Polymer and Organic Materials Commons^™

Iron-Containing Nanoparticles For The Treatment Of Chrionic Biofilm Infections In Cystic Fibrosis, Leisha M. A. Martin

Nanoscience and Microsystems ETDs

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common genetic disease resulting in the morbidity and mortality of Caucasian children and adults worldwide. Due to a genetic mutation resulting in malfunction of the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) protein, CF patients produce highly viscous mucus in their respiratory tract. This leads to impairment of the mucociliary clearance of inhaled microbes. In addition to reduced microbial clearance, anoxic environmental conditions in the lungs promote biofilm-mode growth of the pathogenic bacterial species Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Chronic infections of P. aeruginosa begin in early childhood and typically persist until respiratory failure and death result. The …

Influence Of Sonication Parameters On The Morphology Of Nanocellulose Aerogels, Dexter Cox, Tim Kidd

Research in the Capitol

Nanocellulose is a renewable and biocompatible material that has a tensile strength similar to aluminum, is stiffer than Kevlar, and has a strength to weight ratio eight times that of stainless steel. There has been a range of studies on nanocellulose materials for potential use as a low-calorie food substitute, biomedical wound dressings, and as a structural component for buildings. Throughout this research experiment, nanocellulose aerogels of different mass compositions were created through a mechanical process using an ultrasonic processor with a titanium probe attachment. The purpose of this study was to develop a method that reduces the amount titanium …

Comparison Of Bioplastics With Conventional Thermoplastics For Consumer Applications, Alec Jones, Shelby Bicknell, Luke Gordon, Justin Mamerow, Jeanne H. Norton

Posters

Controversy surrounds the use of plastic products, primarily due to their impact on the environment. Fortunately, bio-based plastics offers a solution by using sustainable resources as starting materials. Our team addressed the task of processing and conducting research on various bio-based plastics that were supplied by an industrial part­ner and comparing the bio-based plastics to control materials from petrochemical sources. Overall, the goal was to determine which bio-based resin would be the most suitable for use in consumer packaging products. Thermal, mechanical, and chemical properties were analyzed. The control resins used were: Formolene 2610A PP, Ineos Olefins & Polymers PP, …

Application Of Computational Tools To Spaghetti-Based Truss Bridge Design, Jin Xu, Jiliang Li, Nuri Zeytinoglu, Jinyuan Zhai

ASEE IL-IN Section Conference

Application of Computational Tools to Spaghetti-Based Truss Design

Statics and Strength of Materials are two foundational courses for Mechanical/Civil Engineering. In order to assist students in better understanding and applying concepts to a meaningful design task, SolidWorks and theoretical calculation were used for a spaghetti-bridge design contest with the constraints of given maximum weight and allowable support-material weight. As the first step of this iterative designing process, both extrude feature and structural member were introduced to model planar bridge trusses. Then SolidWorks’ Statics module was used to run FEA analysis of the structural performance in efforts to optimize the …

A Study Of The Effect Of Heat Treatment On 3d Printed Pla Impact Strength, Suresh Thota

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Environmental conditions have a significant effect on the mechanical properties of various materials. Environmental parameters such as temperature and humidity have a major impact on mechanical properties of materials such as compressive strength, tensile strength, bending strength and impact strength. The purpose of this research is to study how temperature and humidity affect the impact strength of 3D printed PLA plastic. Impact strength is the ability of a material to absorb energy subjected to an impact load by a pendulum. In this research, 3D printing was employed to produce PLA specimens which were later used for different experimental testings. For …

Rapid Fabrication Of Silver Nanoparticle/Polydopamine Functionalized Polyester Fibers, Yanfen Zhou, Liang Jiang, Ya Guo, Zhenhua Sun, Zhiqing Jiang, Shaojuan Chen, Jianwei Ma, Stephen Jerrams

Articles

In this paper, silver nanoparticles functionalized poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fibers with antimicrobial activity, electrical conductivity and good coating stability are reported. Firstly, silver plated PET fibers were fabricated by rapid polydopamine (PDA) modification followed by electroless plating. Secondly, the surface morphologies and compositions of PDA modified and silver coated PET fibers were characterized by employing scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction and energy dispersive spectrometry. Finally, the antimicrobial properties and electrical conductivity of the silver plated PET fibers were investigated. The results showed that the silver coated PET fibers exhibited excellent antimicrobial activity to both Escherichia coli and …

Study On Spinnability Of Pp/Pu Blends And Preparation Of Pp/Pu Bi-Component Melt Blown Nonwovens, Yanfen Zhou, Liang Jiang, Huiying Jia, Xiaolu Xing, Zhenhua Sun, Shaojuan Chen, Jianwei Ma, Stephen Jerrams

