Engineering Commons^™

Highly Active Porous Catalysts Fabricated By Attachment Of Palladium Nanoparticles On Hierarchical Carbon Structures, Hema Vijwani

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The effectiveness of metal-based catalysts can be significantly enhanced by increasing the available surface area relative to the volume through the creation of hierarchical nanostructures. The catalyst demonstrated here is palladium, which is a widely recognized heterogeneous catalyst suitable for a variety of industrial applications such as water purification, hydrogen storage, and electrochemical devices. In this study, a novel multi-scale supporting material developed in this group, has been used as support. It consists of micro-porous graphitic carbon with strongly attached carbon nanotubes. This can increase the surface area by orders of magnitude without increasing the size or weight while still …

Lithium-Ion Battery Anodes Of Randomly Dispersed Carbon Nanotubes, Nanofibers, And Tin-Oxide Nanoparticles, Gerard Klint Simon

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Lithium-ion battery anodes with a nanostructure of randomly dispersed carbon nanofibers (CNFs), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and nanoparticles of tin-oxide or silicon were fabricated and tested in order to develop high capacity, easily manufactured anodes. In these anodes, a mesh of CNTs and CNFs form a conductive network within which the nanoparticles of tin-oxide are suspended. The CNT network directs electron flow to and from the nanoparticles while accommodating their volume changes. The CNFs were intended to aid electron transport by serving as conduction channels between the CNTs and the current collector. Secondarily, the CNFs reinforce the physical structure of the …

The Development Of Silver Nanoparticles As Antiviral Agents, John Christopher Trefry

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have received tremendous attention for their antimicrobial properties; however, many gaps in knowledge exist. To address these issues, three research objectives were examined. The first objective hypothesized AgNPs can be size selected and concentrated via tangential flow ultrafiltration. The second objective hypothesized a high-throughput method could be developed to screen nanoparticle antiviral-activity and cytotoxicity simultaneously. The third objective hypothesized AgNPs inhibit viruses by preventing viral entry.

For objective one, a tangential flow ultrafiltration scheme was tested on AgNPs synthesized via the Creighton Colloid method. AgNPs were analyzed via transmission electron microscopy. In objective two, an HIV-1 vector …