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Density functional theory is used by many researchers funded by the Department of Energy as a method for predicting the behavior of chemicals and materials used in energy applications. However, results of these calculations are often not standardized and, even when they are, expert-level understand of the methods is needed in order to properly perform a simulation. The energy research community a ...

New automotive engine technologies, such as direct injection with stratified charge combustion, are being explored under programs of the DOE and others that offer significant increases in efficiency and reductions in emissions. Research tools are needed to help determine how best to adequately control the combustion process throughout the engine operating envelope, to optimize combustion efficienc ...

The combination of X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) with x-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) provides unique diagnostic analysis of both the structure and chemical composition of complex heterogeneous materials. The penetration of X-rays make this method ideal for studying and optimizing material properties under realistic, real time reaction conditions with simultaneous analysis of r ...

NOVA Scientific proposes the development of efficient position sensitive detectors capable of time-tagging epithermal energy neutrons with high accuracy and efficiency. These devices will be able to perform energy-resolved imaging at the pulsed neutron sources and detect every neutron with spatial resolution of & lt; 60 m and timing resolution & lt; 1 s for thermal neutrons and & lt;100 ns for epi ...

Laser based advanced accelerators can achieve very high accelerating gradients, but their duty cycle is limited by the laser power availability and media recovery time. Inverse Free Electron Laser (IFEL) is a vacuum farfield laser accelerator scheme which does not rely on a medium (plasma) or a structure (metal or electric) and therefore is potentially capable of accelerating charged particles ver ...

A key requirement for microalgae biofuels production is a very low cost harvesting technology. Commercially available solidliquid separation technologies applicable to microalgae, such as chemical coagulation, membrane separations and centrifugation, are too costly for biofuels production or other lowcost microalgae processes, such as wastewater treatment. A low cost harvesting process is bio floc ...

Metrology is a multi-billion dollar industry that is an indispensable part of science and manufacturing. A variety of techniques including interferometric microscopes, scanning electron microscopes (SEM), X-ray, and atomic force microscopes (AFM) are used in X-ray mirror manufacturing. The performance of any tool directly depends on the ability to characterize and tune it ...

Organic chemicals comprise the dominant fraction of particulates found in atmospheric aerosols, and the largest proportions of these are secondary products formed in the atmosphere from oxidation of volatile organic compounds. Often these chemical transformations result from complex pathways involving species from different sources. To understand these processes, we need to be able to trace the ...

A major problem with nuclear fission reactors is the welding of components of dissimilar metals, where the filler is usually of an additional metal alloy that is not necessarily the same as the two parts to be joined. Welding of metals will often have a heat affected zone (HAZ) and a thermo- mechanically affected zone (TMAZ), which need to be post-weld heat treated to minimize precipitation or seg ...

The remediation of underground nuclear waste storage tanks and associated disposal cribs and trenches at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear waste storage facilities, together with the associated needs to characterize and monitor the chemical compositions of the contaminants, presents a major scientific challenge. Several of these storage tanks are leaking, and significant quantities of w ...