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At least 73 records · Page 4

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

DOE OSTI2016

Layer-by-Layer Sorting of Rhenium Disulfide via High-Density Isopycnic Density Gradient Ultracentrifugation

Isopycnic density gradient ultracentrifugation (iDGU) has been widely applied to sort nanomaterials by their physical and electronic structure. Yet, the commonly used density-gradient medium iodixanol has a finite maximum buoyant density that prevents the use of iDGU for high-density nanomaterials. Here, we overcome this limit by adding cesium chloride (CsCl) to iodixanol, thus increasing its maximum buoyant density to the point where the high-density two-dimensional nanomaterial rhenium disulfide (ReS 2 ) can be sorted in a layer-by-layer manner with iDGU. The resulting aqueous ReS 2 dispersions show photoluminescence at ~1.5 eV, which is consistent with its direct bandgap semiconductor electronic structure. Moreover, photocurrent measurements on thin films formed from solution-processed ReS 2 show a spectral response that is consistent with optical absorbance and photoluminescence data. In addition to offering a pathway for effective solution processing of ReS 2 , this work establishes a general methodology for sorting high-density nanomaterials via iDGU.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2016

Critical role of the sorting polymer in carbon nanotube-based minority carrier devices

A prerequisite for carbon nanotube-based optoelectronic devices is the ability to sort them into a pure semiconductor phase. One of the most common sorting routes is enabled through using specific wrapping polymers. Here we show that subtle changes in the polymer structure can have a dramatic influence on the figures of merit of a carbon nanotube-based photovoltaic device. By comparing two commonly used polyfluorenes (PFO and PFO-BPy) for wrapping (7,5) and (6,5) chirality SWCNTs, we demonstrate that they have contrasting effects on the device efficiency. We attribute this to the differences in their ability to efficiently transfer charge. Although PFO may act as an efficient interfacial layer at the anode, PFO-BPy, having the additional pyridine side groups, forms a high resistance layer degrading the device efficiency. By comparing PFO|C 60 and C 60 -only devices, we found that presence of a PFO layer at low optical densities resulted in the increase of all three solar cell parameters, giving nearly an order of magnitude higher efficiency over that of C 60 -only devices. In addition, with a relatively higher contribution to photocurrent from the PFO-C 60 interface, an open circuit voltage of 0.55 V was obtained for PFO-(7,5)-C 60 devices. On the other hand, PFO-BPy does not affect the open circuit voltage but drastically reduces the short circuit current density. Lastly, these results indicate that the charge transport properties and energy levels of the sorting polymers have to be taken into account to fully understand their effect on carbon nanotube-based solar cells.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2015

A common assembly module in injectisome and flagellar type III secretion sorting platforms

Translocating proteins across the double membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, type III secretion systems (T3SS) occur in two evolutionarily related forms: injectisomes, delivering virulence factors into host cells, and the flagellar system, secreting the polymeric filament used for motility. While both systems share related elements of a cytoplasmic sorting platform that facilitates the hierarchical secretion of protein substrates, its assembly and regulation remain unclear. Here we describe a module mediating the assembly of the sorting platform in both secretion systems, and elucidate the structural basis for segregation of homologous components among these divergent T3SS subtypes sharing a common cytoplasmic milieu. These results provide a foundation for the subtype-specific assembly of T3SS sorting platforms and will support further mechanistic analysis and anti-virulence drug design.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗

DOE OSTI2018

Anti-Hermitian photodetector facilitating efficient subwavelength photon sorting

The ability to split an incident light beam into separate wavelength bands is central to a diverse set of optical applications, including imaging, biosensing, communication, photocatalysis, and photovoltaics. Entirely new opportunities are currently emerging with the recently demonstrated possibility to spectrally split light at a subwavelength scale with optical antennas. Unfortunately, such small structures offer limited spectral control and are hard to exploit in optoelectronic devices. Here, we overcome both challenges and demonstrate how within a single-layer metafilm one can laterally sort photons of different wavelengths below the free-space diffraction limit and extract a useful photocurrent. This chipscale demonstration of anti-Hermitian coupling between resonant photodetector elements also facilitates near-unity photon-sorting efficiencies, near-unity absorption, and a narrow spectral response (~30 nm) for the different wavelength channels. This work opens up entirely new design paradigms for image sensors and energy harvesting systems in which the active elements both sort and detect photons.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2014

