Title of Document: ELECTROCHEMICAL OXIDATION KINETICS OF HYDROGEN AND HIGHER HYDROCARBON FUELS ON SOLID OXIDE FUEL CELLS. Oktay Demircan, Ph.D., 2007 Dissertation Directed By: Professor Bryan W. Eichhorn, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are promising electrochemical energy converting devices due to their ability to use not only hydrogen but also hydrocarb...

The ability to repair damage spontaneously, which is termed self-healing, is an important survival feature in nature because it increases the lifetime of most living creatures. This feature is highly desirable for rechargeable batteries because the lifetime of high-capacity electrodes, such as silicon anodes, is shortened by mechanical fractures generated during the cycling process. Here, inspi...

Silicon is a promising candidate for anodes in lithium-ion batteries (LIB) due to its high theoretical capacity. However, Si has low electrical conductivity (theoretical: 6.7 x 10 S cm). Proper conductive additive is needed in order to improve the electrical conductivity of Si-based anodes. Here we focus on applying two commercial conductive addictives: graphite and carbon black Super C65 for s...

Mixed-conducting lithium-ion doped emeraldine polyaniline (PAni)–polyethylene oxide (PEO) blends have been developed to achieve an optimal electronic– ionic conductivity balance in nano-tin composite anodes. Electrochemical evaluation was performed on the anodes with differing electrode preparation procedures, doping methods and PEO contents. Results indicate that both good electronic and ionic...

Ni cermet anodes are commonly used in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) [1–4], but there has been considerable interest in alternative oxide-based anodes [5]. The motivation for the alternative materials is to avoid problems with the Ni-based anodes, including susceptibility to coking in hydrocarbon and CO-rich fuels [6], poisoning by sulfur [7] and other fuel impurities [8], and degradation due t...

Plant-based sediment microbial fuel cells (PMFCs) couple the oxidation of root exudates in living rice plants to current production. We analysed the composition of the microbial community on anodes from PMFC with natural rice field soil as substratum for rice by analysing 16S rRNA as an indicator of microbial activity and diversity. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) anal...

Conductive agent incorporating Si anodes consisting of directly grown carbon nanotubes on hard carbon encapsulating Si nanoparticles were prepared by a one-pot chemical vapour deposition process. Owing to this fabulous structure, Si-based anodes exhibit excellent cycle retention and rate capability with a high-mass-loading of 3.5 mg cm(-2).

Transitional metal oxides hold great potential for high capacity anodes. However, the low electron conductivity of such materials leads to poor cycling stability and inferior rate capability. We reported herein the use of a novel hydrogen plasma technology to improve the conductance of metal oxides, which leads great success in improving the rate performance of CuO nanotube based anodes. This m...

Theoretical estimates indicate that graphene thin films can be used as transparent electrodes for thin-film devices such as solar cells and organic light-emitting diodes, with an unmatched combination of sheet resistance and transparency. We demonstrate organic light-emitting diodes with solution-processed graphene thin film transparent conductive anodes. The graphene electrodes were deposited ...