Materials Science and Engineering Commons^™

Synthesis And Characterization Of Sodium Cathode Materials, He Zhou

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

As sodium batteries hold great promise as a next-generation energy storage device to replace lithium batteries, the development of sodium battery materials has become increasingly urgent. The current study aims to investigate two potential sodium-ion battery cathode materials, Sodium Vanadium Phosphate, and Sodium Manganese Hexacyanoferrate, optimize the experimental procedures, conduct a systematic analysis of material properties and characterization, and ultimately determine the ideal synthesis conditions for these materials.

In the first part of the study, we focused on optimizing the synthesis of Sodium Vanadium Phosphate. By investigating various synthesis conditions, such as annealing temperature, pressure, ascorbic acid content, and material …

Exploring Methods For Recycling Filament Waste In 3d Printing, Max Rios Carballo

Publications and Research

The goal of the current study is to investigate cutting-edge techniques for recycling filament waste from 3D printing procedures. Appropriate waste management techniques are required to reduce this trash's harmful environmental consequences. The goal of the project is to look at new methods for recycling filament waste in order to minimize disposal and encourage reuse. To acquire data from pertinent papers and research, a thorough literature review methodology was used. The findings show that this issue may be resolved utilizing a variety of recycling techniques, including shredding, melting, and re-extrusion. The type of filament waste and the intended goal will …

Development Of Dynamic Risk-Based Inspection Using Forward Difference Approach For Pipe Failure Due To Uniform Corrosion, Jaka Fajar Fatriansyah, Zahra Nadia Nurullia, Andreas Federico, Dedi Priadi

Journal of Materials Exploration and Findings

The oil and gas industry is one of the world's largest and most influential energy contributors. All aspects involved in the operation of this industry are fundamental to be reviewed and managed correctly, especially by preventing or minimizing the failures that could occur. Uniform corrosion is the most common component failure mechanism that can cause failure in the oil and gas industry. The company's actions in managing and preventing the risk of this type of failure have a major role in the sustainability of the company due to the possibility of more significant impacts if the risk cannot be handled …

Utilization Of Machine Learning To Investigate Material State, Ana B. Abadie

Honors College Theses

The ability to predict material behavior that undergoes various loading conditions is critical to the development of reliable and safe components. Thermal and mechanical fatigue loading can cause significant damage to materials, leading to failure and potential safety hazards. Machine learning algorithms have emerged as a promising tool for improving accuracy and efficiency of predicting material behavior under such loading conditions. This research provides a comprehensive overview of a machine learning algorithm that is able to analyze and predict material state independently of the loading sequence. Unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced polymer (UD CFRP) composite which has undergone two different loading …

High-Pressure Slurry Ablation For Improving Separation Of Copper/Molybdenum And Flotation Of Gold Tailings, Mitchell Harvey

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

Disa Technologies’ High-Pressure Slurry Ablation (HPSA) is a patented particle attrition technology for the comminution and selective liberation of minerals. Two slurry streams are pumped at high pressure through opposing nozzles and collisions between solid particles suspended in the slurry streams cause breakage of the feed material. HPSA was evaluated for improving the rougher flotation of molybdenite from Cu-Mo bulk concentrate and gold-bearing pyrite from gold tailings.

Copper/molybdenum samples were provided by Montana Resources in Butte, Montana. A two-factor factorial design of experiments was used to identify HPSA operating conditions which gave the highest increase in flotation performance. Variables were …

Molecular Dynamics Simulation On Molybdenum Disulfide: Thermal-Mechanical Properties And Phase Transitions Under External Loading, Mahabubur Rahman

All Dissertations

Due to their remarkable properties, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have received much scientific interest throughout the past decade. Two layers of chalcogen atoms (S, Se, Te) sandwich a layer of transition metal atoms (Mo, W, Ta) to form the three-atom thick unit cell in TMDs. The interaction between TMD "single layers" is mediated by neighboring chalcogen planes and bonded by Van der Waals forces. Due to this weak out-of-plane interaction, bulk samples can be thinned down to a single layer by exfoliation. Among the TMDs, Molybdenum Disulfide (MoS₂) shows promise in the field of electronics, optics, and sensing …

The Study Of Corrosion On Additive-Manufactured Metals., Braydan Daniels

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate and compare the corrosion mechanisms between wrought and additive-manufactured (3D-printed) copper and stainless steel. The experimental procedure consisted of measuring the open circuit potential, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, linear sweep voltammetry, Tafel analysis, surface topology, and scanning electron microscopy for each metal within salt water, tap water, sulfuric acid, and synthetic body fluid (excluding copper in synthetic body fluid).

