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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 811 records · Page 45
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Characterizing electronic and atomic structures for amorphous and molecular metal oxide catalysts at functional interfaces by combining soft X-ray spectroscopy and high-energy X-ray scattering

Amorphous thin film materials and heterogenized molecular catalysts supported on electrode and other functional interfaces are widely investigated as promising catalyst formats for applications in solar and electrochemical fuels catalysis. However the amorphous character of these catalysts and the complexity of the interfacial architectures that merge charge transport properties of electrode and semiconductor supports with discrete sites for multi-step catalysis poses challenges for probing mechanisms that activate and tune sites for catalysis. This minireview discusses advances in soft X-ray spectroscopy and high-energy X-ray scattering that provide opportunities to resolve interfacial electronic and atomic structures, respectively, that are linked to catalysis. This review discusses how these techniques can be partnered with advances in nanostructured interface synthesis for combined soft X-ray spectroscopy and high-energy X-ray scattering analyses of thin film and heterogenized molecular catalysts. Further, these combined approaches enable opportunities for the characterization of both electronic and atomic structures underlying fundamental catalytic function, and that can be applied under conditions relevant to device applications.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Investigation of the role of hydrogen bonding in ionic liquid-like salts with both N- and S-soft donors

In search of ionic liquids (ILs) with multiple types of soft donor atoms capable of preferentially complexing a range of soft metal ions over harder ions, we investigated structural clues to the role of hydrogen bonding in IL behavior through a series of salts with anions containing both N- and S-donor atoms based on azole thiolates. Reaction of equimolar amounts of triethylamine (Et 3 N) or diisobutylamine (DBA) with 1-phenyl-1H-tetrazole-5-thiol (PhTzSH), 1-methyl-1H-tetrazole-5-thiol (MeTzSH), or 5-methyl-1,3,4-dithiazole-2-thiol (MeDiTSH) yielded [Et 3 NH][MeTzS] (1), a yellow liquid, and the low melting yellow solids [DBAH][MeTzS] (2), [Et 3 NH][PhTzS] (3), [DBAH][PhTzS] (4), [Et 3 NH][MeDiTS] (5), and [DBAH][MeDiTS] (6). Thermal analysis revealed that all of them qualify as ILs with melting points below 100 °C. Single crystal X-ray structure analysis of 2–6 revealed the presence of an extensive H-bonding network that includes the rare N–H$\cdots$S hydrogen bonds in 3, 4, and 6. These weaker interactions appear to significantly influence thermal behavior, where strong bonding leads to higher melting temperatures and lower decomposition points.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2025

Linking structural and rheological memory in disordered soft materials

Linking the macroscopic flow properties and nanoscopic structure is a fundamental challenge to understanding, predicting, and designing disordered soft materials. Under small stresses, these materials are soft solids, while larger loads can lead to yielding and the acquisition of plastic strain, which adds complexity to the task. In this work, we connect the transient structure and rheological memory of a colloidal gel under cyclic shearing across a range of amplitudes via a generalized memory function using rheo-X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (rheo-XPCS). Our rheo-XPCS data show that the nanometer scale aggregate-level structure recorrelates whenever the change in recoverable strain over some interval is zero. The macroscopic recoverable strain is therefore a measure of the nano-scale structural memory. We further show that yielding in disordered colloidal materials is strongly heterogeneous and that memories of prior deformation can exist even after the material has been subjected to flow.

Kamani, Krutarth M. [Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-C↗
DOE OSTI2010

QCD dynamics in mesons at soft and hard scales

Using a ladder-rainbow kernel previously established for the soft scale of light quark hadrons, we explore, within a Dyson-Schwinger approach, phenomena that mix soft and hard scales of QCD. The difference between vector and axial vector current correlators is examined to estimate the four quark chiral condensate and the leading distance scale for the onset of non-perturbative phenomena in QCD. The valence quark distributions, in the pion and kaon, defined in deep inelastic scattering, and measured in the Drell Yan process, are investigated with the same ladder-rainbow truncation of the Dyson-Schwinger and Bethe-Salpeter equations.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2010

