Ionic Liquid Electrolytes for Li-Air Batteries : Lithium Metal Cycling

In this work, the electrochemical stability and lithium plating/stripping performance of N-butyl-N-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (Pyr14TFSI) are reported, by investigating the behavior of Li metal electrodes in symmetrical Li/electrolyte/Li cells. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements and galvanostatic cycling at different temperatures are performed to analyze the influence of temperature on the stabilization of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI), showing that TFSI-based ionic liquids (ILs) rank among the best candidates for long-lasting Li–air cells

Patient influence in home-based reablement for older persons: qualitative research

Abstract Background Reablement services are rehabilitation for older people living at home, being person-centered in information, mapping and the goal-setting conversation. The purpose of this study was to gain knowledge about conversation processes and patient influence in formulating the patients’ goals. There are two research questions: How do conversation theme, structure and processes appear in interactions aiming to decide goals of home-based reablement rehabilitation for the elderly? How professionals’ communication skills do influence on patients' participation in conversation about everyday life and goals of home-based reablement? Methods A qualitative field study explored eight cases of naturally occurring conversations between patients and healthcare professionals in a rehabilitation team. Patients were aged 67–90 years old. The reablement team consisted of an occupational therapist, physiotherapist, nurse and care workers. Data was collected by audio recording the conversations. Transcribed text was analyzed for conversational theme and communication patterns as they emerged within main themes. Results Patient participation differed with various professional leadership and communication in the information, mapping and goalsetting process. In the data material in its entirety, conversations consisted mainly of three parts where each part dealt with one of the three main topics. The first part was “Introduction to the program.” The main part of the talk was about mapping (“Varying patient participation when discussing everyday life”), while the last part was about goal setting (“Goals of rehabilitation”). Conclusions Home-based reablement requires communication skills to encourage user participation, and mapping of resources and needs, leading to the formulation of objectives. Professional health workers must master integrating two intentions: goal-oriented and person-centered communication that requires communication skills and leadership ability in communication, promoting patient influence and goal-setting. Quality of such conversations is complex, and requires the ability to apply integrated knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to communication situations

The metal – ionic liquid interface as characterized by impedance spectroscopy and in-situ scanning tunneling microscopy

We summarize our results of electrochemical measurements carried out on inert or close-to-inert metals in ionic liquids, with the aim to explore the metal | ionic liquid interface structure. To this we used electrochemical methods: cyclic voltammetry, impedance spectroscopy, potential of zero total charge measurements and structure-sensitive techniques, such as in-situ scanning tunneling spectroscopy. The studied systems were mostly single crystals of noble metals in imidazolium-based ionic liquids. The two main findings are: (i) in the potential window where no Faradaic reactions occur, the interfacial capacitance exhibits a frequency dependence due to double-layer rearrangement processes and (ii) in certain cases ordered anion and cation structures exist at the interface

On- och Off-page metoder för sökmotoroptimering

Inom IT branschen sker det konstant förändringar när det gäller trender, marknadsföringsstrategier, design och utvecklingsprocesser för webbplatser. Det gäller att snabbt kunna anpassa sig till nya förändringar. Ett problem som ofta uppstår med webbplatser är att de inte är synliga när man väl lagt ut dem på nätet. Det kan även ta lång tid förrän man hittar webbplatsen. Detta examensarbete ger en insikt i hur man optimerar en webbplats så den blir synlig och tillgänglig för besökare så fort som möjligt. I arbetet förklaras hur sökmotoroptimering (SEO) kan lyfta fram en webbplats rankning i sökresultaten i sökmotorerna. Det finns två metoder man kan optimera en webbplats med som är On- och Off-page metoder. Till On-page metoder räknas allt som görs på själva webbplatsen. Till Off-page metoder räknas allt som görs utanför själva sidan, så som sociala medier och deras inverkan på webbplatsens rangordning inom sökmotorer.The IT branch is constantly changing in at a fast pace when it comes to trends, marketing strategies, design and development of websites. In order to succeed one has to be ready to adapt to constant changes. A problem that usually occurs when making a website is the invisibility of the website and usually it can take a long time for a site to gain visibility. This article is going to briefly explain how to optimize the process of getting your site more exposure out on the web. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will help your website gain visibility among search results of search engines. There are two different kinds of methods that are used, On- and Off-page methods. On-page method includes everything you do on the website itself while Off-page is everything you do from outside the site like posting links on social networks etc

