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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 1,405 records · Page 78
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Direct Correlation of the Salt-Reduced Diffusivities of Organic Solvents with the Solvent’s Mole Fraction

We report that lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI) in organic solvents (especially propylene carbonate) has demonstrated extraordinary pseudocapacitive performance as an electrolyte in the supercapacitor configuration. However, the influence of the solvated ions on the diffusivity of the solvent molecules is yet to be understood. We examine the impact of LiTFSI on the diffusivity in five organic solvents: acetonitrile (ACN), tetrahydrofuran (THF), methanol (MeOH), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), and propylene carbonate (PC) using a combination of neutron scattering, conductivity measurements, and molecular dynamics simulations. The extent of the diffusivity reduction in the concentration regime of ≤1 M directly correlates with the solvent mole fraction at which the solvation shells around Li + ions are of similar size in all the solvents, resulting in a universal ~50% reduction in the solvent diffusivity. These results provide guidance for formulation of the new electrolytes to enhance the performance of energy storage devices.

conductivity↗
DOE OSTI2024

Electrostatic Potential of Functional Cations as a Predictor of Hydroxide Diffusion Pathways in Nanoconfined Environments of Anion Exchange Membranes

Nanoconfined anion exchange membranes (AEMs) play a vital role in emerging electrochemical technologies. The ability to control dominant hydroxide diffusion pathways is an important goal in the design of nanoconfined AEMs. Such control can shorten hydroxide transport pathways between electrodes, reduce transport resistance, and enhance device performance. In this work, we propose an electrostatic potential (ESP) approach to explore the effect of the polymer electrolyte cation spacing on hydroxide diffusion pathways from a molecular perspective. By exploring cation ESP energy surfaces and validating outcomes through prior ab initio molecular dynamics simulations of nanoconfined AEMs, we find that we can achieve control over preferred hydroxide diffusion pathways by adjusting the cation spacing. The results presented in this work provide a unique and straightforward approach to predict preferential hydroxide diffusion pathways, enabling efficient design of highly conductive nanoconfined AEM materials for electrochemical technologies.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Probing Exciton Diffusion and Dissociation in Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube-C60 Heterojunctions

The efficiency of thin-film organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices relies heavily upon the transport of excitons to type-II heterojunction interfaces, where there is sufficient driving force for exciton dissociation and ultimately the formation of charge carriers. Semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are strong near-infrared absorbers that form type-II heterojunctions with fullerenes such as C60. Although the efficiencies of SWCNT-fullerene OPV devices have climbed over the past few years, questions remain regarding the fundamental factors that currently limit their performance. In this study, we determine the exciton diffusion length in the C60 layer of SWCNT-C60 bilayer active layers using femtosecond transient absorption measurements. We demonstrate that hole transfer from photoexcited C60 molecules to SWCNTs can be tracked by the growth of narrow spectroscopic signatures of holes in the SWCNT 'reporter layer'. In bilayers with thick C60 layers, the SWCNT charge-related signatures display a slow rise over hundreds of picoseconds, reflecting exciton diffusion through the C60 layer to the interface. A model based on exciton diffusion with a Beer-Lambert excitation profile, as well as Monte Carlo simulations, gives the best fit to the data as a function of C60 layer thickness using an exciton diffusion length of approximately 5 nm.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Quantitative Measurement of Li-Ion Concentration and Diffusivity in Solid-State Electrolyte

Here, we present a quantitative method to measure the concentration and diffusivity of Li ion in a solid-state electrolyte with nanoscale depth resolution. We designed a standard sample with different depths of trenches and used time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy, three-dimensional (3D) optical microscopy, and electrochemical strain microscopy to obtain effective Li-ion concentration and the corresponding diffusivity as a function of depth. As a result, we verified the dependence of electromechanical strain induced by ionic oscillation on mobile-ion concentration. We also showed the diffusivity change as a function of effective concentration and discussed the difference in diffusivity near the surface and inside the bulk. Our method can be widely used for electromechanical strain in various ionic conductors, rendering our technique universal for quantitative analysis of ionic dynamics at a multiscale.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Neutron Reflectometry Reveals Diffusion in Contrast-Matched Brush Particle Bilayers

