Recent developments in dry hot syngas cleaning processes

The dry hot syngas cleaning process appears to be potentially more efficient and cleaner than the proven wet cleaning or semi-wet cleaning processes but it is still far from commercialisation. There are several technological barriers responsible such as poor availability factor, degeneration of sorbent and several stages of separation. This paper summarises the reported current status of dry hot cleaning of syngas from coal gasification processes along with the shortcomings of reporting of dry hot syngas cleaning performance results. The paper also proposes and discusses a rational method of performance reporting, a novel pulse less filtration concept and a system to prevent failure of filter elements.     

Study of chemiresistor type CNT doped polyaniline gas sensor

The composite thin films of polyaniline (Pani) with multiwall carbon nanotube (MWNT) and single wall carbon nanotube (SWNT) for hydrogen gas sensing application are presented in this paper. Polyaniline (Pani) was synthesized by chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline using ammonium persulfate in acidic medium. The SWNT and MWNT were doped in Pani in presence of champhor sulfonic acid (CSA) by solution mixing method. Thin films of CNT/Pani composites were prepared by spin coating method. Finally, the response of these composite films for hydrogen gas was evaluated by monitering the change in electrical resistance at room tempeature. It is observed that the SWNT/Pani and MWNT/Pani composite films show a higher response as compare to pure Pani. The structural and optical properties of these composite films have been characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and UV–visible spectroscopy respectively. Surface morphology of these films has also been characterised by optical microscopy.     

Synthesis of a perylene bisimide with acetonaphthopyrazine dicarbonitrile terminal moieties for photovoltaic applications

A symmetrical perylene bisimide (PERI) with tert-butylphenoxy side groups at the 1,7-bay positions of the perylene and acetonaphthopyrazine dicarbonitrile terminal moieties was synthesized and characterized. The long-wave absorption maximum of PERI was at 455 nm with thin film absorption onset at 583 nm corresponding to an optical band gap of 2.13 eV. We have used blend of PERI as electron acceptor with a dithyenylbenzoselenadiazole-based small molecule (Se-SM) as electron donor for the fabrication of bulk heterojunction photovoltaic devices. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the ITO/PEDOT:PSS/Se-SM:PERI/Al device using as cast active layer, is about 1.28% which is improved up to 3.88% when a thermally annealed blend is used as active layer. The improvement in the PCE has been associated with the enhanced crystallinity of the blend upon thermal annealing and the increase in hole mobility that results in improved charge transport.     

Thermodynamic evaluation of phase equilibria in the CaCl2-MgCl2-CaF2-MgF2 system

The phase diagram of the CaCl₂-CaF₂-MgCl₂-MgF₂ reciprocal ternary system was calculated thermodynamically from available data on the common-ion binary subsystems and from available data on the CaCl₂-MgF₂ join. This join is very nearly quasibinary and divides the system into two quasiternary systems: the CaCl₂-MgF₂-CaF₂ system with a ternary eutectic calculated at 724 +-5 °C and the CaC₂-MgF₂-MgCl₂ system with a ternary eutectic calculated at 561 +-5 °C.     

Wear analysis of Cu–Al coating on Ti–6Al–4V substrate under fretting condition

Fretting behavior of Cu–Al coating on Ti–6Al–4V substrate was investigated with and without fatigue load. Soft and rough Cu–Al coating resulted in abrasive wear and a large amount of debris remained at the contact surface, which caused an increase in tangential force during the fretting test under gross slip condition. Fretting in the partial slip condition also showed the wear of coating. To characterize wear, dissipated energies during fretting were calculated from fretting loops and wear volumes were obtained from worn surface profiles. Energy approach of wear analysis showed a linear relationship between wear volume and accumulated dissipated energy. This relationship was independent of fatigue loading condition and extended from partial slip to gross slip regimes. As an alternate but simple approach for wear analysis, accumulated relative displacement range was correlated with the wear volume. This also resulted in a linear relationship as in the case of accumulated dissipated energy suggesting that the accumulated relative displacement range can be used as an alternative parameter for dissipated energy to characterize the wear. When the maximum wear depth was equal to the thickness of Cu–Al coating, harder Ti–6Al–4V substrate inhibited further increase in wear depth. Only when a considerable energy was supplied through a large value of the applied displacement, wear in the substrate material could occur beyond the thickness of coating.     

