Michael Benson

Phase-stability in a U-Zr-Te-Nd multi-component metallic fuel for advanced nuclear reactors is systematically investigated by taking into account binary, ternary and quaternary interactions between elements involved. Historically, the onset of fuel-cladding chemical interactions (FCCI) greatly limits the burnup potential of U-Zr fuels primarily due to interactions between lanthanide fission products and cladding constituents. Tellurium (Te) is evaluated as a potential additive for U-Zr fuels to bind with lanthanide fission products, e.g. neodymium (Nd), negating or mitigating the FCCI effect. Potential fresh fuel alloy compositions with the Te additive, U-Zr-Te, are characterized. Te is found to completely bind with Zr within the U-Zr matrix. Alloys simulating the formation of the lanthanide element Nd within U-Zr-Te are also evaluated, where the Te-Nd binary interaction dominates and NdTe is found to form as a high temperature stable compound. The experimental observations agree well with the trends obtained from density functional theory calculations. According to the calculated enthalpy of mixing, Zr-Te compound formation is favored in the U-Zr-Te alloy whereas NdTe compound formation is favored in the U-Zr-Te-Nd alloy. Further, the calculated charge density distribution and density of states provide sound understanding of the mutual chemical interactions between elements and phase-stability within the multi-component fuel.

There needs to be significant improvements made in lithium-ion battery technology principally in the areas of safety and useful lifetimes to truly enable widespread adoption of large format batteries for the electrification of the light transportation fleet. In order to effect the transition to lithium ion technology in a timely fashion, one promising next step is through improvements to the electrolyte in the form of novel additives that simultaneously improve safety and useful lifetimes without impairing performance characteristics over wide temperature and cycle duty ranges. Recent efforts in our laboratory have been focused on the development of such additives. This paper presents the results of the study of a series of structurally similar phosphazenes that exhibit promise for use as electrolyte additives. This series, termed the SM series, employs cyclic phosphazene trimers with six pendant groups each composed of short chain linear ethers.

We computed via first-principles density functional theory calculations (employing both the local density and generalized gradient approximations) the dimensions, bond lengths and angles, binding energy, and HOMO–LUMO gap of the following hypothetical neutral hollow octahedral molecules: B48H24, C48H48, C96H80 (formed by bonding two C48H48 molecules), N48H24, Al48H24, and Si48H48; B24O24, C24O24, N24O24, Al24O24, and Si24O24. Each molecule consists of a large hollow framework of six puckered eight-membered rings whose planes are either mutually perpendicular or parallel, so that each molecule possesses only eight- and nine-membered rings. The hydrides have their hydrogen atoms attached only to the two-atom bridging sites on the framework. The oxides have their oxygen atoms occupying exclusively the two-atom bridging sites of the framework alternating with the (B, C, N, Al, Si) atoms exclusively occupying the three-atom bridging sites. We also calculated the infrared spectra of the C48H48 and the C24O24 molecules. For the sake of comparison, we also examined the hypothetical octahedral C48 fullerene cuboctohedron (possessing four-, six-, and eight-membered rings) studied by Dunlap and Taylor. The molecules based on carbon would be the most stable; those based on nitrogen would be the least stable, if at all.