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Description
Nanostructured materials show signicant enhancement in the thermoelectric g-

ure of merit (zT) due to quantum connement eects. Improving the eciency of

thermoelectric devices allows for the development of better, more economical waste

heat recovery systems. Such systems may be used as bottoming or co-generation

cycles in conjunction with conventional power cycles to recover

Nanostructured materials show signicant enhancement in the thermoelectric g-

ure of merit (zT) due to quantum connement eects. Improving the eciency of

thermoelectric devices allows for the development of better, more economical waste

heat recovery systems. Such systems may be used as bottoming or co-generation

cycles in conjunction with conventional power cycles to recover some of the wasted

heat. Thermal conductivity measurement systems are an important part of the char-

acterization processes of thermoelectric materials. These systems must possess the

capability of accurately measuring the thermal conductivity of both bulk and thin-lm

samples at dierent ambient temperatures.

This paper discusses the construction, validation, and improvement of a thermal

conductivity measurement platform based on the 3-Omega technique. Room temperature

measurements of thermal conductivity done on control samples with known properties

such as undoped bulk silicon (Si), bulk gallium arsenide (GaAs), and silicon dioxide

(SiO2) thin lms yielded 150 W=m􀀀K, 50 W=m􀀀K, and 1:46 W=m􀀀K respectively.

These quantities were all within 8% of literature values. In addition, the thermal

conductivity of bulk SiO2 was measured as a function of temperature in a Helium-

4 cryostat from 75K to 250K. The results showed good agreement with literature

values that all fell within the error range of each measurement. The uncertainty in

the measurements ranged from 19% at 75K to 30% at 250K. Finally, the system

was used to measure the room temperature thermal conductivity of a nanocomposite

composed of cadmium selenide, CdSe, nanocrystals in an indium selenide, In2Se3,

matrix as a function of the concentration of In2Se3. The observed trend was in

qualitative agreement with the expected behavior.

i
ContributorsJaber, Abbas (Author) / Wang, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Wang, Liping (Committee member) / Rykaczewski, Konrad (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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Description
Nanoparticle suspensions, popularly termed “nanofluids,” have been extensively investigated for their thermal and radiative properties. Such work has generated great controversy, although it is arguably accepted today that the presence of nanoparticles rarely leads to useful enhancements in either thermal conductivity or convective heat transfer. On the other hand, there

Nanoparticle suspensions, popularly termed “nanofluids,” have been extensively investigated for their thermal and radiative properties. Such work has generated great controversy, although it is arguably accepted today that the presence of nanoparticles rarely leads to useful enhancements in either thermal conductivity or convective heat transfer. On the other hand, there are still examples of unanticipated enhancements to some properties, such as the reported specific heat of molten salt-based nanofluids and the critical heat flux. Another largely overlooked example is the apparent effect of nanoparticles on the effective latent heat of vaporization (hfg) of aqueous nanofluids. A previous study focused on molecular dynamics (MD) modeling supplemented with limited experimental data to suggest that hfg increases with increasing nanoparticle concentration.

Here, this research extends that exploratory work in an effort to determine if hfg of aqueous nanofluids can be manipulated, i.e., increased or decreased, by the addition of graphite or silver nanoparticles. Our results to date indicate that hfg can be substantially impacted, by up to ± 30% depending on the type of nanoparticle. Moreover, this dissertation reports further experiments with changing surface area based on volume fraction (0.005% to 2%) and various nanoparticle sizes to investigate the mechanisms for hfg modification in aqueous graphite and silver nanofluids. This research also investigates thermophysical properties, i.e., density and surface tension in aqueous nanofluids to support the experimental results of hfg based on the Clausius - Clapeyron equation. This theoretical investigation agrees well with the experimental results. Furthermore, this research investigates the hfg change of aqueous nanofluids with nanoscale studies in terms of melting of silver nanoparticles and hydrophobic interactions of graphite nanofluid. As a result, the entropy change due to those mechanisms could be a main cause of the changes of hfg in silver and graphite nanofluids.