Konsernin varojen mahdollinen hyödyntäminen asiakasrahoitustoiminnassa - Case: Yritys X

Tässä toiminnallisessa opinnäytetyössä selvitetään, kuinka konsernin varoja voitaisiin mahdollisesti hyödyntää asiakasrahoituksessa Yritys X:n näkökulmasta. Konserni valmistaa (salattu), jotka ovat tässä opinnäytetyössä keskeisessä osassa. Opinnäytetyön tavoitteena on löytää toimiva tapa toteuttaa Yritys X:n mahdollisesti alkava asiakasrahoitustoiminta sekä selvittää, kuinka itse yritys, konserni ja sen asiakkaat hyötyisivät asiakasrahoitustoiminnasta. Teoriaosuudessa käsitellään rahoituksen perustietoja ja käsitteitä sekä juuri Yritys X:n toimintaan vaikuttavia lainsäädännöllisiä ja asiakasrahoitukseen liittyviä erikoispiirteitä. Teoriassa on huomioitu Yritys X:n sekä konsernin näkökulma. Teoriat ovat useasta eri aiheesta ja jokaiseen aiheeseen syvennytään erikseen. Toiminnallinen osuus sisältää ehdotuksia asiakasrahoituksen toimintatavan valitsemisesta. Ehdotetut toimintatavat on valittu Yritys X:n sekä koko konsernin toimintatavat huomioiden. Työssä on esitelty kaksi Yritys X:n kannalta toimivaa asiakasrahoitustapaa. Ensimmäinen tapa olisi uuden asiakasrahoitukseen keskittyneen tytäryrityksen perustaminen ja toinen esitelty tapa on uuden toimintamuodon aloittaminen, mikä käytännössä tarkoittaa maksuaikojen pidentämistä. Toiminnallinen osuus sisältää myös rahoituslaskelmia vaadittavasta korosta ja inflaation vaikutuksesta. Tuloksissa on esitelty kummallekin toimintatavalle pienimmät mahdolliset korkoprosentit kannattavuuden kannalta. Laskelmat on tehty käyttäen taulukkolaskentaohjelmaa. Luvut eivät ole ehdottomia vaan ainoastaan suuntaa antavia. Opinnäytetyön johtopäätöksenä voidaan esittää, että asiakasrahoitustoiminta olisi Yritys X:lle kannattavaa toimintaa oikein toteutettuna ja se hyödyttäisi konsernia sekä yrityksen asiakaskuntaa konkreettisesti. Yritys X hyötyisi kasvaneesta tilauskannasta, konserni inflaatiosuojasta ja asiakkaat eivät kokisi investoinnin kulua suurena kertaluontoisena vaan tasaisena pitkälle aikavälille jakautuvana kuluna.The purpose of this operational thesis was to determine how the group’s assets could be used in customer financing from company X’s point of view. (Hidden). The aim of the thesis is to produce a practical method that could be used if the company begins to arrange customer financing for its customers. This financing is necessary because of the expense of linear accelerators used in radiotherapy. A secondary objective is to investigate how company X, the group and the customers would benefit from the customer financing. The theoretical section of the thesis examines concepts and basic information related to financing, as well as the special features of legislation and customer financing which concern company X. The perspectives of the group and of company X are considered during this section, which examines several different subjects individually. The operational section consists of recommendations concerning the customer financing method. The proposed methods are chosen bearing in mind the policies of company X and the group. Two suitable methods are presented for starting customer financing. The first method is to establish a new subsidiary which deals the whole group’s financing actions. The second method is to start financing activity as a part of company X’s business which means granting considerably longer payment times. The operational part includes also calculations for the required interest levels depending on the payment time and calculations of inflation affects. Calculations show for both methods the lowest possible interest rate in terms of profitability. The calculations have been made with a spreadsheet program. The results are not exact because the world is not fully predictable. The result is only suggestive. As a conclusion the thesis suggests that customer financing could be profitable for company X, if it is carried out properly. It could also be beneficial for the group and for the customers. Company X would benefit from a growing number of orders, the group would benefit from interest and the customers would benefit from longer payment times which could ease decision making and enable other investments.Työ on osittain salattu