Articles

Melt blown polymer blends offers a good way to combine two polymers in the same fiber generating nonwovens with new and novel properties. In this study, polypropylene (PP) and polyurethane (PU) were blended to prepare PP/PU bicomponent melt blown nonwovens. The spinnability of PP/PU composites was investigated and PP/PU bi-component nonwovens with compositions of 95/5, 90/10, 80/20 and 70/30 were prepared by using the melt blowing technique. The melt blown fibers exhibited a ‘sea-island’ structure with PP as the continuous phase and PU as the dispersed phase. When the content of PU in the blend was above 40 %, PP/PU …

Design And Process Of 3d-Printed Parts Using Composite Theory, Jordan Garcia

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

3D printing is a revolutionary manufacturing method that allows the productions of engineering parts almost directly from modeling software on a computer. With 3D printing technology, future manufacturing could become vastly efficient. However, it is observed that the procedures used in 3D printing differ substantially among the printers and from those used in conventional manufacturing. In this thesis, the mechanical properties of engineering products fabricated by 3D printing were comprehensively evaluated and then compared with those made by conventional manufacturing. Three open-source 3D printers, i.e., the Flash Forge Dreamer, the Tevo Tornado, and the Prusa, were used to fabricate the …

Stress State Analysis And Tensile-Shear Fracture Criterion In Combined Puncture And Cutting Of Soft Materials, Ennouri Triki, Chantal Gauvin

Études primaires

The mechanics of the combined puncture and cutting of protective materials by a pointed blade are studied theoretically and experimentally, by means of stress state analysis. Through analysis of the stresses occurring during the puncture cutting of a variety of neoprene and nitrile rubber membranes by pointed blades with different cutting-edge angles, a force state of pushing/shear-dependent loading is formulated and discussed. By considering this combined loading as an asymmetric fracture, two equations—for pushing force component and shear force component—are then derived from the stress intensity factors. From this stress analysis, a model based on fracture mechanics theory is developed …

Effects Of Micro-Features On Cell Detachment From Poly(N-Isopropylacrylamide) Coated Polydimethylsiloxane Membranes, Luke Webel

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The tested hypothesis was that features on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surfaces coated with a poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)/aminopropyltriethoxysilane or pNIPAAM/APTES thin film would accelerate cell detachment than the film coated on a unfeatured surface. This project tested samples with features generated by molds, wrinkling, and sandpaper roughened substrates. Surface feature generation methods were limited to mechanical means, and characterized by microscopy and strain rates. 50/50 mixtures of 1.5 wt.% pNIPAAM/ APTES were used to coat thin films (30-40 nm) on PDMS membranes by spin-coating, and the coated membranes were thermally annealed to chemically graft pNIPAAm/APTES on the membrane and their thermo-responsive property was assessed …

Requalification Of Coated Fabrics Using Chemlok 2332 In Place Of Chemlok 233, Daniel Madler

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Rubber coated fabrics are an essential component in the deicing systems of the aerospace industry. Adhesives cements are applied to a fabric prior to being pressed into a rubber compound that will adhere to the fabric. The resulting fabric maintains the strength of the fabric with the added benefits of elasticity and compatibility from the rubber compound. UTC Aerospace Systems relies on these coated fabrics to create safe deicers for the aerospace industry. Chemlok 233, a now obsolete primer cement, was used extensively in the coated fabrics used by UTC. Materials testing and performance evaluation allowed for a replacement cement, …

Compression Set Improvement Of Thermoplastic Vulcanizates For High Temperature Tubing, Mitchell Valaitis

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

It was hypothesized that increasing the curative level of the fluorocarbon rubber (FKM) used in manufacturing of thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPV) materials would decrease the compression set values of the TPV enough for it to be suitable as a flexible, lightweight alternative to high operating temperature thermoset rubber tubing currently being used for power steering hose. First, promising TPV formulations were identified by varying the polyamide (PA) and FKM used in a Brabender mixer. Four different types of polyamide and four different types of FKM were investigated, with two of the FKM types and one polyamide type identified as being promising. …

Towards Sustainable Production Of Chemicals And Fuels From The Fast Pyrolysis Of Waste Polyolefin Plastics, Ulises Gracida Alvarez

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The increasing amount of plastic waste (PW) generation has become an important concern due to the leveled-off recycling rates. Therefore, governmental agencies around the world, including state governments in the United States, have proposed initiatives to minimize the amount of PW that is landfilled and encourage recycling or energy recovery. Circular economy is a strategy that attempts on reusing PW to produce new polymers while avoiding its disposal and the use of virgin material. Chemical recycling raises an interesting technology prospect due to the potential reduction of pollutant emissions and the establishment of a circular economy through the production of …

The Fabrication And Characterization Of Metal Oxide Nanoparticles Employed In Environmental Toxicity And Polymeric Nanocomposite Applications, Matthew Logan Hancock

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Ceria (cerium oxide) nanomaterials, or nanoceria, have commercial catalysis and energy storage applications. The cerium atoms on the surface of nanoceria can store or release oxygen, cycling between Ce³⁺ and Ce⁴⁺, and can therefore act as a therapeutic to relieve oxidative stress within living systems. Nanoceria dissolution is present in acidic environments in vivo. In order to accurately define the fate of nanoceria in vivo, nanoceria dissolution or stabilization is observed in vitro using acidic aqueous environments.