Finally, applying the latent heat results of graphite and silver nanofluids to an actual solar thermal system to identify enhanced performance with a Rankine cycle is suggested to show that the tunable latent heat of vaporization in nanofluilds could be beneficial for real-world solar thermal applications with improved efficiency.
ContributorsLee, Soochan (Author) / Phelan, Patrick E (Thesis advisor) / Wu, Carole-Jean (Thesis advisor) / Wang, Robert (Committee member) / Wang, Liping (Committee member) / Taylor, Robert A. (Committee member) / Prasher, Ravi (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
Hydrogel polymers have been the subject of many studies, due to their fascinating ability to alternate between being hydrophilic and hydrophobic, upon the application of appropriate stimuli. In particular, thermo-responsive hydrogels such as N-Isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM), which possess a unique lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of 32°C, have been leveraged for

Hydrogel polymers have been the subject of many studies, due to their fascinating ability to alternate between being hydrophilic and hydrophobic, upon the application of appropriate stimuli. In particular, thermo-responsive hydrogels such as N-Isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM), which possess a unique lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of 32°C, have been leveraged for membrane-based processes such as using NIPAM as a draw agent for forward osmosis (FO) desalination. The low LCST temperature of NIPAM ensures that fresh water can be recovered, at a modest energy cost as compared to other thermally based desalination processes which require water recovery at higher temperatures. This work studies by experimentation, key process parameters involved in desalination by FO using NIPAM and a copolymer of NIPAM and Sodium Acrylate (NIPAM-SA). It encompasses synthesis of the hydrogels, development of experiments to effectively characterize synthesized products, and the measuring of FO performance for the individual hydrogels. FO performance was measured using single layers of NIPAM and NIPAM-SA respectively. The values of permeation flux obtained were compared to relevant published literature and it was found to be within reasonable range. Furthermore, a conceptual design for future large-scale implementation of this technology is proposed. It is proposed that perhaps more effort should focus on physical processes that have the ability to increase the low permeation flux of hydrogel driven FO desalination systems, rather than development of novel classes of hydrogels
ContributorsAbdullahi, Adnan None (Author) / Phelan, Patrick (Thesis advisor) / Wang, Robert (Committee member) / Dai, Lenore (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
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Description
Thermodynamic development and balance of plant study is completed for a 30 MW solar thermochemical water splitting process that generates hydrogen gas and electric power. The generalized thermodynamic model includes 23 components and 45 states. Quasi-steady state simulations are completed for design point system sizing, annual performance analysis and sensitivity

Thermodynamic development and balance of plant study is completed for a 30 MW solar thermochemical water splitting process that generates hydrogen gas and electric power. The generalized thermodynamic model includes 23 components and 45 states. Quasi-steady state simulations are completed for design point system sizing, annual performance analysis and sensitivity analysis. Detailed consideration is given to water splitting reaction kinetics with governing equations generalized for use with any redox-active metal oxide material. Specific results for Ceria illustrate particle reduction in two solar receivers for target oxygen partial pressure of 10 Pa and particle temperature of 1773 K at a design point DNI of 900 W/m2. Sizes of the recuperator, steam generator and hydrogen separator are calculated at the design point DNI to achieve 100,000 kg of hydrogen production per day from the plant. The total system efficiency of 39.52% is comprised of 50.7% hydrogen fraction and 19.62% electrical fraction. Total plant capital costs and operating costs are estimated to equate a hydrogen production cost of $4.40 per kg for a 25-year plant life. Sensitivity analysis explores the effect of environmental parameters and design parameters on system performance and cost. Improving recuperator effectiveness from 0.7 to 0.8 is a high-value design modification resulting in a 12.1% decrease in hydrogen cost for a modest 2.0% increase in plant $2.85M. At the same time, system efficiency is relatively inelastic to recuperator effectiveness because 81% of excess heat is recovered from the system for electricity production 39 MWh/day and revenue is $0.04 per kWh. Increasing water inlet pressure up to 20 bar reduces the size and cost of super heaters but further pressure rises increasing pump at a rate that outweighs super heater cost savings.
ContributorsBudama, Vishnu Kumar (Author) / Johnson, Nathan (Thesis advisor) / Stechel, Ellen (Committee member) / Rykaczewski, Konrad (Committee member) / Phelan, Patrick (Committee member) / Wang, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
The objective of this dissertation is to study the use of metamaterials as narrow-band and broadband selective absorbers for opto-thermal and solar thermal energy conversion. Narrow-band selective absorbers have applications such as plasmonic sensing and cancer treatment, while one of the main applications of selective metamaterials with broadband absorption is

The objective of this dissertation is to study the use of metamaterials as narrow-band and broadband selective absorbers for opto-thermal and solar thermal energy conversion. Narrow-band selective absorbers have applications such as plasmonic sensing and cancer treatment, while one of the main applications of selective metamaterials with broadband absorption is efficiently converting solar energy into heat as solar absorbers.

