Multifunctional intrinsic self-healing polymers (ISP) are gaining increasing attention these days, and many studies have been devoted to solving the conflict between achieving high mechanical polymer strength and active polymer chain diffusion. In this research, we developed an optimized self-healing composite coating by adding Benzotriazole (BTA) loaded nano silica (SiO₂@BTA) to a dynamic cross-linked Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) network，which allows substantial and fast healing of the material integrity upon damage due to the hydrogen interaction between urea and BTA. BTA leaching tests demonstrated a longer release profile during the coating service life and corrosion tests in a 3.5 wt% NaCl aqueous solution indicated that the SiO₂@BTA modified PDMS coating shows enhanced corrosion protection of carbon steel upon coating damage. Moreover, after addition of SiO₂@BTA, the material failure strength increased from ~1.5 MPa to ~5.5 MPa, and the healing efficiency increased from ~59% to ~90% for 24 h healing at room temperature. Above all, this research provides an intrinsic self-healing coating design method to improve the mechanical strength and the self-healing ability of the ISP as well as enhancing the coating's corrosion protection ability. ... Read more

This paper describes the steps involved in the design, construction, and testing of a gasifier-specific solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system. The design choices are based on reported thermodynamic simulation results for the entire gasifier- gas cleanup-SOFC system. The constructed SOFC system is tested and the measured parameters are compared with those given by a system simulation. Furthermore, a detailed exergy analysis is performed to determine the components responsible for poor efficiency. It is concluded that the SOFC system demonstrates reasonable agreement with the simulated results. Furthermore, based on the exergy results, the components causing major irreversible performance losses are identified. ... Read more