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At least 1,315 records · Page 73
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

Land quality, sustainable development and environmental degradation in agricultural districts: A computational approach based on entropy indexes

Land Degradation (LD) in socio-environmental systems negatively impacts sustainable development paths. This study proposes a framework to LD evaluation based on indicators of diversification in the spatial distribution of sensitive land. We hypothesize that conditions for spatial heterogeneity in a composite index of land sensitivity are more frequently associated to areas prone to LD than spatial homogeneity. Spatial heterogeneity is supposed to be associated with degraded areas that act as hotspots for future degradation processes. A diachronic analysis (1960–2010) was performed at the Italian agricultural district scale to identify environmental factors associated with spatial heterogeneity in the degree of land sensitivity to degradation based on the Environmentally Sensitive Area Index (ESAI). In 1960, diversification in the level of land sensitivity measured using two common indexes of entropy (Shannon's diversity and Pielou's evenness) increased significantly with the ESAI, indicating a high level of land sensitivity to degradation. In 2010, surface area classified as “critical” to LD was the highest in districts with diversification in the spatial distribution of ESAI values, confirming the hypothesis formulated above. Entropy indexes, based on observed alignment with the concept of LD, constitute a valuable base to inform mitigation strategies against desertification. - Highlights: • Spatial heterogeneity is supposed to be associated with degraded areas. • Entropy indexes can inform mitigation strategies against desertification. • Assessing spatial diversification in the degree of land sensitivity to degradation. • Mediterranean rural areas have an evident diversity in agricultural systems. • A diachronic analysis carried out at the Italian agricultural district scale.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Hydrated doped-BaZrO 3 proton conductors studied by positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy

The study of defect chemistry for doped BaZrO 3 proton conductors is of particular interest because of defect interactions that can affect the proton conductivity of the material. Protons incorporated due to the material's hydration can be trapped by negatively charged immobile dopants, reducing proton mobility. The reduction of the proton conduction impedes using BaZrO 3 materials in energy conversion applications at intermediate temperatures (300°C – 600°C). The probing of proton trapping in doped BaZrO 3 is hindered by the limited availability of techniques sensitive to defect chemistries. In this work, we used positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS) to study the defect chemistry of Y-doped and Sc-doped BaZrO 3 . Using a two-state positron trapping model we showed that PALS can be used to study the defect chemistry of hydrated dense proton conductors. Positron trapping rates and lifetimes were correlated with doping levels of the materials. Probability significance t-tests were carried out for PALS parameters to verify whether there are differences/similarities for various populations: non-doped/doped, level and type of doping, high temperature, and surface effects. Further, the results revealed that the initial doping generates a significant number of traps available for positrons. Doping in yttrium increased the positron trapping rate, while this effect was not observed with scandium. Low-temperature hydration affects specimens significantly inhibiting positron trapping at undoped BaZrO 3 material and highly doped specimens. Positronium formation in rough surface layers, and highly doped specimens was detected but does not exceed 1%.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Rescuing Those Left Behind: Recovering and Characterizing Underdigested Membrane and Hydrophobic Proteins To Enhance Proteome Measurement Depth

The marine archaeon Nanoarchaeum equitans is dependent on direct physical contact with its host, the hyperthermophile Ignicoccus hospitalis. It is thought that this interaction is membrane-associated, involving a myriad of membrane-anchored proteins; proteomic efforts to better characterize this difficult to analyze interface are paramount to uncovering the mechanism of their association. By extending multienzyme digestion strategies that use sample filtration to recover underdigested proteins for reprocessing/consecutive proteolytic digestion, we applied chymotrypsin to redigest the proteinaceous material left over after initial proteolysis with trypsin of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-extracted I. hospitalis-N. equitansproteins. We show that proteins with increased hydrophobic character, including membrane proteins with multiple transmembrane helices, are enriched and recovered in the underdigested fraction. Chymotryptic reprocessing provided significant sequence coverage gains in both soluble and hydrophobic proteins alike, with the latter benefiting more so in terms of membrane protein representation. Moreover, these gains were despite a large proportion of high-quality peptide spectra remaining unassigned in the underdigested fraction suggesting high levels of protein modification on these often surface-exposed proteins. Importantly, these gains were achieved without applying extensive fractionation strategies usually required for thorough characterization of membrane-associated proteins and were facilitated by the generation of a distinct, complementary set of peptides that aid in both the identification and quantitation of this important, under-represented class of proteins.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

