Thesis (M.S.)--Worcester Polytechnic Institute. / Keywords: color thresholding; video for Windows; center of mass calculation; contour extraction; area calculation; virtual orchestra; Broadway. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-63).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Chemistry, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on March 1, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Dissertation advisor: Dr. Wendy Sims. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005. / Morhan Srinivasarao, Committee Member ; CP Wong, Committee Member ; David M. Collard, Committee Chair ; Marcus Weck, Committee Member ; Laren Tolbert, Committee Member.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1969. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliography.

Orientador: Hermes Adolfo de Aquino / Banca: José Antônio Malmonge / Banca: Rinaldo Gregório Filho / Resumo: Os polímeros são muito conhecidos por serem materiais de fácil processamento, leveza, isolantes elétricos e até mesmo térmicos. Essas propriedades viabilizaram várias aplicações tecnológicas desde utensílios domésticos à indústria. No fim do século passado as pesquisas voltaram-se em busca de energias renováveis e novos materiais que associassem as vantagens dos polímeros com as propriedades elétricas dos metais. Com essas pesquisas surgiu uma nova classe de polímeros chamada de Polímeros Condutores Intrínsecos (PCIs) que dispõem de boas propriedades de condução elétrica inerente ao material. Esses PCIs podem ser sintetizados em forma de fibras ou filmes, sozinhos ou com vários outros polímeros para formar blendas com diferentes propriedades. O polipirrol (PPy) é um PCI que proporciona altas condutividades elétricas e boa estabilidade oxidativa, algo difícil de se conseguir com essa classe de polímeros. Esse trabalho teve como objetivo sintetizar amostras de PPy por dois métodos de síntese química: convencional (em solução aquosa) e microemulsão com dodecil sulfato de sódio (SDS - surfactante e dopante). No primeiro método foi variada a razão molar de monômero/oxidante e no segundo variou-se as razões molares de monômero/oxidante/dopante. Para o estudo dessas amostras foram realizadas análises estruturais, morfológicas, térmicas, ópticas e elétricas. De maneira geral, as amostras que apresentaram melhores características morfológicas, ópticas e de condutividade elétrica, foram as obtidas no processo químico em microemulsão, de tal maneira que, quanto maior a quantidade de SDS e menor a temperatura, menor foi o tamanho das partículas de PPy, maior a conjugação das cadeias e maior a dopagem com SDS. / Abstract: The polymers are known to be materials easy processed, slight, electrical insulators and even heat. These properties made possible many technological applications, from household items to the industry. At the end of last century the polls turned in search of renewable energy and new materials that combines the benefits of polymers with the electrical properties of metals. With these studies emerged a new class of polymers called Intrinsic Conducting Polymers (PICs) that have good electrical conduction properties inherent to the material. These PICs can be synthesized in the form of fibers or films, either alone or with various other polymers to form blends with different properties. The polypyrrole (PPy) is a PIC that provides high electrical conductivity and good oxidative stability, something difficult to achieve with this class of polymers. This study aimed to synthesize PPy samples by two methods of chemical synthesis: conventional (aqueous solution) and microemulsion SDS (dodecilsulfate of sodium - surfactant and dopant). In the first method was varied the molar ratio of monomer/oxidant and the second was varied molar ratios of monomer/oxidant/dopant. For the study of these samples were performed structural analyses, morphological, thermal, optical and electrical. In general, samples that showed better morphological characteristics, optical and electrical conductivity were obtained in the chemical process of microemulsion, such a way that the larger the amount of SDS and the lower the temperature, the smaller the particle size of PPy, the greater the conjugation of chains and the higher the doping with SDS. / Mestre

abstract: The object of this body of work is to study the properties and suitability of zinc oxide thin films with a view to engineering them for optoelectronics applications, making them a cheap and effective alternative to indium tin oxide (ITO), the most used transparent conducting oxides in the industry. Initially, a study was undertaken to examine the behavior of silver contacts to ZnO and ITO during thermal processing, a step frequently used in materials processing in optoelectronics. The second study involved an attempt to improve the conductivity of ZnO films by inserting a thin copper layer between two ZnO layers. The Hall resistivity of the films was as low as 6.9×10-5 -cm with a carrier concentration of 1.2×1022 cm-3 at the optimum copper layer thickness. The physics of conduction in the films has been examined. In order to improve the average visible transmittance, we replaced the copper layer with gold. The films were then found to undergo a seven orders of magnitude drop in effective resistivity from 200 -cm to 5.2×10-5 -cm The films have an average transmittance between 75% and 85% depending upon the gold thickness, and a peak transmittance of up to 93%. The best Haacke figure of merit was 15.1×10-3 . Finally, to test the multilayer transparent electrodes on a device, ZnO/Au/ZnO (ZAZ) electrodes were evaluated as transparent electrodes for organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs). The electrodes exhibited substantially enhanced conductivity (about 8×10-5 -cm) over conventional indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes (about 3.2×10-5 -cm). OLEDs fabricated with the ZAZ electrodes showed reduced leakage compared to control OLEDs on ITO and reduced ohmic losses at high current densities. At a luminance of 25000 cd/m2, the lum/W efficiency of the ZAZ electrode based device improved by 5% compared to the device on ITO. A normalized intensity graph of the colour output from the green OLEDs shows that ZAZ electrodes allow for a broader spectral output in the green wavelength region of peak photopic sensitivity compared to ITO. The results have implications for electrode choice in display technology. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Materials Science and Engineering 2010