Microspherical photonics: Sorting resonant photonic atoms by using light

A method of sorting microspheres by resonant light forces in vacuum, air, or liquid is proposed. Based on a two-dimensional model, it is shown that the sorting can be realized by allowing spherical particles to traverse a focused beam. Under resonance with the whispering gallery modes, the particles acquire significant velocity along the beam direction. This opens a unique way of large-volume sorting of nearly identical photonic atoms with 1/Q accuracy, where Q is the resonance quality factor. This is an enabling technology for developing super-low-loss coupled-cavity structures and devices.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

DOE OSTI2015

Microfluidic sorting of protein nanocrystals by size for X-ray free-electron laser diffraction

The advent and application of the X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) has uncovered the structures of proteins that could not previously be solved using traditional crystallography. While this new technology is powerful, optimization of the process is still needed to improve data quality and analysis efficiency. One area is sample heterogeneity, where variations in crystal size (among other factors) lead to the requirement of large data sets (and thus 10–100 mg of protein) for determining accurate structure factors. To decrease sample dispersity, we developed a high-throughput microfluidic sorter operating on the principle of dielectrophoresis, whereby polydisperse particles can be transported into various fluid streams for size fractionation. Using this microsorter, we isolated several milliliters of photosystem I nanocrystal fractions ranging from 200 to 600 nm in size as characterized by dynamic light scattering, nanoparticle tracking, and electron microscopy. Sorted nanocrystals were delivered in a liquid jet via the gas dynamic virtual nozzle into the path of the XFEL at the Linac Coherent Light Source. We obtained diffraction to ∼4 Å resolution, indicating that the small crystals were not damaged by the sorting process. We also observed the shape transforms of photosystem I nanocrystals, demonstrating that our device can optimize data collection for the shape transform-based phasing method. Using simulations, we show that narrow crystal size distributions can significantly improve merged data quality in serial crystallography. From this proof-of-concept work, we expect that the automated size-sorting of protein crystals will become an important step for sample production by reducing the amount of protein needed for a high quality final structure and the development of novel phasing methods that exploit inter-Bragg reflection intensities or use variations in beam intensity for radiation damage-induced phasing. This method will also permit an analysis of the dependence of crystal quality on crystal size.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

NASA NTRS1978

Efficient searching and sorting applications using an associative array processor

The purpose of this paper is to describe a method of searching and sorting data by using some of the unique capabilities of an associative array processor. To understand the application, the associative array processor is described in detail. In particular, the content addressable memory and flip network are discussed because these two unique elements give the associative array processor the power to rapidly sort and search. A simple alphanumeric sorting example is explained in hardware and software terms. The hardware used to explain the application is the STARAN (Goodyear Aerospace Corporation) associative array processor. The software used is the APPLE (Array Processor Programming Language) programming language. Some applications of the array processor are discussed. This summary tries to differentiate between the techniques of the sequential machine and the associative array processor.

