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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 775 records · Page 43
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Structurally controlled deposition of silicon onto nanowires

Provided herein are nanostructures for lithium ion battery electrodes and methods of fabrication. In some embodiments, a nanostructure template coated with a silicon coating is provided. The silicon coating may include a non-conformal, more porous layer and a conformal, denser layer on the non-conformal, more porous layer. In some embodiments, two different deposition processes, e.g., a PECVD layer to deposit the non-conformal layer and a thermal CVD process to deposit the conformal layer, are used. Anodes including the nanostructures have longer cycle lifetimes than anodes made using either a PECVD or thermal CVD method alone.

Wang, Weijie↗
DOE OSTI2025

Entrapment Behavior of Solid Surrogate Fission Products at Engineered UN Nano‐Hetero‐Interfaces Within Metallic Nuclear Fuels

Nanometric hetero-interfaces provide a wealth of scientific and engineering opportunities due to their complex and often misunderstood properties that can differ from their respective bulk constituents. In this work, the ability for engineered nanostructures within a bulk U─Mo alloy to arrest simulant fission products is investigated experimentally and computationally. Nanostructured 90 wt% U/ 10 wt% Mo (U-10Mo) with 7.1 at% Nd is consolidated using spark-plasma- sintering (SPS) techniques and is heat-treated at 500 °C under vacuum for 24, 100, 500, and 1000 h. Analysis on the sintered and heat-treated U-10Mo reveals rapid kinetics in Nd diffusion to nanocluster sites, with evidence of Nd diffusion occurring during sintering and during the following heat-treatment. The segregation behavior of Nd at two different U─Mo/UN interfaces is computationally verified using density functional theory (DFT) to reinforce experimental data.

11 - NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Peak‐in‐Valley Metal Nano‐Architectures via E‐Beam‐Guided Metal Oxide Redox

Focused electron beams enable nanoscale material modification via localized etching or deposition. In liquid-phase electron-beam-mediated processing, radiolysis-driven redox reactions present an opportunity to control both etching and deposition simultaneously. Here, this duality using a water-ammonia solvent as a tunable redox mediator on copper surfaces is demonstrated. At lower ammonia concentrations, the oxidation process dominates, etching copper to sub-50-nm depths. The copper ions and ion-complexes released during this initial oxidation step are reduced by solvated electrons resulting in metal deposition into the etched sites, over longer e-beam exposures, producing characteristic peak-in-valley nanostructures. Conversely, at higher ammonia concentrations copper-ammine ion complexation and radiolytic oxidizing species scavenging by ammonia occur at higher rates, creating a reducing environment conducive to rapid beam-guided copper deposition. Reaction-transport simulations and experiments are performed to show the effects of ammonia-mediated radiolysis chemistry, describing the direct influence of solvent concentration on redox balance and the outcome of e-beam guided processing. By uniting both etching and deposition within a single framework, this work provides a versatile route for controlled surface nanostructuring.

copper nanostructures↗
DOE OSTI2020

Molecular and Topographical Organization: Influence on Cicada Wing Wettability and Bactericidal Properties

Numerous natural surfaces have micro/nanostructures that result in extraordinary functionality, such as superhydrophobicity, self-cleaning, antifogging, and antimicrobial properties. One such example is the cicada wing, where differences in nanopillar geometry and composition among species can impact and influence the degree of exhibited properties. To understand the relationships between surface topography and chemical composition with multifunctionality, the wing properties of Neotibicen pruinosus (superhydrophobic) and Magicicada cassinii (hydrophobic) cicadas are investigated at time points after microwave-assisted extraction of surface molecules to characterize the chemical contribution to nanopillar functionality. Electron microscopy of the wings throughout the extraction process illustrates nanoscale topographical changes, while concomitant changes in hydrophobicity, bacterial fouling, and bactericidal properties are also measured. Extract analysis reveals the major components of the nanostructures to be fatty acids and saturated hydrocarbons ranging from C17 to C44. Effects on the antimicrobial character of a wing surface with respect to the extracted chemicals suggest that the molecular composition of the nanopillars plays both a direct and an indirect role in concert with nanopillar geometry. The data presented not only correlates the nanopillar molecular organization to macroscale functional properties, but it also presents design guidelines to consider during the replication of natural nanostructures onto engineered substrates to induce desired properties.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

New Directions in Focused Ion Beam Induced Deposition for the Nanoprinting of Functional 3D Heterostructures

