Simulation and network analysis of nanoparticles agglomeration and structure formation with application to fuel cell catalyst inks

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dc.contributor.authorMovassaghi Jorshari, Razzi
dc.contributor.supervisorDjilali, Ned
dc.date.accessioned2019-05-21T17:53:27Z
dc.date.available2019-05-21T17:53:27Z
dc.date.copyright2019en_US
dc.date.issued2019-05-21
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Mechanical Engineering
dc.degree.levelDoctor of Philosophy Ph.D.en_US
dc.description.abstractAgglomeration of nanoparticles occurs in a number of colloidal systems related, for example, to material processing and drug delivery. The present work is motivated by the need to improve fundamental understanding of the agglomeration and structure formation processes that occur in catalyst inks used for the fabrication of polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEMFCs). Particle dynamics simulations are performed to investigate agglomeration under various conditions. The interaction between particles is defined using realistic physical potentials, rather than commonly used potential models, and a novel analysis of the agglomeration and structure formation process is performed using network science concepts. The simulated systems correspond to catalyst inks consisting primarily of carbon nanoparticles in solution. The effect of various conditions such as different force magnitude, shape of the force function, concentration etc. are investigated in terms of network science parameters such as average degree and shortest path. An "agglomeration timescale" and a "restructuring timescale" introduced to interpret the evolution of the agglomeration process suggest that the structure, which has a strong impact on the performance of the eventual catalyst layer, can be controlled by tuning the rate at which particles are added based on the restructuring timescale.en_US
dc.description.scholarlevelGraduateen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/10897
dc.languageEnglisheng
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.subjectFuel cellen_US
dc.subjectCatalyst inksen_US
dc.subjectAgglomerationen_US
dc.subjectNetwork scienceen_US
dc.subjectColloidal suspensionen_US
dc.subjectN-body simulationen_US
dc.titleSimulation and network analysis of nanoparticles agglomeration and structure formation with application to fuel cell catalyst inksen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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