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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 1,369 records · Page 76
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Surface engineering with oxidized Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene enables efficient and stable p-i-n-structured CsPbI 3 perovskite solar cells

All-inorganic CsPbI 3 perovskite has a near-ideal band gap, high thermal stability, and simple material composition, thus presenting a promising option for developing perovskite/Si tandem solar cells. However, CsPbI 3 undergoes a rapid phase transition under exposure to moisture and exhibits a significant performance gap relative to other perovskite compounds, particularly in the p-i-n structure favored for perovskite/Si tandems. In this work, we demonstrate highly efficient and stable p-i-n-structured CsPbI 3 perovskite solar cells by surface engineering the CsPbI 3 layer with oxidized Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene (OMXene) nanoplates via spray coatings. OMXene provides a physical barrier against moisture and improves charge separation at the perovskite-electron transporting layer interface via an enhanced electric field. Consequently, we demonstrated CsPbI 3 /OMXene-based p-i-n devices with efficiencies of 19.69% for 0.096-cm 2 cells and 14.64% for 25-cm 2 minimodules. The encapsulated minimodule showed good stability, retaining ~85% of the initial efficiency under simultaneous damp heat (85°C/85% relative humidity) and 1-sun light soaking for over 1,000 h.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2011

Analytic model for coaxial helicity injection in tokamak plasmas

Using a partial differential equation for the time evolution of the mean-field poloidal magnetic flux that incorporates resistivity {eta} and hyper-resistivity {Lambda} terms, an exact analytic solution is obtained for steady-state coaxial helicity injection (CHI) in force-free large aspect ratio tokamaks. The analytic mean-field Ohm's law model allows for calculation of the tokamak CHI current drive efficiency and the plasma inductances at arbitrary levels of magnetic fluctuations, or dynamo activity. The results of the mean-field model suggest that CHI approaching Ohmic efficiency is only possible in tokamaks when the size of the effective current drive boundary layer, {delta}{identical_to}({Lambda}/{eta}){sup 1/2}, becomes greater than half the size of the plasma, {delta}>a/2, with a the plasma minor radius. The electron thermal diffusivity due to magnetic fluctuation induced transport is obtained from the expression {chi}{sub e}={Lambda}/{mu}{sub 0}d{sub e}{sup 2}, with {mu}{sub 0} the permeability of free space and d{sub e} the electron skin depth, which for typical tokamak fusion plasma parameters is on the order of a millimeter. Thus, the ratio of the energy confinement time to the resistive diffusion time in a tokamak plasma driven by steady-state CHI approaching Ohmic efficiency is shown to be constrained by the relation {tau}{sub E}/{tau}{sub {eta}}<(d{sub e}/a){sup 2}{approx_equal}10{sup -6}. The mean-field model suggests that steady-state CHI can be viewed most simply as a boundary layer of stochastically wandering magnetic field lines.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Effect of Water Droplets Crossing the Boundary Layer in a Stagnation Point Configuration

An experimental study was conducted in the Vertical Icing Studies Tunnel at the Icing Physics Flow Laboratory of NASA Glenn Research Center to study the effect of water droplets crossing the boundary layer in a stagnation point configuration. The objective of the experiment was to determine if water droplets crossing a boundary layer create turbulent spots that accelerate the boundary layer transition from laminar to turbulent. Water droplets that crossed the boundary layer were generated with a nozzle installed in the plenum. The turbulence level in the boundary layer was measured with a hot wire system when the nozzle was off, air on, and air and water on. The results indicate that the presence of the nozzle alone did not affect the boundary layer. The activation of the nozzle to eject air only or to generate water droplets affected the turbulence level in the boundary layer. The continued study of this effect is needed because of its implications in the development of heat transfer models for icing codes.