Utlokaliserade reaktorers inverkan på jordfelsskydd

Validerat; 20140616 (global_studentproject_submitter

Characterisation of materials for use in the molten carbonate fuel cell

Fuel cells are promising candidates for converting chemical energy into electrical energy. The Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell (MCFC) is a high temperature fuel cell that produces electrical energy from a variety of fuels containing hydrogen, hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide. Since the waste heat has a high temperature it can also be used leading to a high overall efficiency. Material degradation and the cost of the components are the problems for the commercialisation of MCFC. Although there are companies around the world starting to commercialise MCFC some further cost reduction is needed before MCFC can be fully introduced at the market. In this work, alternative materials for three different components of MCFC have been investigated. The alternative materials should have a lower cost compared to the state-of-the-art materials but also meet the life-time goal of MCFC, which is around 5 years. The nickel dissolution of the cathode is a problem and a cathode with lower solubility is needed. The dissolution of nickel for three alternative cathode materials was investigated, where one of the materials had a lower solubility than the state-of-the-art nickel oxide. This material was also tested in a cell and the electrochemical performance was found to be comparable with nickel oxide and is an interesting candidate. An inexpensive anode current collector material is also desired. For the anode current collector, the contact resistance should be low and it should have good corrosion properties. The two alternative materials tested had low contact resistance, but some chromium enrichment was seen at the grain boundaries. This can lead to a decreased mechanical stability of the material. In the wet-seal area, the stainless steel used as bipolar/separator plate should be coated. An alternative process to coat the stainless steel, that is less expensive, was evaluated. This process can be a suitable process, but today, when the coating process is done manually there seems to be a problem with the adherence. This work has been a part of the IRMATECH project, which was financed by the European Commission, where the partners have been universities, research institutes and companies around Europe.QC 2010112

Deltack, Blanket Study

There are two objectives of this study.The first one was to study the new instrument Deltack fromPrufbau, and with the new knowledge, study the interaction between blanket and paper.Deltack is a new instrument to measure the ink splitting force. Blankets from an earlier study doneby GATF have been montered on 12 different Deltack print forms and those have together with Deltackbeen the base for this project.This study together with information from GATF’s study shows that some of the blankets have ahigher capability to adsorb ink. Those blankets generate a sharper shape on the force curve, they havea lower dot gain, but they print not as good solid

