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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 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2019

Correlation Between Reactivity and Oxidation State of Cobalt Oxide Catalysts for CO Preferential Oxidation

Catalytic performance is known to be influenced by several factors, with the catalysts’ surface oxidation state being the most prominent of all. However, in the great majority of industrial heterogeneous catalytic reactions the oxidation state of the active sites is a subject of intense debate. Preferential oxidation of carbon monoxide in hydrogen rich mixtures (COPrOx) is an important heterogeneous catalytic reaction involved in the purification of hydrogen. In the search of an economically affordable catalyst for this reaction, cobalt appears as one of the most promising materials. Therefore it is essential to distinguish if a certain surface state of cobalt exists that favors the reaction more than the others. Here we directly compare the activity of CoO and Co 3 O 4 phases by combining ex situ and operando analytical methods with first-principles modeling. CoO is identified as the most favored cobalt surface oxidation state for COPrOx process, providing a critical element for rational design of efficient and durable COPrOx catalysts.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2014

Catalytic Oxidation of Alcohol via Nickel Phosphine Complexes with Pendant Amines

Nickel complexes were prepared with diphosphine ligands that contain pendant amines, and these complexes catalytically oxidize primary and secondary alcohols to their respective aldehydes and ketones. Kinetic and mechanistic studies of these prospective electrocatalysts were performed to understand what influences the catalytic activity. For the oxidation of diphenylmethanol, the catalytic rates were determined to be dependent on the concentration of both the catalyst and the alcohol. The catalytic rates were found to be independent of the concentration of base and oxidant. The incorporation of pendant amines to the phosphine ligand results in substantial increases in the rate of alcohol oxidation with more electron-donating substituents on the pendant amine exhibiting the fastest rates. We thank Dr. John C. Linehan, Dr. Elliott B. Hulley, Dr. Jonathan M. Darmon, and Dr. Elizabeth L. Tyson for helpful discussions. Research by CJW, PD, DLM, and AMA was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Chemical Sciences, Geosciences & Biosciences. Research by MLH was supported as part of the Center for Molecular Electrocatalysis, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is a multiprogram national laboratory operated for DOE by Battelle.

Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory↗
DOE OSTI2014

Efficient indium-tin-oxide free inverted organic solar cells based on aluminum-doped zinc oxide cathode and low-temperature aqueous solution processed zinc oxide electron extraction layer

Indium-tin-oxide (ITO) free inverted organic solar cells (IOSCs) based on aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) cathode, low-temperature aqueous solution processed zinc oxide (ZnO) electron extraction layer, and poly(3-hexylthiophene-2, 5-diyl):[6, 6]-phenyl C{sub 61} butyric acid methyl ester blend were realized in this work. The resulted IOSC with ZnO annealed at 150 °C shows the superior power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 3.01%, if decreasing the ZnO annealing temperature to 100 °C, the obtained IOSC also shows a PCE of 2.76%, and no light soaking issue is observed. It is found that this ZnO film not only acts as an effective buffer layer but also slightly improves the optical transmittance of AZO substrates. Further, despite the relatively inferior air-stability, these un-encapsulated AZO/ZnO IOSCs show comparable PCEs to the referenced ITO/ZnO IOSCs, which demonstrates that the AZO cathode is a potential alternative to ITO in IOSCs. Meanwhile, this simple ZnO process is compatible with large area deposition and plastic substrates, and is promising to be widely used in IOSCs and other relative fields.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Oxide-free InAs(111)A interface in metal-oxide-semiconductor structure with very low density of states prepared by anodic oxidation

