Highly dispersed cobalt nanoparticles onto nitrogen-doped carbon nanosheets for efficient hydrogen generation via catalytic hydrolysis of sodium borohydride

Porous carbon nanostructures are promising supports for stabilizing the highly dispersed metal nanoparticles and facilitating the mass transfer during the reaction, which are critical to achieve the high efficiency of hydrogen generation from sodium borohydride dehydrogenation. Herein, the catalytically active porous architectures are simply prepared by using 2-methylimidazole and melamine as reactive sources. The structural and compositional characterizations reveal the coexistence of metallic cobalt and N-doped carbon in porous architectures. Electron microscopy observations indicate that the synthesized products are smartly constructed from the carbon nanosheets with densely dispersed Co nanoparticles. Due to the notable structural features, the prepared Co@NC-600 sample presents the highly efficient activity for catalytic hydrolysis of NaBH₄ with a hydrogen generation rate of 2574 mL min⁻¹ g_cat⁻¹ and an activation energy of 47.6 kJ mol⁻¹. The catalytically active metallic Co and suitable support-effect of N-doped carbon are responsible for catalytic dehydrogenation.     

Tungsten(VI) oxide supported rhodium nanoparticles: Highly active catalysts in hydrogen generation from ammonia borane

Herein, we report the use of tungsten(VI) oxide (WO₃) as support for Rh⁰ nanoparticles. The resulting Rh⁰/WO₃ nanoparticles are highly active and stable catalysts in H₂ generation from the hydrolysis of ammonia borane (AB). We present the results of our investigation on the particle size distribution, catalytic activity and stability of Rh⁰/WO₃ catalysts with 0.5%, 1.0%, 2.0% wt. Rh loadings in the hydrolysis reaction. The results reveal that Rh⁰/WO₃ (0.5% wt. Rh) is very promising catalyst providing a turnover frequency of 749 min^?1 in releasing 3.0 equivalent H₂ per mole of AB from the hydrolysis at 25.0 °C. The high catalytic activity of Rh⁰/WO₃ catalyst is attributed to the reducible nature of support. The report covers the results of kinetics study as well as comparative investigation of activity, recyclability, and reusability of colloidal(0) nanoparticles and Rh⁰/WO₃ (0.5 % wt. Rh) catalyst in the hydrolysis reaction.     

Single chamber Solid Oxide Fuel Cells selective electrodes: A real chance with brownmillerite-based nanocomposites

In this contribution brownmillerite-based nanocomposite cathode for Single-Chamber Solid Oxide Fuel Cells is developed. These cells can be very attractive especially for small and cheap devices because of the absence of seals. The efficiency of SC-SOFCs is strictly connected to the selectivity of anode and cathode, the bottleneck for this technology. The development of a cathode inert in fuel oxidation is particularly challenging. Our strategy is to start from a catalytically un-active support (CFA = Ca₂FeAl_0.95Mg_0.05O₅) and induce the formation of iron oxide based nanoparticles, expected to activate oxygen. Symmetric (CFA + FeO_x/CGO/CFA + FeO_x) and complete cells (CFA + FeO_x/CGO/Ni-CGO) are studied in air and methane/oxygen 2:1 mixture. The Area Specific Resistance of CFA + FeO_x is less than 1/3 that of CFA. The high selectivity allows to reach an efficiency of 25%; power still needs to be increased but we demonstrated the possibility to develop selective low cost electrodes. The effect of air, methane/oxygen exposure and the heat treatments were carefully investigated.     

Colloidal Synthesis of Hollow Cobalt Sulfide Nanocrystals

Formation of cobalt sulfide hollow nanocrystals through a mechanism similar to the Kirkendall Effect has been investigated in detail. It is found that performing the reaction at > 120 °C leads to fast formation of a single void inside each shell, whereas at room temperature multiple voids are formed within each shell, which can be attributed to strongly temperature‐dependent diffusivities for vacancies. The void formation process is dominated by outward diffusion of cobalt cations; still, the occurrence of significant inward transport of sulfur anions can be inferred as the final voids are smaller in diameter than the original cobalt nanocrystals. Comparison of volume distributions for initial and final nanostructures indicates excess apparent volume in shells, implying significant porosity and/or a defective structure. Indirect evidence for fracture of shells during growth at lower temperatures was observed in shell‐size statistics and transmission electron microscopy images of as‐grown shells. An idealized model of the diffusional process imposes two minimal requirements on material parameters for shell growth to be obtainable within a specific synthetic system.     

