Alternative energy research into hydrogen production via water electrolysis addresses environmental and sustainability concerns associated with fossil fuel use. Renewable-powered electrolyzers are foreseen to produce hydrogen if energy and cost requirements are achieved. Electrocatalysts reduce the energy requirements of operating electrolyzers by lowering the reaction kinetics at the electrodes. Platinum group metals (PGMs) tend to be utilized as electrocatalysts but are not readily available and are expensive. Ni1-xMox alloys, as low-cost and earth-abundant transition metal nanoparticles (NPs), are emerging as promising electrocatalyst candidates to replace expensive PGM catalysts in alkaline media. Pure-phase cubic and hexagonal Ni1-xMox alloy NPs with increasing Mo content (0–11.4%) were synthesized as electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In general, an increase in HER activity was observed with increasing Mo content. The cubic alloys were found to exhibit significantly higher HER activity in comparison to the hexagonal alloys, attributed to the higher Mo content in the cubic alloys. However, the compositions with similar Mo content still favored the cubic phase for higher activity. To produce a current density of -10 mA/cm2, the cubic and hexagonal alloy NPs require over-potentials ranging from -62 to -177 mV and -162 to -242 mV, respectively. The cubic alloys exhibited over-potentials that rival commercial Pt-based electrocatalysts (-68 to -129 mV at -10 mA/cm2). The cubic Ni0.934Mo0.066 alloy NPs showed the highest alkaline HER activity of the electrocatalysts studied and therefore a patent application was submitted. Bulk Ni–Mo phases have been known as electrocatalysts for the HER for decades, while recently transition metal phosphides (TMPs) have emerged as stable and efficient PGM alternatives. Specifically, Ni2P has demonstrated good HER activity and improved stability for both alkaline and acidic media. However, Ni2P electrocatalysts are a compromise between earth-abundance, performance (lower than Ni–Mo and PGMs) and stability. For the first time Ni–Mo–P electrocatalysts were synthesized with varying atomic ratios of Mo as electrocatalysts for alkaline HER. Specific phases, compositions and morphologies were studied to understand the intrinsic properties of TMPs leading to high HER activity. The Ni1.87Mo0.13P and Ni10.83Mo1.17P5 NPs were shown to be stable for 10 h at –10 mA cm-2 with over-potentials of –96 and –82 mV in alkaline media, respectively. The Ni1.87Mo0.13P and Ni10.83Mo1.17P5 NPs exhibited an improved performance over the synthesized Ni2P sample (–126 mV at –10 mA cm-2), likely a result of the overall phosphorous content and hetero-structured morphologies. A strong correlation between phase dependence and the influence of Mo on HER activity needs to be further investigated. Furthermore, understanding the intrinsic properties of electrocatalysts leading to high water splitting performance and stability can apply electrocatalysts in other research applications, such as photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting, water remediation and sustainable chemical processing applications. Contributions to photocatalytic water remediation and electrochemical chlorinated generation to halogenate pyridone-based molecules are reported. Electrochemical techniques were developed and reported herein to aid in understanding electrochemical performance, chemical mechanisms and the stability of electrocatalysts at the electrode-electrolyte interfaces.

With the desire to improve passenger safety and fuel efficiency, Ultra High Strength Steels (UHSS) have been developed for use in the automotive industry. UHSS are high strength steels with high ductility and strength. DP 980 is one of these UHSS being applied in automobile manufacturing. DP 980 is difficult to join with Resistance Spot Welding (RSW) because of the high carbon content and alloying in this material. The weld becomes brittle when it solidifies during the welding process. With the desire and motivation of widely using UHSS, new welding processes are needed to be developed in order to effectively join DP 980. Friction Stir Spot Welding (FSSW) is a developing welding process aimed to replace RSW in the automotive industry because of its ability to join materials at a lower temperature. Currently the welding loads of the tools are higher than 2000 pounds, ranging from 3,000 to 5,000 pounds, which exceeds the limit of the welding robots in the automotive factories. It is proposed that the welding loads can be reduced by increasing the spindle speed of the FSSW tool. Other focuses in the research include increasing the life of the tool and developing acceptable welding parameters for High Speed FSSW. The experimental work done for this thesis provided support that weld strength can be obtained at levels above the acceptable standard for DP 980 material (greater than 2400 pound lap shear fracture load for 1.2 mm material) while keeping the vertical load on the welding machine spindle below 2000 lbs.