Overall, printed stainless steel was more corrosion-resistant than wrought stainless steel in tap water and synthetic body fluid based on OCP, LSV, and surface topology results. Additionally, printed copper was more corrosion-resistant than wrought …

Optimization Of Porosity In Cold Spray Produced Copper And Zinc Coatings, Cameron Hughes

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

Since its invention in 1981, the cold spray (CS) additive manufacturing (AM) process has been studied and optimized to produce well-adhered, dense material coatings. CS can operate at a wide range of temperatures if the feed material remains in a solid state. Copper and zinc were studied to characterize and understand the effects of heating element voltage, travel speed, and standoff distance on deposit porosity, grain size, microhardness, and coating thickness. Samples were sprayed on 3.2 mm x 25 mm x 150 mm 6061 aluminum substrates. Sections were taken from the middle of the samples to represent steady-state conditions. Sample …

Mechanical Characterization Of Additively Manufactured Alloys Compared To Their Wrought Counterparts, Laith A. Alqawasmi

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

Additive manufacturing is a method of manufacturing based on building parts layer by layer, allowing for more control over shape of the product, therefore reducing machining costs, reducing material waste, faster production times and the ability to build complex engineering design that other manufacturing technologies won’t be able to produce. This research is on the tensile and indentation testing (following ASME standards) of 3D printed Ti-6Al-4V and Inconel 718 built by powder-based direct energy deposition technology. Ti-6Al-4V is an attractive material for the aerospace and aviation industry, and Inconel 718, a nickel-chromium based superalloy, is an attractive material for usage …

Femtotesla Magnetometry And Nanoscale Imaging With Color Centers In Diamond, Yaser Silani

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

Intriguing photophysical properties of color centers in diamond make them ideal candidates for many applications from imaging and sensing to quantum networking. In the first part of this work, we have studied the silicon vacancy (SiV) centers in diamond for nanoscale imaging applications. We showed that these centers are promising fluorophores for Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) microscopy, owing to their photostable, near-infrared emission and favorable photophysical properties. In the second part, we built a femtotesla Radio-Frequency (RF) magnetometer based on the diamond nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers and magnetic flux concentrators. We used this sensor to remotely detect Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance …

Development Of Novel Electrodes And Electrolytes For Safer Aqueous Ammonium Ion Batteries With Enhanced Performance., Shelton Farai Kuchena

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Lithium-ion battery (LIBs) system has dominated the battery market because of its superior energy and power density. Problems related to LIBs such as safety, scarcity of cobalt and lithium have led researchers to explore alternative battery systems. NH₄⁺ ion is a nonmetal charge carrier with lower molar mass (18 mol g^-1) and smaller hydrated ionic size (3.31 Å) which results in excellent electrochemical properties. Furthermore, NH₄⁺ ion has a tetrahedral structure that has no preferred orientation as compared to spherical metal ions giving a different intercalation chemistry based on hydrogen bonding. These properties …

Impact Resistance Of Hybrid Metal-Organic Frameworks/Carbon Fibers Composites, Derek Isaac Espinosa Ramirez

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The increase in the use of carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRPs) composites in the aerospace industry generated the need of improving the properties and capabilities of these composites by adding nano-reinforcements to the carbon fibers, also called hybrid fiber reinforced polymer composites. In this study, the energy absorption due to impact at low speed will be tested and simulated in four configurations of CFRPs utilizing the same [0/90]_S layout throughout them.

