Development of monolithic catalysts with low noble metal content for diesel vehicle emission control

Topics in Catalysis - Monolith washcoated catalysts with potential for diesel emission control have been developed. Two types of catalysts have been prepared for further study: (1) MnO x supported...     

Mass production of high-quality multi-walled carbon nanotube bundles on a Ni/Mo/MgO catalyst

A new catalyst (Ni/Mo/MgO) is reported, with which one can synthesize multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT) bundles with a yield of more than 45 times the amount of the pristine catalyst, using a methane-hydrogen mixture as precursor. Powder X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and thermal gravimetric analysis show that the purity of the as-prepared MWNTs is over 97%. The diameter of the carbon nanotubes is 9-20 nm, measured by high-resolution electron microscopy on 421 individual MWNTs. The high purity of the as-prepared MWNTs allows us to omit the usual complex purification process required for carbon nanotubes synthesized by chemical vapor deposition. Because of its durable high activity, the Ni/Mo/MgO catalyst in its pristine state is ideal for mass production of high-quality MWNTs. The synergism of nickel and molybdenum is considered the main reason for the high yield of carbon nanotubes.     

Bayesian bivariate generalized Lindley model for survival data with a cure fraction

The cure fraction models have been widely used to analyze survival data in which a proportion of the individuals is not susceptible to the event of interest. In this article, we introduce a bivariate model for survival data with a cure fraction based on the three-parameter generalized Lindley distribution. The joint distribution of the survival times is obtained by using copula functions. We consider three types of copula function models, the Farlie–Gumbel–Morgenstern (FGM), Clayton and Gumbel–Barnett copulas. The model is implemented under a Bayesian framework, where the parameter estimation is based on Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques. To illustrate the utility of the model, we consider an application to a real data set related to an invasive cervical cancer study.     

Zakarpatsk dolomites

Refractories and Industrial Ceramics -     

2-Layer Right Angle Crossing Drawings

A 2-layer drawing represents a bipartite graph where each vertex is a point on one of two parallel lines, no two vertices on the same line are adjacent, and the edges are straight-line segments. In this paper we study 2-layer drawings where any two crossing edges meet at right angle. We characterize the graphs that admit this type of drawing, provide linear-time testing and embedding algorithms, and present a polynomial-time crossing minimization technique. Also, for a given graph G and a constant k, we prove that it is $\mathcal{NP}$ -complete to decide whether G contains a subgraph of at least k edges having a 2-layer drawing with right angle crossings.     

Carbon dioxide reforming of methane to synthesis gas over supported Ni catalysts

Carbon dioxide reforming of methane to synthesis gas has been investigated over supported Ni catalysts in the temperature range of 500–850°C. Addition of CaO (10mol%) promoter to the Ni/γ-Al₂O₃ resulted in an increase of reaction rate and an improvement of catalyst stability, which may be related to enhanced reducibility of the promoted catalyst. The kinetic studies show that the overall reaction can be described by a Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanistic scheme, assuming that methane dissociation is the rate determining step. In addition to adsorbed CO and formate species, three types of carbonaceous species, C, C_β and C_γ, were found to exist on the Ni catalyst. While the active C, species is suggested to be responsible for CO formation, the less active C_β and C_γ species are attributed to causing catalyst deactivation.     

Strain-induced crystallization,Part IV: Induction time analysis

The empirical equation, 1/t_i = Ae^Ei/RT, which expresses the exponential dependence of the reciprocal of crystallization induction time, t_i, has been analyzed and shown to be equivalent to the nucleation rate equations derived earlier in Part III (1). Consequently we have used the t_i measurements obtained earlier by Krueger and Yeh to calculate not only the nucleation rate enhancements but also the melting point elevations, the relative crystal thickness changes and molecular coil extension ratios of shear-crystallization polyethylene. It is shown that polyethylene when crystallized between 129 and 131°C at shear rates between 1.56 and 9.70 sec^?1 can have melting point increases of 4.2 to 7.2°C and crystal thickness decreases of 20 to 25 percent, when compared to those crystallized at 130°C in the quiescent state. The predicted “coil” extension in the melt just prior to shear-induced crystallization ranges between 21 and 36 percent. The results of these analyses as well as those on nucleation rates of polyethylene oxide are discussed in detail.     

Mechanical,flow, and morphological properties of talc‐ and kaolin‐filled polypropylene hybrid composites

Polypropylene (PP) hybrid composites have been produced by compounding two types of mineral fillers, viz., talc and kaolin with PP copolymer using a twin screw extruder. The PP hybrid composite was injection‐molded into dumbbell specimen for tensile, flexural, and impact properties characterizations. MFI and SEM studies were used to characterize the flow and morphological properties of the PP hybrid composites. The result shows that most of the hybrid composites showed a significant decrease in flow, tensile, flexural, and impact properties compared with the single filler‐filled PP composites. However, a hybridization effect was seen for the PPT20K10 hybrid composites, through the synergistic coalescence of positive characteristics from 20 wt % of talc and 10 wt % of kaolin. This hybrid formulation have given an economically advantageous material with the mechanical properties (tensile, flexural, and impact) comparable to those of the talc‐filled PP composites. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 104: 434–441, 2007     

Thermal conversion (visbreaking) of heavy Iraqi residue

A heavy Iraqi residue was thermally cracked using a soaker visbreaking process at temperatures between 435 and 480 °C, with a range of residence times of 43–109 s in the coil and 151–379 s in the soaker. The pressure was kept constant at 7 bar. Visbroken products were characterized, evaluated and fractionated into light, middle and heavy cuts. The stability of the visbroken products was compared with that of the original feedstock. Also an activation energy was calculated for the visbreaking process and related to the severity of the process. The results obtained show that the conditions used were not severe and could be applied to obtain a required conversion depending on the uses of the products.