Icing↗
DOE OSTI2017

Earth-Abundant and Non-Toxic SiX (X = S, Se) Monolayers as Highly Efficient Thermoelectric Materials

Current thermoelectric (TE) materials often have low performance or contain less abundant and/or toxic elements, thus limiting their large-scale applications. Therefore, new TE materials with high efficiency and low cost are strongly desirable. Here we demonstrate that SiS and SiSe monolayers made from nontoxic and earth-abundant elements intrinsically have low thermal conductivities arising from their low-frequency optical phonon branches with large overlaps with acoustic phonon modes, which is similar to the state-of-the-art experimentally demonstrated material SnSe with a layered structure. Together with high thermal power factors due to their two-dimensional nature, they show promising TE performances with large figure of merit (ZT) values exceeding 1 or 2 over a wide range of temperatures. We establish some basic understanding of identifying layered materials with low thermal conductivities, which can guide and stimulate the search and study of other layered materials for TE applications.

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

Twinning effect on photoluminescence spectra of ZnSe nanowires

Bandgap engineering in a single material along the axial length of nanowires may be realized by arranging periodic twinning, whose twin plane is vertical to the axial length of nanowires. In this paper, we report the effect of twin on photoluminescence of ZnSe nanowires, which refers to the bandgap of it. The exciton-related emission peaks of transverse twinning ZnSe nanowires manifest a 10-meV-blue-shift in comparison with those of longitudinal twinning ZnSe nanowires. The blue-shift is attributed to quantum confinement effect, which is influenced severely by the proportion of wurtzite ZnSe layers in ZnSe nanowires.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

The mechanism of the effect of a plasma layer with negative permittivity on the antenna radiation field

A model of a plasma–antenna system is developed to study the mechanism of the effect of the plasma layer on antenna radiation. Results show a plasma layer with negative permittivity is inductive, and thus affects the phase difference between electric and magnetic fields. In the near field of antenna radiation, a plasma layer with proper parameters can compensate the capacitivity of the vacuum and enhance the radiation power. In the far field of antenna radiation, the plasma layer with negative permittivity increases the inductivity of the vacuum and reduces the radiation power.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Control of liquid crystal molecular orientation using ultrasound vibration

We propose a technique to control the orientation of nematic liquid crystals using ultrasound and investigate the optical characteristics of the oriented samples. An ultrasonic liquid crystal cell with a thickness of 5–25 μm and two ultrasonic lead zirconate titanate transducers was fabricated. By exciting the ultrasonic transducers, the flexural vibration modes were generated on the cell. An acoustic radiation force to the liquid crystal layer was generated, changing the molecular orientation and thus the light transmission. By modulating the ultrasonic driving frequency and voltage, the spatial distribution of the molecular orientation of the liquid crystals could be controlled. The distribution of the transmitted light intensity depends on the thickness of the liquid crystal layer because the acoustic field in the liquid crystal layer is changed by the orientational film.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

Reimagining full wave rf quasilinear theory in a tokamak

The velocity dependent resonant interaction of particles with applied radio frequency (rf) waves during heating and current drive in the presence of pitch angle scattering collisions gives rise to narrow collisional velocity space boundary layers that dramatically enhance the role of collisions as recently shown by Catto (J. Plasma Phys., vol. 86, 815860302, 2020). The behavior is a generalization of the narrow collisional boundary layer that forms during Landau damping as found by Johnston (Phys. Fluids, vol. 14, 1971, pp. 2719-2726) and Auerbach (Phys. Fluids, vol. 20, 1977, pp. 1836-1844). For a wave of parallel wave number k|| interacting with weakly collisional plasma species of collision frequency ν and thermal speed vth , the effective collision frequency becomes of order ν(k_||v_th /ν)^2/3>> ν . The narrow boundary layers that arise because of the diffusive nature of the collisions allows a physically meaningful wave-particle interaction time to be defined that is the inverse of this effective collision frequency. The collisionality implied by the narrow boundary layer results in changes in the standard quasilinear treatment of applied rf fields in tokamaks while remaining consistent with causality. These changes occur because successive poloidal interactions with the rf are correlated in tokamak geometry and because the resonant velocity space dependent interactions are controlled by the spatial and temporal behavior of the perturbed full wave fields rather than just the spatially local Landau and Doppler shifted cyclotron wave-particle resonance condition associated with unperturbed motion of the particles. The correlation of successive poloidal circuits of the tokamak leads to the appearance in the quasilinear operator of transit averaged resonance conditions localized in velocity space boundary layers that maintain negative definite entropy production.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS2004

