Engineering Commons^™

Refractive Index Chemical Sensing With Noble Metal Nanoparticles, Phillip Blake

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chemical sensing is a key component in modern society, especially in engineering applications. Because of their widespread impact, improvements to chemical sensors are a significant area of research. One class of sensors, plasmonic sensors, is being heavily researched because of their ability to detect low levels of analyte in near real time without destroying the analyte. This work studies a new class of plasmonic sensor that utilizes diffractive coupling to improve sensor performance. Specifically, this work outlines the first study of diffractive coupling sensors with typical nanoparticle shapes. Sensitivity of this new class of sensor is directly compared to typical …

Optimization Of A Dynamic Hot Water Pretreatment Of Switchgrass Using Catalysis By Carbonation To Maximize Carbochemical Yields, Rohit Tanaji Dhamdere

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A bio-refinery is a facility that converts renewable bio-resources into value-added chemicals and products. In this context of a bio-refinery, the production of the carbochemicals such as HMF, furfural and organic acids illustrate that multiple products can be produced from a renewable source such as lignocellulosic biomass (switchgrass). Traditionally, carbochemicals such as furfural and HMF are produced using inorganic acids such as H2SO4, HCL, and H3PO4. The use of such acids requires the application of high cost materials of construction such as Hastelloy-C, titanium etc.

The objective of this study is to develop a semi-continuous process for the conversion of …

Photocatalytic Reactor Using Tio2 Thin Film On Quartz Tubes, Ram Mahipal Kouda

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Photocatalysis process, as an environmental application is an advanced oxidation process with tremendous potential in the near future. Previously many researchers, have conducted photocatalysis in different reactor configuration using TiO2 slurry and thin film, using a UV light source, the constraints for these reactors are the need for the removal of TiO2 particles at the outlet stream in a slurry reactor and poor environment for the efficient use of TiO2 film using UV light, as the UV light penetration depth in water is about an inch.

Taking all this into consideration, we propose a design for reactor with efficient contact …