Award Data

There is a pressing need to develop high-conversion-efficiency thermoelectric (TE) generators for cost-effective industrial waste heat recovery. The key to the development of such high-efficiency TE systems is the development of a TE material with a high ZT value. An opportunity exists to develop a novel, low-cost, bulk nanotube-enhanced nanocomposite to achieve this goal. This project will (1) ...

Semi-volatile organic compounds are a significant, but poorly characterized fraction of atmosphere aerosols. Many are formed through photochemical processing of more volatile organics, and once oxidized tend to form less volatile compounds that condense into the particulate phase. Knowledge at the molecular level of their abundance and vapor-particle phase partitioning is needed to understand th ...

SPMs are a strategically vital tool for nanotechnology research constituting a $250 Mill/yr industry while enabling several multi-Billion downstream industries like Materials and Pharmaceuticals. However, their single biggest drawback is their inability to obtain any chemical information on their samples. As our letters of support reiterate, this impacts DOE researchers in the Genome to Life; Or ...

Existing and planned neutron facilities, such as the Spallation Neutron source, generate bursts of cold neutrons for materials research. The efficiency of the beam line components, which convert the fast neutrons to a cold neutron beam, determines the usefulness of the facility. Existing solid methane moderators have a high efficiency, but can¿t be scaled to work on high power facilities. A cold ...

This phase I STTR proposal is aimed at reducing cost of energy generation in crystalline silicon solar cells. Cost of the Si wafer itself accounts for over 50 % of energy conversion, therefore, economic use of Si can potentially reduced costs by a factor of 10 by reducing current mass/watt ratios of ~ 3 g/W to ~ 0.4 g/W. Economic use of Si in the form of thin (~ 25 µm) films can reduce energy gen ...

The U.S. Department of Energy aims to minimize our reliance on petroleum and natural gas, and to mitigate the adverse environmental impacts resulting from fossil fuel combustion. In this project, photocatalytic reduction technology will be developed for transforming atmospheric CO2 to commodity fuels and chemical products. The approach will utilize efficient and durable photo-electrochemical (P ...

Model-based electron accelerator control systems are used to maintain the parameters of an electron beam ¿ such as its orbit, size, and shape ¿ at their optimum values. These systems work well when the model reflects reality. However, an inherently complex problem still remains: these systems use complex numerical algorithms, commonly known as nonlinear solvers that are difficult to control a ...

A capability to locate and quantify structural damage is one of the most important requirements for verifying and maintaining the safety and integrity of wind turbine blades. Consequently, a robust and reliable, nondestructive, defect and damage identification and assessment system is needed to guide maintenance and avoid disaster. This project will develop a Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) integrated ...

Spectroscopy in the long-wave infrared (LWIR) wavelength region (8 to 12 µm) is useful for detecting trace chemical compounds, such as those indicative of weapons of mass destruction. To enable the development of field portable systems for anti-proliferation efforts, current spectroscopy systems need to be made more robust, convenient, and practical (e.g., miniaturized). Fiber optics that can ...

Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plants are gaining popularity due to their higher cycle efficiency, which is achieved by pushing the inlet operating temperature beyond 1400oC. However, in order to meet long-term goals, with target efficiencies greater than 50% and with lower emissions, the inlet temperature may need to be raised even higher (to 1500ºC or higher). In turn, ...