Design of photocatalytic reactors made easy by considering the photons as immaterial reactants

While it is quite obvious that photons have an essential role in photochemical and photocatalytic processes, it is not simple to analyse the radiation process.A simple approach is presented on the assumption that photons can be treated as immaterial reactants. It is then possible to evaluate the radiation process in terms of parameters such as conversion, selectivity and yield, which are common in the conventional reaction engineering, and of an additional parameter, a volume efficiency factor, which accounts for the exploitation of the reaction volume as the result of the inevitable attenuation of the radiation in the transport through the participating medium.Attention has also been focused on the validation of kinetic data when, as it is usually done, they are interpreted in terms of volume averages.Finally, guidelines have been prepared to support preliminary phases of analysis and/or design of a photocatalytic reactor.     

Evidence of the CH···O HydrogenBonding in Imidazolium-Based Ionic Liquids from Far-Infrared Spectroscopy Measurements and DFT Calculations

Knowledge of all the intermolecular forces occurring in ionic liquids (ILs) is essential to master their properties. Aiming at investigating the weaker hydrogen bonding in aprotic liquids, the present work combined computational study and far-infrared spectroscopy on four imidazolium-based ILs with different anions. The DFT calculations of the ionic couples, using the ωB97X-D functional and considering both the empirical dispersion corrections and the presence of a polar solvent, show that, for all samples, the lowest energy configurations of the ion pair present H atoms, directly bound to C atoms of the cation and close to O atoms of the anion, capable of creating moderate to weak hydrogen bonding with anions. For the liquids containing anions of higher bonding ability, the absorption curves generated from the calculated vibrational frequencies and intensities show absorption bands between 100 and 125 cm⁻¹ corresponding to the stretching of the hydrogen bond. These indications are in complete agreement with the presently reported temperature dependence of the far-infrared spectrum, where the stretching modes of the hydrogen bonding are detected only for samples presenting a moderate interaction and become particularly prominent at low temperatures. Moreover, from the analysis of the infrared spectra, the occurrence of various phase transitions as a function of temperature was detected, and the difference in the average energy between the H-bonded and the dispersion-governed molecular configurations was evaluated.     

Outlier Detection And Estimation In NonLinear Time Series

Abstract. The problem of identifying the time location and estimating the amplitude of outliers in nonlinear time series is addressed. A model‐based method is proposed for detecting the presence of additive or innovational outliers when the series is generated by a general nonlinear model. We use this method for identifying and estimating outliers in bilinear, self‐exciting threshold autoregressive and exponential autoregressive models. A simulation study is performed to test the proposed procedures and comparing them with the methods based on linear models and linear interpolators. Finally, our results are applied for detecting outliers in the Canadian lynx trappings and in the sunspot numbers data.     

Apparatus for the production of hydrogen from sodium borohydride in alkaline solution

Extended application of hydrogen as energy carrier demands an economical, safe and reliable technology for storage. In particular, chemical hydrides appear as capable and promising to overcome the issues related to hydrogen safety and handling and to be considered competitive with respect to conventional fuels.     

Normal maps vs. visible images: Comparing classifiers and combining modalities

This work investigates face recognition based on normal maps, and the performance improvement that can be obtained when exploiting it within a multimodal system, where a further independent module processes visible images. We first propose a technique to align two 3D models of a face by means of normal maps, which is very fast while providing an accuracy comparable to well-known and more general techniques such as Iterative Closest Point (ICP). Moreover, we propose a matching criterion based on a technique which exploits difference maps. It does not reduce the dimension of the feature space, but performs a weighted matching between two normal maps. In the second place, we explore the range of performances offered by different linear and nonlinear classifiers, when applied to the normal maps generated from the above aligned models. Such experiments highlight the added value of chromatic information contained in normal maps. We analyse a solid list of classifiers which were selected due to their historical reference value (e.g. Principal Component Analysis) or to their good performances in the bidimensional setting (Linear Discriminant Analysis, Partitioned Iterated Function Systems). Last but not least, we perform experiments to measure how different ways of combining normal maps and visible images can enhance the results obtained by the single recognition systems, given that specific characteristics of the images are taken into account. For these last experiments we only consider the classifier giving the best average results in the preceding ones, namely the PIFS-based one.     

Liquid electrolyte positioning along the device channel influences the operation of Organic Electro-Chemical Transistors

In this work, we show the influence of the liquid electrolyte adsorption by porous films made of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)–poly(styrenesulfonate), PEDOT:PSS, on the operation of an Organic Electro-Chemical Transistor with an active channel based on these polymeric films. In particular, the effect of film hydration on device performance is evaluated by studying its electrical response as a function of the spatial position between the electrolyte and the channel electrodes. This is done by depositing a PEDOT:PSS film on a super-hydrophobic surface aimed at controlling the electrolyte confinement next to the electrodes. The device response shows that the confinement of ionic liquids near to the drain electrode results in a worsening of the current modulation. This result has been interpreted in the light of studies dealing with the transport of ions in semiconducting polymers, indicating that the electrolyte adsorption by the polymeric film implies the formation of liquid pathways inside its bulk. These pathways, in particular, affect the device response because they are able to assist the drift of ionic species in the electrolyte towards the drain electrode. The effect of electrolyte adsorption on the device operation is confirmed by means of moving-front measurements, and is related to the reproducibility of the device operation curves by measuring repeatedly its electrical response.     

Advanced microstructural characterization of plasma-sprayed zirconia coatings over extended length scales

Achieving control of the microstructure of plasma-sprayed thermal barrier coating (TBC) systems offers an opportunity to tailor coating properties to demanding applications. Accomplishing this requires a fundamental understanding of the correlations among processing, microstructure development, and related TBC properties. This article describes the quantitative characterization of the microstructure of plasma-sprayed partially stabilized zirconia (PSZ) coatings by means of x-ray and neutron-scattering imaging techniques. Small-angle neutron scattering, ultra-small-angle x-ray scattering, and x-ray microtomography were used to characterize and visualize the nature and structure of the features in these material systems. In addition, the influence of processing parameters on microstructure development is discussed along with thermal cycling effects on the pore morphology, and their resultant influence of the porosity on the thermal conductivity and elastic modulus of plasma-sprayed PSZ TBCs.     

A Case Study in Embedded Systems Design: An Engine Control Unit

A number of techniques and software toolsfor embedded system design have been recently proposed. However,the current practice in the designer community is heavily basedon manual techniques and on past experience rather than on arigorous approach to design. To advance the state of the artit is important to address a number of relevant design problemsand solve them to demonstrate the power of the new approaches.We chose an industrial example in automotive electronics to validateour design methodology: an existing commercially available EngineControl Unit. We discuss in detail the specification, the implementationphilosophy, and the architectural trade-off analysis. We analyzethe results obtained with our approach and compare them withthe existing design underlining the advantages offered by a systematicapproach to embedded system design in terms of performance anddesign time.