The carbon fiber configurations used during this study are de-sized, acid-activated, metal-organic frameworks (MOF), and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Nickel (II) Nitrate, Methylimidazole, and Methanol were used to grow the …

Fast-, Light-Cured Scintillating Plastic For 3d-Printing Applications, Brian G. Frandsen, Michael Febbraro, Thomas Ruland, Theodore W. Stephens, Paul A. Hausladen, Juan J. Manfredi, James E. Bevins

Faculty Publications

Additive manufacturing techniques enable a wide range of possibilities for novel radiation detectors spanning simple to highly complex geometries, multi-material composites, and metamaterials that are either impossible or cost prohibitive to produce using conventional methods. The present work identifies a set of promising formulations of photocurable scintillator resins capable of neutron-gamma pulse shape discrimination (PSD) to support the additive manufacturing of fast neutron detectors. The development of these resins utilizes a step-by-step, trial-and-error approach to identify different monomer and cross-linker combinations that meet the requirements for 3D printing followed by a 2-level factorial parameter study to optimize the radiation detection …

Accurate Evaluation Of The Direction-Dependent Mechanical Properties Of Ideal Single Crystals: A Comparative Ab Initio Study, Jaylan Ali Elhalawani

Theses and Dissertations

The mechanical properties of a single crystal or a grain in a polycrystalline material are highly dependent on the direction of the applied load. Key properties of interest are the Young’s modulus and the Poisson ratio in the small strain limit, and the ideal tensile strength in the large strain regime. Prior atomistic computations of these properties interchangeably used two approaches. In one approach the stress-strain response is explicitly calculated via a numerical tensile test experiment. In the second approach the second order single crystal elastic constants are computed via small deformations and then used in analytical equations to derive …

Atomistic Simulation Studies Of Thin Film Growth And Plastic Deformation In Metals And Metal/Ceramic Nanostructures, Reza Namakian

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Despite the significant improvements in manufacturing and synthesis processes of metals and ceramics in the past decades, there are still areas in which the procedure is still frequently more of an art or skill rather than a science. Therefore, systematic and combined experimental and computational studies are required to facilitate the development of techniques that offer thorough understanding of the events taking place during manufacturing and synthesis processes. With regard to these issues, it is paramount to address microscale characterizations and atomic scale understanding of the events during fabrication processes. One of the focuses of this study is unraveling fundamental …

Nanoclays‑Containing Bio‑Based Packaging Materials: Properties, Applications, Safety, And Regulatory Issues, Kalpani Y. Perera, Maille Hopkins, Amit K. Jaiswal Dr, Swarna Jaiswal

Articles

Food packaging is an important concept for consumer satisfaction and the increased shelf life of food products. The introduction of novel food packaging materials has become an emerging trend in recent years, which could be mainly due to environmental pollution caused by plastic packaging and to reduce food waste. Recently, numerous studies have been carried out on nanoclays or nanolayered silicate to be used in packaging material development as reinforcing filler composites. Different types of nanoclays have been used as food packaging materials, while montmorillonite (MMT), halloysite, bentonite (BT), Cloisite, and organically modified nanoclays have become of great interest. The …

Launching A 3d Printing Program For Students: Recommendations And Best Practices For Libraries, Wilhelmina Randtke, Lee Bareford

Georgia Library Quarterly

The Georgia Southern University Libraries launched a 3D printing program for students in July 2022. Prior to launch, library employees at two of Georgia Southern University’s campuses investigated options for implementing safe, affordable, and sustainable 3D printing in existing academic libraries without retrofitting costly ventilation systems into existing facilities. This article describes the reasons why the Georgia Southern University Libraries thought that a 3D printing program could fulfill a service need for students across university colleges and departments and outlines some of the challenges, best practices, and unique innovations that the library’s employees experienced throughout the program launch process. The …

Adsorptive Properties And On-Demand Magnetic Response Of Lignin@Fe3o4 Nanoparticles At Castor Oil–Water Interfaces, Mohammad J. Hasan, Emily Westphal, Peng Chen, Abishek Saini, I-Wei Chu, Sarah J. Watzman, Esteban E. Ureña-Benavides, Erick S. Vasquez

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Lignin@Fe3O4 nanoparticles adsorb at oil–water interfaces, form Pickering emulsions, induce on-demand magnetic responses to break emulsions, and can sequester oil from water. Lignin@Fe3O4 nanoparticles were prepared using a pH-induced precipitation method and were fully characterized. These were used to prepare Pickering emulsions with castor oil/Sudan red G dye and water at various oil/water volume ratios and nanoparticle concentrations. The stability and demulsification of the emulsions under different magnetic fields generated with permanent magnets (0–540 mT) were investigated using microscopy images and by visual inspection over time. The results showed that the Pickering emulsions were more stable at the castor oil/water …

