26,120 research outputs found
The electrochemical generation of useful chemical species from lunar materials
Electrochemical cells have been fabricated for the simultaneous generation of oxygen and lithium from a Li2O containing molten salt (Li2O-LiCl-LiF). The cell utilizes an oxygen vacancy conducting solid electrolyte, yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), to effect separation between oxygen evolving and lithium reduction half-cell reactions. The cell, which operates at 700 to 850 C, possesses rapid electrode kinetics at the lithium-alloy electrode with exchange current density (i sub o) values being greater than 60mA sq cm. When used in the electrolytic mode, lithium produced at the negative electrode would be continuously removed from the cell for later use (under lunar conditions) as an easily storable reducing agent (compared to H2) for the chemical refining of lunar ores. Because of the high reversibility of this electrochemical system, it has also formed tha basis for the lithium oxygen secondary battery system which possesses the highest theoretical energy density yet investigated
The electrochemical generation of useful chemical species from lunar materials
The current status of work on an electrochemical technology for the simultaneous generation of oxygen and lithium from a Li2O containing molten salt (Li2O-LiCl-LiF) is discussed. The electrochemical cell utilizes an oxygen vacancy conducting solid electrolyte, yttria-stabilized zirconia, to effect separation between the oxygen evolving and lithium reduction half-cell reactions. The cell, which operates at 700 to 800 C, possesses rapid electrode kinetics at the lithium-alloy electrode with exchange current density values being greater than 60 mA/sq cm, showing high reversibility for this reaction. When used in the electrolytic mode, lithium produced at the negative electrode would be continuously removed from the cell for later use (under lunar conditions) as an easily storable reducting agent (compared to H2) for the chemical refining of lunar ores via the general reaction: 2Li + MO yields Li2O + M where MO represents a lunar ore. Emphasis to this time has been on the simulated lunar ore ilmenite (FeTiO3), which we have found becomes chemically reduced by Li at 432 C. Furthermore, both Fe2O3 and TiO2 have been reduced by Li to give the corresponding metal. This electrochemical approach provides a convenient route for producing metals under lunar conditions and oxygen for the continuous maintenance of human habitats on the Moon's surface. Because of the high reversibility of this electrochemical system, it has also formed the basis for the lithium-oxygen secondary battery. This secondary lithium-oxygen battery system posses the highest theoretical energy density yet investigated
Semimetalic graphene in a modulated electric potential
The -electronic structure of graphene in the presence of a modulated
electric potential is investigated by the tight-binding model. The low-energy
electronic properties are strongly affected by the period and field strength.
Such a field could modify the energy dispersions, destroy state degeneracy, and
induce band-edge states. It should be noted that a modulated electric potential
could make semiconducting graphene semimetallic, and that the onset period of
such a transition relies on the field strength. There exist infinite
Fermi-momentum states in sharply contrast with two crossing points (Dirac
points) for graphene without external fields. The finite density of states
(DOS) at the Fermi level means that there are free carriers, and, at the same
time, the low DOS spectrum exhibits many prominent peaks, mainly owing to the
band-edge states.Comment: 12pages, 5 figure
Crystallization and preliminary crystallographic analysis of the DNA gyrase B protein from B-stearothermophilus
DNA gyrase B (GyrB) from B. stearothermophilus has been crystallized in the presence of the non-hydrolyzable ATP analogue, 5'-adenylpl-beta-gamma-imidodiphosphate (ADPNP), by the dialysis method. A complete native data set to 3.7 Angstrom has been collected from crystals which belonged to the cubic space group I23 with unit-cell dimension a = 250.6 Angstrom. Self-rotation function analysis indicates the position of a molecular twofold axis. Low-resolution data sets of a thimerosal and a selenomethionine derivative have also been analysed. The heavy-atom positions are consistent with one dimer in the asymmetric unit
Application of selective epitaxy to fabrication of nanometer scale wire and dot structures
