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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 91 records · Page 5
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1977

Volatile products from the interaction of KCl/g/ with Cr2O3 and LaCrO3 in oxidizing environments

Based on cooled target collection methods and high pressure mass spectrometer sampling, oxidative vaporization rates and emanating volatile products were evaluated for interactions of KCl(g) with Cr2O3 and LaCrO3 in oxidizing environments. It was found that: (1) increased rates of oxidative vaporization upon exposure to the reactants are exhibited by chromia and fresh lanthanum chromite samples, and (2) these increased rates result from the heterogeneous formation of complex molecules such as KCl sub 1,2,3CrO3 and KOH sub 1,2CrO3. No increased rates were observed for lanthanum chromite subjected to prolonged oxidative vaporization.

Kohl, F. J.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Development of advanced thermoelectric materials, phase A

Work performed on the chemical system characterized by chrome sulfide, chrome selenide, lanthanum selenide, and lanthanum sulfide is described. Most materials within the chemical systems possess the requisites for attractive thermoelectric materials. The preparation of the alloys is discussed. Graphs show the Seebeck coefficient, electrical resistivity, and thermal conductivity of various materials within the chemical systems. The results of selected doping are included.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1983

Rare earth chalcogenide stoichiometry determination

Rare earth chalcogenides, and particularly lanthanum sulfide, are currently explored as candidate materials for thermoelectric applications. Since the electrical properties of LaS(x) are largely determined by its stoichiometry, a simple and accurate method has been developed for determining the value of x. The procedure involves dissolving a weighted sample in acid and measuring the amount of hydrogen evolved by the lanthanum that is in excess of the 1.500 ratio of S/La. The analytical error in the determination of x in LaS(x) is about 0.001.

Lockwood, R. A.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Development of advanced thermoelectric materials

The development of an advanced thermoelectric material for radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) applications is reported. A number of materials were explored. The bulk of the effort, however, was devoted to improving silicon germanium alloys by the addition of gallium phosphide, the synthesis and evaluation of lanthanum chrome sulfide and the formulation of various mixtures of lanthanum sulfide and chrome sulfide. It is found that each of these materials exhibits promise as a thermoelectric material.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1991

Superconducting Microwave Electronics at Lewis Research Center

Over the last three years, NASA Lewis Research Center has investigated the application of newly discovered high temperature superconductors to microwave electronics. Using thin films of YBa2Cu3O7-delta and Tl2Ca2Ba2Cu3Ox deposited on a variety of substrates, including strontium titanate, lanthanum gallate, lanthanum aluminate and magnesium oxide, a number of microwave circuits have been fabricated and evaluated. These include a cavity resonator at 60 GHz, microstrip resonators at 35 GHz, a superconducting antenna array at 35 GHz, a dielectric resonator at 9 GHz, and a microstrip filter at 5 GHz. Performance of some of these circuits as well as suggestions for other applications are reported.

Warner, Joseph D.↗
NASA NTRS1993

A 10 GHz Y-Ba-Cu-O/GaAs hybrid oscillator proximity coupled to a circular microstrip patch antenna

A 10 GHz hybrid YBCO/GaAs microwave oscillator proximity coupled to a circular microstrip antenna has been designed, fabricated, and characterized. The oscillator was a reflection mode type using a GaAs MESFET as the active element. The feedline, transmission lines, RF chokes, and bias lines were all fabricated from YBCO superconducting thin films on a 1 cm x 1 cm lanthanum aluminate substrate. The output feedline of the oscillator was wire bonded to a superconducting feedline on a second 1 cm x 1 cm lanthanum aluminate substrate, which was in turn proximity coupled to a circular microstrip patch antenna. Antenna patterns from this active patch antenna and the performance of the oscillator measured at 77 K are reported. The oscillator had a maximum output power of 11.5 dBm at 77 K, which corresponded to an efficiency of 10 percent. In addition, the efficiency of the microstrip patch antenna together with its high temperature superconducting feedline was measured from 85 K to 30 K and was found to be 71 percent at 77 K, increasing to a maximum of 87.4 percent at 30 K.

Rohrer, Norman J.↗
NASA NTRS1993

A 10 GHz Y-Ba-Cu-O/GaAs hybrid oscillator proximity coupled to a circular microstrip patch antenna

A 10 GHz hybrid Y-Ba-Cu-O / GaAs microwave oscillator proximity coupled to a circular microstrip antenna was designed, fabricated and characterized. The oscillator was a reflection mode type using a GaAs MESFET as the active element. The feedline, transmission lines, RF chokes, and bias lines were all fabricated from YBa2Cu3O(7-x) superconducting thin films on a 1 cm x 1 cm lanthanum aluminate substrate. The output feedline of the oscillator was wire bonded to a superconducting feedline on a second 1 cm x 1 cm lanthanum aluminate substrate, which was in turn proximity coupled to a circular microstrip patch antenna. Antenna patterns from this active patch antenna and the performance of the oscillator measured at 77 K are reported. The oscillator had a maximum output power of 11.5 dBm at 77 K, which corresponded to an efficiency of 10 percent. In addition, the efficiency of the microstrip patch antenna together with its high temperature superconducting feedline was measured from 85 K to 30 K and was found to be 71 percent at 77 4 increasing to a maximum of 87.4 percent at 30 K.