This dissertation first discusses the use of gold nanowires as narrow-band selective metamaterial absorbers. An investigation into plasmonic localized heating indicated that film-coupled gold nanoparticles exhibit tunable selective absorption based on the size of the nanoparticles. By using anodized aluminum oxide templates, aluminum nanodisc narrow-band absorbers were fabricated. A metrology instrument to measure the reflectance and transmittance of micro-scale samples was also developed and used to measure the reflectance of the aluminum nanodisc absorbers (220 µm diameter area). Tuning of the resonance wavelengths of these absorbers can be achieved through changing their geometry. Broadband absorption can be achieved by using a combination of geometries for these metamaterials which would facilitate their use as solar absorbers.

Recently, solar energy harvesting has become a topic of considerable research investigation due to it being an environmentally conscious alternative to fossil fuels. The next section discusses the steady-state temperature measurement of a lab-scale multilayer solar absorber, named metafilm. A lab-scale experimental setup is developed to characterize the solar thermal performance of selective solar absorbers. Under a concentration factor of 20.3 suns, a steady-state temperature of ~500 degrees Celsius was achieved for the metafilm compared to 375 degrees Celsius for a commercial black absorber under the same conditions. Thermal durability testing showed that the metafilm could withstand up to 700 degrees Celsius in vacuum conditions and up to 400 degrees Celsius in atmospheric conditions with little degradation of its optical and radiative properties. Moreover, cost analysis of the metafilm found it to cost significantly less ($2.22 per square meter) than commercial solar coatings ($5.41-100 per square meter).

Finally, this dissertation concludes with recommendations for further studies like using these selective metamaterials and metafilms as absorbers and emitters and using the aluminum nanodiscs on glass as selective filters for photovoltaic cells to enhance solar thermophotovoltaic energy conversion.
ContributorsAlshehri, Hassan (Author) / Wang, Liping (Thesis advisor) / Phelan, Patrick (Committee member) / Rykaczewski, Konrad (Committee member) / Wang, Robert (Committee member) / Yu, Hongbin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
When air is supplied to a conditioned space, the temperature and humidity of the air often contribute to the comfort and health of the occupants within the space. However, the vapor compression system, which is the standard air conditioning configuration, requires air to reach the dew point for dehumidification to

When air is supplied to a conditioned space, the temperature and humidity of the air often contribute to the comfort and health of the occupants within the space. However, the vapor compression system, which is the standard air conditioning configuration, requires air to reach the dew point for dehumidification to occur, which can decrease system efficiency and longevity in low temperature applications.

To improve performance, some systems dehumidify the air before cooling. One common dehumidifier is the desiccant wheel, in which solid desiccant absorbs moisture out of the air while rotating through circular housing. This system improves performance, especially when the desiccant is regenerated with waste or solar heat; however, the heat of regeneration is very large, as the water absorbed during dehumidification must be evaporated. N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm), a sorbent that oozes water when raised above a certain temperature, could potentially replace traditional desiccants in dehumidifiers. The heat of regeneration for NIPAAm consists of some sensible heat to bring the sorbent to the regeneration temperature, plus some latent heat to offset any liquid water that is evaporated as it is exuded from the NIPAAm. This means the NIPAAm regeneration heat has the potential to be much lower than that of a traditional desiccant.

Models were created for a standard vapor compression air conditioning system, two desiccant systems, and two theoretical NIPAAm systems. All components were modeled for simplified steady state operation. For a moderate percent of water evaporated during regeneration, it was found that the NIPAAm systems perform better than standard vapor compression. When compared to the desiccant systems, the NIPAAm systems performed better at almost all percent evaporation values. The regeneration heat was modeled as if supplied by an electric heater. If a cheaper heat source were utilized, the case for NIPAAm would be even stronger.

