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At least 1,351 records · Page 75
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

BICEP/ Keck XVIII: Measurement of BICEP3 polarization angles and consequences for constraining cosmic birefringence and inflation

We use a custom-made calibrator to measure individual detectors’ polarization angles of BICEP3, a small aperture telescope observing the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at 95 GHz from the South Pole. We describe our calibration strategy and the statistical and systematic uncertainties associated with the measurement. We reach an unprecedented precision for such measurement on a CMB experiment, with a repeatability for each detector pair of 0.02°. Here, we show that the relative angles measured using this method are in excellent agreement with those extracted from CMB data. Because the absolute measurement is currently limited by a systematic uncertainty, we do not derive cosmic birefringence constraints from BICEP3 data in this work. Rather, we forecast the sensitivity of BICEP3 sky maps for such analysis. We investigate the relative contributions of instrument noise, lensing, and dust, as well as astrophysical and instrumental systematics. We also explore the constraining power of different angle estimators, depending on analysis choices. We establish that the BICEP3 2-year dataset (2017–2018) has an on-sky sensitivity to the cosmic birefringence angle of 𝜎 𝛼 = 0.07⁢8°, which could be improved to 𝜎 𝛼 = 0.05⁢5° by adding all of the existing BICEP3 data (through 2023). Furthermore, we emphasize the possibility of using the BICEP3 sky patch as a polarization calibration source for CMB experiments, which with the present data could reach a precision of 0.035°. Finally, in the context of inflation searches, we investigate the impact of detector-to-detector variations in polarization angles as they may bias the tensor-to-scalar ratio 𝑟. We show that while the effect is expected to remain subdominant to other sources of systematic uncertainty, it can be reliably calibrated using polarization angle measurements such as the ones we present in this paper.

Cosmic microwave background↗
DOE OSTI2026

Self-driving thin film laboratory: autonomous epitaxial atomic-layer synthesis via real-time computer vision analysis of electron diffraction

Emerging materials science platforms with the ability to make autonomous decisions on the fly are fundamentally changing the outlook and protocols for materials optimization and discovery. Because AI-driven self-navigating schemes can effectively reduce the total number of iterations needed to arrive at the "answer" (i.e. the best stochiometric composition for a desired physical property, optimum materials processing parameters, etc.) by significant margins, they have the potential to revolutionize materials and chemical manufacturing processes at large in research laboratory settings as well as in industrial plants. Here, we demonstrate a successful implementation of real-time closed-loop autonomous navigation of a multi-dimensional materials synthesis parameter space for fabricating phase-pure epitaxial films of a metastable phase of a functional oxide in a combinatorial pulsed laser deposition chamber. Sequential epitaxial growth iterations in search of the optimized recipe to stabilize the desired crystal phase were performed using frame-by-frame quantitative computer vision analysis of reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) images of the unit-cell level film being deposited. The autonomous scheme regularly resulted in > 30-fold reduction in the number of required experiments compared to a comprehensive mapping of the parameter space. The real-time workflow developed here can be readily extended to a variety of thin film synthesis platforms opening the door for self-driving atomic-level materials design as well as autonomous optimization of semiconductor manufacturing.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Aridification of Colorado River Basin's Snowpack Regions Has Driven Water Losses Despite Ameliorating Effects of Vegetation

Abstract The Colorado River Basin is an important natural resource for the semi‐arid southwestern United States (US), where it provides water to more than 40 million people. While nearly 1.5°C of anthropogenic warming has occurred across this region from the 1880s to 2021, climate models show little agreement in the precipitation change during the same historical period, with no trend in the mean of the latest (sixth) generation of Global Climate Models. As such, here we focus on how the CO 2 increase and associated anthropogenic warming over the historical period has impacted runoff across the Colorado Basin. We find that the Colorado Basin's runoff over the historical period has decreased by 8.1% per degree Celsius of warming (°C −1 ). However, the magnitude of this sensitivity is reduced to 6.8% °C −1 when considering vegetation response to historical CO 2 . For present‐day conditions, this translates to runoff reductions of 10.3% due to anthropogenic increases in both temperature and CO 2 since 1880. We demonstrate that Colorado Basin's natural flow has been decreased by roughly the storage of Lake Mead during the 2000–2021 megadrought due to this long term anthropogenic influence, suggesting the basin's first shortage in 2021 would likely not have occurred without anthropogenic warming. We further show warming has led to disproportionate aridification in snowpack regions, causing runoff to decline at double the rate relative to non‐snowpack regions. Thus, despite only making up ∼30% of the basin's drainage area, 86% of runoff decreases in the Colorado Basin is driven by water loss in snowpack regions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Aluminum-Based Superconducting Tunnel Junction Sensors for Nuclear Recoil Spectroscopy

