No current microfabrication technique exists for producing room-temperature, high-precision, point-to-point polymer nanofibers in three dimensions. Producing rounded structures in a third dimension is particularly difficult to accomplish with...
Conducting polymers; Polymers in medicine; Myocardium
Hydrophilic and conductive characteristics in polymers are mutually exclusive of each other. Hydrophilic polymer properties allow absorption of water up to several magnitudes above their dry weight. However, due to their molecular structure, they...
Characterization of the optical and electrical properties of organic solar cell materials is of prime importance to organic solar cell design. This thesis describes the use of capacitive photocurrent measurements to study the exciton generation and...
Fiber-reinforced polymer matrix composites (PMCs) using high-temperature thermoplastics as the matrix material represent a lightweight design solution for applications above 250°F. This is often required for aircraft structures subjected to...
Drug delivery systems; Curcumin--Therapeutic use--Administration
Curcumin, a plant derived compound has shown significant potency against various chronic diseases like cancer in cell culture and animal studies. However, the introduction of this compound into clinical setting is limited by its poor oral...
This dissertation describes (1) size-dependent electrochemical oxidation/stripping of gold and silver nanoparticles (NPs), (2) alloying of copper with gold nanoparticles at underpotential deposition potentials, (3) electrochemical characterization...
The use of monochloramines in the potable water supply industry has been selected as the disinfectant method of choice due to a longer term of effectiveness and less toxic by-products than the previous choice of chlorine. In spite of the benefits...
Elastomer degradation when exposed to chloraminated potable water is dependent on a number of poorly understood factors. Temperature and chloramine concentration are both believed to play roles, however, they have not been adequately defined. In...
The airline regulatory communities are interested in methods that can access degradation in the polymer insulation of aging aircraft wiring. This study investigates the response of bulk polymer films and aircraft wiring under indentation; changes...
Protective coatings; Microelectromechanical systems
PARYLENE (poly-para-xylylene) is mostly used as a conformal protective polymer pin-hole free coating material to uniformly protect any component configuration on diverse substrates. This thesis describes in detail how the unique properties of...
The thesis focuses on improving the flowrate of the Knudsen gas pump. The Knudsen pump uses thermal transpiration as the driving mechanism to pump gas. It is a motionless gas pump as the pump does not require any moving actuators for pumping. The...
The research in this dissertation describes a simple electrochemical approach for fabricating nanoscale (metal/metal) or molecular (metal/polymer or self assembled monolayer (SAM)/metal) junctions. The fabrication involves metal deposition on one...
Nanoparticles; Imaging systems in medicine; Imaging systems in biology
Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have shown beneficial properties for biomedical use, e.g., their non-toxic nature and surface properties for easy modification. Upon receiving light, they generate a strong surface plasmon field, which can alter the...
Symmetric piezoresistive microcantilever beams have been demonstrated in previous research to be capable of sensing the presence of surrounding gas. This occurs as the damping effect of the gas changes the beam resonance behavior. Device...
Energy independence requires that the nation reduce its dependence on foreign oil imports. This can be achieved through electrification of transportation vehicles if proper battery technology can be developed. In addition, the renewable energy...
The use of fiber reinforced polymer materials (composite FRP materials) to
strengthen existing concrete structures continues to expand as our current infrastructure
ages. However, one of the concerns when using FRP systems in this manner is...
