The number of applications and the significance of ultrapure water are increasing over time in both traditional and high-tech industries. For ultrapure water treatment and production, two important types of equipments are the green technology with Electrodeionization modules (EDI), and the traditional ion exchange resins with Mixed Beds (MB). Unfortunately, it is a concern that the highly polluting MB technology produces a large volume of waste-water during the regeneration process, but still owns around 90% market share of all ultrapure water systems. By contrast, although EDI, a high-tech green product of the latest generation, has excellent market advantages and a promising future of totally replacing MB, it grabs only around 10% market share as of 2010. Perhaps, the technology and timing for EDI to be widely applied are still premature. It is also likely that most industrial consumers do not fully understand the real value and deep impact of EDI, and cling to MB under the conventional cost-price consideration. However, it is a global trend to be environmentally friendly. For example, in recent years the world¡¦s major automobile companies have invested in developing and manufacturing hybrid/electric vehicles that are equally functional yet more costly than traditional cars. Moreover, governments counteract general consumers¡¦ preference for low-price products by imposing more stringent standards for cars¡¦ emissions and energy consumptions with the aid of new laws and subsidies. If there is a lesson to be learned here, isn¡¦t EDI to the ultrapure water industry what hybrid/electric cars are to the automobile industry in terms of their developing trends and values? This thesis will examine a specific case, S company, which manufactures EDI. Through the analysis of the company, advantages of its products, and potential opportunities in its business environment, empirically it can be shown that EDI will inevitably become the mainstream in the future market by gradually replacing all traditional MB. Hopefully such an empirical conclusion would inspire and educate industrial manufacturers to make their future choices between EDI and traditional MB based not only on the operating efficiency, but also on which technology contributes more to environmental protection and earth sustainability during the development of an enterprise. It is also of hope that the perspective on system designs and usages could be more objective and unbiased. For instance, instead of always chasing low costs as the first priority in the pursuit of profits and development, enterprises could take into account social responsibilities, such as environment protection, energy conservation, and carbon reduction, and become pioneers in carbon footprint reduction.

Hydrogen terminated silicon surfaces play an important role in the integrated circuit (IC) industry. Ultra-pure water is extensively used for the cleaning and surface preparation of silicon surfaces. This work studies the effects of ultra-pure water on hydrogen passivated silicon surfaces in a short time frame of 120 minutes using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy – attenuated total reflection techniques. Varying conditions of ultra-pure water are used. This includes dissolved oxygen poor media after nitrogen bubbling and equilibration under nitrogen atmosphere, as well as metal contaminated solutions. Both microscopically rough and ideal monohydride terminated surfaces are examined. Hydrogen terminated silicon is also used as the sensing electrode for a potentiometric sensor for ultra-trace amounts of metal contaminants. Previous studies show the use of this potentiometric electrode sensor in hydrofluoric acid solution. This work is able to shows sensor function in ultra-pure water media without the need for further addition of hydrofluoric acid. This is considered a boon for the sensor due to the hazardous nature of hydrofluoric acid. Thin carbon films can be formed by spin coating photoresist onto silicon substrates and pyrolyzing at 1000 degrees C under reducing conditions. This work also shows that the electroless deposition of palladium and platinum may be accomplished in hydrofluoric acid solutions to attain palladium and platinum nanoparticles on a this film carbon surface for use as an electrode. Catalysis of these substrates is studied using hydrogen evolution in acidic media, cyclic voltammetry, and catalysis of formaldehyde. X-ray diffractometry (XRD) is used to ensure that there is little strain on palladium and platinum particles. Iridium is thought to be a prime candidate for investigation as a new generation copper diffusion barrier for the IC industry. Copper electrodeposition on iridium is studied to address the potential of iridium as a copper diffusion barrier. Copper electrodeposition is studied using a current-transient technique to obtain insight into the nucleation and growth mechanism. Copper on iridum was annealed up to 600 degrees C. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and XRD confirm that electrodeposited copper exists in a metallic state. XRD shows that copper exists in the characteristic face-centered cubic (111) form. XRD also confirms the stability of the copper-iridium interface with no new peaks after annealing, which is indicative that no interaction occurs. Scanning electron microscopy, and Scotch ® Tape peel tests confirm the uniformity and strength of copper on iridium even after annealing to 600 degrees C.

For long now, the world has been depending on the fossil-fuels; mainly oil. But a lot of businesses are moving towards a sustainable future while considering higher growth. Green hydrogen: a solution for the sustainable future has been taking over now. Being the best alternative of fossil-fuels, green hydrogen has a long way to go when it comes to production and usage. Due to many challenges, this solution has not been completely adopted yet. The case company has an innovation that can support the green hydrogen, so we will use DOI, multi-level perspective and cluster theory to identify the variables that will interrelate with the diffusion rate, which will help us to understand the diffusion process in B2B business. For our thesis research, we have followed a case study approach with the intent to highlight those opportunities and what are the challenges that are hindering the green hydrogen growth. We wanted to seek into how the Diffusion of Innovation theory can be implemented into the hydrogen industry. With the assistance of a company Scarab, who has developed an innovation called Ultrapure water which has the potential to accelerate the growth of green hydrogen adoption; we wanted to look further into the case on how such innovation can contribute for a better green future . We conducted a semi-structured interview with multiple interview guides which was used for our research with the involvement of people from ultrapure water industry and hydrogen industry. Finally, we identified the strengths and weaknesses of UPW innovation, the drivers and hinders of green hydrogen, and how all these factors will interrelate to the diffusion rate of UPW innovation into green hydrogen.