The engineering of hollow nanostructures is a promising approach to addressing instabilities in silicon-based electrodes for lithium-ion batteries. Previous studies showed that a SiOx coating on silicon nanotubes (SiNTs) could function as a constraining layer and enhance capacity retention in electrodes with low mass loading, but we show here that similarly produced electrodes having negligible...

A reformulation of the Hoop Conjecture which avoids the use of any foliations as well as ill-defined notions of “encircled mass” and “circumference of a body” is presented. The new formulation is based on the concept of trapped circle, which is well-defined, geometrically sound, and physically relevant. With the new formulation, the problems of severe compactness in every spatial direction, and...

A model is developed to study the stress generation in a spherical particle subjected to lithium insertion. The model accounts for both the plastic deformation and the coexistence of lithium-poor and lithium-rich phases with a sharp and curved phase boundary. Such twophase and inelastic deformation characteristics often arise during lithiation of crystalline particles with high capacity. A flex...

Lithiation of individual silicon nanoparticles was studied in real time with in situ transmission electron microscopy. A strong size dependence of fracture was discovered; that is, there exists a critical particle diameter of ∼150 nm, below which the particles neither cracked nor fractured upon first lithiation, and above which the particles initially formed surface cracks and then fractured du...

Analyses of the effects of service conditions on the distribution of residual stresses in railroad commuter car wheels are presented. Novel software has been applied to estimate the effects of service conditions on the as-manufactured state of these wheels. Contact loads resulting from wheel and rail interaction and thermal loads from on-tread braking are considered. Results indicate that conta...

I worked with the non-profit organization Eco Vrindavan Inc., located in Moundsville West Virginia to grow and provide organic food local community. Wheeling’s Grow Ohio Valley, an that supports production, assisted installing “hoop houses” which increase length of growing season production. Hoop houses are unheated structures covered plastic where crops planted directly into ground. While work...