The Mobility of Mo during Microbially Mediated Ferrihydrite Phase Transformation

Molybdenum (Mo) is an essential nutrient for almost all organisms. However, at high concentrations, it can be toxic to animals and plants. This study investigated the interactions of Mo(VI) with iron oxyhydroxides during ferrihydrite bioreduction in the presence of the Fe(III)- reducing Geobacter sulfurreducens. Here, in this study, we showed that Mo concentration controlled ferrihydrite phase transformation, leading to Mo release. With the biotic reduction of ferrihydrite and Fe(II) production, Mo(VI) reduction and Mo(IV)O 2 formation were observed for the first time, which further immobilised Mo after surface adsorption of Mo(VI). At low Mo levels (Mo/Fe molar ratios of 1-2 %), sufficient Fe(II) adsorption onto ferrihydrite resulted in its transformation into magnetite nanoparticles (>80%, ~25 nm) which catalysed the reduction of Mo(VI) to form Mo(IV)O 2 and immobilised Mo. Contrastingly, at high Mo concentrations (Mo/Fe molar ratios of 5-10%), Mo(VI)O 4 2- adsorption onto ferrihydrite limited Fe(II) adsorption, subsequently less magnetite (<8-12%) formed while more goethite (~30- 50%, width & length > 15 & 100 nm, respectively) and siderite (~20-30%, width & length > 100 & 200 nm, respectively) with larger particle sizes formed instead, causing Mo(VI) release due to lower Mo adsorption. This study provides a comprehensive understanding of the interaction mechanisms among Geobacter sulfurreducens, Mo(VI), and iron oxyhydroxides, enabling predictions and controls of long-term Mo mobility and Fe mineral transformation under a variety of biogeochemical scenarios.

Geobacter sulfurreducens↗
DOE OSTI2021

Investigations into Spin- and Unpolarized Secondary Electron-Induced Reactions in Self-Assembled Monolayers of Cysteine

Cysteine is the simplest thiolated, chiral amino acid and is often used as the anchor for studies of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of complex biomolecules such as peptides. Understanding the interaction of SAMs of cysteine with low-energy secondary electrons (SEs) produced by X-rays can further our understanding of radiation damage in biomolecules. In particular, if the electrons are polarized, chiral-selective chemistry could have bearing on the origin of homochirality in nature. In the present paper, we use synchrotron radiation-based X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to determine the changes that occur in the bonding of self-assembled layers of cysteine on gold as a result of soft X-ray irradiation. To investigate the possibility of chiral selectivity resulting from the interaction of low-energy, spin-polarized SEs (SPSEs), measurements were conducted on cysteine adsorbed on a 3 nm-thick gold layer deposited on a CoPt thin-film multilayer with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Time-dependent measurements of the C 1s, N 1s, O 1s, S 2p, and Au 4f core levels are used to follow the changes in surface chemistry and determine reaction cross-sections as a function of SE exposure. Analysis of the data results in cross-sections in the range of 5-7 Mb and suggests possible reaction pathways. Changing the magnetization direction of the CoPt multilayer produces SPSEs with opposite polarity. Some evidence of spin-dependent reactions is indicated but is inconclusive. Possible reasons for the discrepancy are posited.

