Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Development Of Forward Osmosis Based Separations: A Novel Approach In Membrane Technology, Yu-Hsuan Chiao

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tackling the worldwide severe water shortage, the membrane technology is considered to be the most efficient approach and hence, used widely as a cost-effective sustainable solution. “Forward osmosis (FO)” has been the major attention in recent time. FO uses osmotic pressure as the driving force to draw the water passing the membrane and achieve the desired separation performance. In general, it is considered to be a process with tremendous potential to resolve the present-day water shortage with extremely low energy consumption. However, the challenges of membrane and draw solution regeneration associated with FO processes must be conquered prior to their …

Understanding And Controlling Lithium Microstructure During Electroplating For Energy Applications, Yang Tian

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Lithium-ion batteries are reaching the specific theoretical capacity limit, while lithium metal batteries are regarded as the ideal energy storage system for the next generation “beyond lithium-ion” battery systems. The lithium metal anode is considered as the “Holy grail” of anodes due to its relatively low electrochemical potential (-3.04 V vs SHE) and high theoretical capacity (3860 mAh g-1). However, the application of lithium metal anodes is hindered because of significant reaction between metallic lithium and electrolytes, as well as uneven electro-plating, which leads to dendrite formation, causing safety problems.

The kinetic parameters of Li ions such as diffusion coefficient …

Surface Immobilization Of Terpyridine Compounds, Elizabeth Hallett

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The deoxydehydration (DODH) of polyols to alkenes is a promising method of producing high-value chemical feedstocks from biomass-derived materials. Current catalytic systems for DODH require the use of costly reducing agents that generate stoichiometric amounts of chemical waste. Immobilizing catalysts on electrode surfaces using chemical linking groups eliminates the need for sacrificial reductants. In this work, glassy carbon electrodes were modified with 4’-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-2,2’:6’,2’’-terpyridine to investigate o-benzoquinone as a potential linking group for DODH, and possibly for other reactions. Previous studies involving electrodes modified with quinone-containing compounds have primarily been focused on catalyzing the oxidation of NADH; the nature or …