Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Enhanced Mechanical Strength Of Soybean Oil-Based Non-Isocyanate Polyurethane Adhesive For Wood Application By Introducing Nanofillers, Vatsal Chaudhari

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Polyurethane (PU) is a versatile material that finds extensive use in various industries including bedding, construction, automotive, and packaging. Historically, this particular polymer relied significantly on petrochemical resources, a practice that was considered to have negative environmental impacts. The conventional method for preparing PU involves the use of isocyanate, which is a disadvantage due to its negative impact on the environment and human health. The resolution of this problem entails identifying an appropriate substitute for petroleum-derived products that minimize their impact on both the environment and human health. The researchers earlier utilized soybean oil, for the formulation of PUs in …

Optimization Of Transition-Metal Inclusive Carbon Aerogels For Electrochemical Energy Applications, Allen Dalton Davis

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The ever-growing need for energy alongside rising concerns for climate change demands the development of renewable energy technologies. Hydrogen fuel cells are a promising technology that can serve to either supplement energy generation or act as a lone power source. Yet for these devices to be truly green, the hydrogen that serves as fuel must be procured from a renewable resource. Electrolytic water splitting is a process that allows for the dissociation of water into H₂ and O₂. For this process to be practical, the electrolyzer needs to demonstrate high efficiency and stability, as well as a …

Exploring Soybean Oil-Based Polyol And Effect Of Non-Halogenated Flame Retardants In Rigid Polyurethane Foam, Sahithi Kondaveeti

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

To address the increasing demand for sustainable biomaterials due to the depletion of fossil fuel resources and growing environmental concerns, a new type of biodegradable and environmentally friendly rigid polyurethane foam (RPUF) has been synthesized. These foams are derived from chemically modified soybean oil-based polyol obtained from soybean oil by epoxidation followed by a ring-opening reaction. Polyurethane foam is generally used in construction, furniture, and automobile industries but is highly flammable and releases toxic gases and smoke during combustion. In this study, a highly efficient synergistic effect halogen-free flame-retardant (FR) melamine salt, 2-carboxyethyl(phenyl)phosphinic acid melamine salt (CMA) was synthesized from …

Microplate-Like Metal Pyrophosphate Engineered On Ni-Foam Towards Multifunctional Electrode Material For Energy Conversion And Storage, Rishabh Srivastava

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

High clean energy demand, dire need for sustainable development, and low carbon footprints are the few intuitive challenges, leading researchers to aim for research and development for high-performance energy devices. The development of materials used in energy devices is currently focused on enhancing the performance, electronic properties, and durability of devices. Tunning the attributes of transition metals using pyrophosphate (P₂O₇) ligand moieties can be a promising approach to meet the requirements of energy devices such as water electrolyzers and supercapacitors, although such a material’s configuration is rarely exposed for this purpose of study.

Herein, we grow …

Electrochemical Properties Of Mof-Derived Nickel Compounds For High-Performance Supercapacitors And Electrocatalysts, Shiva Bhardwaj

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

There are various forms in which humans use energy in daily life. From applications that require a high energy density to long-term storage, the requirements for energy usage are diverse. Therefore, with the continuous increase in users worldwide, more practical energy-driven sources are required, allowing manufacturers to look toward emerging functional materials. An emerging class of functional porous materials referred to as metal-organic framework (MOF) has received considerable attention over the past two decades, partially because of their potential use in various applications, including gas storage, molecular separations, electrocatalyst, and energy devices. For example, metal oxide and hydroxide-based MOF materials …

Effect Of Graphene-Based Fillers On The Properties Of Sunflower-Based Polyurethane, Vishwa Suthar

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Polyurethane market majorly depends on synthetic materials which are noxious. This stimulated an idea to replace petrochemical resources with renewable resources for polyurethane production. Keeping this in mind, this research focused on the use of sunflower oil for the preparation of polyol and its use in polyurethane composition. The reaction mechanism of epoxidation and ring-opening was approached for the conversion of sunflower oil to polyol. During the conversion of sunflower oil, unsaturated groups of sunflower oil were converted into hydroxyl groups of polyol.

Sunflower oil-based polyol was successfully blended with methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) to form urethane bonds. Confirmative tests …

Sunflower Oil-Based Wood Adhesive With High Mechanical Strength And Enhanced Bonding By Introducing Fillers, Arjun Chaudhari

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Petroleum-based compounds are generally utilized in industries for getting higher mechanical strength for wood application, where the process of synthesis releases toxins into the environment and causes health issues.