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEA↗
DOE OSTI2017

Atomic Structure and Dynamics of Single Platinum Atom Interactions with Monolayer MoS 2

In this work, we have studied atomic level interactions between single Pt atoms and the surface of monolayer MoS 2 using aberration-corrected annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy at an accelerating voltage of 60 kV. Strong contrast from single Pt atoms on the atomically resolved monolayer MoS 2 lattice enables their exact position to be determined with respect to the MoS2 lattice, revealing stable binding sites. In regions of MoS 2 free from surface contamination, the Pt atoms are localized in S vacancy sites and exhibit dynamic hopping to nearby vacancy sites driven by the energy supplied by the electron beam. However, in areas of MoS 2 contaminated with carbon surface layers, the Pt atoms appear at various positions with respect to the underlying MoS 2 lattice, including on top of Mo and in off-axis positions. These variations are due to the Pt bonding with the surrounding amorphous carbon layer, which disrupts the intrinsic Pt–MoS 2 interactions, leading to more varied positions. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that Pt atoms on the surface of MoS 2 have a small barrier for migration and are stabilized when bound to either a single or double sulfur vacancies. DFT calculations have been used to understand how the catalytic activity of the MoS 2 basal plane for hydrogen evolution reaction is influenced by Pt dopants by variation of the hydrogen adsorption free energy. Finally, this strong dependence of catalytic effect on interfacial configurations is shown to be common for a series of dopants, which may provide a means to create and optimize reaction centers.

2D materials↗
DOE OSTI2013

Observations of Diurnal to Weekly Variations of Monoterpene-Dominated Fluxes of Volatile Organic Compounds from Mediterranean Forests: Implications for Regional Modeling

The Estate of Castelporziano (Rome, Italy) hosts many ecosystems representative of Mediterranean vegetation, especially holm oak and pine forests and dune vegetation. In this work, basal emission factors (BEFs) of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) obtained by Eddy Covariance in a field campaign using a proton transfer reaction–time-of-flight–mass spectrometer (PTR-TOF-MS) were compared to BEFs reported in previous studies that could not measure fluxes in real-time. Globally, broadleaf forests are dominated by isoprene emissions, but these Mediterranean ecosystems are dominated by strong monoterpene emitters, as shown by the new BEFs. The original and new BEFs were used to parametrize the model of emissions of gases and aerosols from nature (MEGAN v2.1), and model outputs were compared with measured fluxes. Results showed good agreement between modeled and measured fluxes when a model was used to predict radiative transfer and energy balance across the canopy. We then evaluated whether changes in BVOC emissions can affect the chemistry of the atmosphere and climate at a regional level. MEGAN was run together with the land surface model (community land model, CLM v4.0) of the community earth system model (CESM v1.0). Finally, results highlighted that tropospheric ozone concentration and air temperature predicted from the model are sensitive to the magnitude of BVOC emissions, thus demonstrating the importance of adopting the proper BEF values for model parametrization.

Fares, Silvano↗
DOE OSTI2026

Crustal Deformation and Gravitational Effects From Dynamic Ocean Mass Redistribution Impact Projected Sea‐Level Change

As the climate warms, associated changes in ocean dynamics will redistribute sea‐water mass within the ocean, contributing to relative sea‐level change. This mass redistribution will cause additional sea‐level changes due to gravitational self‐attraction, deformation of the solid Earth, and shifts in the Earth's rotation axis (GRD), which are not incorporated in sea‐level projections. Using CMIP6 climate model output, we quantify relative sea‐level changes induced by GRD from ocean‐dynamic mass loading through 2100. These effects act to amplify projected ocean‐dynamic sea‐level patterns, causing sea‐level rise in coastal regions, particularly along wide continental shelves and at high latitudes. On average, the magnitude of such GRD‐induced sea‐level change is equivalent to ∼15% of the signal due to dynamic ocean mass redistribution. Although our results show substantial inter‐model spread, they reveal that GRD‐induced relative sea‐level changes from ocean mass redistribution represent a non‐negligible component of regional sea‐level change and should be considered in projections.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Identification of the strong Brønsted acid site in a metal–organic framework solid acid catalyst

