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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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Experiments demonstrated feasibility of electrolytic device of electrically-controllable thermal conductivity. Device includes inner ionomeric layer of low thermal conductivity sandwiched between two metal-foil electrodes. Device's ionomeric layer will be conductive polymer - perhaps polyaniline. In effect, device will be metal/conductive-polymer secondary electrical cell.
Crystalline solids exhibiting glass-like thermal conductivity have attracted substantial attention both for fundamental interest and applications such as thermoelectrics. In most crystals, the competition of phonon scattering by anharmonic interactions and crystalline imperfections leads to a non-monotonic trend of thermal conductivity with temperature. Defect-free crystals that exhibit the glassy trend of low thermal conductivity with a monotonic increase with temperature are desirable because they are intrinsically thermally insulating while retaining useful properties of perfect crystals. However, this behavior is rare, and its microscopic origin remains unclear. Here, we report the observation of ultralow and glass-like thermal conductivity in a hexagonal perovskite chalcogenide single crystal, BaTiS 3 , despite its highly symmetric and simple primitive cell. Elastic and inelastic scattering measurements reveal the quantum mechanical origin of this unusual trend. A two-level atomic tunneling system exists in a shallow double-well potential of the Ti atom and is of sufficiently high frequency to scatter heat-carrying phonons up to room temperature. While atomic tunneling has been invoked to explain the low-temperature thermal conductivity of solids for decades, our study establishes the presence of sub-THz frequency tunneling systems even in high-quality, electrically insulating single crystals, leading to anomalous transport properties well above cryogenic temperatures.
Complex bismuth chalcogenides are narrow band gap semiconductors with intrinsic low thermal conductivity, which exhibit high potential as highly efficient thermoelectric materials. Here, we assess the basic thermoelectric properties of polycrystalline Rb 2 Bi 8 Se 13 in the temperature range 300-823 K as well as performance-optimizing strategies. We find that the as-made bulk samples are single phase with the monoclinic crystal structure (P2 1 /m) and crystallize in layer morphology. The pristine sample exhibits an exceedingly low lattice thermal conductivity of 0.6- 0.46 W·m -1 ·K -1 at 300-823 K, which derives from strong lattice anharmonicity, large Grüneisen parameters, and low phonon velocities induced by the complex crystal structure with heavy atom Bi and a large unit cell. Here, the Cl doping successfully enhances the carrier concentration in Rb 2 Bi 8 Se 13 with a negligible impact on the electronic band structure, displaying common doping behaviors. Se vacancy, on the contrary, leads to n-type doping and enhances the effective mass and power factors more significantly. Consequently, a maximum ZT of ~0.75 at 823 K for the 0.3% Se-vacancy-doped sample is obtained.
Aerogels can be used in spaceflight applications as thermal insulators due to their low density, low thermal conductivity, and tortuous path for solid conduction. However, the aerogel formulation must be optimized to increase the thermal stability of the aerogels, as a drastic densification and decrease in surface area often is exhibited after high-temperature exposure. This work considers yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) aerogels, whichhave low thermal conductivity and are expected to be used for temperatures between 600°C and 1000°C. It is anticipated that new sol-gel chemistries will yield YSZ aerogels that exhibit retained mesoporous structure, increased surface area, and minimized shrinkage upon exposure to higher temperatures in the expected use range. This work investigates the addition of surfactant to 20 mol% YSZ aerogels. The cationic surfactant, cetrimonium bromide (CTAB), was used as the templating agent, preventing the collapse of the mesoporous structure upon gelation and drying. It was determined that adding one-half times the critical micelle concentration of CTAB increased the surface area of the aerogels by 72% and 41% and increased the pore volume following exposure to 600°C and1000°C, respectively. This level of CTAB had the greatest increase in surface area and pore volume as compared to aerogels without CTAB or with twice the critical micelle concentration of CTAB. By optimizing the concentration of CTAB, the thermal stability ofYSZ aerogels can be enhanced to make these materials more efficient when used as thermal management systems.
