Engineering Commons^™

Cellulose Nanocrystals As A Material For Microencapsulation, Lauren C. Kennedy, Congwang Ye, Colton Steiner, Carlos Martinez

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Cellulose is an abundant, biodegradable, and inexpensive renewable polymer that is light in weight with high mechanical strength (Habibi, Lucia, Rojas 2010). Full fibers of cellulose have been used in many products such as plastics and textiles for over a century and a half, but recently, modern extraction techniques have made it possible to investigate uses for minuscule cellulose fibers (Habibi, Lucia, Rojas 2010). Through acid hydrolysis, cellulose fibers become rod-like nanostructures with a high aspect ratio that are known as Cellulose Nanocrystals (CNCs) (Habibi, Lucia, Rojas 2010). Since CNCs are biodegradable and derive from a renewable resource, finding ways …

Next Generation Crystal Viewing Tool, Zach Schaffter, Gerhard Klimeck

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The science and engineering community is limited when it comes to crystal viewing software tools. Each tool lacks in a different area such as customization of structures or visual output. Crystal Viewer 2.0 was created to have all of these features in one program. This one tool simulates virtually any crystal structure with any possible material. The vtkvis widget offers users advanced visual options not seen in any other crystal viewing software. In addition, the powerful engine behind Crystal Viewer 2.0, nanoelectronic modeling 5 or (NEMO5), performs intensive atomic calculations depending on user input. A graphical user interface, or GUI, …

Efficiently Dispersing Carbon Nanotubes In Polyphenylene Sulfide, Kevin M. Sommer, R. Byron Pipes

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Thermal plastics are replacing conventional metals in the aerospace, sporting, electronics, and other industries. Thermal plastics are able to withstand relatively high temperatures, have good fatigue properties, and are lighter than metals. Unfortunately, they are not very electrically conductive. However, adding carbon nanotubes to thermal plastics such as polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) can drastically increase the plastic's conductivity at a low weight percent of nanotubes called the percolation threshold. The percolation threshold is the point where adding a little more carbon nanotubes brings together the network of nanotubes and greatly increases the conductivity. We need to learn how to increase the …

Nanohub - Crystal Viewer 2.0, Kevin Margatan, Gerhard Klimeck

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

nanoHUB is an online compilation of tools for simulations. Equipped with 3-D simulations and a capability to solve very complex calculations, nanoHUB provides its users worldwide with various tools to help them finish their assignments. One of the tools available is called a Crystal Viewer Tool, an advanced crystal visualization tool. This tool allows users to generate various crystal types including their every single detail. Currently, a newer version, called Crystal Viewer 2.0, is being tested prior to its release. However, this tool is lacking some important features and a GUI that is not as user friendly as expected. The …

Prediction Of Fiber Orientation In Compression Molded Parts Of Short-Fiber-Reinforced Thermoplastics, Anshuman Jagtap, R Byron Pipes, Chris Schwall, Ethan Brubaker

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Short Fiber molded thermoplastics like poly ether ketone ketone (PEKK) have the potential to be used to build reinforcement structures for next generation air crafts. Because of the anisotropic properties of these fibers, it is necessary to know the orientation of fibers in molded parts to determine the strength of parts. The goal of the project is to prepare samples that will be used to determine the spatial distribution of fibers as a function of the parts thickness and for comparison with computer generated models to test for accuracy. Using a full factorial method the effects of four key control …

Testing Self Healing Properties In Polymers, Hamsini Gopalakrishna, John Blendell

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Mussels and barnacles have the ability to stick to underwater surfaces with the help of a cross-linked protein structure. Reduction in the plastic consumption can be achieved by using toughened polymers. Synthesized cross-linking polymers can be used for underwater adhesion by mimicking the protein structure used by mussels and barnacles. One such polymer is poly(3,4-dihydroxystyrene-co-styrene) having enhanced toughness. Traditionally, blister tests measure the adhesion between a substrate to a surface but this was modified to serve as the driving force to drive crack propagation in controlled flaws. The modified blister tests were carried out on polystyrene (PS) samples. Once the …