It remains cumbersome to understand the surface of solid acid catalysts at the molecular level, despite their importance for industrial catalytic applications. A sulfated zirconium-based metal-organic framework, MOF-808-SO 4 , was previously shown to be a strong solid Brønsted acid material. In this report, we probe the origin of its acidity through an array of spectroscopic, crystallographic and computational characterization techniques. The strongest Brønsted acid site is demonstrated to consist of a specific arrangement of adsorbed water and sulfate moieties on the zirconium clusters. When a water molecule adsorbs to one zirconium atom, it participates in a hydrogen bond with a sulfate moiety that is chelated to a neighbouring zirconium atom; this motif, in turn, results in the presence of a strongly acidic proton. On dehydration, the material loses its acidity. The hydrated sulfated MOF exhibits a good catalytic performance for the dimerization of isobutene (2-methyl-1-propene), and achieves a 100% selectivity for C8 products with a good conversion efficiency.

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

Millisecond lifetimes and coherence times in 2D transmon qubits

Materials improvement is a powerful approach to reducing loss and decoherence in superconducting qubits, because such improvements can be readily translated to large-scale processors. Recent work improved transmon coherence by using tantalum as a base layer and sapphire as a substrate. The losses in these devices are dominated by two-level systems with comparable contributions from both the surface and bulk dielectrics, indicating that both must be tackled to achieve substantial improvements in the state of the art. Here we show that replacing the substrate with high-resistivity silicon markedly decreases the bulk substrate loss, enabling 2D transmons with time-averaged quality factors (Q avg ) of 9.7 × 10 6 across 45 qubits. For our best qubit, we achieve a Q avg of 1.5 × 10 7 , reaching a maximum Q of 2.5 × 10 7 , corresponding to a lifetime (T 1 ) up to 1.68 ms. This low loss also allows us to observe decoherence effects related to the Josephson junction, and we use an improved, low-contamination junction deposition to achieve Hahn echo coherence times (T 2E ) exceeding T 1 . We achieve these materials improvements without any modifications to the qubit architecture, allowing us to readily incorporate standard quantum control gates. Here, we demonstrate single-qubit gates with 99.994% fidelity. The tantalum-on-silicon platform comprises a simple material stack that can potentially be fabricated at the wafer scale and therefore can be readily translated to large-scale quantum processors.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Oxygen vacancy and hole conduction in amorphous TiO 2

The amorphous titanium dioxide (a-TiO2) has drawn attention recently due to the finding that it holds promise for coating conventional photoelectrodes for corrosion protection while still allowing the holes to transport to the surface. The mechanism of hole conductivity at a level much higher than the edge of the valence band is still a mystery. In this work, an amorphous TiO2 model is obtained from molecular dynamics employing the “melt-and-quench” technique. The electronic properties, polaronic states and the hole conduction mechanism in amorphous structure were investigated by means of density functional theory with Hubbard's energy correction (DFT + U) and compared to those in crystalline (rutile) TiO2. The formation energy of the oxygen vacancy was found to reduce significantly (by a few eV) upon amorphization. Our theoretical study suggested that the oxygen vacancies and their defect states provide hopping channels, which are comparable to experimental observations and could be responsible for hole conduction in the “leaky” TiO2 recently discovered for the photochemical water-splitting applications.

Marcus theory↗
DOE OSTI2014

Effects of non-local exchange on core level shifts for gas-phase and adsorbed molecules

Density functional theory calculations are often used to interpret experimental shifts in core level binding energies. Calculations based on gradient-corrected (GC) exchange-correlation functionals are known to reproduce measured core level shifts (CLS) of isolated molecules and metal surfaces with reasonable accuracy. In the present study, we discuss a series of examples where the shifts calculated within a GC-functional significantly deviate from the experimental values, namely the CLS of C 1s in ethyl trifluoroacetate, Pd 3d in PdO and the O 1s shift for CO adsorbed on PdO(101). The deviations are traced to effects of the electronic self-interaction error with GC-functionals and substantially better agreements between calculated and measured CLS are obtained when a fraction of exact exchange is used in the exchange-correlation functional.