Because of this, scientists are trying to make biobased compounds and products. In this research, sunflower polyol was used to make polyurethane (PU) resin. For the formation of polyol, an epoxidation reaction followed by a ring-opening reaction was performed. The presence of hydroxyl groups was confirmed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and hydroxyl value determination test to confirm the polyol formation. After that, hydroxyl groups of polyol were reacted with …

Optimizing Process Conditions And Characterizing Elastomeric Properties Of Immiscible Polymers For 3d Printing Applications, Matthew Long

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Within recent years, 3D printing within the plastics and polymer industries has becoming increasingly prevalent. Also known as additive manufacturing, 3D printing enables the creation of rapid prototypes for short production runs without the need for complex tooling. This allows for runs that are shorter and lower in cost than conventional processes. Polylactic acid (PLA) is a thermoplastic that is widely used in 3D printing for its mechanical properties and low cost. The qualities of PLA however are lacking in the areas of flexibility and toughness which is required in many prototyping scenarios. The solution to this is to incorporate …

Hart, Robert W., Papers, 1924-1966, Special Collections, Leonard H. Axe Library

Finding Aids

Personal documents, correspondence, and financial records of Robert W. Hart, former professor at Pittsburg State University.

Robert William Hart was born in 1896 to William and Sarah Hart and grew up in Crawford County, Kansas. In 1916 he graduated from the State Manual Training Normal School (now Pittsburg State University), and found early work as an engineer. Robert served as an ensign in the navy during World War I. He taught in the public schools in Fort Scott and Pittsburg from 1916-1918; 1921-1923. In 1920 he married Retta Statler and they had two children. In 1923 he was hired as …

Sunflower Oil-Based Polyol In Flame-Retardant Rigid Polyurethane Foams, Magdalene Asare

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The current shift from solely depending on petroleum sources to seeking renewable alternatives is due to their fast depletion, spike in prices, and the need to reduce our carbon footprint. For instance, the polyurethane industry currently calls for renewable and less toxic polyols and isocyanates for their synthesis over the traditionally used ones. To tackle an aspect of this matter, this work investigates the generation of polyol from sunflower oil, and further probes their use in rigid foams, one of the widely utilized polyurethanes. Epoxidation and ring-opening reactions were used to convert the sunflower oil into a more reactive form, …

Bio-Based Uv-Curable Films And The Effect Of Bio-Content On The Properties Of The Films, Sahilkumar Chaudhary

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The use of renewable resources in film formation has become a new focal point for industry because it is abundantly available and has less carbon emission during production than traditional ones. This has drawn researchers to investigate the functionality of bio-based raw materials and their end-usage. By modifying their chemical structures, the properties of these films like thermal resistance, impact resistance, and chemical resistance can be increased. In this research, limonene was used as a partial replacement for petroleum-based chemicals in film formation. A two-step chemical process was carried out to modify the limonene and the final product was used …

Oer Ancient Egyptian Numerals And Arithmetic Activity, Cynthia Huffman Ph.D.

Faculty Submissions

Many people are fascinated with ancient Egypt. The amazing, unique culture influenced many other civilizations and cultures. If you study the history of math, you will see how this influence included mathematics. Ancient Egypt also lasted an incredibly long time – over 3000 years. According to Egyptologist Bob Brier, “No civilization lasted so long, contributed so much, or repeatedly amazed as did ancient Egypt.”

In this Open Educational Resource activity, students will have the opportunity to learn about ancient Egyptian numerals and basic arithmetic. For motivation, the setting is a scribal school with each student using a clipboard, paper, and …

Studies In The Use Of 1,1'-Di(1-Hydroxyethyl)Ferrocene As A Flame Retardant For Polyurethanes, Chanel Yeary

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Significant research in non-toxic flame retardants (FR) has been performed in recent years since the dangerous consequences of halogenated FR were found. As early as the 1970’s, carcinogenic the side effects of halogenated compounds were being acknowledged. Since the early 2000’s halogenated FRs began being phased out of use due to these negative side effects. Since then, significant research has been exploring alternative effective flame retardants. Ferrocene (Fc) is a promising alternative to halogenated FRs due to its nontoxicity and FR properties. This research will report on the synthesis of 1,1’-di(1-hydoxyethyl) ferrocene (DHEFc) and its incorporation into a polyurethane. A …

Transistion Metal Chalcogenides And Phosphides For Energy Storage And Conversion Through Water Splitting, Kelsey Thompson

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

In contemporary society, there are many different ways that energy is used in daily life. From applications that require a high energy density to long-term storage in a stable manner, the requirements for energy usage are diverse. Therefore, the greater the number of uses a designed material exhibits, the more practical it may be for wide-scale manufacture. Two areas of particular interest for energy applications are fuel cells (to generate energy) and supercapacitors (to store energy). To provide cheaper and more durable alternatives for energy storage, electrodes containing CoMoO₄, NiMoO₄, CoMoS₄, NiMoS₄, …

