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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 1,783 records · Page 99
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2018

Novel thin/tunable gas diffusion electrodes with ultra-low catalyst loading for hydrogen evolution reactions in proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cells

Proton exchange membrane electrolyzer cells (PEMECs) have received great attention for hydrogen/oxygen production due to their high efficiencies even at low-temperature operation. Because of the high cost of noble platinum-group metal (PGM) catalysts (Ir, Ru, Pt, etc.) that are widely used in water splitting, a PEMEC with low catalyst loadings and high catalyst utilizations is strongly desired for its wide commercialization. In this study, the ultrafast and multiscale hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) phenomena in an operating PEMEC is in-situ observed for the first time. The visualization results reveal that the HER and hydrogen bubble nucleation mainly occur on catalyst layers at the rim of the pores of the thin/tunable liquid/gas diffusion layers (TT-LGDLs). This indicates that the catalyst material of the conventional catalyst-coated membrane (CCM) that is located in the middle area of the LGDL pore is underutilized/inactive. Based on this discovery, a novel thin and tunable gas diffusion electrode (GDE) with a Pt catalyst thickness of 15 nm and a total thickness of about 25 um has been proposed and developed by taking advantage of advanced micro/nano manufacturing. The novel thin GDEs are comprehensively characterized both ex-situ and in-situ, and exhibit excellent PEMEC performance. More importantly, they achieve catalyst mass activity of up to 58 times higher than conventional CCM at 1.6 V under the operating conditions of 80 degrees C and 1 atm. This study demonstrates a promising concept for PEMEC electrode development, and provides a direction of future catalyst designs and fabrications for electrochemical devices.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2016

Measurement of longitudinal electron diffusion in liquid argon

In this paper, we report the measurement of longitudinal electron diffusion coefficients in liquid argon for electric fields between 100 and 2000 V/cm with a gold photocathode as a bright electron source. The measurement principle, apparatus, and data analysis are described. In the region between 100 and 350 V/cm, our results show a discrepancy with the previous measurement. In the region between 350 and 2000 V/cm, our results represent the world's best measurement. Over the entire measured electric field range, our results are systematically higher than the calculation of Atrazhev-Timoshkin. The quantum efficiency of the gold photocathode, the drift velocity and longitudinal diffusion coefficients in gas argon are also presented.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2019

Phase Stability and Diffusion in Lateral Heterostructures of Methyl Ammonium Lead Halide Perovskites

Mixed-halide hybrid organic inorganic perovskites have band gaps that span the visible spectrum making them candidates for optoelectronic devices. Diffusion of the halide atoms in methyl ammonium lead iodide (MAPbI 3 ) and its alloys with bromine has been observed in both dark and under illumination. While halide transport upon application of electric fields has received much attention, less is known regarding bromide and iodide interdiffusion down concentration gradients. This work provides an upper bound on the bromide-iodide interdiffusion coefficient $D_i$, in thin films of (MAPbBr x I 1-x ) 3 using a diffusion couple of a lateral heterostructure. The upper bound of $D_i$ was extracted from changes in the interface profiles of the heterostructures upon exposure to heat. The stability of thoroughly-heated interfacial profiles suggests that the miscibility gap extends to higher temperatures and to a higher fractional composition of bromine than predicted by theory. The results of this work provide guidance for compositions of thermally stable heterostructures of hybrid halide perovskites.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Diffusion-driven growth of nanowires by low-temperature molecular beam epitaxy

With ZnTe as an example, we use two different methods to unravel the characteristics of the growth of nanowires (NWs) by gold-catalyzed molecular beam epitaxy at low temperature. In the first approach, CdTe insertions have been used as markers, and the nanowires have been characterized by scanning transmission electron microscopy, including geometrical phase analysis and energy dispersive electron spectrometry; the second approach uses scanning electron microscopy and the statistics of the relationship between the length of the tapered nanowires and their base diameter. Axial and radial growth are quantified using a diffusion-limited model adapted to the growth conditions; analytical expressions describe well the relationship between the NW length and the total molecular flux (taking into account the orientation of the effusion cells), and the catalyst-nanowire contact area. A long incubation time is observed. This analysis allows us to assess the evolution of the diffusion lengths on the substrate and along the nanowire sidewalls, as a function of temperature and deviation from stoichiometric flux.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Studies of deep level centers determining the diffusion length in epitaxial layers and crystals of undoped n-GaN

