Chemical Engineering Commons^™

Understanding And Improving Lithium Ion Batteries Through Mathematical Modeling And Experiments, Rutooj D. Deshpande

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

There is an intense, worldwide effort to develop durable lithium ion batteries with high energy and power densities for a wide range of applications, including electric and hybrid electric vehicles. For improvement of battery technology understanding the capacity fading mechanism in batteries is of utmost importance. Novel electrode material and improved electrode designs are needed for high energy- high power batteries with less capacity fading. Furthermore, for applications such as automotive applications, precise cycle-life prediction of batteries is necessary.

One of the critical challenges in advancing lithium ion battery technologies is fracture and decrepitation of the electrodes as a result …

Stability Of Affinity Based Layer-By-Layer Polymeric Self-Assemblies For Oral Wound Applications, Sundar Prasanth Authimoolam

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Oral mucositis is a painful and debilitating chronic inflammatory condition that can result from chemo and/or radiotherapy. While current treatment strategies which provide temporary relief exist, there is still an unmet clinical need for a robust long active barrier strategy which can simultaneously provide protection and release drug to enhance the wound healing response. It is proposed that an affinity based layer-by-layer self-assembled barrier administered as a series of mouth rinses can allow for wound specific drug delivery, providing an effective regenerative therapy.

In this work, biotinylated poly(acrylic acid) is used to develop LBL assemblies based upon biotin-streptavidin affinity interactions. …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Polymeric Antioxidant Delivery Systems, Paritosh P. Wattamwar

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Even though the role of oxidative stress in a variety of disease states is known, strategies to alleviate this oxidative stress by antioxidants have not been able to achieve clinical success. Particularly, treatment of oxidative stress by small molecule antioxidants has not received due attention because of the challenges associated with its delivery. Antioxidant polymers, where small molecule antioxidants are incorporated into the polymer backbone, are an emerging class of materials that can address some of these challenges.

In this work, biodegradable polymers incorporating phenolic antioxidants in the polymer backbone were synthesized. Antioxidant polymers were then characterized for their in …

Dynamic Relaxation Properties Of Aromatic Polyimides And Polymer Nanocomposites, Anthony C. Comer

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

The dynamic relaxation characteristics of Matrimid^® (BTDA-DAPI) polyimide and several functionalized aromatic polyimides have been investigated using dynamic mechanical and dielectric methods. The functionalized polyimides were thermally rearranged to generate polybenzoxazole membranes with controlled free volume characteristics. All polyimides have application in membrane separations and exhibit three motional processes with increasing temperature: two sub-glass relaxations (ƴ and β transitions), and the glass-rubber (α) transition. For Matrimid, the low-temperature ƴ transition is purely non-cooperative, while the β sub-glass transition shows a more cooperative character as assessed via the Starkweather method. For the thermally rearranged polyimides, the ƴ transition is a …