Silver Oxide-Graphene Sensor For Hydrogen Peroxide, Austin D. Scherbarth, L Stanciu

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

A nonenzymatic, amperometric sensor for Hydrogen Peroxide (H₂O₂) was designed by drop coating glassy carbon electrodes (GCEs) with Silver Oxide (Ag₂O). Combining Ag₂O with Graphene Oxide and a polymer, PEDOT, was also attempted in order to increase stability and electrochemical properties. Using metal oxides along with Graphene Oxide for sensors has been done quite a bit, but Ag₂O itself has not been research extensively. So, in order to produce the best H₂O₂ sensor, the configuration of all components had to be optimized. Three different Ag₂O …

Intermetalic Growth Rate In Transient Liquid Phase Sintering Of Pb-Free Solder Interconnects, Shuqing Zhang, John Blendell

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Following the electron devices are widely used in daily life, Pb-free solder alloy, as the replacement of Pb solder joint material, needs extensive researches to observe the properties for using and simulation purpose. Solder are used as the joint to connect two work pieces in printed wiring board of electronics. Most lead-free solders comprise tin (Sn) as the majority component, and nominally pure b-Sn is the majority phase in the microstructure of these solders. The most important thing for solder joint that researchers care about is its life cycle. Due to the incomplete of the mechanical profile of Pb-free solder …

Characterization Of Lead-Free Piezo-Ceramics, Hanhan Zhou, John Blendell

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) has been the most commonly used piezoelectric material due to its high piezoelectric performance under varied operating conditions. However, it has been noticed that the lead component is toxic, causing some environmental issues and a lead free substitute material was introduced. The substituted environmental friendly piezoelectric material, Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3–x(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3 (BZT-xBCT) system that can fulfill the need of high piezoelectricity has been developed. The research was conducted to characterize the BZT-xBCT system with five different compositions (x=0.06, 0.08, 0.1, 0.12 and 0.14).. XRD was applied to examine the crystal structure of the samples before and after poling and …

Characterization Of Hardness And Elastic Modulus Of A Pharmaceutical Material For Multiple Crystal Orientations, Alexis L. Mertz, David F. Bahr

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Nanoindentation has made it possible to test material properties of extremely brittle molecular crystals, which include many pharmaceuticals. An antifungal, griseofulvin, is tested to determine differences in hardness and elastic modulus for different crystal orientations. Hardness and elastic modulus are determined by nanoindentation on single crystals that are rotated in 15° intervals. There are differences in hardness at rotation degrees of 45°, 60°, and 75° from the 0° orientation and differences in elastic modulus at rotation degrees of 15°, 60°, and 75° from the 0° orientation. It is also found that the elastic modulus and hardness values of the 75° …

Interfacial Rheological Mechanics Of A Non-Ionic, Tri-Block Copolymer At Water/Hexadecane Interface, Jerome J. Nash, Kendra Erk

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Growing interest on the stability of foams and emulsions has lead to concentrated research of interfacial rheology. The response of an interfacial layer to mechanical deformation in size and shape is dependent on its composition. [Miller 2010] This research analysis focused on the adsorption and rheological mechanics of the non-ionic, tri-block copolymer, Pluronic 17R4 at the water/hexadecane interface. The adsorption and viscoelastic properties of the interface were measured via methods of pendant drop tensiometry and dynamic oscillation with drop shape analysis software. Interfacial tension measurements were taken to study the surface pressures of Pluronic 17R4 solutions with concentrations ranging from …

Stanford Stratified Structure Solver (S4) Simulation Tool, Chang Liu, Xufeng Wang, Peter Bermel

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The Stanford Stratified Structure Solver (S4) developed in 2012 allows for fast, accurate prediction of optical propagation through complex 3D structures. However, there have been two key challenges preventing wider use to date: the use of a specialized control language, and the difficulty of incorporating realistic materials parameters. In this project, both concerns have been addressed. We have constructed a graphical user interface as an alternative, using the open-source Rappture platform on nanoHUB. This has been combined with a comprehensive materials database known as PhotonicsDB, which incorporates materials optical data drawn from carefully vetted sources. An Octave script file was …

