Engineering Commons^™

The Characterization And Nanomechanical Properties Of Microstructurally Complex Systems, Kerry Ann Baker

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Since the dawn of civilization, the use of metals has played an integral role in the evolution of human society. Over the years, and with the introduction of new engineering and science, we have learned how to combine metals to create new metallic systems. We have expanded our understanding of dealloying and chemical reactions, and, in doing so, we created nanoporous metals. Our use of metals has evolved from basic alloys such as bronze and steel to more complex alloys such as multi-principal element alloys. Nanoporous gold is an advanced metallic system that can be created through the dealloying process. …

The Physical Behavior And Characterization Of Nanoporous Silicon And Dispenser Cathode Surfaces, Tyler Lucius Corey Maxwell

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Nanostructured materials have received a surge of interest in recent years since it has become apparent that reducing the size of a material often leads to heightened mechanical behavior. From a fundamental standpoint, this stems from the confinement of dislocations. Applications in microelectromechanical devices, lithium ion batteries, gas sensing and catalysis are realized by combining the improvements in mechanical behavior from material size reduction with the heightened chemical activity offered by materials with a high surface-area-to-volume ratio. In this study, films of nanoporous Si-Mg were produced through magnetron sputtering, followed by dealloying using an environmentally benign process with distilled water. …

Nanomechanical And Scaling Behavior Of Nanoporous Gold, Nicolas J. Briot

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Nanoporous metals have recently been drawn significant interest in various fields of research. Their high surface-to-volume ratio present a strong potential for applications in sensing, catalysis, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and even in the medical field. However, the mechanical properties of nanoporous metals have not yet been well determined, as conducting mechanical tests was found to be challenging. Scaling relations linking the mechanical properties of porous materials to those of their dense counterparts are successfully and widely used for many porous metals. However, their applicability to nanoporous metals have recently been questioned, as estimations from the classic scaling relations were found …

Synthesis, Structure, Properties And Applications Of Nanoporous Silicon And Palladium, Xu Jiang

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Nanoporous (np) materials with pore size below 100 nano-meters exist naturally in biological and mineral structures, and synthetic np materials have been used industrially for centuries. Np materials have attracted significant research interest in recent decades, as the development of new characterization techniques and nanotechnology allow the observation and design of np materials at a new level. This study focuses on two np materials: nanoporous silicon (np-Si) and nanoporous palladium (np-Pd).

Silicon (Si), because of its high capacity to store lithium (Li), is increasingly becoming an attractive candidate as anode material for Li ion batteries (LIB). One significant problem with …

Structural Tailoring Of Nanoporous Metals And Study Of Their Mechanical Behavior, Lei Wang

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Nanoporous (np) metals and alloys are the subject of increasing research attention due to their high surface-area-to-volume ratio. Numerous methods exist to create np metals, with dealloying being a common approach. By dissolving one or more elements from certain alloy systems, porous structure can be generated. Utilizing this method, multiple np metals, including np-Ni, np-Ir, and np-Au were created. By carefully adjusting precursor type and dealloying conditions for each system, nanoporous Ni/Ir/Au with different morphologies and even controllable ligament/pore size were achieved.

The mechanical behavior of porous materials is related to their fully dense counterparts by scaling equations. Established scaling …

Linking The Structure And Mechanical Behavior Of Nanoporous Gold, Ye Sun

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

The structure of nanoporous gold (np-Au) provides a very limited volume for deformation to occur, and thus offers an opportunity to study the role of defects such as dislocations in nanoscale metal volumes. A practical goal is to understand mechanical properties of np-Au so that it can be can produced in stable form, for use in applications that require some mechanical integrity. Bulk and thin film np-Au have been fabricated and studied here.

Bulk np-Au was prepared by electrochemically dealloying Au-Ag alloys with 25 and 30 at.% Au. In the lower Au content material, cracks always formed during dealloying. When …