17 research outputs found
A systematic study on the structural and optical properties of vertically aligned zinc oxide nanorods grown by high pressure assisted pulsed laser deposition technique
In this study, we synthesize high quality vertically aligned ZnO (VAZO) nanorods on silicon, sapphire, and indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates by using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique at high growth pressure (0.3 Torr). Systematic changes in structural and optical properties of VAZO nanorods are studied by varying the substrate temperature (500–600 °C) and number of pulsed laser shots during the deposition. ZnO nanoparticles deposited at high pressure act as nucleation sites, eliminating requirement of catalyst to fabricate VAZO nanorods. Two sharp ZnO peaks with high intensity correspond to the (0002) and (0004) planes in X-ray diffraction pattern confirm the growth of ZnO nanorods, oriented along the c-axis. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) images indicate a regular arrangement of vertically aligned hexagonal closed pack nano-structures of ZnO. The vertical alignment of ZnO nanorods is also supported by the presence of E2 (high) and A1 (LO) modes in Raman spectra. We can tune the diameter of VAZO nanorods by changing growth temperature and annealing environments. Photoluminescence spectroscopy illustrates reduction in defect level peak intensities with increase in diameter of VAZO nanorods. This study signifies that high pressure PLD technique can be used more efficiently for controlled and efficient growth of VAZO nanorods on different substrates
Finite Element Analysis and Machine Learning Guided Design of Carbon Fiber Organosheet-based Battery Enclosures for Crashworthiness
Carbon fiber composite can be a potential candidate for replacing metal-based
battery enclosures of current electric vehicles (E.V.s) owing to its better
strength-to-weight ratio and corrosion resistance. However, the strength of
carbon fiber-based structures depends on several parameters that should be
carefully chosen. In this work, we implemented high throughput finite element
analysis (FEA) based thermoforming simulation to virtually manufacture the
battery enclosure using different design and processing parameters.
Subsequently, we performed virtual crash simulations to mimic a side pole crash
to evaluate the crashworthiness of the battery enclosures. This high throughput
crash simulation dataset was utilized to build predictive models to understand
the crashworthiness of an unknown set. Our machine learning (ML) models showed
excellent performance (R2 > 0.97) in predicting the crashworthiness metrics,
i.e., crush load efficiency, absorbed energy, intrusion, and maximum
deceleration during a crash. We believe that this FEA-ML work framework will be
helpful in down select process parameters for carbon fiber-based component
design and can be transferrable to other manufacturing technologies
Mechanistic Insight into the Attachment of Fullerene Derivatives on Crystal Faces of Methylammonium Lead Iodide Based Perovskites
Recent studies suggest that electron
transport layers (ETLs) comprising
[6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM), employed in planar
perovskite solar cells, reduce hysteresis by passivating the deep
trap states, thereby underscoring the importance of interfacial structures.
To gain physical insights into the PCBM–perovskite interfaces
during solution processing, we performed molecular dynamics simulations
of PCBMs solvated in chlorobenzene near (110) and (100) perovskite
surfaces. Our results indicate strong orientational preferences of
deposited PCBMs with the strongest associations between the carbonyl
oxygen atom of PCBM and the terminating Pb and H atoms of (110) and
(100) faces of perovskite, respectively. The phenyl moiety shows weak
associations with the (100) perovskite surface enabling two-pronged
anchoring that might facilitate charge transfer. In-plane ordering
of PCBMs on perovskite surfaces indicates that a more densely packed
monolayer is formed on the (110) surface compared to that on the (100)
surface and might lead to more efficient electron transport
Machine-learning-guided descriptor selection for predicting corrosion resistance in multi-principal element alloys
More than $270 billion is spent on combatting corrosion annually in the USA alone. As such, we present a machine-learning (ML) approach to down select corrosion-resistant alloys. Our focus is on a non-traditional class of alloys called multi-principal element alloys (MPEAs). Given the vast search space due to the variety of compositions and descriptors to be considered, and based upon existing corrosion data for MPEAs, we demonstrate descriptor optimization to predict corrosion resistance of any given MPEA. Our ML model with descriptor optimization predicts the corrosion resistance of a given MPEA in the presence of an aqueous environment by down selecting two environmental descriptors (pH of the medium and halide concentration), one chemical composition descriptor (atomic % of element with minimum reduction potential), and two atomic descriptors (difference in lattice constant (Δa) and average reduction potential). Our findings show that, while it is possible to down select corrosion-resistant MPEAs by using ML from a large search space, a larger dataset and higher quality data are needed to accurately predict the corrosion rate of MPEAs. This study shows both the promise and the perils of ML when applied to a complex chemical phenomenon like corrosion of alloys.This article is published as Roy, Ankit, M. F. N. Taufique, Hrishabh Khakurel, Ram Devanathan, Duane D. Johnson, and Ganesh Balasubramanian. "Machine-learning-guided descriptor selection for predicting corrosion resistance in multi-principal element alloys." npj Materials Degradation 6, no. 1 (2022): 1-10. DOI: 10.1038/s41529-021-00208-y. Copyright 2022 Battelle Memorial Institute. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