Rohrer, Norman J.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Radiant energy to electric energy converter

Radiant energy is converted into electric energy by irradiating a capacitor including an ionic dielectric. The dielectric is a sintered crystal superionic conductor, e.g., lanthanum trifluoride, lanthanum trichloride, or silver bromide, so that a multiplicity of crystallites exist between electrodes of the capacitor. The radiant energy cyclically irradiates the dielectric so that the dielectric exhibits a cyclic photocapacitive like effect. Adjacent crystallites have abutting surfaces that enable the crystallites to effectively form a multiplicity of series capacitor elements between the electrodes. Each of the capacitor elements has a dipole layer only on or near its surface. The capacitor is initially charged to a voltage just below the dielectric breakdown voltage by connecting it across a DC source causing a current to flow through a charging resistor to the dielectric. The device can be utilized as a radiant energy detector or as a solar energy cell.

Sher, Arden↗
NASA NTRS2008

New Scintillator Materials (K2CeBr5) and (Cs2CeBr5)

Cesium cerium bromide (Cs2CeBr5) and potassium cerium bromide (K2CeBr5) are new scintillator materials for X-ray and gamma ray detector applications. Recently halide scintillator materials, such as Ce doped lanthanum bromide has been proved to be very important material for the same purpose. These materials are highly hygroscopic; a search for high light yield non-hygroscopic materials was highly desirable to advance the scintillator technology. In this paper, we are reporting the crystal growth of novel scintillator materials, cesium cerium bromide (Cs2CeBr5) and potassium cerium bromide (K2CeBr5). Crystals were successfully grown from the melt using the vertical Bridgman-Stockbarger technique, in a comparison with the high performance LaBr3 or LaCl3 crystals, cerium based alkali halides crystals, (Cs2CeBr5) and (K2CeBr5) have similar scintillation properties, while being much less hygroscopic. Furthermore, cesium based compounds will not suffer from the self-activity present in potassium and lanthanum compounds. However the Cs2CeBr5 crystals did not grow properly probably due to non-congruent melting or to some phase transition during cooling. Keywords." Scintillator materials; Ce3+; Energy resolution; Light yield; K2CeBr5

Hawrami, R.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Impact of Thermochromic Coatings on Thermal Management for Human Spacecraft Applications

Thermochromic variable emittance coatings (VECs) allow for passive, dynamic thermal management of space vehicles due to their temperature dependent optical properties. Ideally, a thermochromic material should exhibit low mid-IR emissivity for lower temperatures and switch to high mid-IR emissivity for higher temperatures; one promising material that demonstrates these characteristics is Lanthanum Strontium Manganite (LSM). The transition temperatures of LSM are dependent on the Lanthanum-to-Strontium ratio x, La1-xSrxMnO3. La0.8Sr0.2MnO3, which has an emittance of 0.5 for < 270 K, then a linear increase in emittance to 0.8 over an increase of 70 K where it will saturate at ~340K, is commonly utilized but this is tunable by changing the Sr concentration. The tunability of the transition temperature range of LSM motivates a need to understand the optimal thermal transition range for human spacecraft. Additionally, LSM has high solar absorptance and to combat this issue the VEC will be micropatterned on top of a highly solar reflective layer of Barium Sulfate (BaSO4). Consequently, this work will elucidate the tradeoffs between solar absorptance and variable emittance for this technology since the micropattern adversely couples the solar absorptance to the mid-IR emittance. This work develops a computational model using Thermal Desktop to study the utility of VECs on human spacecraft, such as Orion, subjected to mission phases such as lunar transit and Gateway docking. The model considers both external heat loads, from solar irradiation and planetary IR, as well as vehicle heat loads, from avionics and crew, as an input into the body mounted thermochromic radiators. There are several design targets for VECs, i.e. achieving the largest change in emittance, finding the optimal temperature range for the transition, and achieving the highest emittance in the high temperature phase. This work prioritizes these design targets for LSM to achieve the optimal heat rejection for a human spacecraft. The VECs are compared with static emittance coatings and the efficiency gains are quantified. Thermochromic VECs will ultimately lead to simplifications of active cooling systems which synergistically correlates to mass reduction and less energy consumption for space vehicles.