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) have become an integral part of modern life through their essential role in touchscreen technology. The growing demand for cheap and superior transparent conducting layers, primarily driven by the smart phone market, has led to renewed efforts to develop novel TCOs. Currently, the most widely used material for transparent conducting applications is Sn-doped indium oxide (ITO), which has outstanding optical and electrical properties. This material is expensive though, due to the extensive use of In, and efforts to develop new low-cost transparent conducting oxides (TCO) have become increasingly important. Similarly attempts to reduce the cost of the fabrication and post-sintering steps used in making doped metal oxide thin films through innovative technologies have gained a lot of attention. With these points in mind, this research project has focused on the development of a novel low-cost aerosol assisted physical deposition method for TCO thin film fabrication and the development of new highly conducting materials to replace the expensive ITO for TCO applications. In this study, a new and simple aerosol assisted vapour deposition technique (i.e AACT) is developed to fabricate TCO films using TCO nanoparticle suspensions. Firstly, to test the validity of the method, ITO thin films are fabricated on float glass substrates from a nanoparticle suspension. The influence of the deposition parameters on the structural and opto-electronic properties of the thin films are investigated to understand the intricacies of the process. In order to investigate the fabrication of replacement materials for ITO, a range of doped zinc oxide powders are synthesised and processed using microwave radiation. Nominally, Al doped ZnO (AZO), Ga doped ZnO (GZO), Si doped ZnO (SZO), Cu doped ZnO (CZO) and Mn doped ZnO (MZO) singly doped ZnO powders are all investigated to determine the best metal dopants for transparent conducting ZnO. AZO and GZO pellets are found to present the best electrical conductivity for the singly doped microwave fabricated powders with values of 4.4 x 10-3 and 4.3 x 10-3 Ω.cm achieved reproducibly. In an effort to further improve the properties of ZnO, co-doping experiments, utilising the two best dopants from the previous work (i.e. Al and Ga) is investigated. ZnO structures that are co-doped with Al and Ga (AGZO) are found to exhibit significantly enhanced electrical properties than the singly doped powders. Typically, electrical conductivity value of 5.6 x 10-4 Ω.cm is obtained for AGZO pellets, which is an order of magnitude better than the previously fabricated materials. Finally, the best AZO, GZO and AGZO materials are utilised to fabricate thin films using the previously verified AACT technique. Further investigations into the opto-electrical properties of the resulting thin films is presented prior to the utilisation of the best films in a practical application. Transparent heaters are fabricated using the best AGZO thin films, which are capable of reaching a mean temperature of 132.3 °C after applying a voltage of 18 V for 10 min. This work highlights the potential for using highly conducting AGZO, particularly fabricated by the microwave synthesis route, as a potential alternative for ITO in a wide variety of applications. The research also highlights the advantages of using microwaves in the thermal processing of TCO materials which significantly reduces the energy impact of the production process.

abstract: This work focuses on simulation of electrical resistivity and optical behaviors of thin films, where an Ag or Au thin layer is embedded in zinc oxide. Enhanced conductivity and transparency were earlier achieved with multilayer structured transparent conducting oxide (TCO) sandwich layer with metal (TCO/metal/TCO). Sputtering pattern of metal layer is simulated to obtain the morphology, covered area fraction, and the percolation strength. The resistivity as a function of the metal layer thickness fits the modeled trend of covered area fraction beyond the percolation threshold. This result not only presents the robustness of the simulation, but also demonstrates the influence of metal morphology in multilayer structure. Effective medium coefficients are defined from the coverage and percolation strength to obtain simulated optical transmittance which matches experimental observation. The coherence of resistivity and optical transmittance validates the simulation of the sputtered pattern and the incorporation of percolation theory in the model. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Materials Science and Engineering 2012

abstract: Nanoporous electrically conducting materials can be prepared with high specific pore volumes and surface areas which make them well-suited for a wide variety of technologies including separation, catalysis and owing to their conductivity, energy related applications like solar cells, batteries and capacitors. General synthetic methods for nanoporous conducting materials that exhibit fine property control as well as facility and efficiency in their implementation continue to be highly sought after. Here, general methods for the synthesis of nanoporous conducting materials and their characterization are presented. Antimony-doped tin oxide (ATO), a transparent conducting oxide (TCO), and nanoporous conducting carbon can be prepared through the step-wise synthesis of interpenetrating inorganic/organic networks using well-established sol-gel methodology. The one-pot method produces an inorganic gel first that encompasses a solution of organic precursors. The surface of the inorganic gel subsequently catalyzes the formation of an organic gel network that interpenetrates throughout the inorganic gel network. These mutually supporting gel networks strengthen one another and allow for the use of evaporative drying methods and heat treatments that would usually destroy the porosity of an unsupported gel network. The composite gel is then selectively treated to either remove the organic network to provide a porous inorganic network, as is the case for antimony-doped tin oxide, or the inorganic network can be removed to generate a porous carbon material. The method exhibits flexibility in that the pore structure of the final porous material can be modified through the variation of the synthetic conditions. Additionally, porous carbons of hierarchical pore size distributions can be prepared by using wet alumina gel as a template dispersion medium and as a template itself. Alumina gels exhibit thixotropy, which is the ability of a solid to be sheared to a liquid state and upon removal of the shear force, return to a solid gel state. Alumina gels were prepared and blended with monomer solutions and sacrificial template particles to produce wet gel composites. These composites could then be treated to remove the alumina and template particles to generate hierarchically porous carbon. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Chemistry 2012