Engineering Commons^™

Manufacturing Of Carbon-Based Hybrid Nanocomposites With Engineered Functionalities Via Laser Ablation Synthesis In Solution (Lasis) Techniques, Erick Leonardo Ribeiro

Doctoral Dissertations

Carbon-based composite materials have long been fabricated and extensively used in our daily lives. In the past decades, with rapid development of nanotechnology, these class of material have gained even more attention owing to their outstanding properties which directly results in their prospects to revolutionize technological development in many fields, ranging from medicine to electronics. Nevertheless, for certain applications, including electrochemical energy storage/conversion devices, the chemically inert nature of these materials creates obstacles and thus requires their coupling with other active species. This thesis explores the use of Laser Ablation Synthesis in Solution (LASiS) in tailoring promising strategies and pathways …

Advanced Purification And Direct-Write 3d Nanoprinting Via Focused Electron Beam Induced Deposition, Brett Bloxton Lewis

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation addresses three difficulties with focused electron beam induced deposition preventing broader application; purity, spatial control, and mechanical characterization.

Focused electron beam induced deposition (FEBID) has many advantages as a nanoscale fabrication tool. It is compatible for implementation into current lithographic techniques and has the potential to direct-write in a single step nanostructures of a high degree of complexity. FEBID is a very versatile tool capable of fabricating structures of many different compositions ranging from insulating oxides to conducting metals.

Due to the complexity of the technique and the difficulty in directly measuring many important variables, FEBID has remained …

A High Pressure Cell For Spark Plasma Sintering, Justin Robert Carmichael

Masters Theses

Many nanostructured materials have been shown to have performance gains strongly dependent on the grain size in the material. Nanostructured thermoelectric materials for instance have found great performance increases through reduction of the grain sizes, due mostly to the scattering of phonons while retaining a good electrical conductivity. Other such examples abound where the grain size plays an important role in the performance of the material, including magnetic materials, proton fuel cell membranes, or simply improving the mechanical properties of a system through the Hall-Petch relationship.

A considerable amount of effort has been applied into reducing the grain size of …

Novel Bimetallic Plasmonic Nanomaterials, Ritesh Sachan

Doctoral Dissertations

Plasmonic nanomaterials have attracted a lot of attention recently due to their application in various fields such as chemical and biological sensing, catalysis, energy harvesting and optical devices. However, there is a need to address several outstanding issues with these materials, including cost-effective synthesis, tunability in plasmonic characteristics, and long term stability. In this thesis, we have focused on bimetallic nanoparticles (NPs) of Ag and Co due to their immiscibility as well as their individual properties. First, a pulsed laser induced dewetting route was used to synthesize Ag-Co bimetallic plasmonic NPs. An synthesis parameter space was derived to show the …

Characteristics And Functionalities Of Natural And Bioinspired Nanomaterials, Lijin Xia

Doctoral Dissertations

Green nanoscience is a rapidly emerging field that aims to achieve the maximum performance and benefits from nanotechnology, while minimizing the impact on the environment. In this study, several methods for the green nanomanufacturing of biomedically important nanomaterials, specifically through the use of natural plants, have been extensively investigated. It was found that natural nanomaterials are inherent within plants, and can be further manipulated for potential biomedical applications. In addition, the metabolites and reductive capacity of plant extracts can be used to synthesize metallic nanoparticles with advantages over semi-conductor based nanomaterials. Nanoparticles were found to exist in the extracts produced …