Controlling microscopic morphology of energetic materials is of significant interest for the improvement of their performance and production consistency. As an important insensitive high explosive material, triaminotrinitrobenzene (TATB) has attracted tremendous research effort for military grade explosives and propellants. In this study, a new, rapid and inexpensive synthesis method for monodispersed TATB microparticles based on micelle-confined precipitation was developed. Surfactant with proper hydrophilic-lipophilic balance value was found to be critical to the success of this synthesis. The morphology of the TATB microparticles can be tuned between quasi-spherical and faceted by controlling the speed of recrystallization.

Thermoelectric (TE) thin films have promise for harvesting electrical energy from waste heat. We demonstrate TE materials and thermocouples deposited by aqueous spray deposition on glass. The n-type material was CdO doped with Mn and Sn. Two p-type materials were investigated, namely PbS with co-growth of CdS and doped with Na and Na2CoO4. Seebeck coefficients, resistivity, and power generation for thermocouples were characterized.

We report a roll-to-roll dry processing for making low cost and high performance electrodes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Currently, the electrodes for LIBs are made with a slurry casting procedure (wet method). The dry electrode fabrication is a three-step process including: step 1 of uniformly mixing electrode materials powders comprising an active material, a carbonaceous conductor and the soft polymer binder; step 2 of forming a free-standing, continuous electrode film by pressing the mixed powders together through the gap between two rolls of a roll-mill; and step 3 of roll-to-roll laminating the electrode film onto a substrate such as a current collector. Compared with the conventional wet slurry electrode manufacturing method, the dry manufactural procedure and infrastructure are simpler, the production cost is lower, and the process eliminates volatile organic compound emission and is more environmentally friendly, and the ability of making thick (>120µm) electrodes with high tap density results in high energy density of final energy storage device. A prototype LIBs of LiNi0.6Mn0.2Co0.2O2 (NMC622)/graphite also has 230 Wh/ kg energy density.

The voltammetric hysteresis visible in current density versus solar cell potential (J-V) curves is a serious concern because it is known that the performance of Dye-sensitized Solar Cells (DSCs) depends on the direction of the potential and the rate of scan. J-V characteristics of gel electrolyte based DSCs were obtained by varying the scan rate from 0.01 to 0.1 V s-1 and the direction from forward bias to reverse bias and reverse bias to forward bias. Three electrolytes were tested, two of them were 100% single salt electrolytes of KI and Hex4NI, and the other was a mixed salt electrolyte containing KI (75%) and Hex4NI (25%). DSC containing mixed salts electrolyte exhibited higher efficiency than single salt electrolytes. The energy conversion efficiency with mixed salts increased from 5.9 to 6.4% with the increase of the scan rate from 0.01 to 0.1 V s-1, when the scanning was conducted from forward bias to reverse bias direction. However, when the scanning was carried out with revised polarity a drop of the efficiency was observed with increasing rate of potential scan. Present work emphasizes the importance of reporting the rate and direction of potential scan along with solar cell performance parameters.

Sulfur loss from the surface of MoS2(0001) is observed following the adsorption of methanol on MoS2 at 86 K and subsequent annealing of MoS2 near 300 K. This sulfur loss, at the MoS2 surface, leads to suppression of inverse photoemission features characteristic of the unoccupied states associated with MoS2. This sulfur loss is counteracted by further annealing to 350 K, as is evident in the temperature dependent sulfur to molybdenum integrated X-ray photoemission intensity ratios near 300 to 350 K. Upon further annealing to 350 K, inverse photoemission additionally indicates a reestablishment of characteristic features associated with the unoccupied states of MoS2. These results are indicative of sulfur segregation to the surface and compensation of surface vacancy sites.

A significant drawback of enzyme use in industrial applications is its lack of stability. Graphene oxide (GO) has previously been investigated for enzyme immobilization and enhancement of enzymatic catalysis. Microbial transglutaminase (MTG) is an enzyme that is used to modify food proteins, increase durability of textiles, and crosslink hydrogels for drug delivery. We tested the effects of adding GO and partially reduced GO (pRGO) to water solutions of gelatin and then crosslinking it with MTG, measuring both the resulting gelatin modulus and then the time it took for the onset of gelation. We found that the presence of pRGO in a gelatin-MTG-water mixture (when using 0.75 g MTG in 10 ml of gelatin solution) significantly increases the modulus by 60% more than the control. Using this same concentration of MTG, we measured the onset of gelation time and found that pRGO in gelatin solution reduces the onset of gelation time by nearly 50% while inducing a very large increase in viscosity by three orders of magnitude, whereas the addition of GO increases the onset of gelation time by 33% and decreases the viscosity of the gel by more than one order of magnitude. The very large enhancement by pRGO of the viscosity may be due to pRGO’s electron withdrawing ability and/or may also be due to adsorption of gelatin to the pRGO platelets which effectively increases the crosslinking density through non-enzymatic processes assisting the enzymatic activity.

Wave energy converters have been developed and commercialized in past decades; they have now faced numerous challenges of large volume sizes, environmental hazards, and high costs of deployment, components and maintenance. To address these challenges and make a wave energy converter practically available for various applications at a reasonable cost, we have developed a soft wave energy harvester that integrated low-cost soft material structures and piezoelectric-based Macro Fiber Composite (MFC). This integrated soft wave energy converter has a straightforward fabrication process and structure that can harvest energy from a broad working frequency of waves. The innovative design combined low-cost and commercially available materials and formed a harvester that addressed the aforementioned problems of commercially available harvesters. Additionally, the low cost and simple design are scalable for large energy conversion in the future. The energy conversion performance of the proposed platform has been investigated in a wave flume with low-frequency incoming waves (<2Hz). The soft energy conversion platform is hung like a curtain and produces a maximum 487nW. Also, the low cost and durable encapsulation can protect the electrical properties of MFCs and circuits, and a single harvester can last through all experiment steps without any degradation, which was more than 170 hours.