Cryopreservation of adherent cells may be advantageous for cell types that are difficult to
preserve in suspension or when it is necessary to preserve characteristics of the adherent cultured cells. Vitrification is a promising procedure for the preservation of adherent cells that prevents ice crystal formation and the resulting dissociation...
In the last decade, there has been renewed interest in the use of granulocyte transfusions to treat infections in individuals with compromised immune systems. However, granulocytes only remain functional for about a day after isolation and this short shelf life is a significant drawback. Cryopreservation would allow long term storage...
Metal oxide nanocrystals have attracted significant interests due to their unique chemical, physical, and electrical properties which depend on their size and structure. In this study, a continuous flow microreactor system was employed to synthesize metal oxide nanocrystals in aqueous solution. Assembly of nanocrystals is considered one of the most...
The Virtual Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) Process Development Project provides the context for the two areas of the research presented in this dissertation. The first area, generally referred to as feedback in this dissertation, focuses on student learning and the interactions of students and instructors that take place in the...
As the world's power needs grow, the demand for power from renewable resources, such as wind or solar is increasing. One major drawback associated with these renewable resources is that the power output is dependent on environmental factors, such as cloud cover and wind speeds. This allows the possibility of...
Copper sulfides (Cu[subscript x]S) are compound semiconductor materials that exhibit considerable optical and electrical properties varying significantly as a function of the composition. Copper sulfide thin films can be used in many applications, such as solar control coatings, solar cells, photothermal conversion of solar energy, electroconductive coatings, and microwave shielding...
Microtechnology was used to study the chemical reduction of dissolved carbon dioxide into useful products. A novel TiO₂ photocatalyst was used to activate the reaction under ultraviolet irradiation. CO₂ was dissolved in aqueous and 50% BMIM-BF₄ (ionic liquid) solutions. The introduction of an ionic liquid increased the solubility of CO₂...
Compact storage systems demonstrating increased hydrogen storage capacity are the key to advancing the growth of the hydrogen economy throughout the world and reducing the global dependence on fossil fuels for transportation. The use of highly porous adsorbent materials for reversible hydrogen storage is a promising pathway towards achieving storage...
The growing need for cleaner fuels requires the development of better deep fuel desulfurization methods. The current study presents a reaction model for the mechanism of dibenzothiophene oxidization by dissolved oxygen occurring in a corona discharge microreactor. In the present work, a Finite Volume Method model of the reactor is...
Global warming problem is becoming an increasingly important environmental concern and CO₂ is considered as the major cause of global warming. Among various methods of CO₂ utilization, conversion of CO₂ to value added chemical products is the most attractive. In this study, a microscale-based corona reactor is introduced for reduction...
Meeting the energy demands of the future is one of the most important challenges facing the engineering community today. An example of this problem is transportation fuels. Most of the current transportation fuels are composed of petroleum hydrocarbons. Finding a viable alternative is important given the potential scarcity of these...
The inhibitory effects of (Ag⁺) and silver nanoparticles (Ag NP) 3-5 nm in diameter (stabilized with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)) and 20 nm (stabilized with citrate) on nitrification rates of the model ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) Nitrosomonas europaea were investigated. Experimental solutions contained HEPES buffer and ammonia (NH₃) in the presence and absence...
Pb(Zr₁₋ₓTiₓ)O₃ (PZT) is a common piezoelectric and ferroelectric thin film material with a wide variety of applications, including ferroelectric random access memories, novel thin film transistors, and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). The most common substrate for PZT in all of these areas has been platinum-coated silicon. Alternative substrates are desired for...
Amphiphilic gold nanoparticle surfactants can self-assemble at oil-water interfaces to form stable Pickering emulsions. These nanoparticle surfactants have previously been synthesized by functionalizing gold nanoparticles with thiol terminated polyethylene glycol (PEG-thiol), and subsequently with an alkane-thiol. It is necessary to improve the bio-compatibility of the nanoparticles if they are to...
Tetrachlorethene (PCE) and trichloroethene (TCE) were common solvents used in the 1970’s that are now frequently observed groundwater contaminants. One method of remediating these contaminants is in-situ bioremediation that uses a dechlorinating microbial population. The microbial population performs the sequential reductive dechlorination of PCE and TCE to cis-1,2-dichloroethene (c-DCE), vinyl...
Titanium dioxide, in the anatase form, is a photocatalyst and has applications in water pollution reduction. Efficiency can be improved with a graphene substrate, which delays electron-hole recombination and may reduce the band gap. In this work, we determine if graphene can also act as a morphactant, changing the shape...
The memristor is a resistive switching random access memory (RRAM) with a basic metal/insulator/metal (MIM) structure. These nano devices are nonvolatile, have a conceptually simple crossbar device structure, are power efficient and have the capability of switching between high and low resistance states in nanoseconds making them promising to replace...
The need for clean energy continues to rise as the earth’s non-renewable resources continue to be depleted to satisfy energy demands. One plausible renewable energy source exists in biomass-powered fuel cells.¹ While there are several ways to convert sugars to energy, one interesting approach is to convert the sugars to...
Steam distillation has been the common method of extraction of essential oils from plants for more than a century. The use of microwave energy has been suggested as an alternative distillation method that would: reduce water usage, dependence on non-renewable energy sources, and the carbon footprint. A byproduct of this...
The development of solution-based methods for deposition of different thin film material is presented as an alternative to high cost vacuum-based methods. For certain materials, vacuum techniques are unsuitable for processing. Additionally, vacuum-based processes present high capital costs associated with equipment, and slow processing times. Atmospheric pressure solution based techniques...
A techno-economic analysis (TEA) was performed to evaluate the technology, cost, and resource use for algal biofuel production based on today’s economics and technology. The basic goal of this study is to develop a model to calculate the mass and energy balances and costs to produce 10 million gal of...
Characterizing the hydrophobicity of nanoparticles can help us understand their fate and transport in the environment, as well as how nanoparticles may interact with biological systems. However, contact angle and partition coefficient have limitations in measuring the hydrophobicity of nanoparticles, thus promising methods to measuring the hydrophobicity of nanoparticles are...
This dissertation centers on development of two web-based, in class learning tools, the AIChE Concept Warehouse (CW) and the Web-based Interactive Science and Engineering Learning Tool (WISE), and describes the investigation of student learning through their use. The intent of these tools is to promote deeper conceptual understanding in students...
The motivation for undertaking this research was to increase the understanding of processing colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals and thin films metallic glasses to enable their wider application in future devices. This research covered two unique materials, lead selenide (PbSe) nanocrystals and thin film metallic glass alloy of zirconium copper aluminum nickel...