A material system for performing layer-spread experiments on brush particle bilayers is presented and used to determine the diffusion constant of brush particles in the melt state. Selective deuteration of the core and shell of organo-silica nanoparticles grafted with poly(methyl methacrylate) was used to match the scattering length density of the core and the polymer canopy layer. This subdued the scattering of particle cores (i.e., formfactor scattering) and enabled the analysis of the interdiffusion kinetics using neutron reflectivity. For low molecular grafts, i.e., grafts with a molecular weight below the entanglement limit, the interdiffusion kinetics revealed both a sub- and Fickian diffusion regime. The former was attributed to the local dynamics that was constrained by the slow-moving cores of neighboring brush particles that acted as long-lived physical cross-links. No transition to Fickian diffusion was observed for entangled systems, even at prolonged annealing times. This suggested a higher level of kinetic restraint in entangled brush particle melts as compared to, for example, star polymers with a comparable chain length for which Fickian diffusion has been reported under similar conditions.

Diffusion, Polymer Grafted Nanoparticles, Neutron ↗
DOE OSTI2025

Diffusion and Deformation Mechanism Maps in Li Metal from Atomistic Simulations

The rate of Li transport in the Li metal anode is important for the operation of Li metal-solid state batteries. Here, transport rates due to diffusion and creep are predicted in Li using atomistic simulations. First, molecular dynamics is used to estimate the rate of Li diffusion along dislocations and in grain boundary triple junctions. By combining this data with that from a prior study of grain boundary diffusion the dominant mechanisms and rates of self-diffusion in Li polycrystals are predicted as a function of grain size, grain shape, dislocation density, and temperature. Second, the dominant creep mechanisms are predicted and used to estimate critical current densities and void annihilation times. Grain boundary sliding and coble creep are the dominant mechanisms for micron-sized grains. Lastly, a continuum model for interfacial contact loss reveals that high dislocation densities of ∼10 12 /cm 2 enable achieving battery performance targets for Li grain sizes of ∼10 μm.

Batteries↗
DOE OSTI2024

Anomalous Interlayer Exciton Diffusion in WS 2 /WSe 2 Moiré Heterostructure

Stacking van der Waals crystals allows for the on-demand creation of a periodic potential landscape to tailor the transport of quasiparticle excitations. We investigate the diffusion of photoexcited electron-hole pairs, or excitons, at the interface of WS 2 /WSe 2 van der Waals heterostructure over a wide range of temperatures. We observe the appearance of distinct interlayer excitons for parallel and antiparallel stacking and track their diffusion through spatially and temporally resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy from 30 to 250 K. While the measured exciton diffusivity decreases with temperature, it surprisingly plateaus below 90 K. Our observations cannot be explained by classical models like hopping in the moiré potential. A combination of ab initio theory and molecular dynamics simulations suggests that low-energy phonons arising from the mismatched lattices of moiré heterostructures, also known as phasons, play a key role in describing and understanding this anomalous behavior of exciton diffusion. Our observations indicate that the moiré potential landscape is dynamic down to very low temperatures and that the phason modes can enable efficient transport of energy in the form of excitons.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2026

Henry’s Solubility and Diffusion Coefficients for 29 Volatile Organic Compounds in Polydimethylsiloxane Sylgard 184 at 293 K

Two-dimensional (2D) inverse gas chromatography (IGC) enables simultaneous determination of Henry’s solubility and Fickian diffusion coefficients for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in polymer films. This technique offers a significant advantage over traditional cylindrical column IGC by providing precise control and measurement of the film thickness (here, 0.064 ± 0.002 mm), which is the critical length scale for accurate diffusivity determination. We apply this methodology to characterize VOC transport in Sylgard 184, a widely used polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based polymer containing substantial silica filler content. At room temperature (20 °C), we measured solubility and diffusion coefficients for 29 common VOCs spanning diverse chemical functionalities, including alkanes, aromatics, chlorinated solvents, ketones, esters, and alcohols. Comparison with literature data for pure PDMS reveals that VOC solubility in Sylgard 184 is generally higher; for most non-hydrogen-bonding compounds it remains within a factor of 2 of pure PDMS, whereas alcohols are enhanced by roughly 1.8 to 3.7 times, which we attribute to favorable interactions with residual silanol groups on the silanized silica filler. Diffusion coefficients range from 1.0 × 10 –6 cm 2 /s (n-undecane) to 8.9 × 10–5 cm 2 /s (acetonitrile) and align well with extrapolated literature values for PDMS. This study provides essential thermodynamic and transport data for predicting VOC permeation in Sylgard 184 while demonstrating the utility of 2D IGC as a robust technique for characterizing rubbery polymer membranes across diverse industrial applications.