Friction stir spot welding (FSSW) is quickly becoming a method of interest for welding of high strength steel (HSS) and ultra high strength steel (UHSS). FSSW has been shown to produce high quality welds in these materials, without the drawbacks associated with fusion welding. Tool grade for polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PCBN) tools has a significant impact on wear resistance, weld quality, and tool failure in FSSW of DP 980 steel sheet. More specifically, for a nominal composition of 90% CBN, the grain size has a significant impact on the wear resistance of the tool. A-type tools performed the best, of the three grades that were tested in this work, because the grain size of this grade was the finest, measuring from 3-6 microns. The effect of fine grain size was less adhesion of DP 980 on the tool surface over time, less abrasive wear, and better lap shear fracture loads of the welds that were produced, compared to the other grades. This is explained by less exposure of the binder phase to wear by both adhesion and abrasion during welding of DP 980. A-type tools were the most consistent in both the number of welds per tool, and the number of welds that reached acceptable lap shear fracture loads. B-type tools, with a bimodal grain size distribution (grain size of 4 – 40 microns) did a little bit better than C-type tools (grain size of 12-15 microns) in terms of wear, but neither of them were able to achieve consistent acceptable lap shear fracture load values after the first 200 welds. In fact only one out of five C-type tools was able to produce acceptable lap shear fracture loads after the first 100 welds.

The growing negative impacts of non-biodegradable plastics derived from non-renewable materials have created increasing interest throughout the world for new materials that are both biodegradable and renewable, that can be combined with or replace traditional plastics. Plant-based thermoplastic starch (TPS), a promising alternative material to traditional petroleum based resin, is both biodegradable and renewable and has great potential for use in plastic manufacturing processes. Two major obstacles that prevent more widespread use of TPS include; TPS base material, which is typically manufactured in a flake or powder, is incompatible with standard plastics production equipment that require pelletized resin, the second reason is that TPS is difficult to mix with standard plastic materials such as High Density Polyethylene (HDPE). BiologiQ of Blackfoot Idaho through a unique manufacturing process has created a new type of TPS called EcoStarch™ Resin (ESR) that overcomes these two obstacles the material can be both pelletized and combined with various standard base plastics such as HDPE. This study evaluated and characterized the processability materials properties of ESR and HDPE blends in the Extrusion Blow Molding (EBM) by measuring wall thickness, tensile strength, tensile elongation, modulus of elongation and formability compared to 100% HDPE bottles. As the ESR content increased the uniformity of the wall thickness increased. The tensile strength increased from ESR content of 30% to 50% while the elongation decreased. Bottles were successfully extrusion blow molded with ESR content of 50%.

The unique thermo-mechanical behavior of Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs), such as their ability to recover the original shape upon heating or being able to tolerate large deformations without undergoing plastic transformations, makes them a good choice for actuators. This work studies their application in the aerospace and defense industries where SMA components can serve as release mechanisms for gates of enclosures that have to be deployed remotely. This work provides a novel approach in evaluating the stress and heat induced change of phase in a SMA, in terms of the transformation strain tensor. In particular, the FEA tool ANSYS has been used to perform a 2-D analysis of a Cu-Al-Zn-Mn SMA specimen undergoing a nontraditional loading path in two steps with stress and heating loads. In the first load step, tensile displacement is applied, followed by the second load step in which the specimen is heated while the end displacements are held constant. A number of geometric configurations are examined under the two step loading path. Strain results are used to calculate transformation strain which provides a quantitative measure of phase at a material point; when transformation strain is zero, the material point is either twinned martensite, or austenite depending on the temperature. Transformation strain value of unity corresponds to detwinned martensite. A value between zero and one indicates mixed phase. In this study, through two step loading in conjunction with transformation strain calculations, a method for mapping transient non-uniform distribution of phases in an SMA is introduced. Ability to obtain drastically different phase distributions under same loading path by modifying the geometry is demonstrated. The failure behavior of SMAs can be designed such that the load level the crack initiates and the path it propagates can be customized.

