Thermal Decomposition Of Carbonyl Sulfide At Temperatures Encountered In The Front End Of Modified Claus Plants

Understanding the kinetics of the formation and consumption of COS and CS₂ in the front end of the modified Claus process will be a significant step towards reducing the environmental impact of these plants. Specifically, homogeneous intrinsic rate expressions are needed for engineering design and simulation, which will lead to new, optimized ways of operating these plants. Hence, a high-temperature kinetic study of the COS decomposition reaction was carried out. Experiments were performed with inlet COS compositions in the range of 0.20-2.33 mol%, with pressures at 101-150 kPa and temperatures at 800-1100°C; these conditions cover the conditions typically encountered in the front end of the modified Claus process. The experimental results showed that COS conversion is dependent on the inlet concentration of COS, which contrasts with previously reported higher temperature studies. Finally, the COS decomposition kinetics were modeled as the sum of two reactions, which provided a satisfactory representation of experimental data.     

Preferential grain growth and improved fatigue endurance in Sr substituted PZT thin films on Pt(1 1 1)/TiOx/SiO2/Si substrates

Pb(Zr_0.5Ti_0.5)O₃ and (Pb_0.9Sr_0.1)(Zr_0.5Ti_0.5)O₃ thin films were grown on Pt/TiO_x/SiO₂/Si substrates by chemical solution deposition. 10% Sr substituted PZT film showed high degree of (0 0 1) type preferential grain growth. Surface morphology revealed a clear correlation between preferred grain orientation and grain size. Room temperature dielectric constant was 1200 and 700 for the PZT and PSZT films, respectively. Dielectric loss reduced with Sr substitution. PZT film showed severe fatigue, and hence the polarization reduced to 20% of the initial value (24 μC/cm²) after 10⁸ cycles where as PSZT showed less fatigue, 75% of the initial polarization (12 μC/cm²) was retained after 10⁸ switching cycles.     

Amorphous silicon–carbon based nano-scale thin film anode materials for lithium ion batteries

The buffering effect of carbon on the structural stability of amorphous silicon films, used as an anode for lithium ion rechargeable batteries, has been studied during long term discharge/charge cycles. To this extent, the electrochemical performance of a prototype material consisting of amorphous Si thin film (∼250 nm) deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering on amorphous carbon (∼50 nm) thin films, denoted as a-C/Si, has been investigated. In comparison to pure amorphous Si thin film (a-Si) which shows a rapid fade in capacity after 30 cycles, the a-C/Si exhibits excellent capacity retention displaying ∼0.03% fade in capacity up to 50 cycles and ∼0.2% after 50 cycles when cycled at a rate of 100 μA/cm² (∼C/2) suggesting that the presence of thin amorphous C layer deposited between the Cu substrate and a-Si acts as a buffer layer facilitating the release of the volume induced stresses exhibited by pure a-Si during the charge/discharge cycles. This structural integrity combined with microstructural stability of the a-C/Si thin film during the alloying/dealloying process with lithium has been confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. The buffering capacity of the thin amorphous carbon layer lends credence to its use as the likely compliant matrix to curtail the volume expansion related cracking of silicon validating its choice as the matrix for bulk and thin film battery systems.     

Some estimators of finite population variance using information on two auxiliary variables

Some estimators using information on two auxiliary variables for finite population variance are proposed, their bias and mean square error (MSE) are found, and their properties are analysed. As an illustration, an empirical study is also included.