Future work on NIPAAm dehumidification should focus on lowering the percent evaporation from the 67% value found in literature. Additionally, the NIPAAm cannot exceed the lower critical solution temperature during dehumidification, indicating that a NIPAAm dehumidification system should be carefully designed such that the sorbent temperature is kept sufficiently low during dehumidification.
ContributorsKocher, Jordan Daniel (Author) / Wang, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Phelan, Patrick (Committee member) / Parrish, Kristen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
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Description
The energy crisis in the past decades has greatly boosted the search for alternatives to traditional fossil foils, and solar energy stands out as an important candidate due to its cleanness and abundance. However, the relatively low conversion efficiency and energy density strongly hinder the utilization of solar energy in

The energy crisis in the past decades has greatly boosted the search for alternatives to traditional fossil foils, and solar energy stands out as an important candidate due to its cleanness and abundance. However, the relatively low conversion efficiency and energy density strongly hinder the utilization of solar energy in wider applications. This thesis focuses on employing metamaterials and metafilms to enhance the conversion efficiency of solar thermal, solar thermophotovoltaic (STPV) and photovoltaic systems.

A selective metamaterial solar absorber is designed in this thesis to maximize the absorbed solar energy and minimize heat dissipation through thermal radiation. The theoretically designed metamaterial solar absorber exhibits absorptance higher than 95% in the solar spectrum but shows emittance less than 4% in the IR regime. This metamaterial solar absorber is further experimentally fabricated and optically characterized. Moreover, a metafilm selective absorber with stability up to 600oC is introduced, which exhibits solar absorptance higher than 90% and IR emittance less than 10%.

Solar thermophotovoltaic energy conversion enhanced by metamaterial absorbers and emitters is theoretically investigated in this thesis. The STPV system employing selective metamaterial absorber and emitter is investigated in this work, showing its conversion efficiency between 8% and 10% with concentration factor varying between 20 and 200. This conversion efficiency is remarkably enhanced compared with the conversion efficiency for STPV system employing black surfaces (<2.5%).

Moreover, plasmonic light trapping in ultra-thin solar cells employing concave grating nanostructures is discussed in this thesis. The plasmonic light trapping inside an ultrathin GaAs layer in the film-coupled metamaterial structure is numerically demonstrated. By exciting plasmonic resonances inside this structure, the short-circuit current density for the film-coupled metamaterial solar cell is three times the short-circuit current for a free-standing GaAs layer.

The dissertation is concluded by discussing about the future work on selective solar thermal absorbers, STPV/TPV systems and light trapping structures. Possibilities to design and fabricate solar thermal absorber with better thermal stability will be discussed, the experimental work of TPV system will be conducted, and the light trapping in organic and perovskite solar cells will be looked into.
ContributorsWang, Hao (Author) / Wang, Liping (Thesis advisor) / Phelan, Patrick (Committee member) / Wang, Robert (Committee member) / Dai, Lenore (Committee member) / Rykaczewski, Konrad (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
This paper details ink chemistries and processes to fabricate passive microfluidic devices using drop-on-demand printing of tetraethyl-orthosilicate (TEOS) inks. Parameters space investigation of the relationship between printed morphology and ink chemistries and printing parameters was conducted to demonstrate that morphology can be controlled by adjusting solvents selection, TEOS concentration,

This paper details ink chemistries and processes to fabricate passive microfluidic devices using drop-on-demand printing of tetraethyl-orthosilicate (TEOS) inks. Parameters space investigation of the relationship between printed morphology and ink chemistries and printing parameters was conducted to demonstrate that morphology can be controlled by adjusting solvents selection, TEOS concentration, substrate temperature, and hydrolysis time. Optical microscope and scanning electron microscope images were gathered to observe printed morphology and optical videos were taken to quantify the impact of morphology on fluid flow rates. The microscopy images show that by controlling the hydrolysis time of TEOS, dilution solvents and the printing temperature, dense or fracture structure can be obtained. Fracture structures are used as passive fluidic device due to strong capillary action in cracks. At last, flow rate of passive fluidic devices with different thickness printed at different temperatures are measured and compared. The result shows the flow rate increases with the increase of device width and thickness. By controlling the morphology and dimensions of printed structure, passive microfluidic devices with designed flow rate and low fluorescence background are able to be printed.
ContributorsHuang, Yiwen (Author) / Hildreth, Owen (Thesis advisor) / Wang, Robert (Committee member) / Rykaczewski, Konrad (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
Durable, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly anti-icing methods are desired to reduce the icing hazard in many different industrial areas including transportation systems, power plants, power transmission, as well as offshore oil and gas production. In contrast to traditional passive anti-icing surfaces, this thesis work introduces an anti-icing coating that responds