Aerogels can be used in spaceflight applications as thermal insulators due to their low density, low thermal conductivity, and tortuous path for solid conduction. However, the aerogel formulation must be optimized to increase the thermal stability of the aerogels as drastic densification and decrease in surface area is often exhibited after high-temperature exposure. Current research investigates yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) aerogels, which have low thermal conductivity and are expected to be used between 600°C and 1000°C. We anticipate that new sol-gel chemistries and processing will yield YSZ aerogels that display retained mesoporous structure, increased surface area, and minimized shrinkage upon exposure to higher temperatures in the projected use range. This work investigates the cationic surfactant, cetrimonium bromide (CTAB), as a templating agent to prevent the collapse of the aerogel pore structure upon gelation and drying. It was determined that adding one-half times the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of CTAB increased the surface area and pore volume of the aerogels, as compared to aerogels without CTAB or with twice the CMC of CTAB, following high-temperature exposure. By optimizing CTAB, the thermal stability of YSZ aerogels can be enhanced to make these materials more efficient when used as thermal management systems.
Aerogels are typically manufactured vIa high temperature and pressure-critical-point drying of a colloidal metal oxide gel filled with solvents. Aerogel materials derived from silica materials represent a structural morphology (amorphous, open-celled nanofoams) rather than a particular chemical constituency. Aerogel is not like conventional foams in that it is a porous material with extreme microporosity and composed of individual features only a few nanometers in length with a highly porous dendriticlike structure. This unique substance has unusual properties such as low thermal conductivity, refractive index and sound suppression; in addition to its exceptional ability to capture fast moving dust. The highly porous nature of the aerogel's structure provides large amounts of surface area per unit weight. For instance, a silica aerogel material with a density of 100 kilograms per cubic meters can have surface areas of around 800 to 1500 square meters per gram depending on the precursors and process utilized to produce it. To take advantage of the unique properties of silica aerogels, especially the ultra light weight and low thermal conductivity, their composites with various engineering polymers were prepared and their flammability was investigated by Cone Calorimetry. The flammability of various polystyrene/silica aerogel nanocomposites were measured. The combination of these nanocomposites with a NASA patented flame retardant SINK were also studied. The results were compared with the base polymer to show the differences between composites with different forms of silica.
The development of electrically conductive ceramics could achieve robust mechanical strength as well as practically high conductivity, offering applications in structural electrodes, conductors, catalyst supports, etc. However, its operating temperature is limited due to the intrinsic dense structures inevitably hindering the thermal management capability, thus resulting in a temperature-dependent electrical behavior in high-temperature environments. In this work, we report an additive manufacturing protocol through vat photopolymerization 3D printing to fabricate the architectured conductive silicon carbide (SiC) ceramics that simultaneously possess high electrical conductivity as well as low thermal conductivity, and demonstrate electric reliability under high-temperature environments above 600°C. The percolation of graphene into the ceramic scaffold establishes a uniform conductive network, exhibiting its electrical conductivity up to 1000 S m –1 . The bulk density of the 3D-printed ceramic is measured from 0.366 g cm –3 to 0.897 g cm –3 , with thermal conductivity ranging from 62 mW m –1 K –1 to 88 mW m –1 K –1 . Furthermore, the mechanical performance of conductive ceramic can be effectively reinforced by densifying the microstructures via spark plasma sintering treatment. The proposed additive manufacturing strategy widens the potential of ceramics as a structural and functional material, offering a promising pathway toward high-temperature electronics applications.
Silica-based aerogels are a promising low-cost solution for improving the insulation efficiency of single-pane windows and reducing the energy consumption required for space heating and cooling. Two key material properties required are high porosity and small pore sizes, which lead to low thermal conductivity and high optical transparency, respectively. However, porosity and pore size are generally directly linked, where high porosity materials also have large pore sizes. This is unfavorable as large pores scatter light, resulting in reduced transmittance in the visible regime. In this work, we utilized preformed silica colloids to explore methods for reducing pore size while maintaining high porosity. Further, the use of preformed colloids allows us to isolate the effect of solution conditions on porous gel network formation by eliminating simultaneous nanoparticle growth and aggregation found when using typical sol–gel molecular-based silica precursors. Specifically, we used in situ synchrotron-based small-angle x-ray scattering during gel formation to better understand how pH, concentration, and colloid size affect particle aggregation and pore structure. Ex situ characterization of dried gels demonstrates that peak pore widths can be reduced from 15 to 13 nm, accompanied by a narrowing of the overall pore size distribution, while maintaining porosities of 70%–80%. Optical transparency is found to increase with decreasing pore sizes while low thermal conductivities ranging from 95 +/− 13 mW/m K are maintained. Mechanical performance was found to depend primarily on effective density and did not show a significant dependence on solution conditions. Overall, our results provide insights into methods to preserve high porosity in nanoparticle-based aerogels while improving optical transparency.
