Efficient adsorption and photocatalytic pceerformance of flower-like three-dimensional (3D) I-doped BiOClBr photocatalyst

Uniform well crystallized flower-like three-dimensional (3D) BiOClBr and I-doped BiOClBr microspheres with diameter of 1 μm were synthesized through a simple EG-assisted solvothermal method. The existence of I atoms in the BiOClBr compound could greatly enhance both adsorption and photocatalytic activity as compared with the BiOClBr and BiOX (Cl, Br, I) monomers. The highest catalytic performance of the flower-like 3D I-doped BiOClBr microspheres was preliminary deduced to be due to the much higher specific surface area, efficient sorption capacity as well as the unique interfacial structure. These factors may favor the absorption of light and separation of photogenerated charged carriers more effectively.     

Theoretical study of structural,electronic and thermal properties of Zn1−xBexS ternary alloy

The structural, the electronic and the thermal properties of Zn_1?xBe_xS ternary alloy have been calculated using the full-potential linearized-augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method. The exchange and correlation potential is treated by the generalized-gradient approximation (GGA) using the Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof (PBE) parameterization. Moreover, the Engel–Vosko GGA formalism is also applied to optimize the corresponding potential for band structure calculations. The ground state properties such as lattice constants and bulk modulus are in good agreement with numerous experimental and theoretical data. The thermodynamic stability of this alloy was explained by calculating the phase diagram. The quasi harmonic Debye model, using a set of total energy versus volume calculations obtained with FP-LAPW method is applied to study the thermal and vibrational affects. Temperature effect on the lattice parameter, thermal expansion coefficient, heat capacity and Debye temperature is determined from the non-equilibrium Gibbs function.     

Exergetic analysis of fuel cell micropowerplants fed by methanol

In the present study, a hydrogen polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) micropowerplant in combination with a steam reformer fed by methanol and a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) micropowerplant are analyzed numerically regarding their exergetic efficiency. The effects of concentration and activation overpotentials, and ohmic resistance on the efficiency are considered in quasi-two-dimensional fuel cell models. The influence of significant operational parameters on the exergetic efficiency is examined numerically. Experimental results are conducted for the steam reformer. This work shows the importance of an exergy analysis of the fuel cell as part of an entire thermodynamic system generating electric power and compares PEFC and DMFC micropowerplants exergetically.     

Photoluminescence quantum efficiency (PLQE) and PL decay characteristics of polymeric light emitting materials

We report photoluminescence quantum efficiency (PLQE) measurements on thin films of a variety of in-house synthesized conjugated polymers such as PPV, MEH-PPV and CN-PPV with improved techniques using integrating sphere and synchronous detection. Our method allows use of low level of excitation avoiding problems due to degradation during measurement. Time correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) has been used to study PL decay to obtain radiative lifetime controlling efficiency in these materials. The measured PL efficiency in PPV synthesized by xanthate precursor route is measured to be 0.07 ± 0.01, which is lower than reported for similar films owing to presence of intrinsic defects. The measured PL quantum efficiency of CN-PPV and MEH-PPV are 0.24 ± 0.07 and 0.17 ± 0.01, respectively. These values are comparable to the ones reported by others [N.C. Greenham, I.D. Samuel, G.R. Hayes, R.T. Phillips, Y.A.R.R. Kessener, S.C. Moratti, A.B. Holmes, R.H. Friend, Chem. Phys. Lett. 89 (1995) 241]. We suggest a reliable method of obtaining the radiative lifetime from PL decay curves using time domain spectroscopic technique.     

A comparative study of the electrochemical hydrogen storage properties of activated carbon and well-aligned carbon nanotubes mixed with copper

We studied the electrochemical hydrogen storage properties of activated carbon (AC) material mixed with copper. The discharge capacity of AC–Cu electrode which reached 510 mAh/g after 384 cycles, is much higher than that of the CNT–Cu electrodes. The plateau of discharge potential for AC–Cu electrode was very long and flat and reached −0.88 V vs. Hg/HgO, which was far from the potential of copper oxidation. The discharge plateau gradually appeared and continually lengthened with the increase of cycle number. Cyclic voltammetric experiments showed that the adsorption and desorption of hydrogen occurred on the surface of activated carbon and the active site increased with the increase of cycle number. The mechanism for electrochemical storage of hydrogen in AC–Cu electrode may be mainly physisorption.     

