Conventional polymer network materials, e.g., rubber tires, cannot be efficiently recycled for high-value applications because of their permanent network structures. Therefore, at the end of use, none or only a small fraction of the economic value can be recovered from these materials. Scrapped tires demonstrate well this issue along with...
As the global population grows, consumption of water, energy, and food will also increase, placing stresses on these sectors, raising the importance of the Water-Energy-Food Nexus (WEFN). However, operation of WEFN systems are currently not sustainable. It is thus crucial to design WEFN systems to be sustainable from local to...
Polymers permeate almost all facets of modern life. For end use applications, these materials are typically processed into products at elevated temperatures under which molten polymers are subjected to flow. Particular interest lies in the flow-induced crystallization behavior of polymer melts under extensional flow, which is a flow type dominant...
Supported vanadium oxide materials have been extensively studied for alkane oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) reactions due to their high activity and selectivity. The catalytic activity of supported VOx materials is influenced by the surface coverage of VOx sites and hence the distribution of V=O, V-O-V, and V-O-S (S, support) bonds. The...
Segregation of polydisperse granular materials remains to be a challenging problem in many industrial processes. However, most studies have focused either on bidisperse (two different particle size species) materials, which are not representative of most real mixtures, or on polydisperse materials in an idealized simple geometry. Additionally, most studies have...
Heterogeneous catalysts based on metal oxides are of significant interest for many industrial chemical reactions. These catalysts, however, often suffer from ill-defined structures that preclude better understanding of the surface phenomena. Thus, structurally well-defined catalysts have received growing attention by making it feasible to understand the kinetics and reaction mechanisms....
Since their introduction nearly a century ago, protein vaccines and therapeutics have revolutionized our ability to prevent and treat human disease. However, existing production processes for biopharmaceuticals are technically complex and rely on living cells, which necessitates highly centralized manufacturing in large-scale production facilities, specialized equipment, and cold-chain distribution. With...
Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are porous, crystalline materials synthesized by combining metal nodes and organic linkers through self-assembly. The diverse range of building blocks available allows for extensive tunability of MOFs, enabling the optimization of these materials for various applications, such as gas storage, separations, and catalysis. This study aimed to...
Interpenetrating polymer networks (IPNs) are multicomponent materials that enhance the compatibility of otherwise immiscible polymers by trapping the microstructure in a non-equilibrium state. By combining polymers with vastly different moduli, IPNs effectively disperse rigid polymers within a soft matrix, resulting in a reinforced elastomer. This approach significantly increases the modulus...
One of the greatest challenges in heterogeneous catalysis is the rational design and development of new catalytic systems, due to synthetic limitations in the design of solid catalysts and inhomogeneity of chemical sites at solid surfaces. This obfuscates understanding of catalyst behavior and slows improvements of processes. One approach to...