Pace, W.↗

DOE OSTI2020

Sorting process of nanoparticles and applications of same

A sensing platform includes a substrate, an array of wells formed in the substrate, and sorted nanoparticles filling in the array of wells such that each well contains a single sorted nanoparticle, wherein the sorted nanoparticles are in a cluster state.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2020

Sorting cast and wrought aluminum

A material sorting system sorts materials utilizing a vision system that implements a machine learning system in order to identify or classify each of the materials, which are then sorted into separate groups based on such an identification or classification determining that the materials are composed of either wrought aluminum or cast aluminum.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2022

River Organic Carbon Fluxes Modulated by Hydrodynamic Sorting of Particulate Organic Matter

Rivers regulate the global carbon cycle by transferring particulate organic carbon (POC) from terrestrial landscapes to marine sedimentary basins, but the processes controlling the amount and composition of fluvially exported POC are poorly understood. We propose that hydrodynamic sorting processes modify POC fluxes during fluvial transit. We test this hypothesis by studying POC transported along a ~1,200 km reach of the Rio Bermejo, Argentina. Nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry revealed that POC was either fine, mineral-associated organic matter, or coarse discrete organic particles. Mineral-associated POC is more resistant to oxidation and has a lower particle settling velocity than discrete POC. Consequently, hydraulic sorting and downstream fining amplify the proportion of fine, mineral-associated POC from ~55% to ~78% over 1,220 km of downstream transit. This suggests that mineral-associated POC has a greater probability of export and preservation in marine basins than plant detritus, which may be oxidized to CO 2 during transit.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2013

Photon sorting in the near field using subwavelength cavity arrays in the near-infrared

A frequency selective metasurface capable of sorting photons in the near-infrared spectral range is designed, fabricated, and characterized. The metasurface, a periodic array of dielectric cylindrical cavities in a gold film, localizes and transmits light of two spectral frequency bands into spatially separated cavities, resulting in near-field light splitting. The design and fabrication methodologies of the metasurface are discussed. The transmittance and photon sorting properties of the designed structure is simulated numerically and the measured transmission is presented.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2012

Efficient Sorting on the Tilera Manycore Architecture

e present an efficient implementation of the radix sort algo- rithm for the Tilera TILEPro64 processor. The TILEPro64 is one of the first successful commercial manycore processors. It is com- posed of 64 tiles interconnected through multiple fast Networks- on-chip and features a fully coherent, shared distributed cache. The architecture has a large degree of flexibility, and allows various optimization strategies. We describe how we mapped the algorithm to this architecture. We present an in-depth analysis of the optimizations for each phase of the algorithm with respect to the processor’s sustained performance. We discuss the overall throughput reached by our radix sort implementation (up to 132 MK/s) and show that it provides comparable or better performance-per-watt with respect to state-of-the art implemen- tations on x86 processors and graphic processing units.

manycore↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Design of an AI Trash Sorting Machine for Use on the Moon and Mars

As NASA prepares for Mars colonization, resource conservation will be critical for survival. Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered waste sorting technologies, already emerging on Earth, offer promising solutions for recycling and material recovery. These systems use advanced sensors and machine learning algorithms to identify and separate materials with remarkable accuracy. On Mars, where every item has significant value, efficient recycling will be essential to reduce resupply needs and support closed-loop life support systems. This paper explores how terrestrial AI-based trash sorting technologies can be adapted for Martian conditions, focusing on challenges such as the harsh surface environment, minimizing system mass, power, volume, and estimating waste composition. Addressing these issues will be key to enabling sustainable operations on the Red Planet.

Sorting↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Design of an AI Trash Sorting Machine for Use on the Moon and Mars

AI↗

DOE OSTI2016

Using sorted invariant mass variables to evade combinatorial ambiguities in cascade decays

The classic method for mass determination in a SUSY-like cascade decay chain relies on measurements of the kinematic endpoints in the invariant mass distributions of suitable collections of visible decay products. However, the procedure is complicated by combinatorial ambiguities: e.g., the visible final state particles may be indistinguishable (as in the case of QCD jets), or one may not know the exact order in which they are emitted along the decay chain. In order to avoid such combinatorial ambiguities, we propose to treat the nal state particles fully democratically and consider the sorted set of the invariant masses of all possible partitions of the visible particles in the decay chain. In particular, for a decay to N visible particles, one considers the sorted sets of all possible n-body invariant mass combinations (2≤ n≤ N) and determines the kinematic endpoint m (n,r) max of the distribution of the r-th largest n-body invariant mass m (n,r) for each possible value of n and r. For the classic example of a squark decay in supersymmetry, we provide analytical formulas for the interpretation of these endpoints in terms of the underlying physical masses. We point out that these measurements can be used to determine the structure of the decay topology, e.g., the number and position of intermediate on-shell resonances.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2025

