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At least 163 records · Page 9

Anisotropic structure and optical engineering of strontium titanate and zirconia responding to sequential hydrogen and helium irradiation

Unraveling the correlation between strain engineering with anisotropic optical properties via nanoscale defects gradually evolved into a strategy for fundamental studies and technological applications, yet it remains understudied in functional complex oxides compared to metals and semiconductors. Here, the methodology of strain engineering for the determination of the lattice parameters, parallel/normal to the sample surface, in the individual layers of single-crystalline superlattices is derived, which is based on analysis of high-angle X-ray diffraction measurements in combination with diffraction reciprocal space mapping. With modeling that takes into account the effect of elastic properties, two elastically anisotropic materials, SrTiO 3 and ZrO 2 , have been compared in terms of defect-induced elastic strain caused by individual and sequential H + and He 2+ irradiation. The anisotropic lattice swelling with corresponding refractive index, and obstructive behavior of elastic strain recovery are demonstrated in SrTiO 3 , while approaching strain behaviors accompanied by isotropic refractive index distribution in both orientations are confirmed in ZrO 2 . Under sequential He 2+ /H + irradiation, pre-existing He-vacancy complexes acted as vacancy traps, preferentially capturing H + clusters to induce lattice distortion and enhance absorption. Nanohardness increments (ΔH) calculated by the DBH model matched nanoindentation results, confirming that sequential irradiation generated higher indentation yield stress than individual irradiations.

Anisotropic expansion↗

Reaction paths of methane activation and oxidation of surface intermediates over NiO on Ceria-Zirconia catalysts studied by In-situ FTIR spectroscopy

Methane activation over NiO/Ce 0.82 Zr 0.18 O 2 catalysts synthesized by combustion synthesis is studied by in-situ IR spectroscopy and correlated to the properties and oxygen speciation of the catalyst. Through XRD, H 2 -TPR, and pyridine adsorption followed by FTIR spectroscopy, the reducibility and Lewis acidity of the catalysts are assessed. In-situ FTIR spectroscopy is used to monitor the methane activation on catalyst surfaces. Complex IR features of methane-derived surface species are observed and are attributed to the formation of surface alkyl/alkoxy, aldehyde, formate/carbonate, and aromatic species. A data analysis algorithm is developed to evaluate the evolution of different surface species over time. The formation of formate and carbonate species is driven by adsorbed surface oxygen, while less reactive oxygen species associated with NiO allow for the production of aromatics and alkoxy intermediates. Finally, by tuning the reducibility and Lewis acidity of the catalyst, the selectivity to alkoxy intermediates can be improved.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Surface Lattice-Embedded Pt Single-Atom Catalyst on Ceria-Zirconia with Superior Catalytic Performance for Propane Oxidation

Tuning the metal–support interaction and coordination environment of single-atom catalysts can help achieve satisfactory catalytic performance for targeted reactions. Herein, via the facile control of calcination temperatures for Pt catalysts on pre-stabilized Ce 0.9 Zr 0.1 O 2 (CZO) support, Pt single atoms (Pt 1 ) with different strengths of Pt–CeO 2 interaction and coordination environment were successfully constructed. With the increase in calcination temperature from 350 to 750 °C, a stronger Pt–CeO 2 interaction and higher Pt-O-Ce coordination number were achieved due to the reaction between PtO x and surface Ce 3+ species as well as the migration of Pt 1 into the surface lattice of CZO. The Pt/CZO catalyst calcined at 750 °C (Pt/CZO-750) exhibited a surprisingly higher C 3 H 8 oxidation activity than that calcined at 550 °C (Pt/CZO-550). Here, through systematic characterizations and reaction mechanism study, it was revealed that the higher concentration of surface Ce 3+ species/oxygen vacancies and the stronger Pt–CeO 2 interaction on Pt/CZO-750 could better facilitate the activation of oxygen to oxidize C 3 H 8 into reactive carbonate/carboxyl species and further promote the transformation of these intermediates into gaseous CO 2 . The Pt/CZO-750 catalyst can be a potential candidate for the catalytic removal of hydrocarbons from vehicle exhaust.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Tuning the Interaction between Platinum Single Atoms and Ceria by Zirconia Doping for Efficient Catalytic Ammonia Oxidation

