Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Swelling Studies Of Poly(Ionic Liquids) In Different Solvents And Salt Solutions, Pierson Perdue, Ali Alshaikh, Creighton Baltier, Jason E. Bara, Sourav Chatterjee

Scholars Week

Poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs) represented a special class of polymers, which comprised of a polymeric backbone and ionic liquids (ILs) species in each monomeric repeating units. PILs has properties that combined the properties of ionic liquids (ILs) (i.e., high conductivity, better thermal and chemical stability, and tailor-made functionality) with the intrinsic properties of polymer (i.e., mechanical stability). This synergistic property makes PILs a good candidate for various applications such as stable-ion conductors, membranes for gas separations and sorbents. In the past, it was shown that PILs are capable of swelling when dissolved in different ILs but there are few literature reported …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Semi-Interpenetrating And Double Networks Of Sulfonimide- And Imidazolium-Containing Poly(Ionic Liquids), Jeremiah Coughlon, Seth Taylor, Jason Bara, Kevin Miller, Sourav Chatterjee

Scholars Week

In recent years, there has been increased research interest in creating electrically conductive polymer membranes with materials that are widely available and environmentally safe. Herein, we report how polymeric membranes comprised of unique combinations of ionenes and poly(ionic liquids), including a recently developed sulfonimide- and imidazolium-containing methacryloxy-based monomer, were produced via UV photopolymerization. These membranes were specifically tailored to exhibit both ionic conductivity and an affinity for carbon dioxide, which are both crucial characteristics in such applications as electron transport in lithium-ion batteries and gas sorbency in separation techniques. Monomers, such as the aforementioned methacryloxy-based ionic liquid (IL) and C4VIm, …

Synthesis And Properties Of Bio-Based 3d Printable Resins, Cameron Woods, Seth Taylor, Jeremiah Coughlon, Turner Perdue, Sourav Chatterjee, Jason E. Bara

Scholars Week

A photopolymer resin is a monomer that, when introduced to light of a certain wavelength, starts to polymerize into a solid. This has become a growing part of the 3D printing industry. There have been many advancements in the field of 3D printing, however, a lot of these resins are not environmentally friendly and even harmful if not handled in the correct manner. Plant based resins are becoming more and more popular because of their biodegradability and for the possibility of using renewable resources. Glycerol is a plant-based compound that is produced in excess in industry. Glycerol obtained from bioethanol …

One-Dimensional And Two-Dimensional Simulations Of Helical Homopolymers: A Comparative Analysis Of Energy Stabilization And Efficiency​, Nathan Roberts, Matthew Hooks

Scholars Week

The purpose of our work is to analyze the results of a two-dimensional parallel tempering Monte Carlo simulation of a coarse-grained helical homopolymer. The two-dimensional simulation allows Hamiltonian exchanges across both temperature and torsion values, while the one-dimensional simulation exclusively exchanges across temperature values. The genesis of each simulation is defined by a randomly configured polymer; as time progresses, randomly generated movements of monomers decrease the structure’s energy until equilibrium is reached. Equilibrium is determined by finding the absolute minimum of the data series, computing the mean of all remaining data, and finding the intersection between the rolling average and …

Soil Properties Associated With Land Management Practices In Western Kentucky, Ava Isaacs, Gracey Moffitt

Scholars Week

Soil Properties Associated with Land Management Practices in Western Kentucky

1. A. Isaacs, G. Moffitt, W. Sides, and Corey Hale

Mentor: Dr. I.P. Handayani

Hutson School of Agriculture, Murray State University, Kentucky, USA

Abstract

One of the most important factors regarding soil and plant health is nutrient availability and fertility. Of these two factors that were mentioned available potassium is a key component. With that being said we decided that it would be beneficial to see how potassium can be traced within the soil in various locations after fertilizer is applied. There were two parts to this experiment. Part one was …

Spatial Variations Of Soil Properties Under Corn Field In Kentucky, Usa, Sai Neela Kesumala, Dr. Iin Handayani

Scholars Week

Precision farming involves modifying the rate of fertilizer, herbicides, and irrigation in response to crops’ requirements. For precision management, a better understanding of spatial variability of soil properties within a field is important. To fully utilize cultivation and site-specific crop production technology, it is crucial to understand the dynamics of soil properties spatially. Several factors, such as unequal fertilizer and manure application, erosion, tillage, and inborn variances formed during soil development, can contribute to spatial variation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the spatial distribution of selected soil properties in the four border rows, the plot's center, and …

Silver Carp Hypophthalmichthys Molitrix Movements In The Lower Cumberland And Lower Tennessee River, Miranda Belanger

Scholars Week

Silver Carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix are an invasive species making up a large portion of the fish biomass in the lower portions of the Tennessee River and the Cumberland River. This species is expanding its range throughout the upper portions of these rivers, beginning with Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. Silver Carp rarely spawn in Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley, but they can enter these reservoirs through the lock chamber. Thus, the bottleneck created by lock chambers can be used to control expansion of invasive Silver Carp. Although Silver Carp movement patterns have been studied in other portions of the Tennessee …

Mapping Cover Crop Usage In Calloway County, Kentucky, Kyle Klass

Scholars Week

Mapping Cover Crop Usage in Calloway County, Kentucky

Ever since man made the change from hunters and gatherers to an agrarian lifestyle, erosion has slowly removed hectares of once fertile soils from crop land worldwide. As populations increase so does the demand for food, which ultimately increases the amount of erosion caused by agricultural activities. Previous farming practices once deemed revolutionary such as monocropping, synthetic fertilizers, and conventional tilling have only expedited the erosion process by destroying the soil’s microbiome. Eroded soil eventually can make its way into rivers and lakes, decreasing the water quality with abnormally high levels of …

Physiochemical Properties Of Urethane-Containing Ionic Liquids And Ionenes From A Non-Isocyanate Synthetic Approach, George Timmermann

Scholars Week

Ionic polymers that are designed to contain ionic liquids (ILs) in their backbones have been shown to exhibit a high degree of variability through changing the type of ionic character and the location of the ionic region within the molecule. This large amount of variability in both the structure and characteristics of ILs allows researchers to design task-specific ionic polymers and ILs for a variety of applications including gas separation membranes and solid polymer electrolytes. The synthesis of a specific class of ILs and ionenes through the incorporation of urethane groups with imidazolium rings by reacting carbonyl diimidazole with various …