Chemical Engineering Commons^™

Hydrothermal Preparation Of Palladium Supported On Magnetite For Catalysis Applications, Hany A. Elazab, S. A. Hassan, M. A. Radwan, M. A. Sadek

Chemical Engineering

Herein, versatile, and reproducible method to prepare Pd/Fe3O4 via hydrothermal synthesis. The vital role of this catalyst is in its potential use in CO oxidation catalysis. The Pd/Fe3O4 shows a distinctive activity. TEM images confirmed that Pd nanoparticles of 8-12 nm have a well dispersion on the surface of magnetite (Fe3O4). Moreover, the prepared catalyst is recycled with remarkable catalytic activity. This outstanding activity is mainly a direct result of the strong metal-support interaction. The defect sites in the reduced iron oxide act as nucleation centers that enable anchoring of Pd nanoparticles leading to prevention of agglomeration.

Microwave-Assisted Synthesis Of Graphene Supported Hexagonal Magnetite For Applications In Catalysis, Hany A. Elazab, M. A. Radwan, M. A. Sadek

Chemical Engineering

Herein, we report a rapid one-step synthetic method using microwave irradiation for growing magnetite nanocrystals on reduced graphene oxide sheets. This developed strategy allows decorating graphene sheets with magnetite nanocrystals of well-defined morphology as cubes using microwave-driven reduction of iron chloride using hydrazine hydrate as a reducing agent. The size and shape control was achieved via fine-tuning of the reaction conditions. The obtained results demonstrate the applicability of this microwave synthetic approach to control the morphology of the magnetite nanocrystals anchored on graphene sheets. Moreover, graphene sheets will enhance the nucleation and growth of magnetite nanoplates anchored on graphene. This …

Facile Microwave-Assisted Synthetic Approach To Palladium Nanoparticles Supported On Copper Oxide As An E±Cient Catalyst For Heck And Sonogashira Cross-Coupling Reactions, Hany A. Elazab Dr

Chemical Engineering

A simple green method for the synthesis of highly active palladium nanoparticles embedded on copper oxide as an efficient catalyst for ligand–free Heck cross–coupling reactions is developed. The approach is based on simultaneous chemical reduction of an aqueous solution of palladium and copper salts in microwave using hydrazine hydrate as the reducing agent. Full characterization of the catalyst with transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), reveal a size range of 25 ± 2 nm for the generated catalyst nanoparticles. The use of the generated Pd/CuO nanoparticles is highly advantageous due to the use …

Computationally Aided Design Of A High-Performance Organic Semiconductor: The Development Of A Universal Crystal Engineering Core, Anthony J. Petty Ii, Qianxiang Ai, Jeni C. Sorli, Hamna F. Haneef, Geoffrey E. Purdum, Alex M. Boehm, Devin B. Granger, Kaichen Gu, Carla Patricia Lacerda Rubinger, Sean R. Parkin, Kenneth R. Graham, Oana D. Jurchescu, Yueh-Lin Loo, Chad Risko, John E. Anthony

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Herein, we describe the design and synthesis of a suite of molecules based on a benzodithiophene “universal crystal engineering core”. After computationally screening derivatives, a trialkylsilylethyne-based crystal engineering strategy was employed to tailor the crystal packing for use as the active material in an organic field-effect transistor. Electronic structure calculations were undertaken to reveal derivatives that exhibit exceptional potential for high-efficiency hole transport. The promising theoretical properties are reflected in the preliminary device results, with the computationally optimized material showing simple solution processing, enhanced stability, and a maximum hole mobility of 1.6 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹.