Aiming at the development of an efficient NH 3 oxidation catalyst to eliminate the harmful NH 3 slip from the stationary flue gas denitrification system and diesel exhaust aftertreatment system, a facile ZrO 2 doping strategy was proposed to construct Pt 1 /Ce x Zr 1–x O 2 catalysts with a tunable Pt-CeO 2 interaction strength and Pt–O–Ce coordination environment. According to the results of systematic characterizations, Pt species supported on Ce x Zr 1–x O 2 were mainly in the form of single atoms when x ≥ 0.7, and the strength of the Pt-CeO 2 interaction and the coordination number of Pt–O–Ce bond (CN Pt–O–Ce ) on Pt 1 /Ce x Zr 1–x O 2 showed a volcanic change as a function of the ZrO 2 doping amount. Here, it was proposed that the balance between the reasonable concentration of oxygen defects and limited surface Zr–O x species well accounted for the strongest Pt-CeO 2 interaction and the highest CN Pt–O–Ce on Pt/Ce 0.9 Zr 0.1 O 2 . It was observed that the Pt/Ce 0.9 Zr 0.1 O 2 catalyst exhibited much higher NH 3 oxidation activity than other Pt/Ce x Zr 1–x O 2 catalysts. The mechanism study revealed that the Pt 1 species with the stronger Pt-CeO 2 interaction and higher CN Pt–O–Ce within Pt/Ce 0.9 Zr 0.1 O 2 could better activate NH 3 adsorbed on Lewis acid sites to react with O 2 thus resulting in superior NH 3 oxidation activity. This work provides a new approach for designing highly efficient Pt/CeO 2 based catalysts for low-temperature NH 3 oxidation.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Direct Imaging of Asymmetric Interfaces and Electrostatic Potentials inside a Hafnia–Zirconia Ferroelectric Nanocapacitor

In hafnia-based thin-film ferroelectric devices, chemical phenomena during growth and processing, such as oxygen vacancy formation and interfacial reactions, appear to strongly affect device performance. However, the correlation between the structure, chemistry, and electrical potentials at the nanoscale in these devices is not fully known, making it difficult to understand their influence on device properties. Here, we directly image the composition and electrostatic potential with nanometer resolution in the cross section of a nanocrystalline W/Hf 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 2−δ (HZO)/W ferroelectric capacitor using multimodal electron microscopy. This reveals a 1.4 nm wide tungsten suboxide interfacial layer formed at the bottom interface during fabrication, which introduces a potential dip and leads to asymmetric switching fields. Additionally, we compare the measured potentials to DFT calculations and find it is nearly 3 V lower than expected in the HZO, which appears to be caused by oxygen vacancies and a resulting negative built-in potential. In conclusion, these chemical and electrostatic details are important to characterize and tune to achieve high-performance ferroelectric devices.

Defects in solids↗

Catalytic Reduction of Esters over Zirconia-Supported Metal Catalysts

Esters are often produced as unwanted byproducts during the catalytic upgrading of ethanol to diesel fuel precursors through Guerbet coupling. Removal of esters from the product stream is important to prevent the loss of downstream catalyst activity from ester-derived carboxylic acids. In this work, we studied ester hydrogenolysis to the parent alcohols as a viable route for enhanced diesel fuel production. Specifically, we investigated the reduction of hexyl acetate in butanol over ZrO 2 -supported Ni, Co, Cu, Rh, Pd, and Pt catalysts, where Cu/ZrO 2 was the most selective catalyst for the hydrogenolysis of hexyl acetate into hexanol and ethanol. Thermodynamic analysis reveals that a 90% alcohol yield can be obtained at 200 °C, 30 bar, and a relatively high H 2 :hexyl acetate molar ratio of 480:1. Experimentally, an alcohol yield of 88% yield was obtained with a 10 wt % Cu/ZrO 2 catalyst at these conditions with a residence time of 5.4 h kg cat kmol gas –1 . Catalytic tests on the support revealed that ZrO 2 catalyzes the transesterification reaction between hexyl acetate and butanol. However, only the Cu sites can catalyze the hydrogenolysis of the esters into the final alcohols. We developed a kinetic model for our experimental results, which shows that the transesterification and hydrogenolysis reactions run at two different timescales, the former being 10 times faster than the latter. Data regression has been used to develop a model to predict the mole fraction distribution of ester hydrogenolysis products over a wide range of contact times. Cu/ZrO 2 loses half its catalytic activity after 80 h of time on stream. Modeling of deactivation data reveals that the ZrO 2 support conserves a residual activity due to external active sites, while active sites over the Cu surface deactivate at different rates. Furthermore, the catalytic conversion of esters into their parent alcohols is relevant to the production of surrogate liquid fuels since alcohols can be bimolecularly dehydrated to produce a blend of ethers with diesel fuel-like properties.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Optimizing pulsed laser deposition of crystalline BiVO 4 thin films on yttrium-stabilized zirconia (110) substrates

Here, different conditions are explored to understand their effects on the pulsed laser deposition of BiVO 4 water splitting photoanodes, over YSZ (110) substrates. A two-step deposition (TSD) method can independently tune nucleation and bulk film growth, leading to the formation of a phase pure, crystalline BiVO 4 film with optimized water splitting activities.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