Features of obtaining an effective catalyst for synthesis of carbon nanostructured materials

Abstract

In the present paper, the features of obtaining a metal oxide Fe–Co/Al₂O₃ catalyst for the synthesis of carbon nanostructured materials through thermal decomposition are considered. It was experimentally proved that the temperature and duration of the stage of thermal decomposition of the initial components solution significantly affect the catalyst activity in the synthesis of carbon nanostructured materials by the CVD method. It was found that controlling the mode parameters of the thermal decomposition of the initial components solution of the Fe–Co/Al₂O₃ catalyst, one can not only obtain a catalyst with the required characteristics but also directionally synthesize carbon nanostructured materials over the resulting catalytic systems. During the experiments, rational modes for the implementation of the method for producing catalysts were determined, allowing to form a metal oxide system with a specific surface area of 108?m²/g, the use of which in the synthesis of carbon nanostructured materials leads to the formation of multi-walled carbon nanotubes with an external diameter of 30?nm.     

Uniform graphene oxide films fabrication via spray-coating for sensing application

Abstract

A spray-coating technique for deposition of thin uniform graphene oxide films with a thickness of several tens of nanometers was developed. Among distinctive features of the technique is the low substrate heating temperature, which allows preserving most oxygen-containing functional groups and coat a wide range of substrates. The morphology of the spray-coated graphene oxide films with flakes of different lateral sizes was investigated. The local laser-induced photo-thermal reduction of thin graphene oxide thin films was demonstrated. The sensitivity of reduced graphene oxide to water vapor was also measured. Spray-coating and laser reduction techniques can be further applied for humidity sensor fabrication.     

Biocatalytic Enzyme Networks Designed for Binary-Logic Control of Smart Electroactive Nanobiointerfaces

Discussed are recent developments in biocomputing, outlining research progress from single enzyme-logic operations to systems of scaled-up complexity. Examples of specific logic operations are presented and strategies for system optimization to suppress the spread of noise in enzyme-logic networks are discussed. Special attention is given to electrochemical signal-transducing nanobiointerfaces, including ON?COFF switches and potential practical applications.     

Designing flow and temperature uniformities in parallel microchannels reactor

A design methodology is proposed to maintain gas and liquid flow nonuniformities below an acceptable limit in a parallel micro/millichannels reactor by determining the maximum allowed temperature deviation in each part of the reactor. The effect of temperature deviation on flow distribution was quantified using a hydraulic resistive network model. The effect of flow rate on temperature deviation was demonstrated using a one‐dimensional energy balance model. Experiments were conducted using the barrier‐based micro/millichannels reactor (BMMR). Flow distribution in the BMMR is based on placing hydraulic resistances (barrier channels) in the gas and liquid manifolds to regulate the flows. Temperature deviation in the barrier channels affects flow nonuniformity by 10 times more than in the reaction channels. Above a certain critical liquid residence time, flow rate has no significant effect on the temperature deviation which depends on the liquid used, reactor material of construction, and its geometrical dimensions. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 60: 1941–1952, 2014     

Comparison of subtractive Kramers-Kronig analysis and maximum entropy model in resolving phase from finite spectral range reflectance data

The maximum entropy model (MEM) and Kramers-Kronig (K-K) analysis were compared with the aim of phase retrieval from reflectance. The object was to test two different phase-retrieval methods when reflectance is known at a finite frequency range and data fitting is not performed beyond the finite frequency band. In addition, it was assumed that the phase is known only at one or two anchor points. As an example, we study the terahertz reflection spectrum related to a semiconductor and an optical spectrum of potassium chloride. It is shown that the MEM resolves the complex refractive index of a medium, in the vicinity of initial and final points of the spectra, better than singly and doubly subtractive K-K relations. Both methods give only satisfactory results in the event of one anchor point, but in the case of two anchor points, the MEM is better than doubly subtractive K-K. It is proposed that the MEM should be used instead of K-K analysis, for a priori information of phase at two anchor points, for the purpose of resolving the complex refractive index of a medium from reflectance with high accuracy.     

Mie scattering by an anisotropic object. Part I. Homogeneous sphere

Establishing a vector spherical harmonic expansion of the electromagnetic field propagating inside an arbitrary anisotropic medium, we extend Mie theory to the diffraction by an anisotropic sphere, with or without losses. The particular case of a uniaxial material leads to a simpler analysis. This work opens the way to the construction of a differential theory of diffraction by a three-dimensional object with arbitrary shape, filled by an arbitrary anisotropic material.     

Interaction of a magnetic dipole with a slowly moving electrically conducting plate

We report an analytical investigation of the force and torque acting upon a magnetic dipole placed in the vicinity of a moving electrically conducting nonmagnetic plate. This problem is relevant to contactless electromagnetic flow measurement in metallurgy and extends previous theoretical works (Thess et?al., Phys Rev Lett 96:164501, 2006; New J Phys 9:299, 2007) to the case where the orientation of the magnetic dipole relative to the plate is arbitrary. It is demonstrated that, for the case of low magnetic Reynolds number, the three-dimensional distributions of the induced electric potential, of the eddy currents, and of the induced magnetic field can be rigorously derived. It is also shown that all components of the force and torque can be computed without any further approximation. The results of the present work serve as a benchmark problem that can be used to verify numerical simulations of more complex magnetic field distributions.