Energetic and exergetic analyses of a combined system consisting of a high-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell and a thermoelectric generator with Thomson effect

A combined system model consisting of a high-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC), a regenerator and a thermoelectric generator (TEG) is proposed, where the TEG is applied to harness the generated waste heat in the HT-PEMFC for extra electricity production. The TEG considers not only the Seebeck effect and Peltier effect but also the Thomson effect. The mathematical expressions of power output, energy efficiency, exergy destruction rate and exergy efficiency for the proposed system are derived. The energetic and exergetic performance characteristics for the whole system are revealed. The optimum operating ranges for some key performance parameters of the combined system are determined using the maximum power density as the objective function. The combined system maximum power density and its corresponding energy efficiency and exergy efficiency allow 19.1%, 12.4% and 12.6% higher than that of a stand-alone HT-PEMFC, while the exergy destruction rate density is only increased by 8.6%. The system performances are compared between the TEG with and without the Thomson effect. Moreover, the impacts of comprehensive parameters on the system performance characteristics are discussed. The obtained results are helpful in developing and designing such an actual combined system for efficient and clean power production.     

Photoinduced non-oxidative coupling of methane over H-zeolites around room temperature

Photoinduced non-oxidative coupling of methane proceeded over H-form mordenite and ZSM-5. The major product was C₂H₆, and the stoichiometric formation of H₂ was also revealed. The effects of the pretreatment temperature, Al content and H⁺ exchange level upon the activity suggested that the active sites were highly isolated framework Al–O units interacting with no metal cations.     

Influence of Yb and Si on the fabrication of Yb:YAG transparent ceramics using spherical Y2O3 powders

Yb:YAG (yttrium aluminum garnet) transparent ceramics were fabricated by the solid-state method using monodispersed spherical Y₂O₃ powders as well as commercial Al₂O₃ and Yb₂O₃ powders. Pure YAG phase was obtained at low temperature due to homogeneous mixing of powders. Under the same sintering conditions, the Yb:YAG ceramics with different doping contents of Yb³⁺ had similar morphologies and densification rates. After being sintered at 1700 °C in vacuum, the ceramic samples had high transparencies. The Yb:YAG ceramics doped with 0.5 wt% SiO₂ formed Y–Si–O liquid phase and nonstoichiometric point defects that enhanced sintering. Compared with Nd doping, Yb doping hardly affected the YAG grain growth, sintering densification or optical transmittance, probably because Yb³⁺ easily entered the YAG lattice and had a high segregation coefficient.     

Insight into the vacancy effects on mechanical and electronic properties of Tantalum Silicide

The effects of the vacancies on the structural stability, elastic constants, elastic moduli, brittle-to-ductile transition and electronic properties of Tantalum Silicide (TaSi₂) are investigated in detail by first-principles calculations. The values of vacancy formation energy confirm that the perfect TaSi₂ and TaSi₂ with different atomic vacancies can exhibit the structural stability at ground state. It is found that Ta atom vacancies are more stable than Si atom vacancies in TaSi₂ with vacancies. The elastic constants and elastic moduli describe the mechanical behavior for TaSi₂ and TaSi₂ with vacancies. The different atomic vacancies weaken the elastic stiffness for TaSi₂. But the values of B/G confirm that the brittle-to-ductile transition occurs with different atomic vacancies for TaSi₂. Although these vacancies make the shear and volume deformation resistance of TaSi₂ weaker, they obviously improve the brittle behavior of TaSi₂. The difference charge density and electronic structures are calculated to discuss and analyze the structural stability and mechanical properties for the perfect TaSi₂ and TaSi₂ with vacancies.     

3D holoscopic image coding scheme using HEVC with Gaussian process regression

3D holoscopic image, also known as integral imaging, light field imaging and plenoptic imaging, can provide a natural and fatigue-free 3D visualization. However, a large amount of data is required to represent the 3D holoscopic content. Therefore, efficient coding schemes for such particular type of image are needed. In this paper, we propose a Gaussian process regression based prediction scheme to compress the 3D holoscopic image. In the proposed scheme, the coding block and its prediction supports are modeled as a Gaussian process (GP) and Gaussian process regression (GPR) is used to obtain a better prediction of the coding block. Limited searching windows in horizontal and vertical directions are used to obtain the prediction supports, and a filtration method is designed to judge the reliability of the obtained prediction supports. Moreover, in order to alleviate the high complexity caused by GPR, a sparsification method is also put forward. Experimental results demonstrate the advantage of the proposed scheme for 3D holoscopic image coding in terms of different quality metrics as well as the visual quality of the views rendered from decompressed 3D holoscopic content, compared to the HEVC intra-prediction method and several other prediction methods in this field.