Formation of a Tropopause Cirrus Layer Observed over Florida during CRYSTAL-FACE

On July 13, 2002, a widespread, thin tropopause cirrus layer occurred over the Florida region. This cloud was observed in great detail with the CRYSTAL-FACE instrumentation, including in-situ measurements with the WB-57 aircraft. We use this cloud case study to evaluate the physical processes controlling the formation and evolution of tropopause cirrus layers. Microphysics indicate ice crystal diameters in the cloud layer ranged from about 7 to 40 um, and the peak number mode was about 10-25 um. In-situ water vapor and temperature measurements in the cloud indicated supersaturation with respect to ice throughout, with ice saturation ratios as large as 1.8. TRajectory analysis shows that the air sampled near the tropopause on this day generally came from the north and cooled considerable during the previous days.Examination of visible satellite imagery indicates that the cloud layer formation was, in general, not simply left over ice from convectively generated anvil cirrus.

Jensen, Eric↗
DOE OSTI2019

Drizzle and Turbulence below closed cellular marine stratocumulus clouds

Drizzle is ubiquitous in marine boundary layer stratocumulus clouds with much of it evaporating before reaching the surface. Ten days of observations made at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM)’s Eastern North Atlantic (ENA) site during closed cellular stratocumulus cloud conditions are used to characterize drizzle below the cloud base and its impact on the boundary layer turbulence. Cloud and drizzle micro- and macro-physical properties were retrieved by combining the data from vertically pointing Doppler cloud radar, ceilometer, and microwave radiometer. On average the drizzle shafts were 28.14 km wide, with cloud base rain rate and modal diameter of 1.26 mm day-1 and 145.26 µm respectively. The rain rate at the surface was negligible yielding an average diabatic cooling of -30.60 Wm-2 in the sub-cloud layer. The LWP and turbulence within the boundary layer increased with an increase in the cloud top radiative cooling, however none of these variables exhibited any relationship with cloud base rain rate. For a similar amount of radiative cooling at the cloud top, the average variance of vertical velocity in the sub-cloud layer was about 10% lower during strongly precipitating conditions as compared to lightly precipitating conditions. The reduction in the variance of vertical velocity due to drizzle evaporation was primarily confined to the upper half of the sub-cloud layer and was due reduction in the strengths of the downdrafts. Collectively our results show substantial impact of drizzle evaporation on boundary layer turbulence, necessitating its accurate representation in the Earth System Models.

drizzle↗
DOE OSTI2014

The different adsorption mechanism of methane molecule onto a boron nitride and a graphene flakes

Graphene and single layer hexagonal boron-nitride are two newly discovered 2D materials with wonderful physical properties. Using density functional theory, we study the adsorption mechanism of a methane molecule over a hexagonal flake of single layer hexagonal boron-nitride (h-BN) and compare the results with those of graphene. We found that independent of the used functional in our ab-initio calculations, the adsorption energy in the h-BN flake is larger than that for graphene. Despite of the adsorption energy profile of methane over a graphene flake, we show that there is a long range behavior beyond minimum energy in the adsorption energy of methane over h-BN flake. This result reveals the higher sensitivity of h-BN sheet to the adsorption of a typical closed shell molecule with respect to graphene. The latter gives insight in the recent experiments of graphene over hexagonal boron nitride.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Third order nonlinear optical response exhibited by mono- and few-layers of WS 2

