Control of Material Microstructure of Materials for Electrochemistry and Obscurants

Shichen Guo, Ph.D. Candidate Benjamin Wiley Ph.D., Advisor Abstract: The manipulation of microstructures within modern micro- and nanomaterials stands as a prevalent practice with extensive applications across diverse fields. This dissertation mainly explores the strategic utilization of materials endowed with controlled microstructures, particularly investigating their significance and applications in the field of electrochemistry and obscurants. The goal of the electrochemistry research is to investigate how the use of flow with different electrode structures impacts the productivity of azidooxygenation reaction. Comparison of a flow and batch process with carbon paper demonstrated a 3.8-fold higher productivity for the flow reactor. Three custom carbon electrodes were studied in the flow reactor to evaluate how changing the electrode structure affected productivity, where the composite carbon microfiber-nanofiber electrode achieved an 81% yield in 36 minutes, while the batch reactor obtained a 75% yield in 5 hours. These findings demonstrate that the productivity of electroorganic reactions can be substantially improved through the use of novel flow-through electrodes. The ultimate goal of the obscurants work is to create an engineered aerosol that acts as one-way smoke. To this end we developed a rapid, one-pot synthesis of copper-based microclubs that consist of a Cu2O octahedron attached to a Cu2O@Cu shaft with the assistant of FlowCam analysis. The combination of asymmetry in both shape and composition introduces a 30% difference in scattering of light propagating parallel to the microclub axis from opposing directions. This work represents a first step toward the creation of an asymmetric imaging environment with an aerosol consisting of acoustically aligned microclubs.