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Materials Science and Engineering Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Materials Science and Engineering

Design Optimization Of Polymer Heat Exchanger For Automated Household-Scale Solar Water Pasteurizer, David C. Denkenberger, Joshua M. Pearce Apr 2018

Design Optimization Of Polymer Heat Exchanger For Automated Household-Scale Solar Water Pasteurizer, David C. Denkenberger, Joshua M. Pearce

Department of Materials Science and Engineering Publications

A promising approach to reducing the >870,000 deaths/year globally from unsafe water is flow-through solar water pasteurization systems (SWPs). Unfortunately, demonstrated systems have high capital costs, which limits access for the poor. The most expensive component of such systems is the heat exchanger (HX). Thus, this study focuses on cost optimization of HX designs for flow-through SWPs using high-effectiveness polymer microchannel HXs. The theoretical foundation for the cost optimization of a polymer microchannel HX is provided, and outputs are plotted in order to provide guidelines for designers to perform HX optimizations. These plots are used in two case studies: (1) …


Novel Contact Materials For Improved Performance Cdte Solar Cells, Angus Rocket, Robert Collins, Sylvain Marsillac Jan 2018

Novel Contact Materials For Improved Performance Cdte Solar Cells, Angus Rocket, Robert Collins, Sylvain Marsillac

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This program has explored a number of novel materials for contacts to CdTe solar cells in order to reduce the back contact Schottky barrier to zero and produce an ohmic contact. The project tested a wide range of potential contact materials including TiN, ZrN, CuInSe2:N, a-Si:H and alloys with C, and FeS2. Improved contacts were achieved with FeS2. As part of understanding the operation of the devices and controlling the deposition processes, a number of other important results were obtained. In the process of this project and following its conclusion it led to research …