Posted with permission. DOE Contract Number(s): AC05-76RL01830; AC02-07CH11358
Machine learning assisted prediction of the Young’s modulus of compositionally complex alloys
We identify compositionally complex alloys (CCAs) that offer exceptional mechanical properties for elevated temperature applications by employing machine learning (ML) in conjunction with rapid synthesis and testing of alloys for validation to accelerate alloy design. The advantages of this approach are scalability, rapidity, and reasonably accurate predictions. ML tools were implemented to predict Young’s modulus of refractory-based CCAs by employing different ML models. Our results, in conjunction with experimental validation, suggest that average valence electron concentration, the difference in atomic radius, a geometrical parameter λ and melting temperature of the alloys are the key features that determine the Young’s modulus of CCAs and refractory-based CCAs. The Gradient Boosting model provided the best predictive capabilities (mean absolute error of 6.15 GPa) among the models studied. Our approach integrates high-quality validation data from experiments, literature data for training machine-learning models, and feature selection based on physical insights. It opens a new avenue to optimize the desired materials property for different engineering applications.This article is published as Khakurel, Hrishabh, M. F. N. Taufique, Ankit Roy, Ganesh Balasubramanian, Gaoyuan Ouyang, Jun Cui, Duane D. Johnson, and Ram Devanathan. "Machine learning assisted prediction of the Young’s modulus of compositionally complex alloys." Scientific Reports 11, no. 1 (2021): 1-10. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-96507-0. Copyright 2021 Battelle Memorial Institute. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Posted with permission.
DOE Contract Number(s): AC02-07CH11358; AC05-76RL01830
Automated Grain Boundary (GB) Segmentation and Microstructural Analysis in 347H Stainless Steel Using Deep Learning and Multimodal Microscopy
Austenitic 347H stainless steel offers superior mechanical properties and
corrosion resistance required for extreme operating conditions such as high
temperature. The change in microstructure due to composition and process
variations is expected to impact material properties. Identifying
microstructural features such as grain boundaries thus becomes an important
task in the process-microstructure-properties loop. Applying convolutional
neural network (CNN) based deep-learning models is a powerful technique to
detect features from material micrographs in an automated manner. Manual
labeling of the images for the segmentation task poses a major bottleneck for
generating training data and labels in a reliable and reproducible way within a
reasonable timeframe. In this study, we attempt to overcome such limitations by
utilizing multi-modal microscopy to generate labels directly instead of manual
labeling. We combine scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of 347H
stainless steel as training data and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD)
micrographs as pixel-wise labels for grain boundary detection as a semantic
segmentation task. We demonstrate that despite producing instrumentation drift
during data collection between two modes of microscopy, this method performs
comparably to similar segmentation tasks that used manual labeling.
Additionally, we find that na\"ive pixel-wise segmentation results in small
gaps and missing boundaries in the predicted grain boundary map. By
incorporating topological information during model training, the connectivity
of the grain boundary network and segmentation performance is improved.
Finally, our approach is validated by accurate computation on downstream tasks
of predicting the underlying grain morphology distributions which are the
ultimate quantities of interest for microstructural characterization
Simulation Studies to Quantify the Impacts of Point Defects: an Investigation of Cs2agbibr6 Perovskite Solar Devices Utilizing Zno and Cu2o As the Charge Transport Layers
In this investigation, we have applied SCAPS and wxAMPS to simulate defects and probe a photovoltaic device utilizing Cs2AgBiBr6 as the active photovoltaic layer and ZnO and Cu2O as the electron transport layer (ETL) and hole transport layer (HTL) respectively. At the Cs2AgBiBr6 bulk we find that with increasing defect density, each defect level has increasing impact on all device performance parameters. At a given defect density however, we find that that deeper defects have more profound impacts on Jsc and FF, and minimal effects on Voc. Specific to the Cs2AgBiBr6 structure, we have investigated VAg (shallow defect), VBi (deep defect) and Bri (quasi-deep defect). Our results provide insight into the growth conditions of Cs2AgBiBr6, with a need to have both Br-poor and Bi-rich conditions, and a preference for the latter over the former to suppress the deeper defect. Exploring the performance kinetics at the ZnO/Cs2AgBiBr6 and Cs2AgBiBr6/Cu2O interfaces due to defect type, location and density, we showcase a remarkably stable behavior in both Voc and Jsc across both interfaces. We attribute this to much higher charge mobilities in the ZnO and Cu2O compared to the Cs2AgBiBr6 layer combined with similar defect densities across the layers, leading to effective charge extraction and minimal charge recombination