Syrup Process Optimization, Anelis Susana Chiluisa Calvache

Honors Theses

The purpose of this project involves the optimization of a marshmallow syrup process, sponsored by the owners of the line, the Kellogg Company was the sponsor. This report shows the work that was done for the period of three months, and covers the objective of the project, as well as the problem statement. The Kellogg Company currently produces a Syrup as an ingredient in the production of several cereal bars. The process is divided in four sections: Gelling Mix Tank, Syrup Mix Tank, Syrup Cool Tank and Syrup Use Tank. The entire process itself takes around 80 to 120 minutes …

Understanding The Interplay Between Fluid Mechanics And Particle Size Distributions For Filtration Of Flocculated Mixtures, Brooke Remler

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The breakdown of nutrients in biological processes in wastewater treatment require a sub- stantial amount of energy, contributing to greater greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Floc- culation can be used to reduce the loading on a biological process by increasing removals during primary treatment in devices such as a rotating belt filter (RBF). The relationship between shear conditions, defined by velocity gradients (G-values) and floc size is crucial. Understanding G-value magnitudes and distributions within an RBF, corresponding trans- port network, and the effects on floc size degradation are needed to maximize removals. G-values were calculated using a newly developed approach, improving …

Optothermal Microbubble Assisted Manufacturing Of Nanogap-Rich Structures For Active Chemical Sensing, Farzia Karim, Erick S. Vasquez, Yvonne Sun, Chenglong Zhao

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Guiding analytes to the sensing area is an indispensable step in a sensing system. Most of the sensing systems apply a passive sensing method, which waits for the analytes to diffuse towards the sensor. However, passive sensing methods limit the detection of analytes to a picomolar range on micro/nanosensors for a practical time scale. Therefore, active sensing methods need to be used to improve the detection limit in which the analytes are forced to concentrate on the sensors. In this article, we have demonstrated the manufacturing of nanogap-rich structures for active chemical sensing. Nanogap-rich structures are manufactured from metallic nanoparticles …

A Comprehensive Study Of Sequential Simulated Moving Bed: Purification Of Xylo-Oligosaccharides And Fructose-Glucose, Yan Li

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Chromatographic separation is a promising alternative for separation and purification of sugars in industry. Simulated moving bed (SMB) technique has been proven as an efficient chromatographic separation method due to its enhanced productivity and purity, reduced solvent consumption, convenient operating control, and improved separation performance for some systems with low resolution and selectivity. The sequential simulated moving bed (SSMB) is a modification of the conventional SMB process, which currently has some applications for sugar separation due to its low solvent consumption. This work mainly investigates the design strategy of the innovative SSMB process and explore its advantages and disadvantages over …

Hydrothermal Preparation Of Palladium Supported On Magnetite For Catalysis Applications, Hany A. Elazab, S. A. Hassan, M. A. Radwan, M. A. Sadek

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Herein, versatile, and reproducible method to prepare Pd/Fe₃O₄ via hydrothermal synthesis. The vital role of this catalyst is in its potential use in CO oxidation catalysis. The Pd/Fe₃O₄ shows a distinctive activity. TEM images confirmed that Pd nanoparticles of 8-12 nm have a well dispersion on the surface of magnetite (Fe₃O₄). Moreover, the prepared catalyst is recycled with remarkable catalytic activity. This outstanding activity is mainly a direct result of the strong metal-support interaction. The defect sites in the reduced iron oxide act as nucleation centers that enable anchoring of …

The Effect Of Tantalum Incorporation On The Physical And Chemical Properties Of Ternary Silicon–Calcium–Phosphorous Mesoporous Bioactive Glasses, Andrew Mendonca, Md Saidur Rahman, Adel Alhalawani, Omar Rodriguez, Reid C. Gallant, Heyu Ni, Owen M. Clarkin, Mark R. Towler

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Synthesis and characterization of the first mesoporous bioactive glasses (MBGs) containing tantalum are reported here, along with their potential application as hemostats. Silica MBGs were synthesized using with the molar composition of (80-x)% Si, 15% Ca, 5% P, and x% Ta. It was found that incorporation of >1 mol % Ta into the MBGs changes their physical and chemical properties. Increasing Ta content from 0 to 10 mol % causes a decrease in the surface area and pore volume of ~20 and ~35%, respectively. This is due to the increase in nonbridging oxygens and mismatch of thermal expansion coefficient which …

Catalytic Transfer Hydrogenation Reactions Of Lipids, Alexander Asiedu

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) of lipids was investigated using 2-propanol as hydrogen donor for producing liquid hydrocarbons, e.g. jet fuels. The main sources of lipids selected in this study were waste cooking oil (WCO) and oil-laden algae-derived biofuel intermediate (BI). Two different catalysts were employed in this study, namely activated carbon and trimetallic-doped zeolite.