In this letter, we present structural, compositional, and electrical characteristics of anodic oxide layer-based metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors on n-type InAs(111)A, along with the effect of a thin fluorinated interfacial passivation layer. Electrochemical oxidation in acid electrolyte with addition of fluorine (NH{sub 4}F) led to the formation of oxygen free well-ordered wide gap fluorinated interfacial layer at InAs(111)A with the fixed charge (Q{sub fix}) and density of interface states (D{sub it}) in the range of (4–6) × 10{sup 10 }cm{sup −2} and (2–12) × 10{sup 10 }eV{sup −1 }cm{sup −2}, respectively. We found that MOS capacitors showed excellent capacitance-voltage characteristics with very small frequency dispersion (<1% and <15 mV). Fluorinated interfacial layer consists of crystalline isostructural compound with the InAs substrate, which remains intact with the atomic smoothness and sharpness that explain unpinned behavior of the Fermi level.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Quantum confinement in transition metal oxide quantum wells

We report on the quantum confinement in SrTiO{sub 3} (STO) quantum wells (QWs) grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The QW structure consists of LaAlO{sub 3} (LAO) and STO layers grown on LAO substrate. Structures with different QW thicknesses ranging from two to ten unit cells were grown and characterized. Optical properties (complex dielectric function) were measured by spectroscopic ellipsometry in the range of 1.0 eV–6.0 eV at room temperature. We observed that the absorption edge was blue-shifted by approximately 0.39 eV as the STO quantum well thickness was reduced to two unit cells. This demonstrates that the energy level of the first sub-band can be controlled by the QW thickness in a complex oxide material.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Arginine-Containing Ligands Enhance H-2 Oxidation Catalyst Performance

In H2 fuel cells, performance depends on factors controlling turnover frequency and energy efficiency in the electrocatalytic oxidation of H2. Nature uses the hydrogenase enzymes to oxidize H2 at high turnover frequencies (up to 20,000 s-1) and low overpotentials (<100 mV), while the fastest synthetic catalyst reported to date only oxidizes H2 at 50 s-1 under 1 atm H2. Here we report a water-soluble complex incorporating the amino acid arginine, [NiII(PCy2NArg2)2]6+, that operates at 210 s-1 (180 mV overpotential) under 1 atm H2 and 144,000 s-1 (460 mV overpotential) under 133 atm H2. The complex functions from pH 0-14 with rates increasing at lower pH values. The arginine groups impart water solubility and play a critical role in enhancing turnover frequency, most consistent with an intramolecular Arg-Arg interaction that controls the structure of the catalyst active site. This work was funded by the Office of Science Early Career Research Program through the US DOE, BES (AD, WJS), and the Center for Molecular Electrocatalysis, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US DOE, BES (JASR). PNNL is operated by Battelle for the US DOE.

amino acid catalyst↗
DOE OSTI2016

Modulated Synthesis of Metal‐Organic Frameworks through Tuning of the Initial Oxidation State of the Metal

Modulated solvothermal synthesis and other alterations of synthetic conditions have been used to control metal‐organic framework (MOF) crystallinity, porosity, and other properties. However, so far these changes have mostly been limited to changes in solvent, pH, or modulating acid type or concentration. In this work, we introduce a new method for the tuning of MOF synthesis: modulation through alteration of the metal source's initial oxidation state. By choosing a metal source that should be reduced or oxidized at high temperature in the solvent, metal concentration can be started at zero for initially insoluble starting materials and then increased as the metal reacts with the solvent, slowing and altering crystallization compared to standard MOF solvothermal synthesis. This concept is demonstrated through the synthesis of PCN‐47, PCN‐48, and PCN‐49, MOFs with distinct structures and porosities synthesized from the same metal and ligand with the metal initially in different oxidation states.

Bosch, Mathieu↗
DOE OSTI2019

Temperature-dependent structure and compressive mechanical behavior of alginate/polyethylene oxide–poly(propylene oxide)–poly(ethylene oxide) hydrogels