Assessing The Mvs Model For Nanotransistors, Siyang Liu, Xingshu Sun, Mark S. Lundstrom

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

A simple semi-empirical compact MOSFET model has been developed, which is called MIT virtual source (MVS) model. Compare to other model used in industry, MVS model requires only a few parameters, most of which can be directly obtained from experiment, and produce accurate results. One aim of this paper is to test the applicability of the MVS model to transistor made from MoS₂ rather than silicon. Another target is to determine the sustainability of the MVS model under different transistor tests. To achieve these goals, the MVS model will be used to fit the experimental data on MoS_{2 …}

Compression Testing And Failure Modes Of Steel-Concrete Composite (Sc) Structures For Nuclear Containment, Patrick Michael Wanamaker, Amit H. Varma

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Although being able to provide much cleaner power than burning coal and other fossil fuels, nuclear power plants are still a tough sell to the general public due to their history of being spontaneously dangerous. The containment structures surrounding these nuclear plants, however, can play a huge role in reducing the risks associated with them. Relatively new designs for these containment assemblies, known as SC (steel-concrete composite) structures, aim to increase the strength and durability of the containment facilities while keeping costs down. By varying the spacing between shear studs, the ratio of concrete to steel, and the ratio of …

Validation Of Long-Fiber Thermoplastic Composite Models, Christian A. Vuong, Megan Kinney, Michael Sangid

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

With increased pressure to reduce energy consumption, long-fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites (LFTs) are of interest to aerospace and automotive industries due to their light weight in combination with other desirable mechanical properties and ease of manufacturing to replace common materials such as aluminum and magnesium. However, the performance of LFTs is highly dependent on microstructural variables such as fiber length and orientation, which are heavily influenced by the manufacturing process. Accurately predicting these factors would allow for more rapid advances in LFTs by reducing the experiments needed for certification and decreasing expenses. While models that serve this purpose exist, the …

Pulsed Laser Coating Of Bioceramic (Hap) And Niti Nanoparticles On Metallic Implants, Aayush Goswami, Gary J. Cheng

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

This research deals with increasing the biocompatibility of the bio implants which have a global market valued more than $94.1 billion . The surface of the metal alloys used for the bone implants need to be coated with bio compatible materials like HAp(Hydroxyapatite), graphene, etc. in order to promote the growth of cells(osteoblasts) on the surface of the implants. Various techniques like plasma spray coating, ion beam sputter coating, etc. have been used before to coat such materials on a substrate, however these have faced problems of coating quality. In order to perfect this coating, that is make it more …

Computation Of Piezo-Electric Materials, Seung Yun Song, R. Edwin García

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Piezo -electric materials are materials that will change its shape and size when an electric field is applied to the material. Vice versa, these materials will generate a certain voltage when they are bent, vibrated, or deformed. These materials show promising future , because they link mechanical and electrical properties of a material. In 21^st century when electronic devices such as smart phones or touch-screen TV’s depend highly on mechanical input such as human’s touch, developing and researching materials that can link the mechanical and electrical properties can greatly improve the quality of i-phones. The main challenge regarding piezo-electric …

Insights Into The Effect Of Geometrical Parameters In The Mechanical Properties Of The Radular Teeth Of The Cryptochiton Stelleri – A 3d Print Approach, Chan Jeong, Enrique Escobar, Pablo Zavattieri Dr.

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The Cryptochiton Stelleri is known to have ultra-hard radular teeth that have one of the largest hardness (9-12GPa) and stiffness (90-125GPa) among other biological materials such as Enamel and Abalone shell. The ultrastructure of the teeth is formed by a bundle of highly mineralized rods composed of iron oxides and organic material. The main method to measure the material properties has been through nanoindentation. However there are limitations to nanoindentation of the Chiton’s teeth such as limited equipment, costly and time consuming preparation of the samples, and observation of nanoscale features being difficult. In this work, the rod-like microstructure of …