Nanoceria stabilization is a known problem even during its synthesis; in fact, a carboxylic acid, citric acid, is …

Modeling The Peak Absorption Of Meh-Ppv In Various Solvents Using Density Functional Theory, Corell H. Moore

Theses and Dissertations

Density Functional Theory (DFT) and time-dependent Density Functional Theory (TD-DFT) are powerful tools for modeling orbital energy in conjugated molecules and have been useful tools for research in organic photovoltaics. In this work, DFT is first used to explain the red shift in the absorption spectrum and increased absorption observed in MEH-PPV. Initially, the modeling of the red-shift in the absorption peak of MEH-PPV is studied using Gaussian 03 software with the global hybrid functional B3LYP for exchange-correlation and the 6-31G basis set. DFT and TD-DFT are used to separately study the effects of polymer chain length, carbon-carbon double-bond stretching, …

A Simple And Robust Approach To Reducing Contact Resistance In Organic Transistors, Zachary A. Lamport, Katrina J. Barth, Hyunsu Lee, Eliot Gann, Sebastian Engmann, Hu Chen, Martin Guthold, Iain Mcculloch, John E. Anthony, Lee J. Richter, Dean M. Delongchamp, Oana D. Jurchescu

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Efficient injection of charge carriers from the contacts into the semiconductor layer is crucial for achieving high-performance organic devices. The potential drop necessary to accomplish this process yields a resistance associated with the contacts, namely the contact resistance. A large contact resistance can limit the operation of devices and even lead to inaccuracies in the extraction of the device parameters. Here, we demonstrate a simple and efficient strategy for reducing the contact resistance in organic thin-film transistors by more than an order of magnitude by creating high work function domains at the surface of the injecting electrodes to promote channels …

Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane-Phosphate Glass Matrix Nanocomposites With Additional Chapter On Phosphate Glass-Poly(Ethylene Terephthalate) Matrix Composites, Kyoungtae Kim

Dissertations

Preparation and characterization of tin fluorophosphate glass (Pglass) matrix nanocomposites incorporating polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) were investigated on the structural, thermal, morphological, mechanical, and rheological properties. Various processes including synthesis, extrusion and sintering processes were applied to prepare the nanocomposite samples. Another application of POSS with hydrophobic functional groups on the well-structured nanoscale silicate cage with three silanol groups was investigated to present the feasibility to use POSS molecule as a coating material on the surface of the hydrophilic inorganic glass. In addition, Poly(ethylene terephthalate) polymer matrix composites incorporating Pglass was studied to present the benefits of the Pglass with …

Hydrogen Bond Mediated Water Structuring, Diffusion, And Elastic Properties In Acrylamide Copolymer Glycohydrogels, April Levu Fogel

Dissertations

Glycohydrogels have recently gained considerable interest as biocompatible and high water content hydrogels that have similar physicochemical nature to the cell membrane, making them ideal materials for targeted biomedical and personal care applications (e.g., drug delivery systems, biosensors, and contact lenses). Regardless of the specific application, water-polymer and water-water hydrogen bonding interactions have been shown to dictate hydration stability and diffusional properties in traditional hydrogel architectures (e.g., crosslinked HEMA). However, due to the development of glycohydrogel materials within the past two decades, most literature focuses on synthetic techniques and general hydration characteristics. Furthermore, scant literature examines the effect of hydrophobically …

Improving Ductility Of Slender Reinforced Concrete Shear Walls With Frp Sheets And Splay Anchors, Luke M. Ostrom

Architectural Engineering

The Sylmar earthquake of 1971 caused significant damage to slender, non-ductile reinforced concrete (RC) shear wall buildings in California. A later survey by the Concrete Coalition in 2011, under the guidance of EERI members, indicated that there are over 3000 vulnerable concrete buildings in California [8]. This led to City of Los Angeles (LA) Ordinance 193893 enacted in 2015, which requires mandatory upgrades to these concrete buildings by 2035. Current practice to meet the requirements of this ordinance, with respect to RC wall buildings, involves adding new shear walls to the building plan or increasing the cross-sectional area of existing …

Water Processable N-Type Organic Semiconductor, Ruben S. Riquelme, Matthew Collins Weisenberger, Camila F. Gomez

Center for Applied Energy Research Faculty Patents

The present invention concerns a water-processable n-type semiconductor comprised of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI). The semiconductors are prepared by providing PVP and CNTs in a hydrophilic slurry and dispersing therein small amounts of PEI.