Globally rising anthropogenic CO₂ emissions have resulted in the increased prevalence of ocean acidification (OA) which has the potential to impact shell-forming organisms. On geologic timescales, the largest contributor to atmospheric CO₂ was volcanoes, counterbalanced by weathering and erosion, but due to increased anthropogenic emissions, these processes alone can no...
Solar cells, also known as photovoltaic devices, are a class of renewable energy systems that can convert photons into electrons without the carbon dioxide emission. Short-wavelength, high-energy photons in the ultraviolet (UV) range can't be efficiently utilized by most solar cells because of the spectral mismatch. Luminescent downshifting is a...
The United States depends on the electrical grid infrastructure for nearly every facet of its operation. Understanding how inclement weather affects the reliability of the grid and what the U.S. is doing to ensure its resiliency will be a key step moving forward into the 21st century as global climate...
There is strong interest in the energy community to develop technologies that can diffuse low-cost, renewably generated electricity into difficult and slow to decarbonize sectors. One of the emerging areas of interest is renewable natural gas (RNG). RNG has low or no associated net greenhouse gas emissions and can be...
Worldwide production of natural gas has surged in the last few decades leading to an economic windfall for many communities, but sometimes these new sources of natural gas are located in geographically isolated locations. These areas are so remote that it isn’t economically feasible to transport this stranded gas to...
Seven decades of supercritical heat transfer research have not seen an attempt to characterize turbulent thermal transport in internal flows subject to asymmetric heating. Existing heat transfer models therefore do not account for phenomena that dictates thermal transport, in the proximity of the pseudo-critical point, for non-uniform heating. Additionally, past...
A present abundance of biomass and a decreasing supply of petroleum signal the need for efficient pathways from renewable feedstocks to high value chemicals. One such class of chemicals is oleofurans, molecules comprised of a furan ring and carbon chain which can be used to make powerful hard water surfactants....
The purpose of this research is to provide a simple fabrication method for zinc oxide and antimony sulfide based thin film solar cells. Both a ZnO nanorod electron conducting structure and a stibnite absorber show promise in a solar cell. Initial attempts at using only ZnO and Sb2S3, however, resulted...
High purity isopropyl alcohol (IPA) is utilized in silicon wafer manufacturing in cleaning and drying processes. With the ever-decreasing die size, there is an increased need for even higher purity chemicals. This process was designed to further purify a 250,000 lbs/month stream high purity isopropyl alcohol stream for use in...
In this work, colloidal PbSe quantum dots (QDs) are shown to be synthesized in a controlled manner by changing the growth time and reaction temperature in a microwave synthesis method. It is explained why quantum dots make such a unique material to create electronic devices and the specific benefits that...