Liquid-Liquid Equilibria Of Water + Ethanol + Castor Oil And The Effect Of Cellulose Nanocrystal/Fe3o4 And Lignin/Fe3o4 Nanoparticles, Mohammad J. Hasan, Fariba Yehaneh, Amy Ciric, Peng Chen, Erick S. Vasquez, Esteban E. Ureña-Benavides

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Castor oil has been proposed as a renewable solvent for the liquid extraction of ethanol from water as an alternative to more traditional energy intensive distillation-based methods. The liquid–liquid equilibrium (LLE) of the ternary system water + ethanol + castor oil was determined at 295.15 K using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Castor oil was herein treated as a pseudo-component with the molecular weight of the triglyceride of ricinoleic acid. The experimental data was fitted to the UNIQUAC and NRTL models to obtain parameters for castor oil, and binary interaction parameters for castor oil/ethanol and castor oil/water pairs. The separation …

Investigation Of Fiber Orientation And Mechanical Properties Of Pyrolysis Recycled Carbon-Fiber Reinforced Thermoset Composite, Reva N. Simmons, Harry Lee, Garam Kim

Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship

With increasing demand of carbon fiber reinforced fiber thermoset composites, establishing a sustainable cycle for these materials becomes crucial. Pyrolysis is a process of reclaiming carbon fiber from thermoset composites by thermally degrading the polymer at high temperatures allowing the fibers to be extracted. Carbon fiber reclaimed through current pyrolysis processes for thermoset composites typically loses its original shape and orientation, making it difficult to reorganize the fibers. This study investigated the feasibility of maintaining the fiber orientations for continuous fiber reinforced thermoset composite during pyrolysis by stitching the carbon fiber layup to a conformable copper mesh during the manufacturing …

Development Of Interatomic Potential Of High Entropy Diborides With Artificial Intelligence Approach To Simulate The Thermo-Mechanical Properties, Nur Aziz Octoviawan

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The interatomic potentials designed for binary/high entropy diborides and ultra-high temperature composites (UHTC) have been developed through the implementation of deep neural network (DNN) algorithms. These algorithms employed two different approaches and corresponding codes; 1) strictly local & invariant scalar-based descriptors as implemented in the DEEPMD code and 2) equivariant tensor-based descriptors as included in the ALLEGRO code. The samples for training and validation sets of the forces, energy, and virial data were obtained from the ab-initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations and Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations, including the simulation data from the ultra-high temperature region (> 2000K). The study …

A Study Of Synthesis And Characterization Of Naxmno2-Δ As A Cathode Material For Sodium-Ion Battery, Zia Uddin Mahmud

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The proliferation of renewable energy sources and the promising market for net-scale battery applications immediately increases the need for electrochemical energy storage technology. Sodium (Na) components are more accessible and less expensive than lithium. Being a sodium-based material with a high-power density provided by Na-ion diffusion, Na_xMnO_{2- δ} is a strong contender for large-scale Sodium-ion-battery (SIB) applications. In the current study, Na_xMnO_{2- δ} is created using a solid-state reaction technique, and investigated structural, electrical, and electrochemical properties of materials were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-VIS spectroscopy, and …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Cage-Structured Compounds As Promising Thermoelectric Materials, Nusrat Yasmin

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The development of new thermoelectric materials is of great interest due to their potential to convert waste heat into useful electricity. The primary problem is that the physical factors that are utilized to assess thermoelectric performance conflict with one another. One way to improve their performance is to hinder the lattice from conducting heat through its vibrations while maintaining the heat conduction via the electrons. This can be done by creating cage structures that allow heavy atoms to jiggle. In this study, we report the synthesis of a group of such compounds, using the self-flux method. They all belong to …