Complex plasma--the plasma state of soft matter

Complex plasma is the plasma state of soft matter which consists of weakly ionized gas (plasma) and highly charged microparticles. The microparticles are large enough to be visualized individually and their dynamics can be observed with great accuracy using simple video microscopic technique. These features allow to perform experiments with high temporal and spatial resolutions (in terms of the appropriate plasma frequency and particle separation). Furthermore, since the background gas is dilute, the particle dynamics in strongly coupled complex plasmas is virtually undamped, which provides a direct analogy to regular liquids and solids in terms of the atomistic dynamics. All these unique features allow complex plasma to be used as an ideal model system (complementary to other model systems in soft matter physics such as colloids, granular medium, etc.) to investigate various phenomena (e.g, phase transitions, phase separation, self-organizations, linear and nonlinear waves, transport, etc.) at the most fundamental kinetic level.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2010

Quantum-Gravity Phenomenology of soft ultraviolet/infrared mixing

We reexamine the motivation for ultraviolet/infrared mixing in quantum gravity and some of the quantum-spacetime formalizations where it has been found. We then focus on cases in which the infrared manifestations of the mixing are relatively soft, arguing that they can motivate a particularly appealing phenomenology. Among the possible implications for the large-distance behavior of gravity one intriguingly finds a correction with logarithmic dependence on distance. And one can explain in terms of soft ultraviolet/infrared mixing a four-standard-deviation discrepancy that was recently established in the context of studies of cold neutrons.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2011

Experimental Investigations on Pulsed Nd:YAG Laser Welding of C17300 Copper-Beryllium and 49Ni-Fe Soft Magnetic Alloys

Copper-beryllium and soft magnetic alloys must be joined in electrical and electro-mechanical applications. There is a high difference in melting temperatures of these alloys which cause to make the joining process very difficult. In addition, copper-beryllium alloys are of age hardenable alloys and precipitations can brittle the weld. 49Ni-Fe alloy is very hot crack sensitive. Moreover, these alloys have different heat transfer coefficients and reflection of laser beam in laser welding process. Therefore, the control of welding parameters on the formation of adequate weld puddle composition is very difficult. Laser welding is an advanced technique for joining of dissimilar materials since it can precisely control and adjust the welding parameters. In this study, a 100W Nd:YAG pulsed laser machine was used for joining 49Ni-Fe soft magnetic to C17300 copper-beryllium alloys. Welding of samples was carried out autogenously by changing the pulse duration, diameter of beam, welding speed, voltage and frequency. The spacing between samples was set to almost zero. The ample were butt welded. It was required to apply high voltage in this study due to high reflection coefficient of copper alloys. Metallography, SEM analysis, XRD and microhardness measurement was used for survey of results. The results show that the weld strength depends upon the chemical composition of the joints. To change the wells composition and heat input of the welds, it was attempted to deviate the laser focus away from the weld centerline. The best strength was achieved by deviation of the laser beam away about 0.1mm from the weld centerline. The result shows no intermetallic compounds if the laser beam is deviated away from the joint.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2011

Soft and hybrid-doped Pb(Zr,Ti)O{sub 3} ceramics under stress, electric field, and temperature loading

We investigated the influence of uniaxial pressure (0-1000 bars) applied parallelly or perpendicularly to the ac or dc electric field (in a one-dimensional or two-dimensional manner) on dielectric and ferroelectric properties of selected soft and hybrid-doped PZT ceramics (1 mol. % Gd, 1 mol. % La and 1 mol. % (La+Fe)-doped Pb(Zr{sub 0.54}Ti{sub 0.46}) O{sub 3}). Applying uniaxial pressure leads to a reduction of the peak intensity of the electric permittivity ({epsilon}), of the frequency dispersion, and of the dielectric hysteresis. The peak intensity of {epsilon} becomes diffused and shifts to a higher temperatures with increasing pressure. Simultaneous application of uniaxial pressure and dc electric field (perpendicular to each other) in the poling process implies in improvement of the ferroelectric properties, indicating a new possibility for poling materials with a high coercive field and/or high electric conductivity. It was also found that simultaneous application of uniaxial pressure and dc electric field (perpendicular to each other) allowed observation of the space charge in the depolarization process. The electrostrictive coefficient Q{sub 11} and differential permittivity were evaluated from obtained data. Our results show that applying uniaxial pressure induces similar effects as increasing the Ti-ion concentration in the PZT system. We interpreted our results based on the Cochran soft-mode and domain switching processes under the action of pressure.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2012