The selective growth of nanometer scale GaAs wire and dot structures using metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy is demonstrated. Spectrally resolved cathodoluminescence images as well as spectra from single dots and wires are presented. A blue shifting of the GaAs peak is observed as the size scale of the wires and dots decreases
Decoherence of flux qubits due to 1/f flux noise
We have investigated decoherence in Josephson-junction flux qubits. Based on
the measurements of decoherence at various bias conditions, we discriminate
contributions of different noise sources. In particular, we present a Gaussian
decay function of the echo signal as evidence of dephasing due to flux
noise whose spectral density is evaluated to be about /Hz
at 1 Hz. We also demonstrate that at an optimal bias condition where the noise
sources are well decoupled the coherence observed in the echo measurement is
mainly limited by energy relaxation of the qubit.Comment: 4 pages, error in Fig.4 corrected, to appear in PR
Detection of mechanical resonance of a single-electron transistor by direct current
We have suspended an Al based single-electron transistor whose island can
resonate freely between the source and drain leads forming the clamps. In
addition to the regular side gate, a bottom gate with a larger capacitance to
the SET island is placed underneath to increase the SET coupling to mechanical
motion. The device can be considered as a doubly clamped Al beam that can
transduce mechanical vibrations into variations of the SET current. Our
simulations based on the orthodox model, with the SET parameters estimated from
the experiment, reproduce the observed transport characteristics in detail.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Self-energy corrections to anisotropic Fermi surfaces
The electron-electron interactions affect the low-energy excitations of an
electronic system and induce deformations of the Fermi surface. These effects
are especially important in anisotropic materials with strong correlations,
such as copper oxides superconductors or ruthenates. Here we analyze the
deformations produced by electronic correlations in the Fermi surface of
anisotropic two-dimensional systems, treating the regular and singular regions
of the Fermi surface on the same footing. Simple analytical expressions are
obtained for the corrections, based on local features of the Fermi surface. It
is shown that, even for weak local interactions, the behavior of the
self-energy is non trivial, showing a momentum dependence and a self-consistent
interplay with the Fermi surface topology. Results are compared to experimental
observations and to other theoretical results.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure
Four Measures of the Intracluster Medium Temperature and Their Relation to a Cluster's Dynamical State
We employ an ensemble of hydrodynamic cluster simulations to create spatially
and spectrally resolved images of quality comparable to Chandra's expected
performance. Emission from simulation mass elements is represented using the
XSPEC mekal program assuming 0.3 solar metallicity, and the resulting spectra
are fit with a single-temperature model. Despite significant departures from
isothermality in the cluster gas, single-temperature models produce acceptable
fits to 20,000 source photon spectra. The spectral fit temperature T_s is
generally lower than the mass weighted average temperature T_m due to the
influence of soft line emission from cooler gas being accreted as part of the
hierarchical clustering process. In a Chandra-like bandpass of 0.5 to 9.5 keV
we find a nearly uniform fractional bias of (T_m-T_s)/T_s = 20% with occasional
large deviations in smaller clusters. In the more traditional 2.0 to 9.5 keV
bandpass, the fractional deviation is scale-dependent and on average follows
the relation (T_m-T_s)/T_s = 0.2 log(T_m). This bias results in a spectral
mass-temperature relationship with slope about 1.6, intermediate between the
virial relation M ~ T_m^{3/2} and the observed relation M_{ICM} ~ T^2. Imaging
each cluster in the ensemble at 16 epochs in its evolutionary history, we
catalogue merger events with mass ratios exceeding 10% in order to investigate
the relationship between spectral temperature and proximity to a major merger
event. Clusters that are very cool relative to the mean mass-temperature
relationship lie preferentially close to a merger, suggesting a viable
observational method to cull a subset of dynamically young clusters from the
general population.Comment: 34 pages, including 2 tables and 14 figures (one in color). Compiled
using LaTeX 2.09 with graphics package and aaspp4 style. The simulated
spectral data files used in this paper are available for public consumption
at http://redshift.stanford.edu/bfm
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