Biography
Nanotechnology and novel alternative energy sources, including synthesis of Nano-Materials, Fuel Cells, Hydrogen Production and Storage. Author of more than 100 research publications in archival journals and patents in the fields of engineering of advanced materials and heterogeneous combustion.
Publications
Dinka P, Mukasyan AS. In situ preparation of oxide-based supported catalysts by solution combustion synthesis. JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY, B 109 (46):21627-21633, 2005. The oxide-based supported catalysts with high specific surface area (>200 m2/g) were produced in one step through combination of the impregnation and solution combustion synthesis approaches. As a model system, iron oxide was selected, which was loaded on different porous supports including -Al2O3, -Al2O3, and ZrO2, as well as activated alumina. It was shown that for the former three cases the specific surface areas of the supported catalysts are about or below the surface areas of the support. However, for the activated Al2O3 this characteristic significantly increases compared to that of the support. It was demonstrated that the developed approach may be used to produce different types of oxide-based supported catalysts, including perovskites.
Norfolk C, Mukasyan A, Hayes D, et al. Processing of mesocarbon microbeads to high-performance materials: Part II. Reaction bonding by in situ silicon carbide and nitride formation. CARBON, 44 (2):293-300, 2006. The processing of carbon–ceramic composites by utilizing the unique sintering ability of mesocarbon microbeads (MCMB) is reported. The ceramic constituents (silicon nitride and silicon carbide) are formed in situ by reactions between MCMB and silicon in different atmospheres. In comparison with direct addition of ceramic (SiC, Si3N4) phases, in situ formation shows several appealing features. By inducing the reaction of silicon with MCMB, the sintering ability of the composite is enhanced via reaction bonding mechanisms. Similarly, it is demonstrated that composite porosity is limited owing to silicon reaction with nitrogen. The reactive formation of nanoscale ceramic reinforcements via decomposition of the silicon-containing polymer (e.g. poly-carbomethyl-silane) is also reported. This approach results in formation of uniform nanosized (>100 nm) SiC layers strongly bonded to the surface of the carbon particles. The presented results contribute to the development of carbon–ceramic materials with high-operational properties.
Deshpande K., Mukasyan A. and Varma A. High-throughput Evaluation of the Perovskite-based Catalysts for Direct Methanol Fuel Cells. JOURNAL OF POWER SOURCES, 158(1):60-68, 2006. Abstract: Liquid feed direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) are promising candidates for portable power applications. However, owing to the problems associated with expensive Pt-based catalysts, viz., CO poisoning, a promising approach is to use complex oxides of the type ABO(3) (A = Sr, Ce, La, etc. and B = Co, Fe, Ni, Pt, Ru, etc.).
In the current work, a variety of ABO(3) and A(2)BO(4) type non-noble and partially substituted noble metal high surface area compounds were synthesized by an effective and rapid aqueous combustion synthesis (CS). Their catalytic activity was evaluated by using "High Throughput Screening Unit"-NuVant System, which compares up to 25 compositions simultaneously under DMFC! conditions. It was found that the Sr-based perovskites showed performance comparable with the standard Pt-Ru catalyst. Further, it was observed that the method of doping SrRuO3 with Pt influenced the activity. Specifically, platinum added during aqueous CS yielded better catalyst than when added externally at the ink preparation stage. Finally, it was also demonstrated that the presence of SrRuO3 significantly enhanced the catalytic properties of Pt, leading to superior performance even at lower noble metal loadings. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Fan YY, Kaufmann A, Mukasyan A, et al. Single and Multi-Wall Carbon Nanotubes Produced Using the Floating Catalyst Method: Synthesis, Purification and Hydrogen-uptake. CARBON, 44(11):2160-2170, 2006. Abstract: The floating catalyst (FC) method for synthesis of single- and multi-wall carbon nanotubes was optimized and scaled up to yield 6 g/h and 20 g/h of products, respectively. Different CNTs purification methods were compared. It was found that the procedure involving room temperature bromination is the most effective to purify the FC-CNTs. The hydrogen up-take capacities of the different products were measured using the quasi-equilibrium volumetric method. It was shown that, at room temperature and gas pressure up to 150 atm for both SWCNTs and MWCNTs, hydrogen up-take does not exceed 1.5 wt.% and is weakly dependent on the product purity.
Lan AD, Mukasyan A. Hydrogen storage capacity characterization of carbon nanotubes by a microgravimetrical approach. JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY, B 109 (33):16011-16016, 2005. An accurate gravimetric apparatus based on a contactless magnetic suspension microbalance was developed. This unit was used to measure the hydrogen storage capacity for a variety of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) at room temperature and hydrogen pressures up to 11.5 MPa. The results show that regardless of their synthesis methods, purities, and nanostructures all investigated CNT products possess relatively low hydrogen storage capacities (
Norfolk C, Kaufmann A, Mukasyan A, et al. Processing of mesocarbon microbeads to high-performance materials: Part III. High-temperature sintering and graphitization. CARBON, 44 (2):301-306, 2006.
