Revisiting Chlor-Alkali Electrolyzers: from Materials to Devices

Conversion from Mercury to Alternative Technology in the Chlor-Alkali Industry

Photonic Materials and Devices

Our recent advances in solid-state optoelectronic materials and devices will be reviewed. In the area of glass optics, fabrication of novel microstructured and multi-core fibers and their use in realizing single mode lasers will be summarized. In organic and plastic optics, photorefractive polymers for 3D display applications and nonlinear optical polymers for high speed modulators in RF photon...

Chlor-alkali Plant Contributes to Mercury Contamination in the Savannah River

For many years the Savannah River has suffered fish consumption warnings. While several potential sources of mercury may contribute to this contamination, the chlor-alkali facility in Augusta, which produces chlorine by electrolysis using mercury-cell technology, is a major potential contributor. To examine this possibility samples of sediment were collected from the river above and below the f...

Perovskite solar cells: from materials to devices.

Perovskite solar cells based on organometal halide light absorbers have been considered a promising photovoltaic technology due to their superb power conversion efficiency (PCE) along with very low material costs. Since the first report on a long-term durable solid-state perovskite solar cell with a PCE of 9.7% in 2012, a PCE as high as 19.3% was demonstrated in 2014, and a certified PCE of 17....

Mercury from chlor-alkali plants: measured concentrations in food product sugar

Mercury cell chlor-alkali products are used to produce thousands of other products including food ingredients such as citric acid, sodium benzoate, and high fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup is used in food products to enhance shelf life. A pilot study was conducted to determine if high fructose corn syrup contains mercury, a toxic metal historically used as an anti-microbial. High ...