The BeEST experiment is searching for sub-MeV sterile neutrinos by measuring nuclear recoil energies from the decay of 7 Be implanted into superconducting tunnel junction (STJ) sensors. The recoil spectra are affected by interactions between the radioactive implants and the sensor materials. We are therefore developing aluminum-based STJs (Al-STJs) as an alternative to existing tantalum devices (Ta-STJs) to investigate how to separate material effects in the recoil spectrum from potential signatures of physics beyond the Standard Model. Three iterations of Al-STJs were fabricated. The first had electrode thicknesses similar to existing Ta-STJs. They had low responsivity and reduced resolution, but were used successfully to measure 7 Be nuclear recoil spectra. The second iteration had STJs suspended on thin SiN membranes by backside etching. These devices had low leakage current, but also low yield. The final iteration was not backside etched, and the Al-STJs had thinner electrodes and thinner tunnel barriers to increase signal amplitudes. These devices achieved 2.96 eV FWHM energy resolution at 50 eV using a pulsed 355 nm (~3.5 eV) laser. These results establish Al-STJs as viable detectors for systematic material studies in the BeEST experiment.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2024

An Operations and Maintenance Roadmap for U.S. Offshore Wind: Enabling a Cost-Effective and Sustainable U.S. Offshore Wind Energy Industry Through Innovative Operations and Maintenance

The United States is currently targeting 30GW of offshore wind to be installed by 2030, and 150GW by 2050. Even considering future turbine sizes, this represents thousands of new turbines installed in a diverse set of environments, each with their unique design, installation, and maintenance challenges. While much can be learned from European and Asian experience with offshore wind over the past two decades, it is important to understand the unique circumstances of the U.S. This document explores operations and maintenance of offshore wind energy, specific to the U.S. and attempts to lay out a roadmap for needed activities to ensure reliability of future installations. The roadmap was informed through dozens of interviews with a wide cross-section of the industry, including representatives from OEMs, owner/operators, service companies, certification agencies, service providers, and researchers. The roadmap first describes the problem by component - blades, drivetrain and nacelle, structures and foundations, and electrical systems - through a look at current practices and opportunities for improvement in the areas of Failure Mode Analysis and Mitigation; Monitoring, Sensing, and Inspection; and Maintenance Execution. Crosscutting areas of Digitalization, Robotics and Automation, Prognostics and Health Management and O&M Optimization, Experimentation and Demonstration, Standardization, and Design Optimization Considering Reliability and O&M are then discussed. Finally, the roadmap summarizes all of these topics with recommendations for short (1-3 years), medium (4-7 years), and long term (8-12 years) activities, with a description of needed public and private sector contributions.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Calorimetric classification of track-like signatures in liquid argon TPCs using MicroBooNE data

The MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber located at Fermilab is a neutrino experiment dedicated to the study of short-baseline oscillations, the measurements of neutrino cross sections in liquid argon, and to the research and development of this novel detector technology. Accurate and precise measurements of calorimetry are essential to the event reconstruction and are achieved by leveraging the TPC to measure deposited energy per unit length along the particle trajectory, with mm resolution. We describe the non-uniform calorimetric reconstruction performance in the detector, showing dependence on the angle of the particle trajectory. Such non-uniform reconstruction directly affects the performance of the particle identification algorithms which infer particle type from calorimetric measurements. This work presents a new particle identification method which accounts for and effectively addresses such non-uniformity. The newly developed method shows improved performance compared to previous algorithms, illustrated by a 93.7% proton selection efficiency and a 10% muon mis-identification rate, with a fairly loose selection of tracks performed on beam data. The performance is further demonstrated by identifying exclusive final states in ν μ CC interactions. While developed using MicroBooNE data and simulation, this method is easily applicable to future LArTPC experiments, such as SBND, ICARUS, and DUNE.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2024

Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Air-Handling and DME-Propane Blends on the Performance and Emissions of a 4-Cylinder CI Engine

Dimethyl ether (DME) is considered an excellent alternative to diesel because of its higher cetane number and lower carbon content. Additionally, DME can be blended with abundantly available propane with minimal modifications to the propane infrastructure. This paper focuses on an experimental investigation of the effect of air-handling i.e., boost pressure and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), and DME-propane blends on the combustion and emissions performance of a light-duty, four-cylinder, compression ignition (CI) engine. Here, the boost pressure and EGR sweeps were carried out and showed that higher boost pressures resulted in increased brake thermal efficiencies (BTE) at the expense of higher NOx emissions which could be reduced by an increase in EGR. The fuel sweeps were carried out at 0, 15 and 25% propane (neat, 85% and 75% DME) with 0% and 25% EGR. The fuel sweeps indicated that the ignition delay (ID) increased and burn duration (BD) decreased monotonically when the blend increased to 25% propane/75% DME. The results suggest optimum engine performance with neat DME at 105 kPa boost pressure and 25% EGR with propane addition improving the BTE with negligible increase in emissions. Higher contents of Propane, up to 25%, did not affect the variability of combustion, with standard deviations of burn duration and peak cylinder pressures below 1% for all test cases.

air-handling↗
DOE OSTI2026

The DESI DR1 peculiar velocity survey: Growth rate measurements from the galaxy power spectrum

The large-scale structure of the Universe and its evolution encapsulate a wealth of cosmological information. A powerful means of unlocking this knowledge lies in measuring the auto-power spectrum and/or the cross-power spectrum of the galaxy density and momentum fields, followed by the estimation of cosmological parameters based on these spectrum measurements. In this study, we generalize the cross-power spectrum model to accommodate scenarios in which the density and momentum fields are derived from distinct galaxy surveys. The growth rate of the large-scale structures of the Universe, commonly represented as fσ 8 , was extracted by jointly fitting the monopole and quadrupole moments of the auto-density power spectrum, the monopole of the auto-momentum power spectrum, and the dipole of the cross-power spectrum. Our estimators, theoretical models, and parameter-fitting framework were tested using mocks, confirming their robustness and accuracy in retrieving the fiducial growth rate from simulation. These techniques were then applied to analyse the power spectrum of the DESI Bright Galaxy Survey and Peculiar Velocity Survey. The fit result of the growth rate is fσ8 = 0.440$^{+0.080}_{−0.096}$ at effective redshift zeff = 0.07. By synthesizing the fitting outcomes from correlation functions, maximum likelihood estimation, and the power spectrum, a consensus value is yielded of fσ 8 (z eff = 0.07) = 0.450$^{+0.055}_{−0.055}$, and correspondingly we obtain γ = 0.580$^{+0.110}_{−0.110}$, Ω m = 0.301$^{+0.011}_{−0.011}$, and σ 8 = 0.834$^{+0.032}_{−0.032}$. The measured fσ8 and γ are consistent with the prediction of the Λ cold dark matter model and general relativity.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Effect of feed composition on the production of off-gases during vitrification of simulated low-activity nuclear waste

