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Projects/Programs

Displaying 26 - 50 of 156

Carbon Capture, Use, and Sequestration

Ongoing
NIST develops benchmark materials, measurements, data, and models to accelerate innovation in and validate performance of materials and technologies for carbon capture and carbon sequestration in building materials.

Carbon Dioxide Removal Consortium

Ongoing
Industry is developing a variety of carbon capture and removal techniques including nature-based, hybrid, and engineered solutions. The scientific understanding, measurements, and models of these complex systems are still evolving. Furthermore, advanced technologies that enhance the applicability

Characterization of 3D Photovoltaics

Completed
First Generation (thick layers of crystalline silicon) and Second Generation (thin films of CdTe, CIGS, and related materials) PV devices are both well established in the marketplace, with well defined techniques for fabrication and characterization. Third Generation PV encompasses a wide diversity

Charpy Machine Verification Program

Ongoing
Impact testing is required for many critical applications in the construction, machinery and equipment, defense, and energy markets. Charpy testing provides data needed to ensure the quality and reliability of structural steel products. Over 1,000 machines per year are evaluated for conformance with

Combinatorial Approaches to Thin Film Nanomaterials

Completed
The behavior and performance of nanostructured materials and devices are governed by the chemistry and structure of their surfaces and interfaces. However, chemistry-structure-performance relationships in these systems are complex, so hundreds of experiments can be necessary to determine optimal

Complete Automation and Distribution of Parallel Simulation Tasks

Ongoing
In computational materials science, many problems require the execution of numerous parallel simulation tasks on High Performance Computing (HPC) resources. Often a single published data point is the result of several parallel tasks executed in a specific sequence. Despite the continual improvement

Cruciform Multiaxial Mechanical Testing

Ongoing
A new ARRA funded cruciform test machine is being installed in the NIST Center for Automotive Lightweighting. Its capabilities include 500kN load per axis, two DIC strain mapping systems (one for large field mapping and one for zooming in to study localizations or features), a high resolution, high

Crystal Plasticity Modeling of Yield Surface Evolution

A robust multiaxial constitutive law is needed to predict stresses within parts formed from sheet metal to be able to compensate for such phenomena as elastic springback. Ideally, the constitutive law would not need to be "trained" using empirical mechanical property data alone, but would be able to

Data Models for Expression of Uncertainty in Materials Data

Ongoing
The two main parts of this work are definition of appropriate data structures for different types of uncertainty analyses, and implementation of these data structures into analysis and visualization software for demonstration, testing, and use. The different types of uncertainty analyses to be

Deducing Prior Material Deformation from Simple Mechanics

Ongoing
Process-structure-property linkages suggest an opportunity to deduce processing from behavior. Simple imaging experiments provide rich sources of data. Can we deduce prior deformation? Scheme: Thin film plasticity Deform to some reference strain Unload Deform to test strain, image Deduce

Designing the Nanoworld: Nanostructure, Nanodevices, and Nano-optics

Ongoing
Developing and exploiting nanodevices for quantum and nanotechnologies requires nanoscale and atomic scale modeling of ultrasmall structures, devices, their operation, and their response to probes. Key challenges of understanding physics at the quantum/classical interface and measurement at the

Determinations of Boron Deposit Quality by Neutron Depth Profiling

Ongoing
Neutrons are not easily detected with high resolution and good efficiency. Consequently, high-quality neutron detectors remain a challenge to manufacture. A few nuclides such as He-3, Boron-10, and Li-6 are commonly used to convert impinging neutrons into an electrical pulse that post-processing

DFT Repositories and Informatics

Ongoing
Historically, the printed article has served as the medium de rigueur for the dissemination of scientific information. This works well when the context and results of an experiment or theory fit on a few pages; however, it is insufficient as a publication medium for many computational studies. For

Diffraction Metrology and Standards

Ongoing
Diffraction techniques can provide data on a number of sample characteristics. Therefore, the method of certification and the artifact itself are chosen to address a specific measurement issue pertinent to a diffraction experiment. NIST diffraction SRMs may be divided into five groups: Line Position

Directed Self Assembly of Block Copolymers for Nanopatterning

Ongoing
One of the key issues for DSA is the three dimensional structure of the block copolymer. For the example of line-space patterns made using lamella-forming block copolymers, it is possible to have the DSA form tilted lamella or complex mixed morphologies that are a combination of vertical and

Dynamic Plasticity: Non-Equilibrium Mechanics

Ongoing
The optimization of high-speed machining processes through powerful finite element modeling techniques is an important pathway to American manufacturing competitiveness in an increasingly competitive global marketplace. Quantitatively accurate simulations of machining rely on robust constitutive

Electronic Material Characterization

Ongoing
Manufacturing optimized devices that incorporate newly-emerging materials requires predictable performance throughout device lifetimes. Unexpected degradation in device performance, sometimes leading to failure, is often traceable to poor material reliability. Reliability is rooted in the stability

Electronic Structure and Dynamics in Quantum Materials

Ongoing
Photoemission-based methods that interrogate solid state electronic structure have played a pivotal role in identifying and understanding key features of emerging materials. Band structure information from Angle-Resolved PhotoEmission Spectroscpy (ARPES) provided the first evidence for the d-wave

Energy Storage & Delivery

Completed
Our program will address key measurement issues related to structure and dynamics of important classes of PEM materials, including emerging systems like block copolymers, polymer blends, and candidate materials proposed by industry leaders like GM. We are developing advanced methods that illuminate

Engineered Materials for Resilient Infrastructure Program

Ongoing
Objective - To develop and deploy measurement science to reliably assess the current and future performance of engineered materials in support of resilient infrastructure given exposure to chronic (e.g., materials degradation) and episodic (e.g., earthquakes) hazards. What is the technical idea? To

Engineering and Optical Characterization of Magnetic Nanoparticles (MNPs)

Completed
Nanomagnets by Design Nanoparticles are an important subclass of low-dimensional magnetic materials displaying size-dependent magnetic behavior. The controllable magnetocrystalline anisotropy introduced at nanoscale size regimes (as low as 3 nms in diameter) allows for MNPs of ferro/ferrimagnetic

Extreme Atom Probe Tomography

Ongoing
Sub-nanometer-resolved 3-D chemical mapping of any atom in any solid continues to be an imperative goal of materials research. If reduced to practice, it would have profound scientific, engineering, and economic impacts on U.S. industries collectively worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Such