The focused ion beam (FIB) microscope is well established as a high-resolution machining instrument capable of site-selectively removing material down to the nanoscale. Beyond subtractive processing, however, the FIB can also add material via a technique known as focused ion beam induced deposition (FIBID). Using FIBID, the FIB can thus be employed for the direct-write of complex nanostructures. This work explores new directions in three-dimensional FIBID nanoprinting, harnessing unique features of helium and neon FIBs. In particular, the superior spatial resolution of these novel FIBs is leveraged to fabricate precise multimaterial architectures, an isotope effect is used to create satellite deposits, and dose-controlled implantation of the gaseous ions is used to engineer internal voids. In the context of voids, the fabrication of hollow nanopillars by helium-FIBID due to concurrent milling (as shown previously by others) is revisited. Insight into the chemical and structural composition of the nanostructures is obtained using advanced electron microscopy, accurately revealing buried interfaces, crystallite distributions, chemical compositions, and material transformations. Next-generation devices and technologies that could be enabled by the novel heterostructures demonstrated here are discussed, setting the stage for the potential evolution of FIBID into a versatile platform for functional nanomaterials design and fabrication.

FIBID↗
DOE OSTI2021

Topological Assembly of a Deployable Hoberman Flight Ring from DNA

Deployable geometries are finite auxetic structures that preserve their overall shapes during expansion and contraction. The topological behaviors emerge from intricately arranged elements and their connections. Despite the considerable utility of such configurations in nature and in engineering, deployable nanostructures have never been demonstrated. In this paper, a deployable flight ring, a simplified planar structure of Hoberman sphere is shown, using DNA origami. The DNA flight ring consists of topologically assembled six triangles in two layers that can slide against each other, thereby switching between two distinct (open and closed) states. The origami topology is a trefoil knot, and its auxetic reconfiguration results in negative Poisson’s ratios. This work shows the feasibility of deployable nanostructures, providing a versatile platform for topological studies and opening new opportunities for bioengineering.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Coupled continuum and network model framework to study catalyst layers of polymer electrolyte fuel cells

The nanostructured thin film (NSTF) catalyst layers which have demonstrated high power densities, mass activities, and exceptional metal and support stability can have limited operational robustness due to their thin thickness and the hydrophilicity of the metal-coated nano whiskers. The dispersed nanostructured thin film (dNSTF) catalyst layers have been developed by dispersing the NSTF Pt whiskers with ionomer and carbon support to increase the thickness and hydrophobicity. Continuum and network models (NM) are coupled through boundary conditions to study the polymer electrolyte fuel cell with a dNSTF cathode catalyst layer. The coupled model combines the computational efficiency of the continuum model with the pore-scale information in the dNSTF cathode catalyst layer of the NM. It captures the special morphology of the partially ionomer/water covered cylindrical whiskers, as well as water percolation through the pore structures and their impact on the cell performance. Here we observe optimal ionomer coverage on whiskers to be 0.5, ionomer to carbon ratio to be 0.9 and higher whisker to carbon ratios to be desired.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2021

Plasmonics-Enhanced UV Photocatalytic Water Purification

Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) is commonly used for photocatalytic decomposition of organic contaminants for the purpose of water purification. One promising method to enhance TiO 2 photocatalysis is the incorporation of surface plasmon resonance on its surface where photocatalytic reactions take place. Herein, a novel methodology using plasmonically tuned aluminum nanostructures to enhance the rate of photodecomposition of aqueous methyl orange is demonstrated. These nanostructures are tuned to the TiO 2 band gap in the UV regime and patterned on TiO 2 -coated substrates using nanosphere lithography. Compared to a blank TiO 2 film, the plasmonics is found to enhance the initial TiO 2 photocatalytic rate by up to 10 times, and further enhancement is possible upon refinement of the plasmonic technology.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Comparing Machine Learning and Physics-Based Nanoparticle Geometry Determinations Using Far-Field Spectral Properties