During the vitrification of nuclear waste, hazardous and radioactive emissions are generated from the feed-to-glass conversion reactions, in addition to discharges from forced air bubbling and air inleakage. Although the major gaseous emissions are water vapor, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide, various monitored environmental pollutants are also released, such as nitrogen oxides or sulfur dioxide. In addition, reactions between organics and nitrates in the feed may also form products of incomplete combustion such as carbon monoxide and acetonitrile. Although off-gas emissions are commonly measured during both laboratory- and pilot-scale melter testing, no predictive tool is currently available to a priori estimate the composition of gaseous emissions during nuclear waste vitrification. This work forms a basis for the development of such predictive tool by measuring gas evolution from a broad range of simulated low-activity waste melter feeds using evolved gas analysis data and developing correlations between the feed and off-gas compositions. Using reaction stoichiometry and regression analysis, we demonstrate that next to the content of nitrogen and organic carbon in the feed, the gaseous emissions are affected by the feed reduction-oxidation conditions – the more the feed is reduced, the less nitrogen monoxide, and more carbon monoxide and acetonitrile evolves. In conclusion, the results presented in this work provide a first step towards reducing the amount of expensive physical melter testing and the regression analysis provides a simple tool for rapid optimization of feed composition with respect to off-gas composition.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2021

Measurement of the longitudinal diffusion of ionization electrons in the MicroBooNE detector

Accurate knowledge of electron transport properties is vital to understanding the information provided by liquid argon time projection chambers (LArTPCs). Ionization electron drift-lifetime, local electric field distortions caused by positive ion accumulation, and electron diffusion can all significantly impact the measured signal waveforms. This paper presents a measurement of the effective longitudinal electron diffusion coefficient, D L , in MicroBooNE at the nominal electric field strength of 273.9 V/cm. Historically, this measurement has been made in LArTPC prototype detectors. This represents the first measurement in a large-scale (85 tonne active volume) LArTPC operating in a neutrino beam. This is the largest dataset ever used for this measurement. Using a sample of ~70,000 through-going cosmic ray muon tracks tagged with MicroBooNE's cosmic ray tagger system, we measure D L = 3.74 +0.28 -0.29 cm 2 /s.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2026

Powders and pellets – Extrusion engineering for a Cu/BEA syngas-to-hydrocarbons catalyst

Converting high-performing powder catalysts from the laboratory reactor scale into effective extruded catalysts at the industrial scale remains a hurdle for advancing sustainable catalytic processes, such as the conversion of biogenic syngas into high octane gasoline. Recently, a process-intensified syngas-to-hydrocarbons (STH) reaction in a single reactor under relatively mild conditions (220–250 ºC, 0.75–2.0 MPa) was reported, enabled by the development of a dimethyl ether (DME) homologation catalyst, Cu-modified H-BEA (Cu/BEA) zeolite. In this study, we explore approaches for synthesizing engineered Cu/BEA catalysts for use in the STH reaction to retain the high performance observed with the powder catalyst. We demonstrate that changes to the order of manufacturing steps (i.e., Cu deposition, alumina binder addition, and extrusion) result in observable changes to key active sites (Brønsted acid sites and zeolitic Cu + species), and ultimately, catalyst performance. When the Cu precursor was added directly to BEA before extrusion, both types of active sites were stabilized, preserving the activity of the powder catalyst. However, when the Cu precursor was added after extrusion, the resulting Cu species were mobile, destabilizing Brønsted acid sites and leading to near-zero activity.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Improved Constraints on Primordial Gravitational Waves using Planck , WMAP, and BICEP/ Keck Observations through the 2018 Observing Season

Here, we present results from an analysis of all data taken by the BICEP2, Keck Array, and BICEP3 CMB polarization experiments up to and including the 2018 observing season. We add additional Keck Array observations at 220 GHz and BICEP3 observations at 95 GHz to the previous 95/150/220 GHz dataset. The Q/U maps now reach depths of 2.8, 2.8, and 8.8 μK CMB arcmin at 95,150, and 220 GHz, respectively, over an effective area of ≈ 600 square degrees at 95 GHz and ≈ 400 square degrees at 150 and 220 GHz. The 220 GHz maps now achieve a signal-to-noise ratio on polarized dust emission exceeding that of Planck at 353 GHz. We take auto- and cross-spectra between these maps and publicly available WMAP and Planck maps at frequencies from 23 to 353 GHz and evaluate the joint likelihood of the spectra versus a multicomponent model of lensed ΛCDM + r + dust + synchrotron + noise . The foreground model has seven parameters, and no longer requires a prior on the frequency spectral index of the dust emission taken from measurements on other regions of the sky. This model is an adequate description of the data at the current noise levels. The likelihood analysis yields the constraint r 0.05 < 0.036 at 95% confidence. Running maximum likelihood search on simulations we obtain unbiased results and find that σ(r) = 0.009 . These are the strongest constraints to date on primordial gravitational waves.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Projected sensitivity of the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment to the two-neutrino and neutrinoless double $\beta$ decays of $^{134}$Xe