The depth-dependent recovery of silicon thermal conductivity was achieved after the recrystallization of silicon that had been partially amorphized due to ion implantation. Transmission electron microscopy revealed nanoscale amorphous pockets throughout a structurally distorted band of crystalline material. The minimum thermal conductivity of as-implanted composite material was 2.46 W m −1 K −1 and was found to be uniform through the partially amorphized region. X-ray diffraction measurements reveal 60% strain recovery of the crystalline regions after annealing at 450 °C for 30 min and almost full strain recovery and complete recrystallization after annealing at 700 °C for 30 min. In addition to strain recovery, the amorphous band thickness reduced from 240 to 180 nm after the 450 °C step with nanoscale recrystallization within the amorphous band. A novel depth-dependent thermal conductivity measurement technique correlated thermal conductivity with the structural changes, where, upon annealing, the low thermal conductivity region decreases with the distorted layer thickness reduction and the transformed material shows bulk-like thermal conductivity. Full recovery of bulk-like thermal conductivity in silicon was achieved after annealing at 700 °C for 30 min. After the 700 °C anneal, extended defects remain at the implant projected range, but not elsewhere in the layer. Previous results showed that high point-defect density led to reduced thermal conductivity, but here, we show that point defects can either reform into the lattice or evolve into extended defects, such as dislocation loops, and these very localized, low-density defects do not have a significant deleterious impact on thermal conductivity in silicon.
Ceramic aerogels are attractive for thermal insulation due to its lightweight and low thermal conductivity, while it is indispensable to address the obstacle of its brittleness nature and large-scale manufacturing for building efficiency applications. The economical manufacturing of large-scale elastic thermal insulation aerogels has remained challenging. Herein, we report a universal manufacturing of the fiberglass reinforced aerogel composites where the architectured three-dimensional fiber networks with the cross-linked silica aerogel exhibit superinsulation and mechanical elasticity. These remarkable performances are obtained through in-situ cross-linking reaction between molecular assembly induced aerogel and fiberglass under ambient pressure drying environment, in which the interfacial interactions are verified from its infrared spectra. The resulting ultralight aerogel composite sheet exhibits a density of 0.1 g cm -3 , large strain recovery (>50%), and low thermal conductivity (0.0253 W m –1 K –1 ). Here, the thermal insulation aerogel composites shed light on the super-elastic aerogel manufacturing with scalability for energy saving building applications.
Solid particles are being considered in several high temperature thermal energy storage systems and as heat transfer media in a variety of advanced power generation systems, particularly in concentrated solar power plants. The downside of such an approach is the low overall heat transfer coefficients caused by the inherently low thermal conductivity values of the low-cost solid media when coupled to heat exchanger for the power cycle working fluid. Choosing the right particle size distribution, emittance, and material of the solid media can all make a substantial difference in packed bed thermal conductivity. Current research though exclusively focuses on continuous unimodal distributions of particles. Here, in this work, we propose the use of a binary particle system with a bimodal size distribution to significantly increase packed bed thermal conductivity by reducing packed bed porosity. This is the first study related to ceramic solid particle heat transfer that has considered the thermal conductivity of non-unimodal size distributions at room and elevated temperatures. The following study found that for the binary particle system using Carbo particles CP 16/30 – CP 70/140 where the large particle volume fraction was 50% there was an 17–47% increase in packed bed thermal conductivity when compared with a nearly unimodal particle size distribution of CP 16/30 between 50 and 300 °C. Two different porosity and effective thermal conductivity models were studied, with one providing better prediction of porosity but both effective thermal conductivity models providing less predictive capacity. Importantly this approach can have a substantial impact of thermal performance, with little to no impact on the particle cost.
The conventional manufacturing processes for aerogel insulation materials mostly rely on the supercritical drying, which suffers from issues of massive energy consumption, high-cost equipment, and prolonged processing time. Considering the large market demand for the aerogel insulation material in the next decade, a cost-effective and scalable fabrication technique is highly desired. In this paper, a direct ink writing (DIW) method is used to three-dimensionally fabricate the silica aerogel insulation material, followed by room-temperature and ambient pressure drying. Compared with the supercritical drying and freeze-drying techniques, the reported method significantly reduces the fabrication time and costs. The cost-effective DIW technique offers the capability to print complex hollow internal structures, coupled with the porous aerogel structure, it is found to be beneficial for the thermal insulation property. In this work, the addition of fiber to the ink assures the durability of the fabricated product, without sacrificing the thermal insulation performance. The foam ink preparation methods and the printability are demonstrated in this paper, along with the printing of complex three-dimensional geometries. The thermal insulation performance of the printed objects is characterized, and the mechanical properties were also examined. The proposed approach is found to have a 56% reduction in the processing time. The printed silica aerogels exhibit a low thermal conductivity of 0.053 W m –1 K –1 .