Anisotropic metal nanostructures exhibit polarization-dependent light scattering, a property which has been widely studied and exploited to determine orientations of subwavelength structures using far-field microscopy. Here we explore the use of variational autoencoders (VAEs) to determine the geometries of gold nanorods (NRs) such as in-plane orientation and aspect ratio under linearly polarized dark-field illumination in an optical microscope. We enforce a shared latent space to connect two VAEs trained separately with polarized dark-field scattering spectra and electron microscopy images and achieve image prediction (shape, orientation, and size) of Au NRs using only polarized dark-field scattering spectra. We determine the geometrical parameters of orientational angle and aspect ratio quantitatively via both our dual-VAE and physics-based analysis on the input scattering spectra. We show that orientational angle prediction by dual-VAE performs well with only a small (~300 particle) training set, yielding a mean absolute error (MAE) of 14.4° and a concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) of 0.95. This performance is only marginally worse than the physics-based cos(2?) fitting approach between the scattering intensity and the polarizing angle, which achieves MAE of 8.78° and CCC of 0.99. Aspect ratio determination is also comparable for the dual-VAE and physics-based fitting comparison (MAE of 0.21 vs. 0.23 and CCC of 0.53 vs. 0.68). Here, this dual encoder-decoder architecture effectively exploits the structure-property relationships of plasmonic nanostructures to construct a cross-modal machine learning (ML) approach, providing a pathway to employ ML approaches to address other structure-property relationships in materials science.

Dark-field scattering↗
DOE OSTI2026

Laser-Induced Enhancement of Acoustic Mode Quality Factor Revealed by Correlated Single-Particle Optical and Electron Microscopy

Acoustic modes in plasmonic nanostructures provide fundamental insights into their optomechanical behavior at the nanoscale, enabling emerging applications in plasmon-enhanced optomechanics, ultrasensitive sensing, and nanoscale energy transduction. Here we explore the modulation of acoustic phonon dynamics in lithographically fabricated gold nanodisks via laser-induced photothermal annealing. Using a correlated approach that utilizes both single-particle transient extinction spectroscopy and advanced electron microscopy, we directly link nanoscale structural transformations to changes in mechanical properties as probed through the coherence of the excited acoustic modes. Specifically, ultrafast pump–probe microscopy reveals an enhancement in the acoustic mode quality factor of annealed gold nanodisks, indicative of reduced damping and improved vibrational coherence. Structural characterization via scanning electron microscopy and electron backscatter diffraction confirms that photoinduced annealing results in smoother surface morphology and overall enhanced crystallinity. The improved crystalline order reduces defect and crystal boundary scattering, which we suggest as the reason underlying the lower quality factor before annealing. Furthermore, these findings demonstrate that targeted structural engineering at the nanoscale offers a powerful strategy for optimizing the optomechanical performance of plasmonic nanostructures, with broad implications for the design of next-generation nanophotonic and optomechanical systems.

Annealing (metallurgy)↗
DOE OSTI2023

Electron Spin Polarization and Rectification Driven by Chiral Perylene Diimide-Based Nanodonuts

The chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect allows thin-film layers of chiral conjugated molecules to function as spin filters at ambient temperature. Through solvent-modulated dropcasting of chiral l- and d-perylene diimide (PDI) monomeric building blocks, two types of aggregate morphologies, nanofibers and nanodonuts, may be realized. Spin-diode behavior is evidenced in the nanodonut structures. Stacked PDI units, which form the conjugated core of these nanostructures, dominate the nanodonut–Au electrode contact; in contrast, the AFM tip contacts largely the high-resistance solubilizing alkyl chains of the chiral monomers that form these nanodonuts. Current–voltage responses of the nanodonuts, measured by magnetic conductive AFM (mC-AFM), demonstrate substantial spin polarizations as well as spin current rectification ratios (>10) that exceed the magnitudes of those determined to date for other chiral nanoscale systems. Furthermore, these results underscore the potential for chiral nanostructures, featuring asymmetric molecular junctions, to enable CISS-based nanoscale spin current rectifiers.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