New Materials for the Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell

Smältkarbonatbränslecellen (MCFC) är en högtemperaturbränslecell för stationära applikationer. Den har samma höga totalverkningsgrad som konventionella kraftvärme-anläggningar, men kan byggas i mindre moduler (från 250 kWe). De små modulerna och den bränsleflexibilitet (naturgas, biogas, etanol, diesel) som MCFC har, gör den intressant för exempelvis industrier med organiska restprodukter och höga krav på tillförlitlighet. Den höga temperaturen och närvaron av en saltsmälta gör dock materialdegradering till en viktig faktor för forskning och utveckling inom området. För även om de fälttester som nyligen gjorts har visat på att vissa av degraderingsprocesserna är mindre allvarliga än förväntat, finns fortfarande ett behov av utveckling för att sänka kostnaderna och förlänga livstiden. I första delen av detta arbete undersöktes material för olika delar av cellen inom ramarna för EU-projektet IRMATECH. Materialen ansågs vara interessanta alternativ till de nuvarande materialen på grund av deras lägre kostnad och/eller bättre prestanda. Två alternativa anodströmtilledarmaterial undersöktes. För anodströmtilledaren är korrosionen och den elektriska resistansen av det eventuella oxidlagret nyckelparametrar. Dessa parametrar undersöktes och utvärderades. Fastän de båda alternativa materialen hade oxidlager med låg resistans, fanns indikationer på korrosionsprocesser som kan äventyra materialets långtidsstabilitet. För katodmaterialet, NiO, har upplösningen varit problemet. De upplösta nickeljonerna fälls ut i elektrolyten och bildar dendriter som kan kortsluta cellen. Därför undersöktes nickelupplösningen hos tre alternativa katodmaterial. Det mest lovande materialet, en nickeloxid-katod dopad med magnesium och järn testades i en singelcell för att studera elektrokemisk prestanda, morfologi och områden där nickelutfällning skett. Resultaten visade att prestandan var jämförbar med NiO, men att den mekaniska stabiliteten måste undersökas ytterligare. I ”wet-seal”-området är det rostfria stålet belagt med ett aluminiumskikt för att skydda det från den mycket korrosiva miljön. Tillverkningsprocesserna för dessa aluminiumbeläggningar har hittills varit dyra och komplexa. Därför utvärderades en alternativ tillverkningsprocess. Beläggningen, studerad i både reducerande och oxiderande miljö visade en tendens till att spricka och därmed exponera det underliggande rostfria stålet. Detta berodde troligtvis på en manuell beläggningsprocess som resulterade i ett inhomogent ytskikt. I den andra delen av arbetet föreslogs en alternativ tillverkningsmetod, baserad på nyligen publicerade resultat där man elektrodeponerat aluminium från jonvätskor. Dessa har ett större katodiskt fönster än vatten och möjliggör därför elektrodeponering av elektropositiva material. För att göra processen industrivänlig provades ett alternativ till den vanligen använda aluminiumtrikloriden. Det visade sig dock att påverkan av miljön på stabiliteten hos jonvätskan behövde undersökas innan några material kunde tillverkas. Vatten i kombination med syre visade sig ha en stor inverkan på den katodiska strömtätheten. I frånvaro av dessa komponenter var jonvätskan mycket stabil.The Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell (MCFC) is a high temperature fuel cell for stationary applications. It has the same high over-all efficiency (90%) as traditional combined heat and power plants, but MCFC can be built in small modules (from 250 kWe). The small modules in combination with fuel flexibility (natural gas, biogas, ethanol, diesel) makes MCFC an interesting alternative for industries with organic waste and high demands for reliability. The high temperature (650 °C) and the presence of molten salt result however in material degradation. Corrosion and dissolution of the materials used have been the challenge for MCFC. Although long-term field trials have shown that some of the material problems are not as severe as first believed, further material development is necessary to decrease the cost and prolong the life-time. In the first part of this work, materials for different parts of the cell were tested within the EU project IRMATECH. The materials were interesting alternatives to the state-of-the-art materials due to their lower cost and/or better performance. Two alternative anode current collector materials were tested. For the anode current collector the corrosion and electrical resistance of the possible oxide layer are key parameters. These parameters were investigated and evaluated. Although both the materials showed a low resistance, there were indications of corrosion processes which could affect the life-time of the material. For the cathode material, NiO, the dissolution of the material has been a problem. The dissolved nickel ions precipitate in the electrolyte and form conductive nickel dendrites that eventually short-circuit the cell. Therefore, the nickel dissolution of three alternative cathode materials was tested. The most promising material, a NiO doped with magnesium and iron, was tested in a single cell to study the electrical performance, the morphology after operation and the area where nickel had precipitated. The results showed that the performance was comparable to NiO, but it is necessary to investigate the mechanical strength of the material further. In the wet-seal area, the stainless steel is coated with an aluminium coating to protect the material from a severe corrosion environment. The production of aluminium coatings has so far been expensive and complex and an alternative coating process was evaluated. The alternative coating, tested in both reducing and oxidising environments showed a tendency to crack and expose the stainless steel to the corrosive environment. This was suggested being due to the manual coating process that resulted in inhomogeneous coatings. In the second part, an alternative process to coat the wet-seal was suggested, based on recently published results where aluminium had been electrodeposited from ionic liquids. These solvents have a wider electrochemical window than water, and electropositive materials can therefore be deposited. To make the coating process suitable for industrial applications, an alternative to the commonly used AlCl3 was tested. It was shown however, that the influence of the environment had to be investigated before any materials could be produced. The environment, especially water in combination with oxygen was shown to influence the cathodic current density. In absence of these components, the ionic liquid was shown to be very stable.QC 2010090