United States Department of Energy

About: United States Department of Energy is a government organization based out in Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Catalysis & Coal. The organization has 13656 authors who have published 14177 publications receiving 556962 citations. The organization is also known as: DOE & Department of Energy.

Facilitated transport of CO2 in ion exchange membranes

Abstract: The facilitated transport of CO2 through ion exchange membranes containing organic amine counterions was studied. Steady state CO2 fluxes were measured from pure gas streams and mixtures with CH4. Facilitation factors for CO2 up to 26.7 were calculated from transport data. Transport measurements were binary mixtures of CO2 and CH4 yielded ratios of CO2 flux to CH4 flux ranging from 29.0 to 264. Conversion of flux ratios to permeabilities yielded separation factors up to 551 for CO2 over CH4, which are compared to literature data for polymeric membranes. The transport data support a mobile, reactive-carrier facilitated transport mechanism with a carbamate zwitterion complex. Effective diffusivities for CO2 and the carrier-gas complex were determined from transport data. A reaction equilibrium model predicted facilitation factors that were in very good agreement with experimental values. Potential applications are also discussed.

Atomic Layer Deposition of Fe2O3 Using Ferrocene and Ozone

Abstract: Growing interest in Fe2O3 as a light harvesting layer in solar energy conversion devices stems from its unique combination of stability, nontoxicity, and exceptionally low material cost. Unfortunately, the known methods for conformally coating high aspect ratio structures with Fe2O3 leave a glaring gap in the technologically relevant temperature range of 170−350 °C. Here, we elucidate a self-limiting atomic layer deposition (ALD) process for the growth of hematite, α-Fe2O3, over a moderate temperature window using ferrocene and ozone. At 200 °C, the self-limiting growth of Fe2O3 is observed at rates up to 1.4 A/cycle. Dense and robust thin films grown on both fused quartz and silicon exhibit the expected optical bandgap (2.1 eV). In situ mass spectrometric analysis reveals the evolution of two distinct cyclic reaction products during the layer-by-layer growth. The readily available and relatively high vapor pressure iron precursor is utilized to uniformly coat a high surface area template with aspect rati...

Mitochondria/nuclear signaling of alternative oxidase gene expression occurs through distinct pathways involving organic acids and reactive oxygen species

Abstract: Cultured cells of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L. cv Petit Havana) were used to investigate signals regulating the expression of the “model” nuclear gene encoding the alternative oxidase (AOX) (AOX1), the terminal oxidase of the mitochondrial alternative respiratory pathway. Several conditions shown to induce AOX1 mRNA accumulation also result in an increase in cellular citrate concentrations, suggesting that citrate and/or other tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle intermediates may be important signal metabolites. In addition, mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) production has recently been shown to be a factor mediating mitochondria-to-nucleus signaling for the expression of AOX1. We found that the exogenously supplied TCA cycle organic acids citrate, malate and 2-oxoglutarate caused rapid and dramatic increases in the steady-state level of AOX1 mRNA at low, near physiological concentrations (0.1 mM). Furthermore, an increase in AOX1 induced by the addition of organic acids occurs independently of mitochondrial ROS formation. Our results demonstrate that two separate pathways for mitochondria-to-nucleus signaling of AOX1 may exist, one involving ROS and the other organic acids.