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

Direct comparative study on the energy level alignments in unoccupied/occupied states of organic semiconductor/electrode interface by constructing in-situ photoemission spectroscopy and Ar gas cluster ion beam sputtering integrated analysis system

Through the installation of electron gun and photon detector, an in-situ photoemission and damage-free sputtering integrated analysis system is completely constructed. Therefore, this system enables to accurately characterize the energy level alignments including unoccupied/occupied molecular orbital (LUMO/HOMO) levels at interface region of organic semiconductor/electrode according to depth position. Based on Ultraviolet Photoemission Spectroscopy (UPS), Inverse Photoemission Spectroscopy (IPES), and reflective electron energy loss spectroscopy, the occupied/unoccupied state of in-situ deposited Tris[4-(carbazol-9-yl)phenyl]amine (TCTA) organic semiconductors on Au (E{sub LUMO}: 2.51 eV and E{sub HOMO}: 1.35 eV) and Ti (E{sub LUMO}: 2.19 eV and E{sub HOMO}: 1.69 eV) electrodes are investigated, and the variation of energy level alignments according to work function of electrode (Au: 4.81 eV and Ti: 4.19 eV) is clearly verified. Subsequently, under the same analysis condition, the unoccupied/occupied states at bulk region of TCTA/Au structures are characterized using different Ar gas cluster ion beam (Ar GCIB) and Ar ion sputtering processes, respectively. While the Ar ion sputtering process critically distorts both occupied and unoccupied states in UPS/IPES spectra, the Ar GCIB sputtering process does not give rise to damage on them. Therefore, we clearly confirm that the in-situ photoemission spectroscopy in combination with Ar GCIB sputtering allows of investigating accurate energy level alignments at bulk/interface region as well as surface region of organic semiconductor/electrode structure.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Experimental and ab initio studies of the reactive processes in gas phase i-C{sub 3}H{sub 7}Br and i-C{sub 3}H{sub 7}OH collisions with potassium ions

Collisions between potassium ions and neutral i-C{sub 3}H{sub 7}Br and i-C{sub 3}H{sub 7}OH, all in their electronic ground state, have been studied in the 0.10–10.00 eV center of mass (CM) collision energy range, using the radiofrequency-guided ion beam technique. In K{sup +} + i-C{sub 3}H{sub 7}Br collisions KHBr{sup +} formation was observed and quantified, while the analogous KH{sub 2}O{sup +} formation in K{sup +} + i-C{sub 3}H{sub 7}OH was hardly detected. Moreover, formation of the ion-molecule adducts and their decomposition leading to C{sub 3}H{sub 7}{sup +} and either KBr or KOH, respectively, have been observed. For all these processes, absolute cross-sections were measured as a function of the CM collision energy. Ab initio structure calculations at the MP2 level have given information about the potential energy surfaces (PESs) involved. In these, different stationary points have been characterized using the reaction coordinate method, their connectivity being ensured by using the intrinsic-reaction-coordinate method. From the measured excitation function for KHBr{sup +} formation the corresponding thermal rate constant at 303 K has been calculated. The topology of the calculated PESs allows an interpretation of the main features of the reaction dynamics of both systems, and in particular evidence the important role played by the potential energy wells in controlling the reactivity for the different reaction channels.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

On the feasibility of silicene encapsulation by AlN deposited using an atomic layer deposition process

