Conducting carbon/polymer composites as a catalyst support for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Carbon/poly(3,4‐ethylene dioxythiophene) (C/PEDOT) composites are synthesized by in situ chemical oxidative polymerization of EDOT monomer on carbon black in order to decrease carbon corrosion that occurred in carbon‐supported catalysts used in proton exchange membrane fuel cell. The effects of different dopants including polystyrene sulfonic acid, p‐toluenesulfonic acid and camphorsulfonic acid with the addition of ethylene glycol or dimethyl sulfoxide on the properties of the composites are investigated. The synthesized composites are characterized by X‐ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, surface area analysis and scanning electron microscope. Electrical conductivity is determined by using the four‐point probe technique. Electrochemical oxidation characteristics of the synthesized C/PEDOT composites are investigated by cyclic voltammetry by applying 1.2 V for 24 h. The composite prepared at 25 °C with p‐toluenesulfonic acid and ethylene glycol shows the best carbon corrosion resistance. Platinum‐supported catalyst by using this composite was prepared using microwave irradiation technique, and it was seen that the prepared catalyst did not significantly lose its hydrogen oxidation and oxygen reduction reaction activities after electrochemical oxidation. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synthesis, characterization, electrochemistry and spectroelectrochemistry of novel soluble porphyrazines bearing unsaturated functional groups

Metalloporphyrazines with a 2-methyl-2-pentenyl group fused to each pyrrole unit were synthesized starting with the corresponding unsaturated dicarbonitrile derivative. The new compounds were characterized by elemental analysis together with FTIR, ¹H-NMR, and UV-Vis spectroscopy and via voltammetric and spectrochemical methods. Electrochemical and spectroelectrochemical measurements demonstrate that while metal-free and magnesium porphyrazines gave common porphyrazine (Pz) ring-based electron-transfer reactions, incorporating redox active metal center, Co^II, into the porphyrazine core extended the redox activity of the ring system with reversible metal-based reduction and oxidation couples of the metal center in addition to the common Pz ring-based electron transfer processes. The unsaturated functional groups of the porphyrazines did not alter the common electrochemical behavior of the complexes. An in situ electrocolorimetric method, based on the 1931 CIE (Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage) system of colorimetry, was applied to investigate the color of the electro-generated anionic and cationic forms of the complexes for possible electrochromatic applications.     

Trend Assessment by the Innovative-Şen Method

Hydro-meteorological time series may include trend components mostly due to climate change since about three to four decades. Trend detection and identification in a better and refined manner are among the major current research topics in water resources domain. Even though different methodologies can be found for trend detection in literature, two well-known procedures are the Mann-Kendall (MK) trend test and recently innovative-?en trend method, which provides different aspects of the trend. The theoretical basis and application of these two methods are completely different. The MK test gives a holistic monotonic trend without any categorization of the time series into a set of clusters, but the innovative-?en method is based on cluster and provides categorical trend behavior in a given time series. The main purpose of this paper is to provide important differences between these two approaches and their possible similarities. The applications of the two approaches are given for hydro-meteorological records including relative humidity, temperature, precipitation and runoff from Ergene drainage basin in the north-western part of Turkey. It is observed that although MK trend test does not show significant trend almost in all the cases, the innovative-?en approach yields trend categorizations as “very low”, “low”, “medium” “high” and “very high”, which should be taken into consideration in future flood (“very high”) and drought (“very low”) studies.     

Polymerization of epoxides catalyzed by a mixed‐valent iron trifluoroacetate [Fe3O(O2CCF3)6(H2O)3]

The readily available mixed‐valent iron trifluoroacetate complex [Fe₂^IIIFe^II(µ₃‐O)(O₂CCF₃)₆(H₂O)₃] is an effective catalyst for the polymerization of epoxides. A very small amount of the catalyst (1.0–0.01 mol%) could initiate the polymerization of cyclohexene oxide, cyclopentene oxide and epichlorohydrin. Based on quantitative end‐group analysis by ¹⁹F NMR spectroscopy, a Lewis acid (LA^⊕) catalyzed anionic reaction mechanism is proposed. Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry     

Investigation of engineering properties for usability of Lefke stone (Osmaneli/Bilecik) as building stone

Lefke stone is a sandstone that has been widely used in mosques, madrasas, churches, and houses as building stone. The geological features and engineering properties of Lefke stone outcropped in the southern part of Osmaneli/Bilecik were investigated in field and laboratory studies. Samples acquired during the fieldwork were tested to determine the physical, mechanical, durability, and hygrothermal properties in the laboratory. The mean physico-mechanical properties of Lefke stone yielded apparent density of 2.38 g/cm³, specific gravity of 2.68 g/cm³, total porosity of 11.26%, 2.93% water absorption by weight, uniaxial compressive strength of 94 MPa, flexure strength of 11.45 MPa, a 3.90 MPa point load strength, 4.5–5 Mohs hardness, and field Schmidt hammer rebound value of 36. According to durability tests, Lefke stone is resistant to CaCl₂ salt mist but has low resistance to SO₂ aging. Salt crystals placed in the discontinuities of the rock caused slight crack growth. The stone’s resistance to crystallization of sodium sulphate salt is low, and an increase in the volume of salts crystallized in the rock results in low corner strengths. A capillary water-absorption value of 0.0016 kg/m².h places Lefke stone into the category of very low water absorption capacity and permeability. The water vapor diffusion resistance factor (μ) less than 1 indicates that the sandstone has high breathability. Its performance in historical buildings, field observations, and values obtained through laboratory tests confirm that Lefke sandstone can be used as a building stone.

     

Solubility Enhancement of Fe in ZnO Nanoparticles Prepared by Co-Precipitation Method

Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism - Crystalline ZnO offers an excellent host matrix to create a dilute magnetic semiconductor (DMS) owing to its facile Zn-atom substitution with the...     

ACMICS: an agent communication model for interacting crowd simulation

Behavioral plausibility is one of the major aims of crowd simulation research. We present a novel approach that simulates communication between the agents and assess its influence on overall crowd behavior. Our formulation uses a communication model that tends to simulate human-like communication capability. The underlying formulation is based on a message structure that corresponds to a simplified version of Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents Agent Communication Language Message Structure Specification. Our algorithm distinguishes between low- and high-level communication tasks so that ACMICS can be easily extended and employed in new simulation scenarios. We highlight the performance of our communication model on different crowd simulation scenarios. We also extend our approach to model evacuation behavior in unknown environments. Overall, our communication model has a small runtime overhead and can be used for interactive simulation with tens or hundreds of agents.     

Effect of Ni Addition on the Morphology and Microstructure of Both Conventional Cast and Melt-Spun of Al–Si–Fe–Nb (at wt%) Alloy

Metals and Materials International - In this project the morphology and microstructure of both conventional cast and melt spun of Al–20Si–9Fe–1.2Nb and...