Drop Wetting And Sliding On Soft, Swollen Elastomers, Zhuoyun Cai

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Soft, slippery surfaces have gained increasing attention due to their wide range of potential applications, for example in self-cleaning, anti-fouling, liquid collection, and more. One design approach in creating slippery surfaces is using a swollen elastomer, which is a polymer network swollen with a lubricant. This type of surface may be beneficial for longer-term use than standard lubricant-infused surfaces, and provides a versatile surface with tunable mechanical properties. Hence, understanding the physics of soft surface interactions is important for fundamental soft matter physics, biomaterials, adhesives, and coatings. This research experimentally investigates wetting on soft infused networks, with the aim of …

Solid-State Shear Pulverization: A Comprehensive Study On Polymer Processing Technology From A Systematic Innovation Perspective, Tyler A. Will

Master’s Theses

Solid-state shear pulverization (SSSP) is a continuous and scalable processing technique that imposes mechanochemical changes in polymer-based materials. It has been shown to impart beneficial properties onto homopolymers or create copolymers and composites through continuous fragmentation and fusion. The unique technology employs cold temperature to keep the polymer in the solid state. This thesis investigates industrial polymer processing in the context of real-world applications. This thesis analyzes SSSP using an organized methodology called systematic innovation (SI). SI facilitates problem solving by assisting engineers in conducting root cause analysis around a material and studying the physical setup of the equipment.

This …

Ambient Ammonia Synthesis Via Microwave-Catalytic Materials And Plasma Chemistry, Siobhan Brown

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Ammonia is critical to supporting human life on earth because of its use as fertilizer. The Haber-Bosch process to produce ammonia has been practiced for over 100 years. This process operates at high pressure and temperature to overcome the thermodynamic and kinetic limitations of the ammonia synthesis reaction thus researchers have tried to overcome it for decades. At present this process represents 1% of global energy usage and 2.5% of global CO₂ emissions. The proposed chemical looping ammonia synthesis approach seeks to reduce the environmental impact of this critical process and to elucidate microwave-catalytic principles.

This research aims to …

Recycling Metal Chips Into Usable Materials, Alex Mortensen, Ben Mortensen

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This report entails the scope, design considerations, and plans for creating a metal chip converter into metal briquettes. The construction is a set of machines with multiple processes to make the conversion happen. The process includes washing fine metal chips, drying them off, compressing them, and melting them down into usable briquettes. This project is intended to make a simple process to recycle metal chips into usable material for reuse. The project's objective is to reduce the costs of storage and recycling waste by offering a solution to recycle it into materials the shop can reuse.

Intergranular And Pitting Corrosion Mechanisms Of Sensitized Aluminum Alloy Aa5083, Clayton Egleston

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The motivation and objectives of this project is to examine the mechanisms of intergranular corrosion (IGC) and pitting corrosion of sensitized AA5083. In this regard, different characterization techniques were used, including optical analysis of microstructure, cyclic potentiodynamic polarization with Tafel fitting, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy with electrical equivalent circuit (EEC) fitting, and potentiostatic current transient monitoring. The transition from IGC to pitting corrosion occurs when the grain boundaries become saturated with the β-phase (Mg₂Al₃). It was found that AA5083 becomes more vulnerable to pitting corrosion as the degree of sensitization increases.

Dome Tester, Clark Bates, Nikolas M. Kulin

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

We are reconfiguring and modifying the previously built dome tester to be more user friendly and mechanically applicable. This has a long-term goal of being a usable teaching tool for manufacturing education within the college of engineering and polymer sciences. The dome tester pushes a metal dome into a clamped sheet of metal to test its forming limits and where necking occurs. We have implemented a better method of viewing the sheet sample as it is being deformed, and improved measuring methods for the distance a sample is deformed. By introducing these changes in conjunction with improved documentation of the …

Wetting Transition Of Texturized Surfaces, Jenna Stephens

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Building on previous research, this project aims to continue the investigation of the wettability of various liquids on a uniform, texturized surface. Different surface energies can impact the wettability of a surface. The surface can be hydrophilic, hydrophobic, or in between. The goal of this project is to research how features of texturized surfaces affect the wetting transition of water, oil, and a mixture of both. Additionally, this project aims to improve the quality of the 3D printed surfaces. The surfaces that will be studied are constructed using UV cured resin 3D printing and are made up of an array …