Industrial PhD Project by Sanjeev Vishal Kota
Project Title: Advanced carbon micro- and nanofabrication for electrochemical energy systems
Group: Polymer Microsystems
Supervisor: Rafael Taboryski
Project Description
The project represents the continuation of work initially started on silicon microreactors for catalytic activity, first in 2007 by Henriksen, Vesborg, and Olsen 2007-2010. Subsequent work by Daniel Trimarco introduced a microporous membrane chip inlet that creates a direct coupling between the bulk liquid (BL) and the high vacuum of a mass spectrometer (MS) with a well-defined liquid-gas-vacuum interface in such a manner that they were 'open' to the outside environment. This chip-enabled on-line monitoring of dissolved gases in bulk liquid by transferring volatile molecules to the mass spectrometer in a very well-controlled manner. A microchip inlet solution significantly improved fundamental electrochemical studies (power-to-X, Li-Ion battery material development) carried out at DTU Physics and improved commercial mass spectrometry for private battery R&D and industrial monitoring applications within, e.g., biogas production and wastewater treatment, carried out by Spectro Inlets.
Despite the significant effort and work placed into the technology and its superiority over conventional methods such as DEMS and MIMS, there are obvious shortcomings. Therefore, the project aims to develop the existing microchip technology with robust surface coating technology, a chip with higher pressure differential tolerance, microfluidic liquid passages, and a gas microcapillary that doesn't discriminate between gas species to tackle industrial-grade electrochemical studies and rich industrial monitoring applications.
Commercial Significance and Impact
The microchip inlet system developed during this Ph.D. project would have significant commercial contributions. The upgraded microchip inlet also enables on-line measurements in a harsh liquid environment, at high pressures, qualitatively and quantitatively. The new microchip inlet can be deployed immediately in the existing pilot projects.
State-of-the-art references
[1] Vesborg et al. Quantitative Measurements of Photocatalytic CO-Oxidation as a function of Light Intensity and Wavelength over TiO 2-Nanotube Thin films in μ-reactors. J. Phys. Chem. C, 114(25):11162- 11168, Jul 2010.
[2] Toke Riishøj Henriksen. Silicon Microreactors for Measurements of Catalytic Activity. Ph.D. thesis, 2010
[3] Daniel Bøndergaard Trimarco. Real-time detection of sub-monolayer desorption phenomena during electrochemical reaction: Instrument development and applications. Ph.D. Thesis, 2017.
[4] Winiwarter et al. Towards an atomistic understanding of electrocatalytic partial hydrocarbon oxidation: propene on palladium. Energy and Environmental Science. 3(1055-1067), 2019.
Group: Polymer Microsystems
Supervisor: Rafael Taboryski
Project Description
The project represents the continuation of work initially started on silicon microreactors for catalytic activity, first in 2007 by Henriksen, Vesborg, and Olsen 2007-2010. Subsequent work by Daniel Trimarco introduced a microporous membrane chip inlet that creates a direct coupling between the bulk liquid (BL) and the high vacuum of a mass spectrometer (MS) with a well-defined liquid-gas-vacuum interface in such a manner that they were 'open' to the outside environment. This chip-enabled on-line monitoring of dissolved gases in bulk liquid by transferring volatile molecules to the mass spectrometer in a very well-controlled manner. A microchip inlet solution significantly improved fundamental electrochemical studies (power-to-X, Li-Ion battery material development) carried out at DTU Physics and improved commercial mass spectrometry for private battery R&D and industrial monitoring applications within, e.g., biogas production and wastewater treatment, carried out by Spectro Inlets.
Despite the significant effort and work placed into the technology and its superiority over conventional methods such as DEMS and MIMS, there are obvious shortcomings. Therefore, the project aims to develop the existing microchip technology with robust surface coating technology, a chip with higher pressure differential tolerance, microfluidic liquid passages, and a gas microcapillary that doesn't discriminate between gas species to tackle industrial-grade electrochemical studies and rich industrial monitoring applications.
Commercial Significance and Impact
The microchip inlet system developed during this Ph.D. project would have significant commercial contributions. The upgraded microchip inlet also enables on-line measurements in a harsh liquid environment, at high pressures, qualitatively and quantitatively. The new microchip inlet can be deployed immediately in the existing pilot projects.
State-of-the-art references
[1] Vesborg et al. Quantitative Measurements of Photocatalytic CO-Oxidation as a function of Light Intensity and Wavelength over TiO 2-Nanotube Thin films in μ-reactors. J. Phys. Chem. C, 114(25):11162- 11168, Jul 2010.
[2] Toke Riishøj Henriksen. Silicon Microreactors for Measurements of Catalytic Activity. Ph.D. thesis, 2010
[3] Daniel Bøndergaard Trimarco. Real-time detection of sub-monolayer desorption phenomena during electrochemical reaction: Instrument development and applications. Ph.D. Thesis, 2017.
[4] Winiwarter et al. Towards an atomistic understanding of electrocatalytic partial hydrocarbon oxidation: propene on palladium. Energy and Environmental Science. 3(1055-1067), 2019.
Contact
Sanjeev Vishal Kota Industrial PhD student
Contact
Rafael Taboryski Professor