Multifunctional Carbon-Supported Cobalt-Nickel Compounds For Water Splitting And Energy Storage Applications, Wang Lin

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

In order to effectively reduce carbon emission and achieve the goal of mitigating climate change, hydrogen energy has high hopes as a representative of green energy. According to the most current and updated research, compounds of cobalt and nickel have been widely studied as alternatives instead noble metal materials as catalysts for the electrolysis of water. Based on some other research reports, a hydrothermal method to grow cobalt-nickel hydroxide on nickel foam that has been carbonized in advance was proposed. To compare the modification results of these materials by different activation methods, calcination, sulfidation, and phosphating were performed on the …

Binary Transition Metal Oxides@Reduced Graphene Oxide@Polyaniline As Bifunctional Electrode Materials For Energy Conversion And Storage, Jonghyun Choi

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The world’s increasing consumption of energy has led researchers to focus on research and development for high performance-energy devices. Development of materials used in energy devices is currently focused on improving the performance and stability of devices. Composite materials are well known as an effective way to improve the performance of an energy device. A composite is a combination of two or more materials with different properties, and such combinations can be of great help in advancing the performance of a composite material by adding the advantages or compensating for the disadvantages of each material.

In this study, ternary composite …

Corn Oil-Based Highly Flame Retardant Rigid Polyurethane Foams For Industrial Application, Muhammad Rizwan Sulaiman

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The synthesis of flame retardant polyurethane (PU) foam was carried out using two different flame retardants, such as triethyl phosphate (TEP) and triphenyl phosphate (TPP). The thermal and mechanical characteristics of the foam were analyzed. The obtained TGA results confirmed that the flame retardant acts in the gaseous form to stop the fire. All the prepared samples displayed excellent closed cell content, which was above 90 %. The burning time were reduced from 80 s to 7.5 s with the weight loss 3.2% of for sample E-12 (19.29 % TEP) and from 80 s to 11 s with the weight …

Electrochemical Studies Of Poly 3-(4-Methoxyphenyl)[5] Ferrocenophane-1,5-Dimethylene And Copolymers With Styrene And N-Phenylmaleimide, Niyati Arora

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Ferrocene is an organometallic compound in which an iron atom is sandwiched between two cyclopentadienyl rings. Ferrocene containing polymers receive a considerable amount of research because of their known chemistry, stable redox reactions and useful electrical systems. Noteworthy are their uses as electrode coatings, electro-catalysts and as an anode in battery applications. In this research, the synthesis and polymerization of a ferrocenophane diene is reported. Using a Wittig reaction 3-(4-methoxyphenyl)[5]ferrocenophane-1,5-dimethylene was synthesized from 3-(4-methoxyphenyl)[5]ferrocenophane-1,5-dione. The homopolymer and copolymers with styrene and N-phenylmaleimide were synthesized via free radical polymerization from 3-(4-methoxyphenyl)[5]ferrocenophane-1,5-dimethylene using AIBN as the initiator. These polymers were characterized using …

Blunk, Robert And Katie, Collection, 1890-1930, 1951, Special Collections, Leonard H. Axe Library

Finding Aids

A collection of magazines from the 1890s and 1900s.

Robert Blunk was born in Salyard, Kansas on December 14, 1923. He attended multiple colleges but received his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Kansas City Institute of Arts in 1950 and a Masters of Fine Arts in Sculpture at the Kansas Teacher’s College of Pittsburg (now Pittsburg State University) in 1952. Robert worked as an art professor at colleges for 40 years and taught at Pittsburg State University from 1962 until his retirement. While teaching, Robert painted and sculpted many works, taking inspiration from landscapes, seascapes, Egyptology and art, and …

Targeted Combination Therapy Of Nsclc Using Taxol And Fingolimod Loaded Nanoceria, Raghunath Narayanam

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Among various types of cancers, lung cancer reports highest death rate and Non-Small cell lung cancer causes highest mortality in lung cancers. This is mainly due to the scarcity of treatment options and the available treatment shows numerous adverse effects. In the recent times, nanotechnology paved a new path for the diagnosis and therapy of cancer. In this study, we worked on a novel, multifunctional nanoceria (NC) platform loaded with two unique drugs taxol and fingolimod, which acts in their own ways providing synergic therapeutic effect. We hypothesized that the usage of the polyacrylic acid (PAA) coated nanoceria (PNC) increases …