Durable, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly anti-icing methods are desired to reduce the icing hazard in many different industrial areas including transportation systems, power plants, power transmission, as well as offshore oil and gas production. In contrast to traditional passive anti-icing surfaces, this thesis work introduces an anti-icing coating that responds to different icing conditions by releasing an antifreeze liquid. It consists of an outer porous superhydrophobic epidermis and a wick-like underlying dermis that is infused with the antifreeze liquid. This bi-layer coating prevents accumulation of frost, freezing fog, and freezing rain, while conventional anti-icing surfaces typically work only in one of these conditions. The bi-layer coating also delays condensation on the exterior surface at least ten times longer than identical system without antifreeze.

It is demonstrated that the significant delay in condensation onset is due to the integral humidity sink effect posed by the hygroscopic antifreeze liquid infused in the porous structure. This effect significantly alters the water vapor concentration field at the coating surface, which delays nucleation of drops and ice. It was demonstrated that with a proper design of the environmental chamber the size of the region of inhibited condensation and condensation frosting around an isolated pore, as well as periodically spaced pores, filled by propylene glycol can be quantitatively predicted from quasi-steady state water vapor concentration field. Theoretical analysis and experiments revealed that the inhibition of nucleation is governed by only two non-dimensional geometrical parameters: the pore size relative to the unit cell size and the ratio of the unit cell size to the thickness of the boundary layer. It is demonstrated that by switching the size of the pores from millimeters to nanometers, a dramatic depression of the nucleation onset temperature, as well as significantly greater delay in nucleation onset can be achieved.
ContributorsSun, Xiaoda (Author) / Rykaczewski, Konrad (Thesis advisor) / Lin, Jerry (Committee member) / Phelan, Patrick (Committee member) / Wang, Robert (Committee member) / Herrmann, Marcus (Committee member) / Wang, Liping (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
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Description
Many defense, healthcare, and energy applications can benefit from the development of surfaces that easily shed droplets of liquids of interest. Desired wetting properties are typically achieved via altering the surface chemistry or topography or both through surface engineering. Despite many recent advancements, materials modified only on their exterior are

Many defense, healthcare, and energy applications can benefit from the development of surfaces that easily shed droplets of liquids of interest. Desired wetting properties are typically achieved via altering the surface chemistry or topography or both through surface engineering. Despite many recent advancements, materials modified only on their exterior are still prone to physical degradation and lack durability. In contrast to surface engineering, this thesis focuses on altering the bulk composition and the interior of a material to tune how an exterior surface would interact with liquids. Fundamental and applied aspects of engineering of two material systems with low contact angle hysteresis (i.e. ability to easily shed droplets) are explained. First, water-shedding metal matrix hydrophobic nanoparticle composites with high thermal conductivity for steam condensation rate enhancement are discussed. Despite having static contact angle <90° (not hydrophobic), sustained dropwise steam condensation can be achieved at the exterior surface of the composite due to low contact angle hysteresis (CAH). In order to explain this observation, the effect of varying the length scale of surface wetting heterogeneity over three orders of magnitude on the value of CAH was experimentally investigated. This study revealed that the CAH value is primarily governed by the pinning length which in turn depends on the length scale of wetting heterogeneity. Modifying the heterogeneity size ultimately leads to near isotropic wettability for surfaces with highly anisotropic nanoscale chemical heterogeneities. Next, development of lubricant-swollen polymeric omniphobic protective gear for defense and healthcare applications is described. Specifically, it is shown that the robust and durable protective gear can be made from polymeric material fully saturated with lubricant that can shed all liquids irrespective of their surface tensions even after multiple contact incidences with the foreign objects. Further, a couple of schemes are proposed to improve the rate of lubrication and replenishment of lubricant as well as reduce the total amount of lubricant required in making the polymeric protective gear omniphobic. Overall, this research aims to understand the underlying physics of dynamic surface-liquid interaction and provides simple scalable route to fabricate better materials for condensers and omniphobic protective gear.
ContributorsDamle, Viraj (Author) / Rykaczewski, Konrad (Thesis advisor) / Phelan, Patrick (Committee member) / Lin, Jerry (Committee member) / Herrmann, Marcus (Committee member) / Wang, Robert (Committee member) / Wang, Liping (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017