We report here the structural and mechanical behavior of multicomponent hydrogels comprising the commercial poly(ethylene oxide)–poly(propylene oxide)–poly(ethylene oxide) block copolymer F127 and alginate. Previous studies on this system have shown thermoreversible behavior in shear rheology. Here we explore the properties of these materials under compression and large deformations, relevant to applications such as wound dressings that require mechanical robustness. For gels with lower F127 concentration, we find that the stiffness of the gels can be ascribed to the alginate network, and that the Young's modulus and fracture stress do not strongly depend on temperatures. Yet, for gels with an F127 concentration of 30 wt %, the Young's modulus is enhanced at higher temperatures. Under large deformations, the fracture stress and fracture strain of the materials can be independently varied using the alginate and F127 concentrations, respectively; without the trade-off in these properties that is often observed in rigid polymer networks. Small-angle X-ray scattering shows a power-law dependence scattering intensity on q arising from the alginate network and scattering peaks consistent with rearranging micelles. For gels with lower F127 concentrations, we find a disordered–body-centered cubic (BCC)-face-centered cubic (FCC) progression of states with temperature, and a BCC/FCC mixture for gels with higher F127 concentrations.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Incomplete elimination of precursor ligands during atomic layer deposition of zinc-oxide, tin-oxide, and zinc-tin-oxide

For atomic layer deposition (ALD) of doped, ternary, and quaternary materials achieved by combining multiple binary ALD processes, it is often difficult to correlate the material properties and growth characteristics with the process parameters due to a limited understanding of the underlying surface chemistry. In this work, in situ Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was employed during ALD of zinc-oxide, tin-oxide, and zinc-tin-oxide (ZTO) with the precursors diethylzinc (DEZ), tetrakis(dimethylamino)tin (TDMASn), and H 2 O. The main aim was to investigate the molecular basis for the nucleation delay during ALD of ZTO, observed when ZnO ALD is carried out after SnO 2 ALD. Gas-phase FTIR spectroscopy showed that dimethylamine, the main reaction product of the SnO 2 ALD process, is released not only during SnO 2 ALD but also when depositing ZnO after SnO 2 , indicating incomplete removal of the ligands of the TDMASn precursor from the surface. Transmission FTIR spectroscopy performed during ALD on SiO 2 powder revealed that a significant fraction of the ligands persist during both SnO 2 and ZnO ALD. These observations provide experimental evidence for a recently proposed mechanism, based on theoretical calculations, suggesting that the elimination of precursor ligands is often not complete. In addition, it was found that the removal of precursor ligands by H 2 O exposure is even less effective when ZnO ALD is carried out after SnO 2 ALD, which likely causes the nucleation delay in ZnO ALD during the deposition of ZTO. Furthermore, the underlying mechanisms and the consequences of the incomplete elimination of precursor ligands are discussed.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2016

Effect of Time and Deposition Method on Quality of Phosphonic Acid Modifier Self-Assembled Monolayers on Indium Zinc Oxide

Phosphonic acid (PA) self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are utilized at critical interfaces between transparent conductive oxides (TCO) and organic active layers in organic photovoltaic devices (OPVs). The effects of PA deposition method and time on the formation of close-packed, high-quality monolayers is investigated here for SAMs fabricated by solution deposition, micro-contact printing, and spray coating. The solution deposition isotherm for pentafluorinated benzylphosphonic acid (F5BnPA) on indium-doped zinc oxide (IZO) is studied using polarization modulation-infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy (PM-IRRAS) at room temperature as a model PA/IZO system. Fast surface adsorption occurs within the first min; however, well-oriented high-quality SAMs are reached only after -48 h, presumably through a continual process of molecular adsorption/desorption and monolayer filling accompanied by molecular reorientation. Two other rapid, soak-free deposition techniques, micro-contact printing and spray coating, are also explored. SAM quality is compared for deposition of phenyl phosphonic acid (PPA), F13-octylphosphonic acid (F13OPA), and pentafluorinated benzyl phosphonic acid (F5BnPA) by solution deposition, micro-contact printing and spray coating using PM-IRRAS. In contrast to micro-contact printing and spray coating techniques, 48-168 h solution deposition at both room temperature and 70 degrees C result in contamination- and surface etch-free close-packed monolayers with good reproducibility. SAMs fabricated by micro-contact printing and spray coating are much less well ordered.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