The measurement of weak adhesive energies has previously been difficult to obtain. To measure these energies, I designed a technique that uses the combined sensitivities of both a quartz crystal resonator and the inflation of an elastomeric polymer membrane. The surfaces of the quartz crystal and/or the membrane are modified...
Liquid metal melt-lubrication of high-power and high-speed sliding electrical contacts improves electrical current collection and reduces friction. However, armature material loss may cause transition to arcing or plasma contact. Boundary lubrication of the sliding contact with low melting-point alloys can provide comparable improvement in current collection at reduced temperatures. Bismuth,...
In recent years, research has expanded the uses of triblock copolymer gels to a wide variety of applications including everything from ceramics processing to regenerative medicine and drug delivery. The research presented in this dissertation focuses on a physically crosslinked, block copolymers gel system in a selective solvent. This system...
Motivated by performance requirements of future medical stent applications, experimental research addresses the design of novel TiNi-based, superelastic shape-memory alloys employing nanoscale precipitation strengthening to minimize accommodation slip for cyclic stability and to increase output stress capability for smaller devices. Using a thermodynamic database describing the B2 and L21 phases...
Increasing interest in long-life bone implants with reduced mechanical properties reducing the stress-shielding effect and a structure mimicking bone porous architecture has encouraged study and development of fabrication methods for porous NiTi. The main objective of this work was to advance these goals by developing new processing procedures for porous...
In this work, electron beam induced current (EBIC) and scanning photocurrent microscopy (SPCM) were used to quantitatively investigate the electronic properties of silicon nanowire devices. For the first time, it was shown that minority carrier diffusion lengths in phosphorous-doped silicon nanowires are significantly reduced from their bulk values because of...
A multicomponent bimodal poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc) polymer composite has been scientifically designed to increase biaxial plastic flow stabilization for the achievement of large biaxial deformations. For this, a systems-based approach was used for the computational materials design of a high performance bubblegum whose mean in-vivo bubble diameter exceeds that of...
Recent assessment of material property requirements for blast resistant applications, especially for the naval ship hulls, has defined the need to design steels with high stretch ductility and fragment penetration resistance, along with high strength and adequate toughness. Using a system based computational materials design approach, two series of austenitic...
Characterizing the interaction of light and matter has become increasingly important in recent decades, as devices scale down, data transfer speeds up, and the use of photon-based technology (photonics and optoelectronics) becomes widespread. Copper chloride (CuCl) thin films and zinc oxide (ZnO) inverse opal photonic crystals are the two material...
Subsolidus phase relationships within the ZnO-In<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>-SnO<sub>2</sub> system at 1275 <sup>o</sup>C were established by conventional solid state reaction methods. No new compounds or structures were observed within the ternary diagram. Equilibrium in the ZnO-corner, between the homologous compounds and the spinel phase, was found difficult to achieve. This problem was overcome...