The projected sensitivity of the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment to two-neutrino and neutrinoless double beta decay of 134 Xe is presented. LZ is a 10-tonne xenon time projection chamber optimized for the detection of dark matter particles, that is expected to start operating in 2021 at Sanford Underground Research Facility, USA. Its large mass of natural xenon provides an exceptional opportunity to search for the double beta decay of 134 Xe, for which xenon detectors enriched in 136 Xe are less effective. For the two-neutrino decay mode, LZ is predicted to exclude values of the half-life up to 1.7 x 10 24 years at 90% confidence level (CL), and has a three-sigma observation potential of 8.7 x 10 23 years, approaching the predictions of nuclear models. For the neutrinoless decay mode LZ, is projected to exclude values of the half-life up to 7.3 x 10 24 years at 90% CL.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2025

Elucidating grain boundary energy minimization mechanisms in textured Ca-doped alumina with inclination-dependent Monte Carlo Potts simulations

The grain growth behavior of textured Ca-doped alumina is compared to Monte Carlo Potts (MCP) simulations to investigate the effect of anisotropic grain boundary (GB) properties on local boundary migration. Experimentally, the growth of textured Ca-doped alumina results in highly elongated grains. The relative GB energy distribution is measured using the thermal groove method before and after heat treating at 1600°C, finding that high energy GBs are eliminated during grain growth. No significant difference in the GB energy distributions is found between the long and short axes of the elongated grains, suggesting that anisotropic mobility may be responsible for the grain shape. However, MCP simulations with anisotropic mobility as a function of plane inclination do not result in grains with distinct morphologies, regardless of the degree of anisotropy introduced. The final grain shape after grain growth of textured Ca-doped alumina resembles that of the MCP simulations using an anisotropic GB energy as a cosine function of plane inclination. Several energy functions are tested and only those that mathematically impose a torque (second derivative of energy with respect to the plane inclination angle) result in elongated grains. Although area reduction is the dominant energy minimization mechanism, these results suggest that local GB migration is affected by anisotropic GB energy and torque and alternative mechanisms like GB replacement and reorientation.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Characterization of Spent Purolite A530E Resin with Implications for Long-Term Radioactive Contaminant Removal

Direct removal of pertechnetate anion (TcO4-) from the subsurface contaminated plumes at legacy nuclear weapons production sites, is effective remediation strategy to prevent their spread to adjacent aquifers but is also challenging because TcO4- is a trace component of the contaminated groundwater typically containing large access of other anionic constituents, such nitrate, sulfate, chloride and others. It can be achieved through ion exchange treatment using Purolite A530E resin which to date however has only been evaluated under laboratory conditions and many questions regarding its long-term operational performance remain. To address this need, here we report comprehensive characterization of the spent Purolite A530E resin which processed over 5.38x109 L of contaminated groundwater and successfully removed about 3.78 Ci of Tc-99 during four years of operation at the 200 West Pump & Treat facility at the US DOE Hanford site. This Tc-99 loading constitutes however only about 0.034% of the theoretical capacity of the resin which retained significant amounts of sulfate. Among other radioactive contaminants, small quantities of U-238, Co-60, and I-129 were retained by the resin. The total loading of iodine (combined 1-127 and I-129) on the spent resin exceeded that of Tc-99. To elucidate the mechanism of iodine retention, ion exchange behavior of iodide and iodate was investigated. Purolite A530E resin exhibited highly efficient uptake of iodide and only moderate affinity for iodate in accord with their Gibbs energy of hydration. Sorption isotherms for both anions obeyed Freundlich model.