A wide variety of parameters were measured for undoped n-GaN grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy and compared to n-GaN films grown by conventional and lateral overgrowth metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The parameters included deep level electron and hole trap spectra, microcathodoluminescence, electron beam induced current, diffusion length, and electron capture cross section from the dependence of the low temperature persistent photocapacitance on forward bias injection pulse duration. The results show a prominent role of electron traps with levels near E{sub c}-0.56 eV in limiting the lifetime and diffusion length values in all these materials.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2026

Intermediate time sub-diffusion and stress relaxation in ring polymer melts

The slow dynamics of non-concatenated ring melts remains a frontier problem in polymer science with implications for many soft material environments including cellular biophysics. Here, in this work, we report large-scale simulations of model ring melts that analyze the monomer and center-of-mass (CM) mean square displacements (MSD) and stress relaxation function on intermediate time and length scales. The degree of dynamical slowing down is characterized by the maximally sub-diffusive fractional time scaling exponents. The data span an exceptionally wide range of ring degrees of polymerization and stiffnesses and are not successfully organized based on the classic measure linear chain entanglement, N/N e . Rather, we find that the crossover degree of polymerization, N D , based on ring macromolecular caging that successfully allows master curves to be constructed for the long-time CM self-diffusion constant also collapses these temporal dynamic scaling exponents. Different properties display different exponents and exhibit one or two regimes of linear variation with the logarithm of N D / N . A distinct crossover of the CM-MSD and stress relaxation exponents emerges at sufficiently large N or stiffness that is not found for the monomer MSD, indicating a novel form of dynamic decoupling. This crossover aligns with the predicted critical degree of polymerization for transitioning from a weak to strong caging regime, indicative of activated transport. The latter may reflect the emergence of an intermolecular collective contribution to stress in analogy with dense soft colloidal matter. Suggestions are made for future theoretical work to address the rich patterns of behavior discovered.

Anomalous diffusion↗
DOE OSTI2023

Disentangling the effects of non-adiabatic interactions upon ion self-diffusion within warm dense hydrogen

Warm dense matter is a material state in the region of parameter space connecting condensed matter to classical plasma physics. In this intermediate regime, we investigate the significance of non-adiabatic electron-ion interactions upon ion dynamics. To disentangle non-adiabatic from adiabatic electron-ion interactions, we compare the ion self-diffusion coefficient from the non-adiabatic electron force field computational model with an adiabatic, classical molecular dynamics simulation. A classical pair potential developed through a force-matching algorithm ensures the only difference between the models is due to the electronic inertia. Here, we implement this new method to characterize non-adiabatic effects on the self-diffusion of warm dense hydrogen over a wide range of temperatures and densities. Ultimately we show that the impact of non-adiabatic effects is negligible for equilibrium ion dynamics in warm dense hydrogen.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2023

Breakdown of the drift-diffusion model for transverse spin transport in a disordered Pt film

Spin-accumulation and spin-current profiles are calculated for a disordered Pt film subjected to an in-plane electric current within the nonequilibrium Green's function approach. In the bulklike region of the sample, this approach captures the intrinsic spin Hall effect found in other calculations. Near the surfaces, the results reveal qualitative differences with the results of the widely used spin-diffusion model, even when the boundary conditions are modified to try to account for them. One difference is that the effective spin-diffusion length for transverse spin transport is significantly different from its longitudinal counterpart and is instead similar to the mean-free path. Furthermore, this feature may be generic for spin currents generated via the intrinsic spin Hall mechanism because of the differences in transport mechanisms compared to longitudinal spin transport. Orbital accumulation in the Pt film is only significant in the immediate vicinity of the surfaces and has a small component penetrating into the bulk only in the presence of spin-orbit coupling, as a secondary effect induced by the spin accumulation.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2019

Growth of Nb 3 Sn coating in tin vapor-diffusion process

The potential of Nb 3 Sn for superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities is widely recognized and renewed R&D efforts continue to bring new insights about the material's structure and properties. Here, we have systematically coated niobium with Nb 3 Sn for different durations, and several of them were coated over ("overcoat") multiple times, to elucidate the growth kinetics of Nb 3 Sn during tin vapor diffusion process. Analysis of coated samples is consistent with the model in which tin diffuses via grain boundaries to the Nb 3 Sn-Nb interface, where the growth of Nb 3 Sn into the Nb bulk takes place. Similar scaling laws were found for Nb 3 Sn grain growth and layer thickness. Non-parabolic layer growth is consistent with significant grain growth, which reduces the number of Sn transport channels. Examination of patchy region in Nb 3 Sn coating, revealing large single crystalline grains, points to impeded Nb 3 Sn layer growth due to low grain boundary density, resulting in a significantly thinner coating in those areas.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Methods for calculating X-ray diffuse scattering from a crystalline medium with spheroidal quantum dots