Since epitaxial silicene is not chemically inert under ambient conditions, its application in devices and the ex-situ characterization outside of ultrahigh vacuum environments require the use of an insulating capping layer. Here, we report on a study of the feasibility of encapsulating epitaxial silicene on ZrB{sub 2}(0001) thin films grown on Si(111) substrates by aluminum nitride (AlN) deposited using trimethylaluminum (TMA) and ammonia (NH{sub 3}) precursors. By in-situ high-resolution core-level photoelectron spectroscopy, the chemical modifications of the surface due to subsequent exposure to TMA and NH{sub 3} molecules, at temperatures of 300 °C and 400 °C, respectively, have been investigated. While an AlN-related layer can indeed be grown, silicene reacts strongly with both precursor molecules resulting in the formation of Si–C and Si–N bonds such that the use of these precursors does not allow for the protective AlN encapsulation that leaves the electronic properties of silicene intact.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

Accurate ab initio vibrational energies of methyl chloride

Two new nine-dimensional potential energy surfaces (PESs) have been generated using high-level ab initio theory for the two main isotopologues of methyl chloride, CH{sub 3}{sup 35}Cl and CH{sub 3}{sup 37}Cl. The respective PESs, CBS-35{sup HL}, and CBS-37{sup HL}, are based on explicitly correlated coupled cluster calculations with extrapolation to the complete basis set (CBS) limit, and incorporate a range of higher-level (HL) additive energy corrections to account for core-valence electron correlation, higher-order coupled cluster terms, scalar relativistic effects, and diagonal Born-Oppenheimer corrections. Variational calculations of the vibrational energy levels were performed using the computer program TROVE, whose functionality has been extended to handle molecules of the form XY {sub 3}Z. Fully converged energies were obtained by means of a complete vibrational basis set extrapolation. The CBS-35{sup HL} and CBS-37{sup HL} PESs reproduce the fundamental term values with root-mean-square errors of 0.75 and 1.00 cm{sup −1}, respectively. An analysis of the combined effect of the HL corrections and CBS extrapolation on the vibrational wavenumbers indicates that both are needed to compute accurate theoretical results for methyl chloride. We believe that it would be extremely challenging to go beyond the accuracy currently achieved for CH{sub 3}Cl without empirical refinement of the respective PESs.

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

Deformation mechanisms of bent Si nanowires governed by the sign and magnitude of strain

In this study, the deformation mechanisms of bent Si nanowires are investigated at the atomic scale with bending strain up to 12.8%. The sign and magnitude of the applied strain are found to govern their deformation mechanisms, in which the dislocation types (full or partial dislocations) can be affected by the sign (tensile or compressive) and magnitude of the applied strain. In the early stages of bending, plastic deformation is controlled by 60° full dislocations. As the bending increases, Lomer dislocations can be frequently observed. When the strain increases to a significant level, 90° partial dislocations induced from the tensile surfaces of the bent nanowires are observed. This study provides a deeper understanding of the effect of the sign and magnitude of the bending strain on the deformation mechanisms in bent Si nanowires.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Restored Passivation after Complete Removal of Front Poly-Si Between the Grid in Poly-Si/SiO2 Front/Back Cells

This work explores the use of wet chemical etching to completely remove the front poly-Si layer between grid lines of a front/back poly-Si/SiO2 passivated contact device. The purpose of the work is to provide excellent passivation under the metal grid, but to also maximize Jsc by eliminating optical absorption in the front poly-Si. We show that after a high temperature anneal to distribute carriers in the poly-Si/SiO2/c-Si interface all of the poly-Si can be removed selectively with TMAH, using the SiO2 as an etch-stop layer. The etched surface can be repassivated back to its original level with the addition of a SiNx/Al2O3 stack grown on the preserved tunnelling oxide layer followed by a short forming gas anneal. Using symmetric 100 - 200 nm intrinsically doped poly-Si/SiO2 on textured n-type wafer templates we show absolute device efficiency enhancement from 15% to 21% by increasing the Jsc by 12 mA/cm2 after removing the front poly-Si and repassivating while effectively preserving the Voc, and FF of the device. IQE values are similar to PERC devices in the short wavelength range.

etching↗