First-principles study of interaction of molecular hydrogen with Li-doped carbon nanotube peapod structures

Using first-principles density functional theory based on gradient corrected approach, we have studied interaction of H2 molecule with Li-doped carbon nanotube and nanotube based peapod structures. We find that H2 physisorbs on pure carbon nanotube, which is in agreement with earlier studies, and this binding increases when H2 binds to Li-decorated on carbon nanotube surfaces: the binding is further enhanced with Li atoms deposited on C60 doped nanotube peapod structures. The increase in binding in the latter structures arises due to charge transfer between the nanotube and C60, which further facilitates charge transfer from Li to the nanotube. Encapsulating fullerene molecule inside the nanotube provides a different way of increasing charge concentration on Li atom adsorbed outside the nanotube. The increase in H2 binding energy due to C60 encapsulation, compared to recently engineered metal doped nanotube structures, may lead to different carbon based materials for hydrogen storage at room temperature

MNC2008-70296 Bubble Dynamics on Nanostructured Cu Surfaces

Abstract Nucleate boiling performance was enhanced up to an order of magnitude through direct deposition of Cu nanorods on a planar Cu surface. The methodology that enables order of magnitude improvement in boiling performance without fabricating complicated surface structures or changing the working fluid will have broad impact on metal-liquid type two-phase heat exchangers. In this study, discussion was focused on bubble dynamics on the nanostrucured Cu surfaces. We observed striking differences in bubble dynamics through nucleation boiling process for the nanostructured surface including smaller bubble diameters, higher release frequencies and nucleation site density, and large fluctuations in bubble diameter prior to release. These differences during the boiling process are responsible for the enhanced heat transfer. High quality images were captured through a well-designed visualization system, which comprises of a high-speed chargecoupled device (CCD) camera, microscope and data acquisition system. This visualization study aims to quantitatively study the bubble dynamics on the nanostructured Cu surfaces