The solid-liquid interface position and the temperature gradients in both the solid and liquid at the interface have been studied in a modified Bridgman-Stockbarger crystal growth furnace. These crystal growth factors have been studied as a function of ampoule translation rate, materials properties, and the size and temperature of a small auxiliary heater placed at the edge of the furnace hot zone. It has been found that the interface position with respect to a furnace reference point is essentially constant during a run for a low thermal conductivity material whereas the interface position changes continuously during a run with high thermal conductivity material. However, the ampoule translation rate and auxiliary heater conditions produce interface position changes in both high and low thermal conductivity materials.
Due to the low thermal conductivity of CO2 ice and clathrate vs. water ice, we find that liquid water reservoirs would not be confined to the deep subsurface as predicted by the controversial White Mars model, even assuming low global heat flow. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.
Purpose AlSi10Mg alloy is commonly used in laser powder bed fusion due to its printability, relatively high thermal conductivity, low density and good mechanical properties. However, the thermal conductivity of as-built materials as a function of processing (energy density, laser power, laser scanning speed, support structure) and build orientation, are not well explored in the literature. This study aims to elucidate the relationship between processing, microstructure, and thermal conductivity. Design/methodology/approach The thermal conductivity of laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) AlSi10Mg samples are investigated by the flash diffusivity and frequency domain thermoreflectance (FDTR) techniques. Thermal conductivities are linked to the microstructure of L-PBF AlSi10Mg, which changes with processing conditions. The through-plane exceeded the in-plane thermal conductivity for all energy densities. A co-located thermal conductivity map by frequency domain thermoreflectance (FDTR) and crystallographic grain orientation map by electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) was used to investigate the effect of microstructure on thermal conductivity. Findings The highest through-plane thermal conductivity (136 ± 2 W/m-K) was achieved at 59 J/mm 3 and exceeded the values reported previously. The in-plane thermal conductivity peaked at 117 ± 2 W/m-K at 50 J/mm 3 . The trend of thermal conductivity reducing with energy density at similar porosity was primarily due to the reduced grain size producing more Al-Si interfaces that pose thermal resistance. At these interfaces, thermal energy must convert from electrons in the aluminum to phonons in the silicon. The co-located thermal conductivity and crystallographic grain orientation maps confirmed that larger colonies of columnar grains have higher thermal conductivity compared to smaller columnar grains. Practical implications The thermal properties of AlSi10Mg are crucial to heat transfer applications including additively manufactured heatsinks, cold plates, vapor chambers, heat pipes, enclosures and heat exchangers. Additionally, thermal-based nondestructive testing methods require these properties for applications such as defect detection and simulation of L-PBF processes. Industrial standards for L-PBF processes and components can use the data for thermal applications. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to make coupled thermal conductivity maps that were matched to microstructure for L-PBF AlSi10Mg aluminum alloy. This was achieved by a unique in-house thermal conductivity mapping setup and relating the data to local SEM EBSD maps. This provides the first conclusive proof that larger grain sizes can achieve higher thermal conductivity for this processing method and material system. This study also shows that control of the solidification can result in higher thermal conductivity. It was also the first to find that the build substrate (with or without support) has a large effect on thermal conductivity.
Magnetic gears present significant structural design challenges, because metallic/electrically conductive structures are highly undesirable as they would lead to significant efficiency reductions. Additionally, most non-electrically conductive structural materials have low thermal conductivity, which makes cooling the gear difficult. These limitations are of particular significant in magnetic gear's modulator structures. NASA Glenn has shown that pole pieces on the order of 1 to 2 mm thick optimize magnetic gears specific torque. These thin pole pieces however see very large magnetic forces and modulator structural limitations prevent the use of magnetically optimum pole pieces. The best solution to this issue to date has been the use of carbon fiber retaining rings on the external surface of the modulator, however this solution increases ring modulator airgap, resulting in a torque reduction from the optimum design. The pole pieces are also the largest sources of losses in magnetic gears. Because the modulator is nestled between the ring and sun gear extraction of this heat is a difficult problem and the modulator structure has to be designed to dissipate this heat load. In the presentation I will present the design of NASA Glenn's 4th magnetic gear's modulator in detail that uses a combination of 3D fiber reinforced nylon, IM7 carbon fiber, and pitch base cn80 fiber to close both structurally and thermally.