one to formulate the search for an ideal LOHC candidate molecule as an optimization problem well suited to the strengths of machine learning and artificial intelligence computational approaches. A critical barrier to a large-scale, high-throughput screening of LOHC candidate molecules is the lack of reliable training data. Computational electronic structure methods including density functional theory, coupled cluster approximations, and diffusion Monte Carlo can be used to provide training data where experimental data are either unreliable or do not exist. In this work, we use these methods to calculate the dehydrogenation energies and enthalpies of candidate LOHC molecules.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2026

Additive Manufacturing of Cryogenic Austenitic Steel JK2LB via Wire-Fed Directed Energy Deposition (DED) for Fusion Energy Applications

This study explores the feasibility of fabricating cryogenic austenitic steel JK2LB via both laser-based directed energy deposition (laser-DED) and arc-based directed energy deposition (arc-DED) additive manufacturing processes for potential application in fusion reactors. JK2LB, a low-nickel, high-manganese stainless steel developed for ITER, offers excellent cryogenic toughness, radiation resistance, and decay-to-clearance characteristics. Although JK2LB was originally designed to endure cyclic stresses at cryogenic temperatures in tokamaks, its low-temperature mechanical integrity and radiation tolerance also make it a promising candidate for structural components, such as the coil case/support structure in nonplanar high-temperature superconducting magnet assemblies in stellarators. Directed energy deposition (DED) additive manufacturing was selected for this study due to its capability to fabricate large structures with complex geometries. Here, to address the long lead time and high cost associated with acquiring conventional JK2LB solid wire, JK2LB powder-cored wire was developed as the feedstock material. Testing blocks were then fabricated using both wire-fed laser-DED and arc-DED processes. Microstructural and compositional analyses revealed that both DED approaches yield fully austenitic phase and columnar grain structures. Mechanical testing at room temperature revealed that both DED routes achieved yield strength and elongation comparable to those of conventionally processed JK2LB via vacuum melting, electroslag remelting, extrusion, and drawing, though ultimate tensile strength was reduced due to Mn loss and large columnar grains. As a study mainly focusing on the additive manufacturing process, this work demonstrates the potential of additive manufacturing for fusion energy applications and provides a basis for optimization and future cryogenic mechanical evaluation.

Cryogenic steel↗