A New Method of Making Titania Gels and Their Microstructure

The reaction of H₂O₂ with alkoxides results in aerohydro gels of titania. These gels appear to form by a complex polymerization process involving peroxy species. The gels are porous and appear to have a fibrillar microstructure.     

Technology Trends in the Extractive Metallurgy of Zirconium,Titanium, Tantalum and Niobium

The reactive and refractory metals zirconium, titanium, tantalum and niobium have been in commercial production and industrial application over the last 30 years and more. With growing experience, there has been progressive improvement in process and equipment designs in the industrial practice. There has also been a continuous drive to develop entirely new processes, and to diversify the applications of these metals. The paper reviews the present status and the emerging trends, and places the Indian work in the global perspective.     

A novel multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT)-based nanocomposite for PEFC electrodes

A novel nanocomposite comprising MWNTs and mixed-conducting polymeric components (electronic and ionic) is prepared, characterized and investigated as a support for platinum (Pt). Nanocomposite of MWNTs and poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT?CPSS) is prepared by in situ polymerization and characterized using Fourier?CTransform infrared spectroscopy (FT?CIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) in conjunction with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies are also carried out to characterize the surface topography of MWNTs/PEDOT?CPSS nanocomposite. X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies reveal that MWNTs/PEDOT?CPSS nanocomposite provides better backbone for the improved dispersion of Pt as evidenced by the reduced Pt crystallite size over MWNTs/PEDOT?CPSS nanocomposite compared to MWNTs. Electrochemical characterization studies performed with Pt/nanocomposite and Pt/MWNTs demonstrate the superior catalytic activity of Pt/nanocomposite under reduced Nafion loadings in relation to Pt/MWNTs. It is observed that mixed conducting nanoporous network of MWNTs/PEDOT?CPSS composite structure promotes the catalytic activity of Pt by enhancing catalyst utilization.     

W/W型PAM-MMT乳液的制备及性能研究

为了提高以明胶为稳定剂分散聚合制备的聚丙烯酰胺“水包水”（W/W型PAM）乳液的絮凝性能，首先，采用阳离子单体甲基丙烯酰氧乙基三甲基氯化铵（methacrylatoethyl trimethyl ammonium chloride, DMC）对钠基蒙脱土（sodium-montmorillonite, Na-MMT）进行插层改性制备有机蒙脱土（organic montmorillonite, OMMT），通过X射线衍射（X-ray diffraction, XRD）测试得到插层改性后蒙脱土的层间距由1.25 nm增加至1.43 nm，说明DMC单体已经成功插层进入蒙脱土片层。然后，将OMMT引入以明胶为稳定剂的W/W型PAM乳液的体系中，以制备W/W型PAM-MMT乳液。通过透射电镜（transmission electron microscope, TEM）乳液微观形貌进行观察，得到乳液结构是由以蒙脱土颗粒为“交联点”的聚丙烯酰胺高分子网络和W/W型PAM乳液的混合体。研究了OMMT用量、明胶浓度、体系pH值以及阳离子单体DMC添加比例对合成W/W型PAM-MMT乳液性能的影响规律。结果显示：在适宜条件下合成的乳液均具有较好的储存稳定性和在水中的再分散性。乳液的表观黏度和絮凝性能都与OMMT和明胶用量呈正相关性；当pH值在明胶等电点（isoelectric point，IEP）时，得到的乳液的表观黏度最低，絮凝效果最好；随着DMC单体用量比例增大，乳液表观黏度减小，高岭土悬浮液的絮凝效果先增大后减小。     

Pt–Ru decorated self-assembled TiO2–carbon hybrid nanostructure for enhanced methanol electrooxidation

Porous titanium oxide–carbon hybrid nanostructure (TiO₂–C) with a specific surface area of 350 m²/g and an average pore-radius of 21?·?8 Å is synthesized via supramolecular self-assembly with an in situ crystallization process. Subsequently, TiO₂–C supported Pt–Ru electro-catalyst (Pt–Ru/TiO₂–C) is obtained and investigated as an anode catalyst for direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) have been employed to evaluate the crystalline nature and the structural properties of TiO₂–C. TEM images reveal uniform distribution of Pt–Ru nanoparticles (d _Pt???Ru ?=?1·5–3·5 nm) on TiO₂–C. Methanol oxidation and accelerated durability studies on Pt–Ru/TiO₂–C exhibit enhanced catalytic activity and durability compared to carbon-supported Pt–Ru. DMFC employing Pt–Ru/TiO₂–C as an anode catalyst delivers a peak-power density of 91 mW/cm² at 65 °C as compared to the peak-power density of 60 mW/cm² obtained for the DMFC with carbon-supported Pt–Ru anode catalyst operating under similar conditions.     

Scheduling in a cellular manufacturing system: a simulated annealing approach

The problem of scheduling in a cellular manufacturing system is considered with the objective of minimizing the sum of completion times (or total flow time) of jobs. A correct formulation of recursive equation for the flowline-based cellular manufacturing system is first proposed. Subsequently a heuristic is developed to obtain a sequence that minimizes total flow time in a flowline cell. The proposed heuristic makes use of the simulated annealing technique and is developed in two stages. A good initial heuristic seed sequence obtained in the first stage is improved upon by a proposed new variant of the simulated annealing technique wherein three different perturbation schemes have been experimented with. One of the perturbation schemes is newly proposed in this paper and is called the Adjacent interchange scheme. The proposed simulated annealing algorithm has been compared with the existing heuristics for minimizing flow time and has shown consistently good and superior solutions.     

Automatic Tamil lyric generation based on ontological interpretation for semantics

This system proposes an N-gram based approach to automatic Tamil lyric generation, by the ontological semantic interpretation of the input scene. The approach is based on identifying the semantics conveyed in the scenario, thereby making the system understand the situation and generate lyrics accordingly. The heart of the system includes the ontological interpretation of the scenario, and the selection of the appropriate tri-grams for generating the lyrics. To fulfill this, we have designed a new ontology with weighted edges, where the edges correspond to a set of sentences, which indicate a relationship, and are represented as a tri-gram. Once the appropriate tri-grams are selected, the root words from these tri-grams are sent to the morphological generator, to form words in their packed form. These words are then assembled to form the final lyrics. Parameters of poetry like rhyme, alliteration, simile, vocative words, etc., are also taken care of by the system. Using this approach, we achieved an average accuracy of 77.3% with respect to the exact semantic details being conveyed in the generated lyrics.