Environmental performance of ceramic tiles: Improvement proposals

Ceramic tile is one of the most widely used materials in construction. Due to the increased demand for environmentally responsible construction and the ever more restrictive environmental requirements derived from the legislation, there is a need for a tool to enable the environmental behaviour of such material to be evaluated. By the application of the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, this study is focused on calculating indicators capable of measuring the environmental behaviour of ceramic tiles. Taking the production of 1 m² of ceramic as a functional unit, the aim was to perform a life cycle inventory that covers all the stages from mining the red clay and atomising it to glaze manufacture and the production of the ceramic tiles and their delivery to customers. Next, the stages/materials/processes that have the greatest impact were identified, and a series of improvements were proposed with a view to enhancing the energetic efficiency of the firing process and minimising the emissions into the atmosphere, while at the same time reducing the noise pollution resulting from the pressing process. The environmental and economic feasibility of such a improvements was also studied.     

Comparing simulation algorithms for multienvironment probabilistic P systems over a standard virtual ecosystem

Membrane Computing has recently proved to be a suitable framework for addressing the modelling of dynamical biological systems in general, and ecosystems in particular. Due to the inherent randomness and uncertainty in biological systems, when designing a model the relevant tasks to be addressed are the validation and virtual experimentation processes, rather than the formal verification. It is therefore crucial to rely on software implementations of efficient simulation algorithms. This paper presents a simple (but realistic enough) ecosystem where a carnivore and several herbivorous species interact. The model of this ecosystem has been used to compare experimentally the performance of two different simulation algorithms.     

Nucleation of metal clusters on plasma treated multi wall carbon nanotubes

The influence of a preliminary RF-plasma treatment of the multi wall carbon nanotube (MWCNTs) surface on the resulting overlayer morphology (dispersion, shape and size of metal clusters) formed by thermally evaporating Ag, Ni or Au atoms is studied. RF plasma treatments successfully bind polystyrene, oxygen, amine and fluorine chemical groups depending on the type of gas used for the treatment (styrene, O₂, Ar, NH₃ or CF₄) of the MWCNT surface. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis showed that the dispersion and size of the metal particles on MWCNT surface depend on the gas type used for plasma treatment, on the nature of the evaporated metal, on the MWCNT curvature and on the evaporation time.     

Accurate design of high-voltage multistage voltage doublers based on compact mathematical model

A novel compact mathematical model to be applied in the analysis and design of two-phase voltage doubler circuits is presented. Numerical simulated results show that the proposed model is closer to SPICE-based simulation data than any other already developed models offering less than 1% of relative error over a wide range of working load conditions.     

Monitoring the Simultaneous Implantation of Ti and Tb Cations to a Sacrificial Template and the Sol-Gel Synthesis of Tb-Doped TiO2 (Anatase) Hollow Spheres and Their Transition to Rutile Phase

Tb-doped TiO₂ (anatase) micro-hollow spheres (HSs) with nano-shells, in the range 0.00–3.00 at.% Tb, were successfully synthesized by a simultaneous chemical implantation route of both Ti and Tb cations from chlorides to a poly-styrene (PST)-co-poly-divinyl benzene (PDVB) sacrificial template, followed by controlled hydrolysis and polycondensation reactions. After water addition to the mixture of the precursors with the template, a decrease in the intensity and a shift to lower wavenumbers of the C=O absorption band in the IR spectra can indicate not only the anchoring of Ti and Tb ions to the carbonyl group of the template but also the hydrolysis of the implanted precursors. This latter process can involve a proton attack on the Ti–Cl, Tb–Cl and C=O bonds, the occupation of a vacant site by a water molecule, and then the dissociation of the dangling Ti–Cl, Tb–Cl ligands and C=O bonds. It gives rise to Ti_1−xTb_x[(OH)_4−uCl_v]@PST–PDVB and Ti_1−xTb_x[(OH)_4−y]@PST–PDVB complexes (x = 0.00, 0.0012, 0.0170 and 0.030). Finally, polycondensation of these species leads to Ti_1−xTb_xO_2−w′@PST–PDVB compounds. After subsequent thermal removal at 550 °C of the template, the IR bands of the core (template) totally vanished and new bands were observed in the 400–900 cm⁻¹ region which can be attributed to the metalloxane bondings (M–O, M’–O, M–O–M, M–O–M’ and/or M’–O–M’, being M and M’ = Ti and Tb, respectively, i.e., mainly vibration modes of anatase). Then, micron-sized HSs of TiO₂ and Tb-doped-TiO₂ (anatase) were obtained with nano-shells according to field emission gun scanning electron microscopy (FEG-SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations. Furthermore, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements confirmed the presence of Tb⁴⁺ (38.5 and 41.2% for 1.70 and 3.00 at.% Tb, respectively) in addition to Tb³⁺ in the resulting HSs, with increasing Tb⁴⁺ content with both Tb doping and higher calcination temperatures. Then, these HSs can be considered as rare earth (RE) co-doped systems, at least for 1.70 and 3.00 at.% Tb contents being the transition to rutile phase favored by Tb doping for those compositions. Finally, diffusion of Tb from the inner parts to the surface of the HSs with the calcination treatments was also observed by XPS.     

Analysis of Clément’s First Formula for Irrigation Distribution Networks

The aim of this article is to determine with real data to what extent the hypotheses on which Clément’s first formula is based are fulfilled, and to compare the results of applying this formula. To this end the flow demand in the peak period was studied in two distribution networks with different irrigation methods and crops located in the Ebro River basin (northeast Spain). The calibration procedure for this formula proposed by the Centre Technique du Génie Rural des Eaux et des Forets (CTGREF) in 1977 was also analyzed. The result was that most of the hypotheses were not fulfilled. Furthermore, the discharge distributions obtained in the period of study did not correspond to a normal distribution. However, comparing the real accumulated probability curve and that calculated by Clément’s formula, it was found that the differences between the two curves for probabilities greater than 90% (a wide range of application of the formula) were lower than 9.4%. The reason for this result was found. It was shown also, that the CTGREF adjustment procedure did not provide substantial improvement in the estimation of flows because the aim of the fit was to achieve a normal distribution rather than an accumulated distribution function.     

Blends of styrene–butadiene–styrene triblock copolymer and isotactic polypropylene: morphology and thermomechanical properties

A set of blends of styrene–butadiene–styrene triblock copolymer (SBS) and isotactic polypropylene (i‐PP) in a composition range 0–100 % polypropylene by weight was prepared in a twin screw extruder. The morphology of the blends has been studied by transmission electron microscopy. The blends present phase separation. Dynamic mechanical measurements show an improvement of the mechanical properties of SBS when i‐PP is the dispersed phase. This reinforcing effect can be observed even at high temperatures when i‐PP is in the rubbery state. The mechanical properties of the blends have been interpreted using Takayanagi's block model. The melting and crystallization behaviour of the i‐PP in the blends has been studied by differential scanning calorimetry. The fractionated crystallization phenomenon has been observed in the blends where i‐PP forms the dispersed phase. The results are consistent with the morphology shown by the blends, in particular, with its phase inversion, which occurs at a composition near to 50% i‐PP. © 2000 Society of Chemical Industry