The CTH reaction was between WCO and 2-propanol in a continuous flow reactor over a packed-bed activated carbon at near atmospheric pressure. Results revealed a high level of alkenes and aromatics compounds, which are not stable and are not environmentally unfriendly. To reduce these compounds in …

Application Of A Biodegradable And Recyclable Chelating Agent For Ash Removal From Algae, Temitope George Daramola

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Ash is inherent in algae biomass and it causes operational difficulties, equipment failure, and disposal issues during biomass conversion to biofuels and bioproducts. The objectives of this study are to (i) investigate the use of the biodegradable chelating agent for reducing ash content of algae and (ii) evaluate the potential of regeneration and recycle of the chelating agent for multiple uses. Conventionally, ethylenediamine-tetraacetic acid (EDTA) has been studied extensively to remove ash from biomass. However, EDTA is non-biodegradable and causes environmental issues at the disposal.

Nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) is a biodegradable chelating agent and was used in this study for …

Quantifying And Elucidating The Effect Of Co2 On The Thermodynamics, Kinetics And Charge Transport Of Aemfcs, Yiwei Zheng

Theses and Dissertations

Anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) have shown significant promise to provide clean, sustainable energy for grid and transportation applications – and at a lower theoretical cost than more established proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Adding to the excitement around AEMFCs is the extremely high peak power that can now be obtained (> 3 W cm-2) and continuously improving durability (1000+ h), which has made the future deployment of AEMFCs in real-world applications a serious consideration. For some applications (e.g. automotive), the most critical remaining practical issue with AEMFCs is understanding and mitigating the effects of atmospheric CO2 (in …

Discovery Of Materials Through Applied Machine Learning, Travis Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Advances in artificial intelligence technology, specifically machine learning, have cre- ated opportunities in the material sciences to accelerate material discovery and gain fundamental understanding of the interaction between certain the constituent ele- ments of a material and the properties expressed by that material. Application of machine learning to experimental materials discovery is slow due to the monetary and temporal cost of experimental data, but parallel techniques such as continuous com- positional gradients or high-throughput characterization setups are capable of gener- ating larger amounts of data than the typical experimental process, and therefore are suitable for combination with machine learning. A …

Molecular Modeling Of Tethered Polyelectrolytes For Novel Biomedical Applications, Merina Jahan

Theses and Dissertations

Current research trends throughout the world focus on designing intelligent materi- als and systems for diverse applications in all courses of life. Biomaterials research encompasses a major part in this revolution due to the increased effort in fulfilling unmet medical needs to treat complex physiological and neurodegenerative disorders. Polymers play inevitable roles in these research endeavors for their ubiquitous pres- ence in biological systems. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how the polymeric molecules interact within diverse biological environments, to efficiently engineer them for various drug delivery and biosensing systems. The use of experimental design and selection of different polymers …

Development Of A Co-Rotating, Fully Intermeshing Twin-Screw Extruder Model For The Extrusion Of Natural Fibre Suspensions, Keller J H George

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Twin-screw extruders are continuous processing devices that have been used in many industries concerned with the processing of multiphase fibrous suspensions, such as the food and pulping industries. While these devices offer great flexibility due to their modularity and customizability, optimization for specific applications can be challenging due to the unavailability of reliable, global models with accurate predictive capabilities. Consequently, this work seeks to eliminate this knowledge gap with the development of a novel global, composite model capable of predicting key process outputs for suspension-processing, phase-separating, co-rotating, fully-intermeshing twin-screw extruders. Creation of the novel global algorithm involved the modification of …