ATLAS measurements of soft particle production and diffraction

The ATLAS Collaboration has measured a wide range of properties of soft particle production in {radical}(s) = 900GeV and {radical}(s) = 7TeV proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). These include forward-backward and azimuthal correlations, azimuthal ordering of hadron production, underlying event properties and their dependence on aspects of the hard scattering process. The inelastic and diffractive cross sections have also been measured, using particle forward flow and rapidity gaps. Many of these measurements are used to develop and tune models for soft particle production.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Effect of stoichiometry on the dielectric properties and soft mode behavior of strained epitaxial SrTiO3 thin films on DyScO3 substrates

The effect of stoichiometry on the dielectric properties and soft mode behavior of strained epitaxial Sr1-xTiO3 films grown on DyScO3 substrates is reported. Direct comparisons between nominally stoichiometric and non-stoichiometric films have been performed through measurements of lattice parameters, temperature-dependent permittivities, second harmonic generation, and terahertz dielectric spectra. The nominally stoichiometric film shows dispersion-free low-frequency permittivity with a 23 sharp maximum and pronounced soft mode behavior. Our results suggest that strained perfectlystoichiometric SrTiO3 films should not show relaxor behavior and that relaxor behavior emergesfrom defect dipoles that arise from non-stoichiometry in the highly polarizable strained SrTiO3 matrix

ferroelectric↗
DOE OSTI2013

Accounting for soft cross sections at the LHC

We describe briefly the elements of the GLM model that successfully describes soft hadronic interactions at energies from ISR to LHC. This model is based on a single Pomeron with a large intercept {Delta}{sub IP}= 0.23 and slope {alpha} Prime {sub IP}= 0, and so provides a natural matching with perturbative QCD. We summarize themain features and results of competing models for soft interactions at LHC energies.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2013

An energy-filtering device coupled to a quadrupole mass spectrometer for soft-landing molecular ions on surfaces with controlled energy

We have developed an energy-filtering device coupled to a quadrupole mass spectrometer to deposit ionized molecules on surfaces with controlled energy in ultra high vacuum environment. Extensive numerical simulations as well as direct measurements show that the ion beam flying out of a quadrupole exhibits a high-energy tail decreasing slowly up to several hundred eV. This energy distribution renders impossible any direct soft-landing deposition of molecular ions. To remove this high-energy tail by energy filtering, a 127° electrostatic sector and a specific triplet lenses were designed and added after the last quadrupole of a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. The results obtained with this energy-filtering device show clearly the elimination of the high-energy tail. The ion beam that impinges on the sample surface satisfies now the soft-landing criterion for molecular ions, opening new research opportunities in the numerous scientific domains involving charges adsorbed on insulating surfaces.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Engineering Gilbert damping by dilute Gd doping in soft magnetic Fe thin films

By analyzing the ferromagnetic resonance linewidth, we show that the Gilbert damping constant in soft magnetic Fe thin films can be enhanced by ∼6 times with Gd doping of up to 20%. At the same time, the magnetic easy axis remains in the film plane while the coercivity is strongly reduced after Gd inclusion. X-ray magnetic circular dichroism measurements reveal a strong increase in the orbital-to-spin moment ratio of Fe with increasing Gd concentration, in full agreement with the increase in the Gilbert damping obtained for these thin films. Combined with x-ray diffraction and vibrating sample magnetometry, the results demonstrate that the FeGd thin films with dilute Gd doping of up to 20% are promising candidates for spin-transfer-torque applications in soft magnetic devices, in which an enhanced damping is required.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Origin of the anomalous temperature dependence of coercivity in soft ferromagnets

We report on the origin of the anomalous temperature dependence of coercivity observed in some soft ferromagnets by studying the magnetic and electronic properties of FeZr films doped using ion implantation by H, He, B, C, and N. The anomalous increase of the coercivity with temperature was observed only in the C- and B-doped samples. Using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, we show that the anomalous behavior of the coercivity coincides with the occurrence of an electron charge transfer for those implanted samples. The origin of the anomaly is discussed in terms of (i) magnetic softness, (ii) nature of the Fe-C and -B covalent bonds, and (iii) large charge transfer.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Magnetic turbulence and pressure gradient feedback effect of the 1/2 mode soft-hard magnetohydrodynamic limit in large helical device