Facile Synthesis Of Metal Oxides, Sulphides, And Phosphides For Enhanced Energy Applications, Alfred Nkhama

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

An access to reliable, sustainable, eco-friendly and cost-effective energy supply is being challenged by the global increase in population and the rapid technological advancement. Sophisticated systems, machinery and various devices being innovated, require the steady energy supply for their operations and applicability. To have reliable energy, numerous researches are being conducted through various approaches across the world. In this research work, the facile approach in investigating and tuning the materials properties was employed to improve energy properties of metal oxides. Nanostructured NiFe-oxide and CoFe-oxide were synthesized using a facile coprecipitation method. It was revealed that; nanostructured materials have favorable structures …

Environment-Friendly Flame Retardants For Bio-Based Polyurethanes, Felipe Martins De Souza

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Finding alternative ways to decrease the large consumption of non-renewable resources has been one of the greatest challenges faced by the industry and academia. The trend of using bio-renewable-based materials is an interesting alternative to tackle environmental issues as well as provide economically viable materials. In this work, carvone, an essential oil, was used to synthesize a bio-based polyol through a thiol-ene reaction. The chemical functions were analyzed through Fourier transformed infrared spectrum (FTIR), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), viscosity, and hydroxyl number, which confirmed the synthesis of carvone-based polyol. The latter was then physically blended with three different flame-retardants separately: …

Place Value In Primary Sources Oer Activity, Cynthia Huffman Ph.D.

Open Educational Resources - Math

An activity for student to examine the use of place-value in the Hindu-Arabic numeration system from a historical viewpoint by looking at primary sources. Includes the key.

(Revised May 2021)

Oer Curve Fitting Applied To Easter Island Stone Foundations, Cynthia Huffman Ph.D.

Faculty Submissions

In this activity, curve fitting is applied to drone pictures of ruins of stone foundations of the traditional houses (hare paenga) on the island of Rapa Nui. The free mathematics application GeoGebra (geogebra.org) is used, but the activity can be adapted to other technology, such as Desmos (desmos.com). The activity can be used as a teacher demonstration or completed by students, individually or in small groups, with access to computers.

Combination Therapy: Dual Drug-Loaded Superparamagnetic Iron-Oxide Nanoparticle For Targeted Drug Delivery And Treatment Of Cancer, Himanshu Polara

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Lung cancer is the most occurring form of cancer of all ages in the United States after breast cancer. Many treatments are currently available in the market to treat cancer, but they all have some side effects. The concept of nanomedicine-based targeted drug delivery has been developed to overcome the limitations of current treatment. The advantages of this method of treatment include biocompatibility, significant toxicity towards cancer cells, immediate drug response, and fewer side effects. For the specific treatment of A549 lung cancer cells, polyacrylic acid (PAA) coated Iron Oxide Nanoparticle (IONP) were introduced for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of …

Oer Ellipses And Traditional Rapanui Houses On Easter Island, Cynthia Huffman Ph.D.

Faculty Submissions

This worksheet activity is appropriate for secondary students in a class studying conic sections or students in a college algebra class. The first part of the activity gives an algebraic review of ellipses with exercises while the second part finds the equation of an ellipse corresponding to a Rapanui boat house foundation.

Oer Outdoor Ellipse Multicultural (Easter Island) Activity, Cynthia Huffman Ph.D.

Faculty Submissions

This activity would fit in with a secondary or college algebra class studying conic sections, in particular ellipses, and gives students a multicultural hands-on application of the definition of an ellipse, while tracing out a full-scale model of the foundation of a hare paenga (boat house) from prehistoric Easter Island (Rapa Nui)..

Oer Indoor Ellipse Multicultural (Easter Island) Activity, Cynthia Huffman Ph.D.

Faculty Submissions

This activity would fit in with a secondary or college algebra class studying conic sections, in particular ellipses, and gives students a multicultural hands-on application of the definition of an ellipse, while tracing out a scale model of the foundation of a hare paenga (boat house) from prehistoric Easter Island (Rapa Nui)..

Guide To Geometry, Maddison Webb

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Euclid’s Postulates--Polygons--Fundamentals of Euclidean Geometry--Similar Figures--Trigonometry--Tessellations--Non-Euclidean Geometry.

A Real World Example Of Solving A Quadratic Equation In Movie Cgi, Cynthia J. Huffman Ph.D.

Faculty Submissions

It is important to expose students to the beauty and usefulness of mathematics. Since computer graphics are familiar to most students due to video games and movies, they make a great source for motivating topics in mathematics. This activity shows students an application of solving quadratic equations to computing the line of sight to spherical objects in computer graphics.