Formation of Disordered Cocontinuous Phases by Randomly Linked Star Copolymers

Cocontinuous polymeric nanostructures have garnered significant interest due to their ability to combine different properties of two separate polymer domains. Randomly linked copolymer networks have proven to be especially robust for formation of disordered cocontinuous phases across wide composition ranges (≈30 wt % or more). While theoretical treatments of microphase-separated networks have focused primarily on the role of random elastic forces imposed on the self-assembled nanostructures by virtue of the network architecture, experimental studies seeking to disentangle these contributions from other potential effects, such as dispersity in preferred interfacial curvatures, have been scarce. To provide insight into this matter, we here study the self-assembly of randomly linked star copolymers (RSCs), constructed by linking premade polymer arms of polystyrene (PS) and poly(d,l-lactide) (PLA) using 3, 4, and 6-functional connectors. This architecture yields similar distributions of preferred curvature as networks made using corresponding difunctional strands, but lacks the elastic forces imposed by a network architecture. Gravimetry and small-angle X-ray scattering, coupled with scanning electron microscopy, were performed to identify the percolation of PS/PLA RSCs. Remarkably, the 4-arm RSC system exhibited a disordered cocontinuous window of ≈25 wt %, indicating that dispersity in preferred curvature can in some cases be sufficient to robustly drive formation of this morphology. However, the other RSC architectures showed smaller cocontinuous ranges, which we interpret in terms of the influence of homopolymer stars in the 3-arm case and the narrower distribution of preferred interfacial curvatures in the 6-arm case. Finally, thin layers of interconnected porous PS were achieved by solution-processing, suggesting that RSCs have the potential to serve as a robust and easily processable cocontinuous polymeric nanomaterials in both bulk and membrane geometries.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2020

Dissolvable Template Nanoimprint Lithography: A Facile and Versatile Nanoscale Replication Technique

Nanoimprinting lithography (NIL) is a next-generation nanofabrication method, capable of replicating nanostructures from original master surfaces. In this work, we develop highly scalable, simple, and nondestructive NIL using a dissolvable template. Termed dissolvable template nanoimprinting lithography (DT-NIL), our method utilizes an economic thermoplastic resin to fabricate nanoimprinting templates, which can be easily dissolved in simple organic solvents. Additionally, we used the DT-NIL method to replicate cicada wings which have surface nanofeatures of ~100 nm in height. The master, template, and replica surfaces showed a >~94% similarity based on the measured diameter and height of the nanofeatures. The versatility of DT-NIL was also demonstrated with the replication of re-entrant, multiscale, and hierarchical features on fly wings, as well as hard silicon wafer-based artificial nanostructures. The DT-NIL method can be performed under ambient conditions with inexpensive materials and equipment. Our work opens the door to opportunities for economical and high-throughput nanofabrication processes.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Precise Colloidal Plasmonic Photocatalysts Constructed by Multistep Photodepositions

Natural photosynthesis relies on a sophisticated charge transfer pathway among multiple components with precise spatial, energetic, and temporal organizations in the aqueous environment. It continues to inspire and challenge the design and fabrication of artificial multicomponent colloidal nanostructures for solar-to-fuel conversion. Herein, we introduce a plasmonic photocatalyst synthesized with colloidal methods with five integrated components including cocatalysts installed in orthogonal locations. The precise deposition of individual inorganic components on an Au/TiO 2 nanodumbell nanostructure is enabled by photoreduction and photo-oxidation, which selectively occurs at the TiO 2 tip sites and Au lateral sites, respectively. Under visible-light irradiation, the photocatalyst exhibited activity of oxygen evolution from water without scavengers. Here, we demonstrate that each component is essential for improving the photocatalytic performance. In addition, mechanistic studies suggest that the photocatalytic reaction requires combining the hot charge carriers derived from exciting both the d-sp interband transition and the localized surface plasmon resonance of Au.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Self-Assembled BaTiO 3 –Au x Ag 1– x Low-Loss Hybrid Plasmonic Metamaterials with an Ordered “Nano-Domino-like” Microstructure

Metallic plasmonic hybrid nanostructures have attracted enormous research interest due to the combined physical properties coming from different material components and the broad range of applications in nanophotonic and electronic devices. However, the high loss and narrow range of property tunability of the metallic hybrid materials have limited their practical applications. In this study, a metallic alloy-based self-assembled plasmonic hybrid nanostructure, i.e., a BaTiO 3 –Au x Ag 1– x (BTO) vertically aligned nanocomposite, has been integrated by a templated growth method for low-loss plasmonic systems. Comprehensive microstructural characterizations including high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (HRSTEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and three-dimensional (3D) electron tomography demonstrate the formation of an ordered “nano-domino-like” morphology with Au 0.4 Ag 0.6 nanopillars as cylindrical cores and BTO as square shells. By comparing with the BTO–Au hybrid thin film, the BTO–Au 0.4 Ag 0.6 alloyed film exhibits much broader plasmon resonance, hyperbolic dispersion, low-loss, and thermally robust features in the UV–vis–NIR wavelength region. This study provides a feasible platform for a complex alloyed plasmonic hybrid material design with low-loss and highly tunable optical properties toward all-optical integrated devices.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Revealing Mesoscale Ionomer Membrane Structure by Tender Resonant X-ray Scattering