The aim of this study was to analyze the feedback process between the magnetic turbulence and the pressure gradients in Large Helical Device (LHD) inward-shifted configurations as well as its role in the transition between the soft-hard magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) regimes for instabilities driven by the mode 1/2 in the middle plasma. In the present paper, we summarize the results of two simulations with different Lundquist numbers, S=2.5×10{sup 5} and 10{sup 6}, assuming a plasma in the slow reconnection regime. The results for the high Lundquist number simulation show that the magnetic turbulence and the pressure gradient in the middle plasma region of LHD are below the critical value to drive the transition to the hard MHD regime, therefore only relaxations in the soft MHD limit are triggered (1/2 sawtooth-like events) [Phys. Plasmas 19, 082512 (2012)]. In the case of the simulation with low Lundquist number, the system reaches the hard MHD limit and a plasma collapse is observed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Broadband acoustic trapping of a particle by a soft plate with a periodic deep grating

We investigated the acoustic radiation force (ARF) acting on a cylindrical brass particle near an acoustically soft plate patterned with a periodic deep grating. The existence of a negative ARF by which the particle can be pulled towards the sound source is confirmed. In addition, the bandwidth for negative ARF in this soft-plate system is found to be considerably broader than in the stiff-plate systems typically used in previous studies. It is further demonstrated by field distribution analysis that the negative ARF is caused by the gradient force induced by the gradient vortex velocity field near the surface, which stems from the collective resonance excitation of the antisymmetric coupling of Scholte surface waves in the thin plate. The effects of particle location and size on the ARF were also investigated in detail. The negative ARF has potential use in applications requiring particle manipulation using acoustic waves.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Tuning Interfacial Thermal Conductance of Graphene Embedded in Soft Materials by Vacancy Defects

Nanocomposites based on graphene dispersed in matrices of soft materials are promising thermal management materials. Their effective thermal conductivity depends on both the thermal conductivity of graphene and the conductance of the thermal transport across graphene-matrix interfaces. Here we report on molecular dynamics simulations of the thermal transport across the interfaces between defected graphene and soft materials in two different modes: in the across mode, heat enters graphene from one side of its basal plane and leaves through the other side; in the non-across mode, heat enters or leaves a graphene simultaneously from both sides of its basal plane. We show that, as the density of vacancy defects in graphene increases from 0 to 8%, the conductance of the interfacial thermal transport in the across mode increases from 160.4 16 to 207.8 11 MW/m2K, while that in the non-across mode increases from 7.2 0.1 to 17.8 0.6 MW/m2K. The molecular mechanisms for these variations of thermal conductance are clarified by using the phonon density of states and structural characteristics of defected graphenes. On the basis of these results and effective medium theory, we show that it is possible to enhance the effective thermal conductivity of thermal nanocomposites by tuning the density of vacancy defects in graphene despite the fact that graphene s thermal conductivity always decreases as vacancy defects are introduced.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Roothaan’s approach to solve the Hartree-Fock equations for atoms confined by soft walls: Basis set with correct asymptotic behavior

In this report, we use a new basis set for Hartree-Fock calculations related to many-electron atoms confined by soft walls. One- and two-electron integrals were programmed in a code based in parallel programming techniques. The results obtained with this proposal for hydrogen and helium atoms were contrasted with other proposals to study just one and two electron confined atoms, where we have reproduced or improved the results previously reported. Usually, an atom enclosed by hard walls has been used as a model to study confinement effects on orbital energies, the main conclusion reached by this model is that orbital energies always go up when the confinement radius is reduced. However, such an observation is not necessarily valid for atoms confined by penetrable walls. The main reason behind this result is that for atoms with large polarizability, like beryllium or potassium, external orbitals are delocalized when the confinement is imposed and consequently, the internal orbitals behave as if they were in an ionized atom. Naturally, the shell structure of these atoms is modified drastically when they are confined. The delocalization was an argument proposed for atoms confined by hard walls, but it was never verified. In this work, the confinement imposed by soft walls allows to analyze the delocalization concept in many-electron atoms.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