In this work, strong third order nonlinear optical properties exhibited by WS 2 layers are presented. Optical Kerr effect was identified as the dominant physical mechanism responsible for these third order optical nonlinearities. An extraordinary nonlinear refractive index together with an important contribution of a saturated absorptive response was observed to depend on the atomic layer stacking. Comparative experiments performed in mono- and few-layer samples of WS 2 revealed that this material is potentially capable of modulating nonlinear optical processes by selective near resonant induced birefringence. In conclusion, we envision applications for developing all-optical bidimensional nonlinear optical devices.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2018

Langmuir Films of n -Alkanethiol-Capped Gold Nanoparticles and n -Alkanes: Interfacial Mixing Scenarios Assessed by X-ray Reflectivity and Grazing Incidence Diffraction

A series of n-alkanes cospread with alkanethiol-stabilized gold nanoparticles (AuNP) were studied as Langmuir monolayers by synchrotron X-ray reflectivity and diffraction. Tetradecanethiol capped gold nanoparticles with core diameters close to 2 nm were used to make films at 20 °C, below the ligand order–disorder temperature. A variety of n-alkane chain lengths (Cn = C n H 2n+2 , where n = 12, 15 and 16) were tested to assess the interfacial assembly of nanoparticle films as a result of different mixing scenarios indicated in their surface pressure versus area isotherms. Synchrotron grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD) and reflectivity (XR) confirm that mixtures of n-alkane and AuNP exhibiting improved fluidity in their compression isotherm are indeed incorporating n-alkane into the AuNP ligand shell and stabilizing it at the air–water interface. The resulting films show a doubling of their correlation lengths and thus a significant improvement on their ordering, as well as increased lattice spacing that is dependent upon the n-alkane chain length. Mixtures that do not exhibit changes in their surface pressure vs area isotherm similarly show little change in the interfacial assembly of the nanoparticle films except to promote monolayer collapse and multilayer formation. Improvements to the film order are assigned to the initial formation of larger nanoparticle domains. Here, the nature of the chain length dependence and persistence of the n-alkane through compression suggest a favorable interaction with the nanoparticle ligand shell that results in the extension of methylene units of the longer alkanes beyond the thiol layer, which has implications for influencing nanoparticle interactions.

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

Atom Identification in Bilayer Moiré Materials with Gomb-Net

Moiré patterns in van der Waals bilayer materials complicate the analysis of atomic-resolution images, hindering the atomic-scale insight typically attainable with scanning transmission electron microscopy. Here, we report a method to detect the positions and identities of atoms in each of the individual layers that compose twisted bilayer heterostructures. We developed a deep learning model, Gomb-Net, which identifies the coordinates and atomic species in each layer, deconvoluting the moiré pattern. This enables layer-specific mapping of atomic positions and dopant distributions, unlike other commonly used segmentation models which struggle with moiré-induced complexity. Using this approach, we explored the Se atom substitutional site distribution in a twisted fractional Janus WS 2 -WS 2(1–x) Se 2x heterostructure and found that layer-specific implantation sites are unaffected by the moiré pattern’s local energetic or electronic modulation. In conclusion, this advancement enables atom identification within material regimes where it was not possible before, opening new insights into previously inaccessible material physics.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2011

Passive scalar transport in peripheral regions of random flows

We investigate statistical properties of the passive scalar mixing in random (turbulent) flows assuming its diffusion to be weak. Then at advanced stages of the passive scalar decay, its unmixed residue is primarily concentrated in a narrow diffusive layer near the wall and its transport to the bulk goes through the peripheral region (laminar sublayer of the flow). We conducted Lagrangian numerical simulations of the process for different space dimensions d and revealed structures responsible for the transport, which are passive scalar tongues pulled from the diffusive boundary layer to the bulk. We investigated statistical properties of the passive scalar and of the passive scalar integrated along the wall. Moments of both objects demonstrate scaling behavior outside the diffusive boundary layer. We propose an analytic scheme for the passive scalar statistics, explaining the features observed numerically.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