In this thesis, new methods for shear strength are proposed and backed up through extensive experimentation, ABAQUS models and data analysis of Titanium welds of three different alloys. The results are compared with those obtained by using the procedure outlined by AWS B4 for calculating Shear Strength in the transverse and longitudinal directions; this equation is widely used by the American Welding Society (AWS) and all those in search of more efficient designs involving welding. It is a well-documented issue that the equation provided by AWS yields a large discrepancy between the values for shear strength of longitudinal and transverse welds.

Magneto-optical materials such as permalloy can be used to create artificial spin- ice (ASI) lattices with antiferromagnetic ordering. Magneto-optical materials used to create diffraction lattices are known to exhibit magnetic scattering at the half- order Bragg peak while in the ground state. The significant drawbacks of studying the magneto-optical generation of OAM using x-rays are cost, time, and access to proper equipment. In this work, it is shown that the possibility of studying OAM and magneto-optical materials in the spectrum of visible light at or around 2 eV is viable. Using spectroscopic ellipsometry it is possible to detect a change in the magnetization of thin permalloy films with thicknesses between 5 and 20 nm. Patterns consistent with OAM were found at 1.95 eV using a square lattice with a 4𝜋 radial phase shift in the antiferromagnetic ground state. Evidence of magnetic scattering at the half-order Bragg peak using 1.95 eV was also found.

In this study, the effect of ultrasonic treatment (UST) parameters such as amplitude, sonication time, and melt temperature on microstructure and microhardness of Al 6061 alloy is evaluated. The effect of UST on the dispersion of tungsten disulfide (WS2) and carbon nanotubes (CNT) as reinforcement particles in Al 6061 during casting is also studied. The cast Al 6061 with UST demonstrated 32% grain size reduction and 8% increase in the microhardness for optimum processing conditions. The cavitation process induced by UST is responsible for the refinement in microstructure and increase of hardness by enhancing the degassing and nucleation process. UST treated 6061 Al alloy demonstrated Hall-Petch relationship for all processing conditions. The UST process also aids in excellent dispersion of WS2 and CNT as reinforcement particles. UST treated WS2 and CNT reinforced Al 6061 composites displayed improved wear resistance as compared to samples without cavitation.

Fusion energy has been said to be the solution to all the world’s energy problems. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is the flagship project to demonstrate the feasibility of fusion energy. The Central Solenoid (CS), an important component of the reactor, is needed to induce plasma current, initiate, ramp-up, ramp-down, and sustain plasma in a very controlled manner. In order to achieve this, the CS coil packs must be manufactured under controlled conditions. The CS conductor is an advanced cable-in-conduit Nb3Sn superconductor. The CS cable will be made in long continuous sections but with thousands of meter of cable needed, splices will have to be made in the field during construction of the ITER reactor. With the ends of the CS cable being exposed to the environment for an unspecified amount of time, concern has been expressed about the effect of the cable exposure on the quality of the splice. As a result an experimental program was devised to replicate and expedite the environmental damage the cable may see while in the field. The CS cable samples were exposed to 100% humidity at 60, 80, and 100oC for periods ranging from one week to four weeks. Once the samples were soaked for a period of time they were then sintered as would be done in the field. After sintering the mechanical tests were done to determine the load required to push the sintered strands out of the copper sleeve. Initial results obtained with samples having the sleeve thickness of 1.25mm (0.05in) were inconclusive due to the presence of a fold in the copper sleeve formed during the compaction of the sleeve around the cable. To prevent the fold formation, another set of samples were prepared with thicker copper sleeve of 5mm (0.20in). Results from these samples yielded data that was more conclusive and showed a possible correlation between aging temperature and sintering strength. The experimental data suggests that the thin oxide layer formed during the elevated temperature soak at 100% humidity may even be beneficial to the sinter quality.

This thesis recounts the experimental study of the dynamic response of polycarbonate blast resistant glazing systems to explosive loading through the use of triaxial load cells, pressure sensors, and a laser displacement gauge. This instrumentation captured the response of the glazing systems to blast loading over three phases of testing. The first phase of testing characterizes the load distribution around the perimeter and the second phase examines the repeatability of the results. The final phase of testing pushes the samples to failure. The results are then compared to HazL, a commonly used blast resistant glazing system analysis software tool. The experimental data is also compared to data available characterizing the response of laminated glass.