Nafion, a perfluorosulfonic acid ionomer, has been well-studied for decades due to its key role as an ion-conductive membrane in electrochemical energy conversion and storage applications. When hydrated, this membrane phase separates into a complex hierarchical nanostructure with hydrophilic domains that facilitate ion transport. Hard X-ray scattering has been a powerful technique in understanding Nafion due to its capabilities in capturing the ionomer’s nanophase separated structure, which gives rise to contrast between polymer and water domains. More recently, resonant X-ray scattering, which tunes to elemental absorption edges to provide specificity on constituent elements, has been explored to highlight key interactions related to the sulfonic acid groups within its structure. Here, in this work, we study the Nafion nanostructure by combining hard X-ray scattering and tender resonant X-ray scattering (TReXS) at the sulfur K-edge to reveal a mesoscopic feature corresponding to a correlation length of approximately 40 nm that has been challenging to resolve with hard X-ray studies. Additionally, we study the effect of the dispersion solvent composition that plays a key role in the formation of this mesoscale feature. Notably, TReXS can attain high contrast to decipher this mesoscale morphology even for dry polymer membranes under a vacuum, which typically have reduced contrast for hard X-rays. We find that the correlation length of this mesoscale feature decreases with increasing water fraction in the dispersion, which is the opposite trend exhibited by the smaller intercrystalline feature in the same membranes. This study showcases the utility of TReXS to uncover multiscale morphological details in functional polymers that are not always revealed by other methods like hard X-ray scattering. We illustrate this with Nafion, which is a relevant ion-conducting polymer for electrochemical technologies.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Cryo-EM Visualization of Intermolecular π-Electron Interactions within π-Conjugated Peptidic Supramolecular Polymers

The self-assembly of “π-peptides” – molecules with π-electron cores substituted with two or more oligopeptide chains – brings organic electronic function into biologically relevant nanomaterials. π-Peptides assemble into fibrillar nanomaterials as driven by enthalpic peptide-based hydrogen bonding networks and pi-core-based quadrupolar interactions. A large body of spectroscopic, morphological and computational studies informs on the nature of the self-assembly process and the resulting nanostructures, but detailed structural information has remained elusive. Here, inspired by the recent use of cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to provide high-resolution structures for synthetic peptide nanomaterials, we present here the use of cryo-EM to offer ca. 3 Å resolution of π-peptide nanomaterial assemblies, visualizing for the first time the nature of the intermolecular π-core electronic interactions responsible for energy transport through these supramolecular materials.

Group theory↗
DOE OSTI2024

Nano-Plasticity of an Electrified Ionic Liquid/Electrode Interface: Uncovering Hard–Soft Structuring via Controlled Metal Fill Factor

Here, ionic liquids (ILs) nanostructuring at electrified interfaces is of both fundamental and practical interest as these materials are increasingly gaining prominence in energy storage and conversion processes. However, much remains unresolved about IL potential-controlled (re)organization under highly polarized interfaces, mostly due to the difficulty of selectively probing both the distal and proximal surface layers of adsorbed ions. In this work, the structural dynamics of the innermost layer (<10 nm from the surface) were independently interrogated from that of the ionic layers in the sub-surface region (>100 nm from the surface), using an infrared (IR) spectroscopy approach. By tuning the metal fill factor of gold films deposited on conductive metal oxide-modified IR internal reflection elements, the charge-driven (re)structuring of the inner and distal layers of 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium trifluoromethanesulfonate is unveiled. Within a relatively wide potential region (~±1 V) bounding the potential of zero charges, the ionic liquid is shown to undergo a reversible (i.e., soft) reorganization whereby the innermost layer of anions (cations) is exchanged by a layer of cations (anions). Kinetically unhindered changes in the number density of constituent cations and anions largely follow electrostatic expectations in the subsurface region, whereas the innermost layer exhibits a pronounced hysteresis and very slow relaxation. Under larger negative potential bias, IL restructuring is characterized by a highly irreversible (i.e., hard) and intense interfacial densification of the BMPy + cations, consistent with the formation of nanoscale segregated liquids. The outcomes of this work reveal a plastic IL nanostructuring under a strong electric field.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