Iron-Magnesium Alloy Bioabsorbable Blood Stent, Kaitlyn Jarry, L Stanciu

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Bioabsorbable materials are fairly new and proper alloys for implantation in the body have not yet been established. There are a few polymers that have showed promise, but they do not provide the proper mechanical support that metal does. These materials would be used to create devices such as blood stents and orthopedic screws. Investigation into the properties of different alloys can help to establish a material that can be used for implanted devices that are only needed for a limited amount of time. In order to investigate these alloys many different experiments will to be run to test the …

Python-Based Simulation Tool For Kinetic Monte Carlo, Zaiwei Zhang, R. Edwin García

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Simulation tools are highly needed for testing or designing nanotechnology in university research projects.The problem in the current simulation tool used in our research, which is conducted by Prof.Garcia in MSE department at Purdue, is that users cannot observe the changing numbers of diffusivities during Vacancy Diffusion simulations between different materials. Also, there is no Graphic User Interface for the simulation tools.To solve the problem, the Virtual Kinetics of Materials Laboratory program is used to create the Graphic User Interface. Also, GTK+ toolkit has been used to create a pop-up window displaying updated diffusivities during the simulation. For user purpose, …

Electrochemical Sensing With Metal Oxides, Isabella Ramirez, Lia Stanciu, Alexandra Snyder

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The effective sensing of hydrogen peroxide is important for a variety of reasons. It can be utilized as a diagnostic tool for diseases like asthma; also, the sensing can be utilized in pharmaceutical and food production for quality control. The use of silver oxide nanoparticles with varying morphologies has not been investigated as a sensing agent for hydrogen peroxide in the past. The particles’ properties and ability to oxidize and reduce hydrogen peroxide suggest that they will be effective to create a sensitive sensor. The silver oxide particles were prepared through chemical reduction using varying molar ratios of reactants. The …

Use Of Oscillatory Shear To Study The Effect Of Limestone Filler On The Rheology Of Early-Age Portland Cement, Christopher W. Barney, Kendra Erk

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Cement is a material that has been in use since the ancient times and is the most widely manufactured material in industry today. During the production of cement, limestone undergoes a process called calcination which releases CO₂. In order to reduce the environmental impact and cost of cement production it has become standard practice to replace a portion of the cement mixture with ground limestone, but this causes a change in the rheological profile of the mixture. This change in rheology affects both the short and long term workability of the material. In this study, small amplitude oscillatory …

Atomic Level Study Of Water-Gas Shift Catalysts Via Transmission Electron Microscopy And X-Ray Spectroscopy, Mehmed Cem Akatay

Open Access Dissertations

Water-gas shift (WGS), CO + H₂ O [Special characters omitted.] CO₂ + H₂ (ΔH° = -41 kJ mol ^-1 ), is an industrially important reaction for the production of high purity hydrogen. Commercial Cu/ZnO/Al₂ O₃ catalystsare employed to accelerate this reaction, yet these catalysts suffer from certain drawbacks, including costly regeneration processes and sulfur poisoning. Extensive research is focused on developing new catalysts to replace the current technology. Supported noble metals stand out as promising candidates, yet comprise intricate nanostructures complicating the understanding of their working mechanism.

In this study, the structure of the supported …

Spectroscopic And Kinetic Characterization Of Catalytic Materials For The Conversion Of Biomass-Derived Compounds, Paul James Dietrich

Open Access Dissertations

As economies look to transition away from petroleum for social, economic, and political reasons, biomass will continue to attract attention as a renewable feedstock for the fuels and chemicals industry. In order to turn biomass into end use fuels and chemicals, the oxygen content must be lowered significantly, requiring large hydrogen inputs. For these processes to be completely renewable, the hydrogen must come from biomass or biomass-derived compounds. In this work, catalysts for the aqueous phase reforming (APR) of biomass-derived sugars were characterized by a combination of reaction kinetics, X-ray spectroscopy, electron microscopy, and theoretical computation to determine the active …

Solution To Certain Problems In The Failure Of Composite Structures, Jonathan Goodsell