organic↗
DOE OSTI2022

Direct 2,3-Butanediol Conversion to Butene-Rich C 3+ Olefins over Copper-Modified 2D Pillared MFI: Consequence of Reduced Diffusion Length

2,3-Butanediol (2,3-BDO), a critical C 4 platform chemical derived from biomass, syngas, or CO 2 , can be converted to C 3+ olefins, serving as important renewable feedstocks for producing sustainable aviation fuels to decarbonize the hard-to-electrify air transportation sector. Herein, we report a bifunctional Cu-modified diffusion-free 2D pillared MFI catalyst (Cu/PMFI) which can selectively catalyze 2,3-BDO conversion to butene-rich C 3+ olefins (95% selectivity at 97% conversion, 523 K). 2,3-BDO conversion to butenes over Cu/PMFI primarily occurs via methyl ethyl ketone intermediate while 2-methyl propanal is also observed as another minor dehydration product that leads to butene formation. In comparison with a control mesoporous Cu/ZSM-5 sample prepared by the postsynthetic approach, Cu/PMFI shows favorable C 3+ olefin selectivity (95% over Cu/PMFI vs 80% over Cu/ZSM-5 at ~5.1 h TOS). The coke formation over Cu/PMFI is dramatically suppressed by >50% in contrast to Cu/ZSM-5 in 90 h 2,3-BDO conversion due to the reduced diffusion length. Cu/PMFI also favors butene formation and minimizes nonbutene C 3+ olefins by inhibiting the downstream oligomerization and cracking reactions. This study highlights the usefulness of the diffusion-free 2D PMFI materials in catalytic conversion of biomass-derived platform molecules and the significance of diffusion impact on catalyst coke formation and product distributions.

2,3-butanediol↗
DOE OSTI2012

Diffusion and Adsorption of Uranyl Carbonate Species in Nanosized Mineral Fractures

Atomistic simulations were performed to study the diffusion and adsorption of Ca{sub 2}UO{sub 2}(CO{sub 3}){sub 3} and of some of its constituent species, i.e., UO{sub 2}{sup 2+}, CO{sub 3}{sup 2-}, and UO{sub 2}CO{sub 3}, in feldspar nano-sized fractures. Feldspar is important to uranium remediation efforts at the U.S. Department of Energy Hanford site as it has been found in recent studies to host contaminants within its intragrain fractures. In addition, uranyl carbonate species are known to dominate U(VI) speciation in conditions relevant to the Hanford site. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations showed that the presence of the feldspar surface diminishes the diffusion coefficients of all the species considered in this work and that the diffusion coefficients do not reach their bulk aqueous solution values in the center of a 2.5 nm fracture. Moreover, the MD simulations showed that the rate of decrease in the diffusion coefficients with decreasing distance from the surface is greater for larger adsorbing species. Free energy profiles of the same species adsorbing on the feldspar surface revealed a large exothermic free energy of adsorption for UO{sub 2}{sup 2+} and UO{sub 2}CO{sub 3}, which are able to adsorb to the surface with their uranium atom directly bonded to a surface hydroxyl oxygen, whereas adsorption of CO{sub 3}{sup 2-} and Ca{sub 2}UO{sub 2}(CO{sub 3}){sub 3}, which attach to the surface via hydrogen bonding from a surface hydroxyl group to a carbonate oxygen, was calculated to be either only slightly exothermic or endothermic.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2011

Diffusion of CO{sub 2} on Rutile TiO{sub 2}(110) Surface

The diffusion of CO{sub 2} molecules on a reduced rutile TiO{sub 2}(110)-(1×1) surface has been investigated using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The STM feature associated with a CO{sub 2} molecule at an oxygen vacancy (V{sub O}) becomes increasingly streaky with increasing temperature, indicating thermally activated CO{sub 2} diffusion from the V{sub O} site. From temperature-dependent tunneling current measurements, the barrier for diffusion of CO{sub 2} from the V{sub O} site is estimated to be 3.31 ± 0.23 kcal/mol. The corresponding value from the DFT calculations is 3.80 kcal/mol. In addition, the DFT calculations give a barrier for diffusion of CO{sub 2} along Ti rows of only 1.33 kcal/mol.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2023

