The commercial deployment of cost-effective carbon capture technology is hindered partially by the lack of a proper suite of materials-related measurements, standards, and data, which would provide critical information for the systematic design, evaluation, and performance of CO2 separation materials. Based on a literature search and conversations with the carbon capture community, we review the current status of measurements, standards, and data for the three major carbon capture materials in use today: solvents, solid sorbents, and membranes. We highlight current measurement, standards and data activities aimed to advance the development and use of carbon capture materials and major research needs that are critical to meet if innovation in carbon capture materials is to be achieved. The review reveals that although adsorbents are considered to have great potential to reduce carbon capture cost, there is no consensus on the experimental parameters to be used for evaluating sorbent properties. Another important finding is the lack of in situ experimental tools for the structural characterization of solid porous materials during CO2 adsorption, and computational methods that would enable a materials-by-design approach for their development.

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The energetics of Schottky defects in 123 cuprate superconductor series, REBa2Cu3O7 (where RE = lanthandies) and YAE2Cu3O7 (AE = alkali-earths), were found to have unusual relations if one considers only the volumetric strain. Our calculations reveal the effect of non-uniform changes of interatomic distances within the RE-123 structures, introduced by doping homovalent elements, on the Schottky defect formation energy. The energy of formation of Frenkel Pair defects, which is an elementary disordering event, in 123 compounds can be substantially altered under both stress and chemical doping. Scaling the oxygen-oxygen short-range repulsive parameter using the calculated formation energy of Frenkel pair defects, the transition temperature between orthorhombic and tetragonal phases is computed by quasi-chemical approximations (QCA). The theoretical results illustrate the same trend as the experimental measurements in that the larger the ionic radius of RE, the lower the orthorhombic/tetragonal phase transition temperature. This study provides strong evidence of the strain effects on order-disorder transition due to oxygens in the CuO chain sites.

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The structure of Bi2Te3 (Seebeck coefficient Standard Reference Material (SRM™ 3451)) and the related phase Sb2Te3 have been characterized as a function of temperature using the neutron powder diffraction (NPD) and the extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) techniques. The neutron structural studies were carried out from 20 K to 300 K for Bi2Te3 and from 10 K to 298 K for Sb2Te3. The EXAFS technique for studying the local structure of the two compounds was conducted from 19 K to 298 K. Bi2Te3 and Sb2Te3 are isostructural, with a space group of R3¯m. The structure consists of repeated quintuple layers of atoms, Te2-M-Te1-M-Te2 (where M = Bi or Sb) stacking along the c-axis of the unit cell. EXAFS was used to examine the bond distances and static and thermal disorders for the first three shells of Bi2Te3 and Sb2Te3 as a function of temperature. The temperature dependencies of thermal disorders were analyzed using the Debye and Einstein models for lattice vibrations. The Debye and Einstein temperatures for the first two shells of Bi2Te3 are similar to those of Sb2Te3 within the uncertainty in the data. However, the Debye and Einstein temperatures for the third shell of Bi-Bi are significantly lower than those of the third shell of Sb-Sb. The Einstein temperature for the third shell is consistent with a soft phonon mode in both Bi2Te3 and Sb2Te3. The lower Einstein temperature of Bi-Bi relative to Sb-Sb is consistent with the lower value of thermal conductivity of Bi2Te3 relative to Sb2Te3.

Studies in the Sr-Y-Cu-0 and Ba-Sr-Y-Cu-0 systems have revealed that Sr will substitute for Ba in (Ba,Sr)2YCu306++ up to about 60%. There are no ternary compounds in the Sr-Y-Cu-0 system equivalent to the three ternary phases in the Ba system. A new binary phase, "Sr14Cu24041" (CuO = 63.158 mol%), was found which forms a solid solution with Y203 to a Sr : Y ratio of approximately 2 : 1. This phase can also incorporate considerable amounts of Ba and Ca and many other large ions. [

The effect of cobalt doping on the thermopower of the superconductor FeSe is investigated through electrical and thermal transport measurements. Our results point to the destruction of superconductivity at very low Co concentrations. Thermopower data suggest negative charge carriers along with a large enhancement of the Seebeck coefficient, S, on the order of ≈−80 μV/K near T=100 K.

The following fifteen reference patterns of boride, silicide and oxide ceramics represent the first group of ceramic phases measured at the National Bureau of Standards under the project “High Quality Reference Patterns and Total Digital Powder Patterns of Technologically Important Ceramic Phases”. The support and interest of the JCPDS-ICDD in this project is gratefully acknowledged.The general methods of producing these X-ray powder diffraction reference patterns are described in this journal, Vol. 1, No. 1, pg. 40(1986).