Open Access Dissertations

The present work contains the solution of two problems in composite structures. In the first, an approximate elasticity solution for prediction of the displacement, stress and strain fields within the m-layer, symmetric and balanced angle-ply composite laminate of finite-width subjected anticlastic bending deformation is developed. The solution is shown to recover classical laminated plate theory predictions at interior regions of the laminate and thereby illustrates the boundary layer character of this interlaminar phenomenon. The results exhibit the anticipated response in congruence with the solutions for uniform axial extension and uniform temperature change, where divergence of the interlaminar shearing stress is …

Multiscale Modeling Of The Hierarchical Structure Of Cellulose Nanocrystals, Fernando Luis Dri

Open Access Dissertations

Cellulose constitutes the most abundant renewable polymeric resource available today. It considered an almost inexhaustible source of raw material, and holds great promise in meeting increasing demands for environmentally friendly and biocompatible products. Key future applications are currently under development for the automotive, aerospace and textile industries. When cellulose fibers are subjected to acid hydrolysis, the fibers yield rod-like, highly crystalline residues called cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs). These particles show remarkable mechanical and chemical properties (e.g. Young Modulus ~200 GPa) within the range of other synthetically-developed reinforcement materials. Critical to the design of these materials are fundamental material properties, many of …

Response Of Plasma Facing Components In Tokamaks Due To Intense Energy Deposition Using Particle-In-Cell(Pic) Methods, Filippo Genco

Open Access Dissertations

Damage to plasma-facing components (PFC) due to various plasma instabilities is still a major concern for the successful development of fusion energy and represents a significant research obstacle in the community. It is of great importance to fully understand the behavior and lifetime expectancy of PFC under both low energy cycles during normal events and highly energetic events as disruptions, Edge-Localized Modes (ELM), Vertical Displacement Events (VDE), and Run-away electron (RE). The consequences of these high energetic dumps with energy fluxes ranging from 10 MJ/m2 up to 200 MJ/m2 applied in very short periods (0.1 to 5 ms) can be …

Modeling The Atomic And Electronic Structure Of Metal-Metal, Metal-Semiconductor And Semiconductor-Oxide Interfaces, Ganesh Krishna Hegde

Open Access Dissertations

The continuous downward scaling of electronic devices has renewed attention on the importance of the role of material interfaces in the functioning of key components in electronic technology in recent times. It has also brought into focus the utility of

atomistic modeling in providing insights from a materials design perspective. In this thesis, a combination of Semi Empirical Tight-Binding (TB), first-principles Density

Functional Theory and Reactive Molecular Dynamics (MD) modeling is used to study aspects of the electronic and atomic structure of three such 'canonical' material interfaces - Metal-Metal, Metal-Semiconductor and Semiconductor oxide interfaces.

An important contribution of this thesis …

The Effect Of Composition On The Linear And Nonlinear Mechanical Properties Of Particulate Filled Elastomers, Oluwaseyi Ogebule

Open Access Dissertations

Engineering elastomers are materials capable of undergoing large deformation upon load application and recovering upon load removal. From car tires to building vibration isolator systems, elastomers are the most versatile of engineering materials. The inclusion of particulate fillers into elastomers enhances their mechanical properties (modulus, tensile strength, toughness, tear resistance, etc) thereby extending their applicability to more demanding functions. The automotive, healthcare, construction, adhesives and consumer products are some of the many industries that produce finished goods containing elastomeric parts.

Despite the various concepts on reinforcement in filled elastomers, a complete understanding of their linear viscoelastic properties and the nonlinear …

Mechanisms Of Microstructure Formation Under The Influence Of Ultrasonic Vibrations, Milan Rakita

Open Access Dissertations

Positive effects of ultrasound on crystallization have been known for almost 90 years. Application of ultrasound has been very successful in many industries, most notably in chemistry, creating a new branch of science - sonochemistry. However, ultrasonication has not found wide commercial application in the solidification processing. The reason for that is the complexity of underlying phenomena and the lack of predicting models which correlate processing parameters with the properties of a product. The purpose of this study is to give some contribution toward better understanding of mechanisms that lead to changes in the solidifying microstructure. It has been found …