Levitskaia, Tatiana G.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Efficient Modeling of Floating Wind Arrays Including Current Loads and Seabed Bathymetry: Preprint

Capabilities for modeling the effects of seabed bathymetry and current drag loads on a floating wind farm are now available in an open-source model for quasi-static analysis. In this model, mooring lines and dynamic cables are represented by a quasistatic solver that can quickly represent complex mooring/cabling arrangements and arrays of floating bodies. To account for seabed bathymetry, we expand the model to include a surface mesh that captures changes in water depth over a rectangular grid. We formulate modifications to the catenary equations that capture a mooring line's profile and tensions when contacting a slope seabed. To account for current drag loads on mooring lines and dynamic cables, we formulate a novel technique that rotates the reference frame so that the vector sum of the the weight and the current force are used in the catenary equations, while accounting for the seabed orientation. To complete the system, current drag loads on floating substructures are handled by inclusion of strip-theory drag calculations. These new capabilities are verified by comparing with results from the established offshore dynamics models MoorDyn and OrcaFlex in equivalent steady-state scenarios. The results show very good agreement for both sloped seabeds and current loads. With computation times of the quasi-static model typically under one second, the model additions are a useful capability toward rapidly evaluating a floating wind array's response to environmental loads under realistic site conditions.

bathymetry↗
DOE OSTI2024

Efficient Modeling of Floating Wind Arrays Including Current Loads and Seabed Bathymetry

Capabilities for modeling the effects of seabed bathymetry and current drag loads on a floating wind farm are now available in an open-source model for quasi-static analysis. In this model, mooring lines and dynamic cables are represented by a quasi-static solver that can quickly represent complex mooring/cabling arrangements and arrays of floating bodies. To account for seabed bathymetry, we expand the model to include a surface mesh that captures changes in water depth over a rectangular grid. We formulate modifications to the catenary equations that capture a mooring line's profile and tensions when contacting a slope seabed. To account for current drag loads on mooring lines and dynamic cables, we formulate a novel technique that rotates the reference frame so that the vector sum of the the weight and the current force are used in the catenary equations, while accounting for the seabed orientation. To complete the system, current drag loads on floating substructures are handled by inclusion of strip-theory drag calculations. These new capabilities are verified by comparing with results from the established offshore dynamics models MoorDyn and OrcaFlex in equivalent steady-state scenarios. The results show very good agreement for both sloped seabeds and current loads. With computation times of the quasi-static model typically under one second, the model additions are a useful capability toward rapidly evaluating a floating wind array's response to environmental loads under realistic site conditions.

bathymetry↗
DOE OSTI2021

Nanocomposites Based on Coil-Comb Diblock Copolymers

The polymer chain architecture is an important factor determining the phase behavior of nanoparticle (NP) assembly in polymer matrices. Block copolymers (BCPs) containing a random copolymer (RCP) block present a convenient variation on traditional BCPs to tune the interaction parameters between the polymer blocks and the nanofillers as well as to evaluate the effect of the chain architecture on the NP arrangements within BCP microdomains. Here, we synthesized BCPs with a coil polystyrene (PS) block and a comb RCP block through reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization. The RCP block consists of methyl- and lauryl acrylates, the latter of which confers a long-chain alkyl moiety to favorably interact with alkyl-passivated NPs. BCPs showing lamellar, cylindrical, and mixed morphologies were obtained by varying the volume fractions of the RCP block (f RCP ). In comparison to coil-coil BCP, the coil-comb BCPs show highly asymmetric phase behavior with respect to fRCP, where lamellar morphologies were observed at fRCP from 0.31 to 0.51. NPs in the size of 4-5 nm were successfully incorporated in the RCP block of the BCPs with periodicities of 30-60 nm. An order-to-order phase transition from lamellae to PS cylinders was observed after the addition of only 1-2 vol % 5 nm NPs into the BCP with a periodicity of 25 nm and f RCP of 0.51. Self-consistent field theory-density functional theory simulations qualitatively described the observed morphologies and phase transitions in the nanocomposites. Here, the current study presents a platform to fabricate nanocomposites with NP assemblies in coil-comb BCPs that contain a random copolymer block and provides insight into how polymer chain architectures can affect the phase behavior of BCPs and nanocomposites.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