Award Data

Hydrogen compression represents a key technical challenge for the widespread use of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV). To dispense hydrogen to a FCEV tank, hydrogen must be compressed to a minimum of 875 bar. Conventional compressors account for over half of the refueling station’s cost, have poor reliability, and insufficient flow rates. To enable the widespread use of FCEVs, an additional maj ...

The goal of the research is to provide pixelated diamond x-ray detectors with the required readout electronics for transmission imaging of hard and soft x-ray beams to facilitate the use of dynamic focusing at advanced light source facilities. This program investigates the use of polycrystalline diamond detectors and the associated readout electronics for x-ray imaging. The present technology, dev ...

Generation of carbon-based liquid fuels from reduction of CO2 using solar energy requires the development of improved membranes that provide good ionic conductivity and mechanical properties while minimizing the crossover of gases and reduction products. Using closely coordinated multiscale modeling, synthesis and characterization studies we propose to investigate and develop novel nanostructured ...

Recent advances in computing systems fundamentally changed the way we run our everyday lives; our healthcare, finances, scientific discoveries, and entertainment activities all heavily depend on computing infrastructures, and we are likely to increasingly depend on them in the future. However, typical high-performance-computing systems and datacenters already consume megawatts of power, and future ...

Sustainable fuels and chemicals production is necessary for the future of the global economy. Opus 12 has developed an electrochemical process to convert CO2 into solar chemicals and fuels. Key to our process is a new polymer-electrolyte membrane design that enables CO2 electroreduction in existing a polymer-electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyzer hardware. PEM electrolyzers are ideal for coupling ...

Managing the flow of water, nutrients, and contaminants in watersheds is vital to addressing pressing issues related to water scarcity, access to clean drinking water, energy production, resilience to natural and anthropogenic perturbations, and ecological restoration. Decisions about the management of watersheds critically depend on the accuracy with which the flow of water and chemicals through ...

The Neutron Spin Echo (NSE) method has provided unique information about the dynamics of soft materials, including confirmation of the de Gennes model of polymer reptation, and quantitative measurement of the bending moduli of various membranes. In almost all cases these measurements have been made at small neutron scattering angles, where structural correlations with length scales between 10 nm a ...

One of grand challenges in nanoscience and nanotechnology is to achieve fundamental under- standing of the dynamic evolution of materials in actual operating environment, non-equilibrium conditions, or undergoing chemical reactions at the nanoscale. This requires forefront advances in imaging and analysis techniques that combine nanometer-scale spatial resolution, optical excitation and spectrosco ...

The development of radiation detection materials would benefit with greater access to computational models that relate physical traits seen in manufacture with complex energy transitions occurring in the material that control operating performance. However, the HPC requirements behind these models remain beyond the reach of most businesses involved in this small yet vital field impacting National ...

Plasma facing components (PFCs) in future fusion power plants will be subjected to a concentrated flux of plasma particles resulting in very high surface erosion and heat loads. The material most suitable to withstand these extreme loading conditions is tungsten (W) due to its excellent thermal stability and having the highest melting point of the metals. The drawback of tungsten is its brittlenes ...