The influence of preparation method on the properties of NiMo sulfide catalysts supported on ZrO2

Highly loaded supported (Ni)Mo sulfide catalysts prepared using different methods have been studied. Two zirconia supports of high specific surface area were used, including amorphous or tetragonal ZrO₂ solids. The order of active components introduction as well as thermal treatment conditions were varied. The best performance in the reactions of hydrodesulfurisation of thiophene and hydrogenation of tetralin was shown by the coimpregnated systems sulfidized without calcination of the oxide precursor. Crystallized ZrO₂ support always provides higher activities in both reactions, than amorphous zirconia, despite very high specific surface area of the last. The differences between variously treated systems were explained using the results of characterizations including laser Raman spectroscopy, XPS spectroscopy and temperature programmed reduction.     

Deformation behaviour of iron-doped alumina

Compressive creep tests in air were carried out on 1 cat.% Fe-doped alumina at a temperature T=1400 °C. Iron doping affected the plastic deformation by different ways in relation with Fe²⁺ cations population. Fe²⁺ cations sped up the deformation rates. FeAl₂O₄ spinel precipitates were identified and they were found (i) to interact with alumina grain boundaries (ii) to limit the grain growth within a range of strain. The Fe²⁺ cations underwent oxidation and this resulted in the dissolution of the some precipitates and in the decrease of deformation rates. It was suggested that deformation sped up this evolution through mass transport and that time was not a dominating parameter.     

Level set and geodesic active contours based measurement of material removal between serial sections

The measurement of the thickness of material removed between serial sections is a crucial step of three-dimension reconstruction. Geodesic active contours is an efficient method for contour detection of objects on an image. The indents on the SiC/Al composite micrographs are segmented by using level set and geodesic active contours. After getting the contours of the indents, we calculate the distance from the uppermost pixel to the lowermost pixel to get the vertical diagonal length, and calculate the distance from the leftmost pixel to the rightmost pixel to get the horizontal diagonal length of each contour. Then the final length of each diagonal is acquired by averaging the vertical diagonal length and the horizontal diagonal length, respectively. The Vickers’ indenter is made by a square pyramidal-shaped diamond with opposite faces at an angle of 136°, so the thickness of material removed between two serial sections and the length difference of the diagonals on the two serial sections has a definite geometrical relation. Thus the thickness of material removed between two serial sections is acquired using the geometrical relation.     

Application of spent grains to increase porosity in bricks

The dumping of spent grains is going to be more difficult because of the increasing number of cattle. That means new ways of dumping must be developed.The goal of the work was to test the technical properties of bricks produced with spent grains added to increase porosity.The flexural strength of the fired samples remained at 8.5 MPa; the air-dried samples exhibited a small increase in flexural strength. The shrinkage and true density were almost identical, while the raw density, capacity for water absorption and open porosity showed minor differences.In the large-scale experiment no problems were observed during the production. The bricks produced with spent grains possessed a comparable or higher strength, a higher porosity and a reduced density after firing than those from a standard production clay. Because of the lower sintering temperatures the fired clay product was more strongly sintered, exhibiting both greater strength and higher porosity.     

Reticulated Porous Multiphase Ceramics with Improved Compressive Strength and Fracture Toughness

A multiphase reticulated porous ceramic (RPC) as Si₃N₄–Al₂O₃–SiO₂ was fabricated by replication techniques. Proper volumes of additives and twice sinter- twice immerse process endow the RPC an excellent crack healing and submerging property. The compressive strength and fracture toughness improved owing to the crack bridging behavior. The existence of pores in struts in RPC blunt the crack tip and increased the external force needed to propagate the crack. The mechanisms play a beneficial role in enhancing the compressive strength and fracture strength. Si₃N₄ RPC with additives of 5%Al and 5% Al₂O₃ yielded the compressive strength of 9.8 MPa and fracture toughness of 0.3 MPa m^1/2.