Resolution of a Few Problems in the Application of Quasilinear Theory to Calculating Diffusion Coefficients in Heliophysics

A theory of quasilinear diffusion for obliquely propagating electromagnetic waves was developed in the 1960's and applied in the 1970's to model scattering of relativistic electrons by a prescribed distribution of waves. In the latter work, a transformation of variables, from wavevector space to the temporal frequency and tangent of the wave normal angle, was used so that simple Gaussian functions of frequency and tangent of the wave normal angle could be multiplied together to define the distribution of wave power, although arbitrary distributions of power in these two variables is also permitted. Finally, in 2005, previous work was consolidated and has been widely used in heliophysics studies that require computation of quasilinear diffusion coefficients. Here it is shown that this transformation is inppropriate when the precise wave vector distribution is known. The correct transformation is derived and used to produce diffusion coefficients that can differ by orders of magnitude from those computed using the inappropriate transformation. The differences are largest when the distribution of wave power extends to wave normal angles near the resonance cone. When the ratio of the plasma frequency to the gyrofrequency is large, only low energies (keV) are affected, but as the ratio decreases higher energies (MeV) also show differences. It is also shown that the derivation from the 1960's uses a notation that results in the diffusion coefficients depending on the distribution of wave power with respect to the wave azimuthal angle whereas there should be no such dependence.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Geometry-complete diffusion for 3D molecule generation and optimization

Abstract Generative deep learning methods have recently been proposed for generating 3D molecules using equivariant graph neural networks (GNNs) within a denoising diffusion framework. However, such methods are unable to learn important geometric properties of 3D molecules, as they adopt molecule-agnostic and non-geometric GNNs as their 3D graph denoising networks, which notably hinders their ability to generate valid large 3D molecules. In this work, we address these gaps by introducing the Geometry-Complete Diffusion Model (GCDM) for 3D molecule generation, which outperforms existing 3D molecular diffusion models by significant margins across conditional and unconditional settings for the QM9 dataset and the larger GEOM-Drugs dataset, respectively. Importantly, we demonstrate that GCDM’s generative denoising process enables the model to generate a significant proportion of valid and energetically-stable large molecules at the scale of GEOM-Drugs, whereas previous methods fail to do so with the features they learn. Additionally, we show that extensions of GCDM can not only effectively design 3D molecules for specific protein pockets but can be repurposed to consistently optimize the geometry and chemical composition of existing 3D molecules for molecular stability and property specificity, demonstrating new versatility of molecular diffusion models. Code and data are freely available on GitHub .

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2013

Quasilinear model for energetic particle diffusion in radial and velocity space

A quasilinear model for passive energetic particle (EP) turbulent diffusion in radial and velocity space is fitted and tested against nonlinear gyrokinetic tokamak simulations with the GYRO code [J. Candy and R. E. Waltz, Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 045001 (2003)]. Off diagonal elements of a symmetric positive definite 2 Multiplication-Sign 2 EP diffusion matrix account for fluxes up radial (energy) gradients driven by energy (radial) gradients of the EP velocity space distribution function. The quasilinear ratio kernel of the model is provided by a simple analytic formula for the EP radial and velocity space EP diffusivity relative to radial thermal ion energy diffusivity at each linear mode of the turbulence driven by the thermal plasma. The TGLF [G. M. Staebler, J. E. Kinsey, and R. E. Waltz, Phys. Plasmas 14, 0055909 (2007); ibid. 15, 0055908 (2008)] tokamak transport model provides the linear mode frequency and growth rates to the kernel as well as the nonlinear spectral weight for each mode.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