Joseph Peoples↗
DOE OSTI2026

Harnessing Chemical Short‐Range Disorder to Improve Lithium Retention in Epitaxial LLTO Solid‐Electrolyte Thin Films

Lithium lanthanum titanate Li 3x La 2/3-x TiO 3 (LLTO) is a promising perovskite-based solid-state electrolyte for next-generation lithium-ion batteries, but controlling crystallinity and Li stoichiometry in thin-film form is challenging because high growth temperatures are required to achieve good crystallinity while Li remains strongly volatile. Here, we systematically investigate the effect of substrate temperature on epitaxial LLTO thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition. We identify a narrow growth window (750–800°C) in which LLTO films grow as c-axis oriented with atomically flat surfaces. Lower growth temperatures (<750°C) stabilize laterally extended, chemically disordered stripe domains that coexist with ordered LLTO regions, whereas higher temperatures (≥825°C) suppress these defects but promote island morphologies and Al/Ti interdiffusion. While spectroscopy measurements show that Ti remains in the 4+ oxidation state and Li is globally deficient for all films, our depth-resolved time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry studies reveal that the 700°C film retains the highest Li content across its thickness. These results clarify how growth temperature controls crystallinity, chemical short-range disorder, and Li retention, and highlight moderate growth temperatures (∼700°C) as a route to mitigate Li loss in epitaxial solid-electrolyte films.

chemical short-range disorder↗
DOE OSTI2025

Spectrophotometric determination of the stability of La hydroxyl complexes at near neutral to alkaline pH from 25 to 75 °C

The hydrolysis of rare earth elements (REE) potentially controls their mobility during fluid-rock interaction in a broad range of pH and temperature conditions. However, there is still a lack of thermodynamic data for modeling accurately the stability of REE hydroxyl complexes in hydrothermal aqueous fluids. Here, in this study, UV–Vis spectrophotometric experiments were conducted from 25 to 75 °C in near-neutral to alkaline NaOH-bearing aqueous solutions with varying lanthanum (La) concentrations (0 to ∼0.23 mmol/kg). The color indicator m-cresol purple was used to determine in situ pH and derive the average OH− ligand number ($\overrightarrow{n}$) and formation constants for the La hydroxyl complexes (LaOH 2+ , La(OH) 2 + , and La(OH) 3 0 ). From 25 to 50 °C, $\overrightarrow{n}$ ranges between ∼1 and 2 at pH from 7.0 to 9.3. At 75 °C, $\overrightarrow{n}$ ranges between ∼1.5 and 3 at pH from 6.3 to 8.8. These results suggest the predominance of LaOH 2+ and La(OH) 2 + complexes from 25 to 50 °C, and an increased predominance of La(OH) 3 0 at 75 °C. The cumulative formation constants (β n °, n = 1 to 3) are derived for the reaction La 3+ + nOH − = La(OH) n 3-n , and fitted between 25 and 250 °C by combining the UV–Vis and literature solubility data. The resulting logβ n ° are expressed as function of temperature (T in Kelvin): logβ 1 ° = −1.786 + 0.0133 T + 1.049·10 3 /T; logβ 2 ° = −5.797 + 0.0267 T + 2.713·10 3 /T; logβ 3 ° = 6.435 + 0.0223 T + 512.7/T. A comparison between these new fits and existing extrapolations using the Helgeson-Kirkham-Flowers equation of state indicates significant differences in the predicted hydrolysis of La. The latter extrapolations should therefore be updated for the hydrolysis of REE.

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

Gating Single Molecules with Counterions

We report atomic-scale gating and visualization of local charge distribution within individual rare-earth-based molecular complexes on a metallic surface. The complexes are formed by a positively charged lanthanum ion coordinated to a (pcam)3 molecule and a negatively charged counterion trapped underneath via electrostatic interactions on a Au(111) surface. Local gating is performed by adding an additional negatively charged counterion to one side of the complex, which results in the redistribution of charges within the complex and a positive shift of the frontier orbitals. This is caused by the internal Stark effect induced by the added counterion. This effect is directly captured using tunneling spectroscopy and spectroscopic mapping at 5 K substrate temperature. The polarizability of the complex is corroborated by density functional theory and analytical calculations based on experimental findings. Furthermore, the influence of charge polarization on nearby complexes is investigated in a cluster purposely assembled using three complexes, which reveals maintaining the charge states as in single complexes. These findings will enable the design of robust charged rare-earth complexes to be tailored for potential solid-state applications.

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

Structural Analysis of LaNi 4.25 Al 0.75 Hydride

The lanthanum (La)-nickel (Ni)-aluminum (Al) hydrides (LANA: LaNi 5 − x Al x , x < 1.0) have been extensively studied for their high volumetric storage capacity and improved durability to maintain a single-phase CaCu5 structure through multiple absorption and desorption cycles. Pressure composition temperature (PCT) isotherms obtained for LANA have allowed for an understanding of the hydrogen sorption properties and the tunability of the PCT plateau region via doping. At the Savannah River Site, LaNi 4.25 Al 0.75 (LANA0.75) has been utilized as a hydrogen storage material in the tritium facilities for decades. However, the structure characterization of the LANA0.75 hydride by X-ray diffraction has not yet been reported. This study examines LANA0.75 loaded to different hydrogen-to-metal atom ratios to elucidate both the position of hydrogen sites in the lattice and the structure of a fully hydrided β phase.

hydrogen storage↗