Two independent approaches to calculate the angular distribution of X-ray diffusion scattering from a crystalline medium with spheroidal quantum dots (QDs) have been proposed. The first method is based on the analytical solution involving the multipole expansion of elastic strain fields beyond QDs. The second approach is based on calculations of atomic displacements near QDs by the Green’s function method. An analysis of the diffuse scattering intensity distribution in the reciprocal space within these two approaches shows that both methods yield similar results for the chosen models of QD spatial distribution.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Fractional diffusion on bounded domains

We found that the mathematically correct specification of a fractional differential equation on a bounded domain requires specification of appropriate boundary conditions, or their fractional analogue. In this paper we discuss the application of nonlocal diffusion theory to specify well-posed fractional diffusion equations on bounded domains.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Geometry of Non-Diffusive Tracer Transport in Gridded Atmospheric Models

A first-order linear and numerically non-diffusive Eulerian transport algorithm, minVAR, was recently developed for preservation of correlations between interrelated tracers during advective transport. The present study extends this work by: (1) providing further investigation of several interesting geometric constructions found in contours of constant minVAR, short for minimum variance, through extension to three coordinate dimensions. These contours capture point-by-point representations of thousands of individual atmospheric aerosol and/or cloud particles as they evolve and are rendered on Eulerian grids at a level of sub-grid resolution limited only by numerical precision; and (2) exploration of geometric similarities between the Arakawa C-grid, used to obtain interpolated values of the wind field at grid scale and minVAR. In particular, we consider interpolation of the u and v horizontal components of wind velocity from grid to sub-grid scales. The last results are motivated by recent applications of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model applied in the coastal Houston region, where the recent TRacking Aerosol Convection Interactions ExpeRiment (TRACER) field campaign was organized. A unique and fully consistent mapping is obtained between particles moving along meteorological wind trajectories and the non-diffusive, non-dispersive representation of such trajectories on an Eulerian grid.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

Distributed Wind Diffusion Model Overview (Presentation)

Distributed wind market demand is driven by current and future wind price and performance, along with several non-price market factors like financing terms, retail electricity rates and rate structures, future wind incentives, and others. We developed a new distributed wind technology diffusion model for the contiguous United States that combines hourly wind speed data at 200m resolution with high resolution electricity load data for various consumer segments (e.g., residential, commercial, industrial), electricity rates and rate structures for utility service territories, incentive data, and high resolution tree cover. The model first calculates the economics of distributed wind at high spatial resolution for each market segment, and then uses a Bass diffusion framework to estimate the evolution of market demand over time. The model provides a fundamental new tool for characterizing how distributed wind market potential could be impacted by a range of future conditions, such as electricity price escalations, improvements in wind generator performance and installed cost, and new financing structures. This paper describes model methodology and presents sample results for distributed wind market potential in the contiguous U.S. through 2050.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Approximate solutions for diffusive fracture-matrix transfer: Application to storage of dissolved CO 2 in fractured rocks

Analytical solutions with infinite exponential series are available to calculate the rate of diffusive transfer between low-permeability blocks and high-permeability zones in the subsurface. Truncation of these series is often employed by neglecting the early-time regime. Here in this paper, we present unified-form approximate solutions in which the early-time and the late-time solutions are continuous at a switchover time. The early-time solutions are based on three-term polynomial functions in terms of square root of dimensionless time, with the first coefficient dependent only on the dimensionless area-to-volume ratio. The last two coefficients are either determined analytically for isotropic blocks (e.g., spheres and slabs) or obtained by fitting the exact solutions, and they solely depend on the aspect ratios for rectangular columns and parallelepipeds. For the late-time solutions, only the leading exponential term is needed for isotropic blocks, while a few additional exponential terms are needed for highly anisotropic rectangular blocks. The optimal switchover time is between 0.157 and 0.229, with highest relative approximation error less than 0.2%. The solutions are used to demonstrate the storage of dissolved CO 2 in fractured reservoirs with low-permeability matrix blocks of single and multiple shapes and sizes. These approximate solutions are building blocks for development of analytical and numerical tools for hydraulic, solute, and thermal diffusion processes in low-permeability matrix blocks.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Quantitative Evaluation of Radial Diffusion and Local Acceleration Processes During GEM Challenge Events

