Tunable Low Density Palladium Nanowire Foams

Nanostructured palladium foams offer exciting potential for applications in diverse fields such as catalyst, fuel cell, and particularly hydrogen storage technologies. We have fabricated palladium nanowire foams using a cross-linking and freeze-drying technique. These foams have a tunable density down to 0.1% of the bulk, and a surface area to volume ratio of up to 1,540,000:1. They exhibit highly attractive characteristics for hydrogen storage, in terms of loading capacity, rate of absorption and heat of absorption. The hydrogen absorption/desorption process is hysteretic in nature, accompanied by substantial lattice expansion/contraction as the foam converts between Pd and PdHx.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure

Validating the predicted lateral straggling of MeV-energy proton beams.

Proton imaging is a potential nondestructive method for characterizing NIF (National Ignition Facility) targets in two- and three-dimensions with micron-scale spatial resolution. The main limitation for high resolution imaging with proton beams, especially for thick samples, is the positional blurring of the proton beam, known as 'lateral straggling'. Accurate prediction of the amount of lateral straggling and, consequently, the achievable spatial resolution in pertinent NIF target material combinations and geometries requires validated proton transport models. We present results of Monte Carlo simulations of MeV-energy proton transport through thin ({approx}1 micron thick) metal foils. The calculated residual proton distributions are compared to recent lateral straggling measurements obtained at the LLNL 4-MV Pelletron accelerator

The Effect of Aspect Ratio and sp2/sp3 Content on the Field Emission Properties of Carbon Films Grown by Ns-Spiked PECVD

The authors have deposited carbon films from mixtures of methane and N{sub 2} using Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition. By changing the percentage of N{sub 2} in the feed gas, they were able to produce films that have various aspect ratios and sp{sup 2}/sp{sup 3} contents. The film with the highest field emission contains spears of aspect ratio of 10:1. They also found that in their sp{sup 3}-rich films, higher sp{sup 2} content enhanced field emission. This is ascribed to improved charge transport to the field emission sites

Fundamental hydrogen interactions with beryllium : a magnetic fusion perspective.

Increasingly, basic models such as density functional theory and molecular dynamics are being used to simulate different aspects of hydrogen recycling from plasma facing materials. These models provide valuable insight into hydrogen diffusion, trapping, and recombination from surfaces, but their validation relies on knowledge of the detailed behavior of hydrogen at an atomic scale. Despite being the first wall material for ITER, basic single crystal beryllium surfaces have been studied only sparsely from an experimental standpoint. In prior cases researchers used electron spectroscopy to examine surface reconstruction or adsorption kinetics during exposure to a hydrogen atmosphere. While valuable, these approaches lack the ability to directly detect the positioning of hydrogen on the surface. Ion beam techniques, such as low energy ion scattering (LEIS) and direct recoil spectroscopy (DRS), are two of the only experimental approaches capable of providing this information. In this study, we applied both LEIS and DRS to examine how hydrogen binds to the Be(0001) surface. Our measurements were performed using an angle-resolved ion energy spectrometer (ARIES) to probe the surface with low energy ions (500 eV - 3 keV He{sup +} and Ne{sup +}). We were able to obtain a 'scattering maps' of the crystal surface, providing insight on how low energy ions are focused along open surface channels. Once we completed a characterization of the clean surface, we dosed the sample with atomic hydrogen using a heated tungsten capillary. A distinct signal associated with adsorbed hydrogen emerged that was consistent with hydrogen residing between atom rows. To aid in the interpretation of the experimental results, we developed a computational model to simulate ion scattering at grazing incidence. For this purpose, we incorporated a simplified surface model into the Kalypso molecular dynamics code. This approach allowed us to understand how the incident ions interacted with the surface hydrogen, providing confirmation of the preferred binding site

3D Nanomagnetism in Low Density Interconnected Nanowire Networks.

Free-standing, interconnected metallic nanowire networks with densities as low as 40 mg/cm3 have been achieved over centimeter-scale areas, using electrodeposition into polycarbonate membranes that have been ion-tracked at multiple angles. Networks of interconnected magnetic nanowires further provide an exciting platform to explore 3-dimensional nanomagnetism, where their structure, topology, and frustration may be used as additional degrees of freedom to tailor the materials properties. New magnetization reversal mechanisms in cobalt networks are captured by the first-order reversal curve method, which demonstrate the evolution from strong demagnetizing dipolar interactions to intersection-mediated domain wall pinning and propagation, and eventually to shape-anisotropy dominated magnetization reversal. These findings open up new possibilities for 3-dimensional integrated magnetic devices for memory, complex computation, and neuromorphics