Engineering Commons^™

Studying The Effects Of New Additive Materials For The Improvement Of The Capacity And Cycle Life Performance Of The Lead-Acid Battery, Julian Kosacki

Doctoral Dissertations

"Lead-acid batteries are an established technology with nearly 99% recyclability; however, lead-acid batteries produce only 40% of their theoretical capacity due to poor active mass utilization and PbSO4 pore blockage, and the longevity of the batteries is hampered by secondary reactions during the cycle life such as corrosion and gassing.

Lead-acid batteries were investigated and improved through several different approaches: an alternative electrolyte to mitigate secondary reactions, graphite additives to improve positive active mass (PAM) utilization, and dispersant additives to help the industrial pasting process.

The thermodynamics and chemical reactions of a commercial electrolyte replacement called Tydrolyte^TM were investigated …

Transition Metal Chalcogenide Hybrid Systems As Catalysts For Energy Conversion And Biosensing, Siddesh Umapathi

Doctoral Dissertations

"Generation of hydrogen and oxygen through catalyst-aided water splitting which has immense applications in metal air batteries, PEM fuel cells and solar to fuel energy production, has been one of the critical topics in recent times. The state of art oxygen evolution reaction (OER), oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts are mostly comprised of precious metals. The current challenge lies in replacing these precious metal-based catalysts with non-precious earth-abundant materials without compromising catalytic efficiency.

This research explores mixed metal selenides containing Fe-Ni, Fe-Co and RhSe which were hydrothermally synthesized and/or electrodeposited and tested for OER and ORR …

Corrosion Performance Of Zirconium-Based Passivations On Electroplated Zinc Nickel, Madison Morgan Reed

Masters Theses

“Performance requirements for Department of Defense (DoD) electrical components include corrosion and electrical contact resistance. Historically, electroplated cadmium with a chromate conversion coating (CrCC) has been used to meet corrosion and contact resistance standards. However, replacements are needed for these materials because they are toxic and carcinogenic. Electroplated γ-ZnNi has been identified as an acceptable alternative to Cd. This study evaluated commercially available Zr-based thin films and sealers as passivations for potential replacement of CrCCs. Ten different passivations were tested and compared with bare γ-ZnNi. X-Bond and Zircobond passivations were found to provide some improvement to the bare ZnNi corrosion …

Transient Cfd Simulations Of Pumping And Mixing Using Electromagnetic, Fangping Yuan

Doctoral Dissertations

"In this dissertation, two dimensional and three dimensional, transient CFD simulations are conducted to investigate the active pumping and mixing in microfluidics driven by Electromagnetic/Lorentz force. Shallow disk/ring cylindrical microfluidic cell and shallow cuboid microfluidic cell with electrodes deposited on the bottom surface are modelled for mixing and pumping purposes respectively. By applying voltage across specific pair of electrodes, an ionic current is established in the weak conductive liquid present in the cell. The current interacts with an externally applied magnetic field generating a Lorentz force that causes fluid motion in the cell. Velocity vectors, electric potential distributions and ionic …