Bandgap engineering by substitution of S by Se in nanostructured ZnS1−xSex thin films grown by soft chemical route for nontoxic optoelectronic device applications

Thin films of nanostructured ZnS_1−xSe_x with optimized growth parameters were prepared by soft chemical route on glass substrates. Ammonia free precursors were used at 80 °C constant bath temperature. The ratio of sulphur to selenium was changed continuously by changing the composition x (0-1), while atomic concentration of zinc was kept constant. Structure, composition and surface morphology of as-deposited films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) respectively. XRD studies revealed that as-deposited films were nanostructured in nature with cubic zinc blended structure. It was further observed that the preferred orientations are along (1 1 1) plane and crystallite size decreased with increase in the value of x. SEM and AFM images revealed that films were uniform and pinhole free. The optical band gap (E_g) was calculated from the observed transmittance spectra by Urbach method. It was found that the band gap varied linearly from 3.71 to 2.70 eV, as composition x varies 0-1. The electrical properties’ study revealed that the decrease in resistivity and increase in photosensitivity, as composition x varied 0-1. The observed interesting properties of ZnS_1−xSe_x thin films justified their significance in optoelectronic device fabrication and applications, and as an environment friendly alternative to the commonly used toxic material such as CdS.     

Dependence of activation energy and pre-exponential factor on electric field in amorphous thin films of Se70Te30−xZnx

The present paper reports the effect of electric field on the electrical parameters (activation energy and pre-exponential factor) in amorphous thin films of Se₇₀Te_30−xZn_x (x = 0, 6, 8). It is observed that, in a particular composition, at low electric field up to 10³ V/cm neither activation energy nor pre-exponential factor depend on electric field as expected in case of ohmic region. However, at higher electric fields where non ohmic region is observed, activation energy and pre-exponential factor both vary with electric field. Similar behavior is observed in all the compositions used in this study. A correlation between activation energy and pre-exponential factor is also observed in these alloys, which is known as Meyer-Neldel rule (MN rule). Further MN rule is also observed in the present case which is explained by the model suggested by Yelon and Movaghar responsible for MN rule in chalcogenide glasses.     

Compton profile and charge transfer study in intermetallic Ti–Al system

The electronic structure of three intermetallic alloys namely Ti₃Al, TiAl and TiAl₃ in terms of Compton profiles is reported in this work. Directional Compton profiles are calculated for all the three alloys employing CRYSTAL code within the framework of density functional theory. The spherically averaged theoretical values are compared with the measurements made using 59.54 keV gamma-rays from Am²⁴¹ source. The calculations are in overall agreement with measurements in all cases. The measurements are also compared with the superposition of LCAO profiles of elemental solids. For Ti₃Al and TiAl₃ the LCAO values show better agreement whereas for TiAl the synthesized LCAO values are closer to the experiment. Effect of titanium 3d electrons is clearly visible in intermediate range of momentum in the Ti rich alloy. Charge transfer in the three alloys has also been estimated following the superposition of experimental profiles of Ti and Al metals. Comparison of Compton spectra of Ti₃Al, TiAl and TiAl₃ with the superposition of the Compton spectra of elemental constituents suggests a charge transfer of 2.8, 0.9 and 0.6 electron per Al atom, respectively. Such large values seem unreasonable and, therefore, this approach cannot be used for any reliable determination of the charge transfer in this system.     

Ab initio and thermodynamic modelling of alloying effects on activity of sacrificial aluminium anodes

This work summarizes the experimental literature to date on Al-alloy sacrificial anodes and shows that the presence of Sn as an alloying element in solid solution form consistently debases the alloy corrosion potential. This study then assesses the lattice expander theory, which states that lattice-expanding dopants can be used to increase Sn solubility in Al and thereby reduce passivation. The thermodynamic effects on Sn solubility of lattice expanders (Ga, Mg, Zr, In and Bi) are predicted with ab-initio methods. Our results support lattice expander theory although we demonstrate that Sn solubility can decrease by alloying with even large dopants if they form compounds with Sn.