Delamination-informed lifecycle decisions: A dielectric and machine learning framework for composite sorting and recycling

Composite materials are widely used in aerospace, marine, and automotive sectors due to their high strength-to-weight ratio and durability. However, their long-term reliability can be compromised by damage accumulation. Specifically, delamination initiation serves as a precursor to structural failure, which is often difficult to detect during damage inspection. Identifying and sorting delamination initiation in samples not only increases operational safety while providing critical information for end-of-life decisions, which influences both the service life extension value and the efficiency of fiber extraction during recycling. This research addresses two challenges: (1) developing a nondestructive, ex-situ framework to sort composite materials based on damage severity, particularly delamination, and (2) understanding how damage in composites influences resin removal during pyrolysis. Both experimental work and finite element analysis were performed to predict critical stress levels that are associated with delamination onset. Based on these results, three loading levels 50 %, 75 %, and 90 % of maximum stress, were selected for controlled experiments, generating composite samples with varying extents of damage for machine learning model training. Microscopic imaging of these samples confirmed the damage progression from matrix cracking to delamination, validating the computational predictions. We explored supervised machine learning using dielectric measurements to classify damage states. Preliminary results show an artificial neural network can identify early delamination which is a potential precursor to failure, with 94.44 % accuracy on our dataset. A parallel investigation into the effect of damage severity on pyrolysis recycling showed that heavily delaminated samples required significantly less energy for comparable matrix removal than undamaged samples.

dielectric variables↗

DOE OSTI2024

Evaluation of sustainable waste management: An analysis of techno-economic and life cycle assessments of municipal solid waste sorting and decontamination

This study evaluates the economic and environmental feasibility of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) sorting and decontamination technologies across urban, suburban, and rural areas. Using Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), the research assesses cost-effectiveness and environmental impacts, with a focus on cost variability analyzed through Monte Carlo simulations. Findings indicate significant cost differences based on population density: rural areas incur high costs up to $$764/ton due to low waste volumes and limited infrastructure, whereas suburban and urban areas have more feasible costs ranging from $36.3 to $142.5/ton. Environmental impacts also vary, with greenhouse gas emissions at 171 kg CO 2 eq/ton for copy paper and 118.6 kg CO 2 eq/ton for plastics. PM2.5 levels are 9.1 g/ton for copy paper and 6.3 g/ton for plastics, with sorting lines being the main contributors. Monte Carlo simulations reveal a 50% probability of costs being below $$102.26/ton for copy paper and $115.8/ton for plastics in suburban settings. Further, the study underscores the importance of customized waste management strategies to improve economic viability and sustainability based on local conditions.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2020

Two-Point Mixing, Buoyancy Sorting, and Updraft Dilution in the RACORO Campaign

Aircraft measurements of shallow cumulus cases from the RACORO campaign are studied in a transformed Paluch diagram. Previous studies have interpreted samples in Paluch diagrams in terms of two-point mixing and buoyancy sorting. The two-point mixing behavior is frequently seen in the RACORO observations and can be unambiguously distinguished from buoyancy sorting. The latter is not found in the RACORO observations and is also rare in a large-eddy simulation (LES) of a RACORO case. As opposed to often assumed gradual dilution of updrafts, around half of the instances of two-point mixing show no clear evidence of updraft dilution. We also find substantial spread in the properties of parcels that have adjusted to their level of neutral buoyancy and that a LES with horizontally homogeneous surface underestimates this spread. The inclusion of surface heterogeneity in the LES improves the agreement of its horizonal moisture variations with the aircraft measurements.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