Matching Items (3)
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- All Subjects: Nanowires
- Creators: Crozier, Peter
Description
In this dissertation, micro-galvanic corrosion effects and passivation behavior of single-phase binary alloys have been studied in order to formulate new insights towards the development of “stainless-like” lightweight alloys. As a lightweight material of interest, Mg-xAl alloys were studied using aqueous free corrosion, atmospheric corrosion, dissolution rate kinetics, and ionic liquid dissolution. Polarization and “accelerated” free corrosion studies in aqueous chloride were used to characterize the corrosion behavior and morphology of alloys. Atmospheric corrosion experiments revealed surface roughness and pH evolution behavior in aqueous environment. Dissolution in absence of water using choline-chloride:urea ionic liquid allowed for a simpler dissolution mechanism to be observed, providing additional insights regarding surface mobility of Al. These results were compared with commercial alloy (AZ31B, AM60, and AZ91D) behavior to better elucidate effects associated with secondary phases and intermetallic particles often present in Mg alloys. Aqueous free corrosion, “accelerated” free corrosion and ionic liquid dissolution studies have confirmed Al surface enrichment in a variety of morphologies, including Al-rich platelet and Al nanowire formation. This behavior is attributed to the preferential dissolution of Al as the more “noble” element in the matrix. Inductively-coupled mass spectroscopy was used to measure first-order rate reaction constants for elemental Mg and Al dissolution in aqueous chloride environment to be kMg= 9.419 x 10-6 and kAl = 2.103 x 10-6 for future implementation in kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. To better understand how “stainless-like” passivation may be achieved, Ni-xCr alloys were studied using polarization and potential pulse experiments. The passivation potential, critical current density, and passivation current density were found to decay with increasing Cr composition. The measured average number of monolayers dissolved during passivation was found to be in good agreement with percolation theory, with a fitted 3-D percolation threshold of p_c^3D=0.118 compared with the theoretical value of 0.137. Using these results, possible approaches towards achieving passivation in other systems, including Mg-Al, are discussed.
ContributorsAiello, Ashlee (Author) / Sieradzki, Karl (Thesis advisor) / Buttry, Daniel (Committee member) / Chan, Candace (Committee member) / Crozier, Peter (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Solid electrolytes have great potential to address the safety issues of Li-ion batteries, but better synthesis methods are still required for ceramics electrolytes such as lithium lanthanum titanate (LLTO) and lithium lanthanum zirconate (LLZO). Pellets made from ceramic nanopowders using conventional sintering can be porous due to the agglomeration of nanoparticles (NPs). Electrospinning is a simple and versatile technique for preparing oxide ceramic nanowires (NWs) and was used to prepare electrospun LLTO and LLZO NWs. Pellets prepared from the electrospun LLTO NWs had higher density, less void space, and higher Li+ conductivity compared to those comprised of LLTO prepared with conventional sol-gel methods, which demonstrated the potential that electrospinning can provide towards improving the properties of sol-gel derived ceramics. Cubic phase LLZO was stabilized at room temperature in the form of electrospun NWs without extrinsic dopants. Bulk LLZO with tetragonal structure was transformed to the cubic phase using particle size reduction via ball milling. Heating conditions that promoted particle coalescence and grain growth induced a transformation from the cubic to tetragonal phase in both types of nanostructured LLZO. Composite polymer solid electrolyte was fabricated using LLZO NWs as the filler and showed an improved ionic conductivity at room temperature. Nuclear magnetic resonance studies show that LLZO NWs partially modify the polymer matrix and create preferential pathways for Li+ conduction through the modified polymer regions. Doping did not have significant effect on improving the overall conductivity as the interfaces played a predominant role. By comparing fillers with different morphologies and intrinsic conductivities, it was found that both NW morphology and high intrinsic conductivity are desired.
ContributorsYang, Ting (Author) / Chan, Candace K. (Thesis advisor) / Crozier, Peter (Committee member) / Lin, Jerry Ys (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Owing to their special characteristics, group III-Nitride semiconductors have attracted special attention for their application in a wide range of optoelectronic devices. Of particular interest are their direct and wide band gaps that span from ultraviolet to the infrared wavelengths. In addition, their stronger bonds relative to the other compound semiconductors makes them thermally more stable, which provides devices with longer life time. However, the lattice mismatch between these semiconductors and their substrates cause the as-grown films to have high dislocation densities, reducing the life time of devices that contain these materials. One possible solution for this problem is to substitute single crystal semiconductor nanowires for epitaxial films. Due to their dimensionality, semiconductor nanowires typically have stress-free surfaces and better physical properties. In order to employ semiconductor nanowires as building blocks for nanoscale devices, a precise control of the nanowires' crystallinity, morphology, and chemistry is necessary. This control can be achieved by first developing a deeper understanding of the processes involved in the synthesis of nanowires, and then by determining the effects of temperature and pressure on their growth. This dissertation focuses on understanding of the growth processes involved in the formation of GaN nanowires. Nucleation and growth events were observed in situ and controlled in real-time using an environmental transmission electron microscope. These observations provide a satisfactory elucidation of the underlying growth mechanism during the formation of GaN nanowires. Nucleation of these nanowires appears to follow the vapor-liquid-solid mechanism. However, nanowire growth is found to follow both the vapor-liquid-solid and vapor-solid-solid mechanisms. Direct evidence of the effects of III/V ratio on nanowire growth is also reported, which provides important information for tailoring the synthesis of GaN nanowires. These findings suggest in situ electron microscopy is a powerful tool to understand the growth of GaN nanowires and also that these experimental approach can be extended to study other binary semiconductor compound such as GaP, GaAs, and InP, or even ternary compounds such as InGaN. However, further experimental work is required to fully elucidate the kinetic effects on the growth process. A better control of the growth parameters is also recommended.
ContributorsDíaz Rivas, Rosa Estela (Author) / Mahajan, Subhash (Thesis advisor) / Petuskey, William (Committee member) / Crozier, Peter (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010