On collisional diffusion in a stochastic magnetic field

The effect of particle collisions on the transport in a stochastic magnetic field in tokamaks is investigated. The model of resonant magnetic perturbations generated by external coils at the plasma edge is used for the stochastic magnetic field. The particle collisions are simulated by a random walk process along the magnetic field lines and the jumps across the field lines at the collision instants. The dependencies of the local diffusion coefficients on the mean free path λ{sub mfp}, the diffusion coefficients of field lines D{sub FL}, and the collisional diffusion coefficients, χ{sub ⊥} are studied. Based on these numerical data and the heuristic arguments, the empirical formula, D{sub r}=χ{sub ⊥}+v{sub ||}D{sub FL}/(1+L{sub c}/λ{sub mfp}), for the local diffusion coefficient is proposed, where L{sub c} is the characteristic length of order of the connection length l{sub c}=πqR{sub 0}, q is the safety factor, R{sub 0} is the major radius. The formula quite well describes the results of numerical simulations. In the limiting cases, the formula describes the Rechester-Rosenbluth and Laval scalings.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Sub-diffusion and trapped dynamics of neutral and charged probes in DNA-protein coacervates

The physical mechanism leading to the formation of large intermolecular DNA-protein complexes has been studied. Our study aims to explain the occurrence of fast coacervation dynamics at the charge neutralization point, followed by the appearance of smaller complexes and slower coacervation dynamics as the complex experiences overcharging. Furthermore, the electrostatic potential and probe mobility was investigated to mimic the transport of DNA / DNA-protein complex in a DNA-protein complex coacervate medium [N. Arfin and H. B. Bohidar, J. Phys. Chem. B 116, 13192 (2012)] by assigning neutral, negative, or positive charge to the probe particle. The mobility of the neutral probe was maximal at low matrix concentrations and showed random walk behavior, while its mobility ceased at the jamming concentration of c = 0.6, showing sub-diffusion and trapped dynamics. The positively charged probe showed sub-diffusive random walk followed by trapped dynamics, while the negatively charged probe showed trapping with occasional hopping dynamics at much lower concentrations. Sub-diffusion of the probe was observed in all cases under consideration, where the electrostatic interaction was used exclusively as the dominant force involved in the dynamics. For neutral and positive probes, the mean square displacement 〈R{sup 2}〉 exhibits a scaling with time as 〈R{sup 2}〉 ∼ t{sup α}, distinguishing random walk and trapped dynamics at α = 0.64 ± 0.04 at c = 0.12 and c = 0.6, respectively. In addition, the same scaling factors with the exponent β = 0.64 ± 0.04 can be used to distinguish random walk and trapped dynamics for the neutral and positive probes using the relation between the number of distinct sites visited by the probe, S(t), which follows the scaling, S(t) ∼ t{sup β}/ln (t). Our results established the occurrence of a hierarchy of diffusion dynamics experienced by a probe in a dense medium that is either charged or neutral.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2013

Diffusion coefficient of three-dimensional Yukawa liquids

The purpose of this work is an investigation of the diffusion coefficient of the dust component in complex plasma. The computer simulation of the Yukawa liquids was made on the basis of the Langevin equation, which takes into account the influence of buffer plasma on the dust particles dynamics. The Green–Kubo relation was used to calculate the diffusion coefficient. Calculations of the diffusion coefficient for a wide range of the system parameters were performed. Using obtained numerical data, we constructed the interpolation formula for the diffusion coefficient. We also show that the interpolation formula correctly describes experimental data obtained under microgravity conditions.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Phase transformations, heat evolution, and atomic diffusion during slow heating of Al-rich Al/Zr multilayered foils

We describe the energy and sequence of phase transformations in multilayered Al/Zr foils with atomic ratios of 3 Al:1 Zr during low temperature (<350 °C) heat treatments in a differential scanning calorimeter. The initial phase formed is an Al-rich amorphous phase that appears to grow by Zr diffusion through the amorphous phase. The subsequent nucleation and growth of tetragonal Al{sub 3}Zr along the Al/amorphous layer interface is mediated by Al diffusion through the crystalline intermetallic phase. Diffusion coefficients associated with these processes are higher than expected from reports of diffusivities measured at higher temperatures. The inferred heat of formation of the tetragonal Al{sub 3}Zr phase is 1240 ± 40 J/g (53 ± 2 kJ/mol atom). No anomalous variation in the energy or sequence of phase transformations is found with bilayer thickness for samples with bilayer thickness in the range of 17 nm to 90 nm despite anomalies in the bilayer dependence of self-propagating reaction velocities in the same foils.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