Other Chemical Engineering Commons^™

Diffusion Of A Salt In An Aqueous Media, Aldaly Pineda Hernandez

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Diffusion is defined as the net transfer of a molecule from a high concentration region to a low concentration region. The concept of diffusion is used in a very important process called "desalination." Desalination is a separation process used to reduce the salt content dissolved in brackish water to make it suitable for human consumption, irrigation, and industrial use.

In desalination plants, it is important to monitor the constantly changing salt content of water, partly due to the diffusive effect. The main purpose of this experiment was to study the diffusion of NaCl in water at two NaCl concentrations. The …

Assessing The Impact Of Block-Selective Homopolymers On The Diffusion Of Payload Through Polymeric Organogels, Ian Coates

Honors Theses

Styrenic polymer gels have received recent attention for their application in transdermal patches due to their unique properties. Previous research in the pharmaceutical industry has identified that polymeric gels, specifically styrenic gels, have the potential to encompass multiple functions of the transdermal delivery patch including controlling mechanical and delivery properties. To tailor styrenic gels either the gel nanostructure or the drug complex can be controlled. Specifically, this thesis investigated the effect of gel nanostructure in an attempt to control the gel diffusivity and mechanical properties. To control gel nanostructure a phase selective styrene homopolymer was used at varying concentrations. It …

Elucidating The Properties And Mechanism For Cellulose Dissolution In Tetrabutylphosphonium-Based Ionic Liquids Using High Concentrations Of Water, Brad Crawford

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The structural, transport, and thermodynamic properties related to cellulose dissolution by tetrabutylphosphonium chloride (TBPCl) and tetrabutylphosphonium hydroxide (TBPH)-water mixtures have been calculated via molecular dynamics simulations. For both ionic liquid (IL)-water solutions, water veins begin to form between the TBPs interlocking arms at 80 mol % water, opening a pathway for the diffusion of the anions, cations, and water. The water veins allow for a diffusion regime shift in the concentration region from 80 to 92.5 mol % water, providing a higher probability of solvent interaction with the dissolving cellulose strand. The hydrogen bonding was compared between small and large …

Single-Particle Model For A Lithium-Ion Cell: Thermal Behavior, Meng Guo, Godfrey Sikha, Ralph E. White

Faculty Publications

The single-particle model presented by Santhanagopalan et al. [ J. Power Sources , 156 , 620 (2006)] is extended to include an energy balance. The temperature dependence of the solid phase diffusion coefficient of the lithium in the intercalation particles, the electrochemical reaction rate constants, and the open circuit potentials (OCPs) of the positive and negative electrodes are included in the model. The solution phase polarization is approximated using a nonlinear resistance, which is a function of current and temperature. The model is used to predict the temperature and voltage profiles in a lithium-ion cell during galvanostatic operations. The single-particle …

Reduction Of Model Order Based On Proper Orthogonal Decomposition For Lithium-Ion Battery Simulations, Long Cai, Ralph E. White

Faculty Publications

A reduced-order model (ROM) is developed using proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) for a physics-based lithium-ion battery model. The methodology to obtain the proper orthogonal modes and to analyze their optimality is included. The POD-based ROM for a lithium-ion battery is used to simulate a charge/discharge process and the behavior of a battery pack. Compared to the physics-based model, the computational time to solve the ROM is significantly less, and the two models show excellent agreement.