We simulate the radiation belt electron flux enhancements during selected Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM) challenge events to quantitatively compare the major processes involved in relativistic electron acceleration under different conditions. Van Allen Probes observed significant electron flux enhancement during both the storm time of 17–18 March 2013 and non–storm time of 19–20 September 2013, but the distributions of plasma waves and energetic electrons for the two events were dramatically different. During 17–18 March 2013, the SYM-H minimum reached -130 nT, intense chorus waves (peak B w ~140 pT) occurred at 3.5 < L < 5.5, and several hundred keV to several MeV electron fluxes increased by ~2 orders of magnitude mostly at 3.5 < L < 5.5. During 19–20 September 2013, the SYM-H remained higher than -30 nT, modestly intense chorus waves (peak B w ~80 pT) occurred at L > 5.5, and electron fluxes at energies up to 3 MeV increased by a factor of ~5 at L > 5.5. The two electron flux enhancement events were simulated using the available wave distribution and diffusion coefficients from the GEM focus group Quantitative Assessment of Radiation Belt Modeling. By comparing the individual roles of local electron heating and radial transport, our simulation indicates that resonant interaction with chorus waves is the dominant process that accounts for the electron flux enhancement during the storm time event particularly near the flux peak locations, while radial diffusion by ultralow-frequency waves plays a dominant role in the enhancement during the non–storm time event. Incorporation of both processes reasonably reproduces the observed location and magnitude of electron flux enhancement.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Chemo‐Mechanical Coupling in Hydrogels: Dynamics in the Diffusion‐Limited Regime

Hydrogels are characterized by substantial volume changes in response to external stimuli, making them promising candidates for developing smart materials with enhanced adaptability and responsiveness. By integrating chemical reactions, hydrogels acquire dynamic and tunable responsiveness to external stimuli through chemo‐mechanical coupling, expanding their potential in emerging applications. However, capturing their transient behavior remains challenging due to the complex interplay of chemical reactions, solvent transport, and polymer network deformation. Classical theories capture equilibrium swelling but fail to describe time‐dependent phenomena. To address this, a time‐dependent continuum model is developed that explicitly couples these processes. Volume phase transition in hydrogels with homogeneous chemical reactions is investigated, then the effects of reaction kinetics on these transitions are analyzed. The coupling of these mechanisms is further explored through a study of transient mechanical instabilities. To illustrate the impact of distinct reaction and diffusion timescales, a photo‐active gripper is studied for robotic applications. Finally, a photo‐active microswimmer that exhibits non‐reciprocal motion is proposed to highlight the solvent diffusion for locomotion at the micro‐ and nano‐ scales. The work establishes that transient dynamics of chemo‐mechanical hydrogels generate functions not accessible by steady state models and provides a predictive platform for designing adaptive materials in emerging applications.

chemo-mechanical coupling↗
DOE OSTI2021

3D-Printable Fluoropolymer Gas Diffusion Layers for CO 2 Electroreduction

The electrosynthesis of value-added multicarbon products from CO 2 is a promising strategy to shift chemical production away from fossil fuels. Particularly important is the rational design of gas diffusion electrode (GDE) assemblies to react selectively, at scale, and at high rates. However, the understanding of the gas diffusion layer (GDL) in these assemblies is limited for the CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR): particularly important, but incompletely understood, is how the GDL modulates product distributions of catalysts operating in high current density regimes > 300 mA cm -2 . Here, 3D-printable fluoropolymer GDLs with tunable microporosity and structure are reported and probe the effects of permeance, microstructural porosity, macrostructure, and surface morphology. Under a given choice of applied electrochemical potential and electrolyte, a 100× increase in the C 2 H 4 :CO ratio due to GDL surface morphology design over a homogeneously porous equivalent and a 1.8× increase in the C 2 H 4 partial current density due to a pyramidal macrostructure are observed. Overall, these findings offer routes to improve CO 2 RR GDEs as a platform for 3D catalyst design.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