BaTiO3基Au纳米颗粒复合薄膜的制备及其光学性质研究

采用溶胶-凝胶（sol-gel）方法，成功的将高体积面分比的Au纳米颗粒复合到BaTiO3的非晶薄膜中，并对其光学性质进行了研究。用XRD、TEM、椭偏仪、吸收光谱、光克尔效应OKE（Optical Kerr Effcet）方法对薄膜进行了表征和测试。从吸收光谱观察到表面等离子体共振SPR（Surface Plasma Resonance)峰随热处理温度升高而红移的现象。光学非线性测试表明薄膜具有高的三阶非线性极化率Χ^(3)和超快的响应时间。     

T-ZnO晶须增强环氧树脂复合材料的力学行为

研究了以四脚状氧化锌（T-ZnO）晶须为增强剂，环氧树脂复合材料的力学行为。结果表明，由具有三维空间结构的T-ZnO晶须为增强剂所制备的环氧树脂复合材料具有各向同性的力学性能，T-ZnO晶须填加质量分数为6%时，就可使材料的力学性能改善；拉伸强度提高到169%，拉伸功几乎提高了100%，冲击强度提高到300%，抗弯的断裂功提高到158%，而压缩强度略有下降。     

柳钢新建氧化球团工程的设计特点

介绍了柳钢新建120万t／a链篦机-回转窑氧化球团工程的主要设计特点。该工程是我国第一条自行设计、设备国产化和采用清洁气体能源的链篦机-回转窑生产线。它的顺利投产，标志着我国炼铁炉料生产技术有了一个新的进步。     

Effects of surface roughness of substrates on the c-axis preferred orientation of ZnO films deposited by r.f. magnetron sputtering

The c-axis preferred orientation of ZnO film is the most important factor for its successful application in piezoelectric devices. The effects of surface roughness of the substrate on the c-axis preferred orientation of ZnO thin films, deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering, were investigated. During sputtering, the oxygen content in the argon environment used was varied from 0 to 70% at a total sputtering pressure of 10 mTorr. Very smooth Si, smooth evaporated Au/Si, smooth evaporated-Al/Si, and rough sputtered-Al/Si were used as substrates. Their r.m.s. roughnesses, as measured by atomic force microscopy, were 1.27, 17.1, 21.1 and 65-118 Å, respectively. The crystalline structure and the angular spread of the (0 0* 2) plane normal to the ZnO films were determined using X-ray diffraction and X-ray rocking curves, respectively. The crystallinity and the preferred c-axis orientation of the ZnO films were strongly dependent on the surface roughness of the substrates rather than on the oxygen content of the working environment or on the chemical nature of the substrate.     

Effect of oxygenation on electrocatalysis of La0.6Ca0.4CoO3−x in bifunctional air electrode

A vacuum-annealed La_0.6Ca_0.4CoO_3−x was consecutively oxygenated in air at temperatures decreasing from 800 to 100 °C, and its electrocatalytic activities for oxygen reduction and evolution were then measured as a function of the oxygenation temperature. The valence of Co cation, changing between +2 and +3, was found susceptible to annealing either in vacuum or air. The catalytic activities initially decrease monotonically as the oxygenation temperature was decreased from 800 to 300 °C, as a result of increasing oxygen content, and then rise abruptly with the oxygen reduction activity reaching a maximum at 200 °C and the oxidation activity at 150 °C. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis indicated that the enhancements by the low-temperature oxygenation involved increased OH coverage and less charged cations at surface. The results clearly reveal the importance of the post-calcination annealing process for optimizing the performance of La_0.6Ca_0.4CoO_3−x in air electrode applications.