Antibacterial Properties Of Mussel-Inspired Polydopamine Coatings Prepared By A Simple Two-Step Shaking-Assisted Method, Pegah Kord Fooroshani, Elizabeth Polega, Kevin Thomson, Mohammad Saleh Akram Bhuiyan, Rattapol Pinnaratip, Mikhail Trought, Chito E. Kendrick, Yuesheng Gao, Kahryn Perrine, Lei Pan, Bruce P. Lee

Michigan Tech Publications

A simple two-step, shaking-assisted polydopamine (PDA) coating technique was used to impart polypropylene (PP) mesh with antimicrobial properties. In this modified method, a relatively large concentration of dopamine (20 mg ml⁻¹) was first used to create a stable PDA primer layer, while the second step utilized a significantly lower concentration of dopamine (2 mg ml⁻¹) to promote the formation and deposition of large aggregates of PDA nanoparticles. Gentle shaking (70 rpm) was employed to increase the deposition of PDA nanoparticle aggregates and the formation of a thicker PDA coating with nano-scaled surface roughness (RMS = 110 …

One-Pot Aqueous And Template-Free Synthesis Of Mesoporous Polymeric Resins, Mahboubeh Nabavinia, Baishali Kanjilal, Alexander Hesketh, Philip Wall, Alireza Shirazi Amin, Peter Kerns, Joseph F. Stanzione Iii, Steven Suib, Fujian Lu, Iman Noshadi

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Faculty Scholarship

This work explores the novel one-pot aqueous phase synthesis of mesoporous phenolic-hyperbranched polyethyleneimine resins without the use of a template, and their utility as heterogeneous catalysts in batch reactors and continuous microreactors. Catalyst surface areas of up to 432 m²/g were achieved with a uniform Pd distribution and an interconnected, highly porous, network structure, confirmed through Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area measurements, scanning electron microscopes (SEM), X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The heterogeneous catalysts achieved a maximum 98.98 ± 1% conversion in batch Suzuki couplings, with conversions being dependent upon reaction …

Immobilization Of The Influenza A M2 Transmembrane Peptide In Virus Envelope−Mimetic Lipid Membranes: A Solid-State Nmr Investigation, Wenbin Luo, Sarah D. Cady, Mei Hong

Sarah Cady

The dynamic and structural properties of membrane proteins are intimately affected by the lipid bilayer. One property of membrane proteins is uniaxial rotational diffusion, which depends on the membrane viscosity and thickness. This rotational diffusion is readily manifested in solid-state NMR spectra as characteristic line shapes and temperature-dependent line narrowing or broadening. We show here that this whole-body uniaxial diffusion is suppressed in lipid bilayers mimicking the composition of eukaryotic cell membranes, which are rich in cholesterol and sphingomyelin. We demonstrate this membrane-induced immobilization on the transmembrane peptide of the influenza A M2 (AM2-TM) proton channel protein. At physiological temperature, …

Optimization And Structural Stability Of Gold Nanoparticle–Antibody Bioconjugates, Robert T. Busch, Farzia Karim, John Weis, Yvonne Sun, Chenglong Zhao

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) bound with biomolecules have emerged as suitable biosensors exploiting unique surface chemistries and optical properties. Many efforts have focused on antibody bioconjugation to AuNPs resulting in a sensitive bioconjugate to detect specific types of bacteria. Unfortunately, bacteria thrive under various harsh environments, and an understanding of bioconjugate stability is needed. Here, we show a method for optimizing Listeria monocytogenes polyclonal antibodies bioconjugation mechanisms to AuNPs via covalent binding at different pH values, from 2 to 11, and 2-(N-morpholino)ethanesulfonic acid (MES), 3-(N-morpholino)propanesulfonic acid, NaOH, HCl conditions. By fitting Lorentz curves to the amide I and II regions, we …