Carbon-based TiO2-x heterostructure nanocomposites for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of dye molecules

Application of brown titanium dioxide (TiO_2-x) and its modified composite forms in the photocatalytic decomposition of organic pollutants in the environment is a promising way to provide solutions for environmental redemption. Herein, we report the synthesis of effective and stable TiO_2-x nanoparticles with g-C₃N₄, RGO, and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) using a simple hydrothermal method. Among all the as-synthesized samples, excellent photocatalytic degradation activity was observed for RGO-TiO_2-x nanocomposite with high rate constants of 0.075 min^?1_, 0.083 min^?1 and 0.093 min^?1 for methylene blue, rhodamine-B, and rosebengal dyes under UV–Visible light irradiation, respectively. The altered bandgap (1.8 eV) and the large surface area of RGO-TiO_2-x nanocomposite impacts on both absorption of visible light and efficiency of photogenerated charge electron (e^?)/hole (h⁺) pair separation. This resulted in enhanced photocatalytic property of carbon-based TiO_2-x nanocomposites. A systematic study on the influence of different carbon nanostructures on the photocatalytic activity of brown TiO_2-x is carried out.     

Investigation on sulphonated zinc oxide nanorod incorporated sulphonated poly (1,4-phenylene ether ether sulfone) nanocomposite membranes for improved performance of microbial fuel cell

Hydrothermally prepared zinc oxide nanorods are sulphonated (S–ZnO NR) and incorporated into 15% Sulphonated Poly (1,4-Phenylene Ether Ether Sulfone) (SPEES) to improve the hydrophilicity, water uptake and ion transfer capacity. Water uptake and ion transfer capacity increased to 34.6 ± 0.6% and 2.0 ± 0.05 meq g^?1 from 29.8 ± 0.3% and 1.4 ± 0.04 meq g^?1 by adding 7.5 wt% S–ZnO NR to SPEES. Morphological studies show the prepared S–ZnO NR is well dispersed in the polymer matrix. SPEES +7.5 wt% S–ZnO NR membrane exhibits optimum performance after three-weeks of continual operation in a fabricated microbial fuel cell (MFC) to produce a maximum power density of 142 ± 1.2 mW m^?2 with a reduced biofilm compared to plain SPEES (59 ± 0.8 mW m^?2), unsulphonated filler incorporated SPEES (SPEES + 7.5 wt% ZnO, 68 ± 1.1 mW m^?2) and Nafion (130 ± 1.5 mW m^?2) thereby suggesting its suitability as a sustainable and improved cation exchange membrane (CEM) for MFCs.     

Comments on `New monolithic switched-capacitor differentiators withgood noise rejection'

For the original article see ibid., vol.24, no.1, p.177-80 (1989). The commenter notes that the basic inverting SC differentiator described by C.-Y. Wu et al. was proposed by B.J. Hosticka and G. Moschytz (1979), and the behavior of the earlier circuit is discussed. The commenter also points out that the operational amplifiers in the SC filter of Wu et al. must slew in each φ₁ phase from the signal value to ground, thus limiting the maximum usable clock frequency     

Noise analysis of double gate composite InAs based HEMTs for high frequency applications

Microsystem Technologies - The quantitative analysis of microwave noise available in the double gate (DG) high electron transistors of mobility (HEMT) is reported in this paper. For this analysis,...     

Effect of test method and crack size on the fracture toughness of a chain-silicate glass-ceramic

The fracture toughness of a canasite glass-ceramic with a highly acicular, interlocked grain structure was measured by a number of different methods. The values at room temperature obtained by the chevron-notch, short-bar and notched-beam methods ranged from 4 to 5 M Pa m^–1/2, well above literature values for other glass-ceramics. Similar values of toughness were obtained by the fracture of bars with indentation cracks introduced with loads ranging from 1.96 to 400 N, but only for crack sizes >200 m, with lower values for cracks of smaller size. The toughness values obtained by the direct measurement of the size of the indentation cracks were appreciably lower than the values obtained by all other methods over the total range of indentation loads and corresponding crack size. SEM fractography showed that the surface within the indentation cracks was appreciably smoother than the surrounding fracture surface. The high values of fracture toughness were attributed to the combined mechanisms of crack-deflection and microcrack-toughening due to the stress-enhanced creation of microcracks caused by the residual stresses which arise from the thermal expansion anisotropy of the canasite monoclonic crystal structure. The strong negative temperature dependence of the fracture toughness suggests that at room temperature microcrack toughening represents the primary contributing mechanism to the fracture toughness. The combined effects of crack-deflection and microcrack-toughening can lead to the development of glass-ceramics with greatly improved resistance to crack propagation.     

Development and characterization of silicone/phosphorus modified epoxy materials and their application as anticorrosion and antifouling coatings

Epoxy resin is chosen for our present study owing to its exceptional combination of properties such as easy processing, high safety, excellent solvent and chemical resistance, toughness, low shrinkage on cure, good electrical, mechanical and corrosion resistance with excellent adhesion to many substrates. This versatility in formulation made epoxy resins widely applied for surface coatings, adhesives, laminates, composites, potting, painting materials, encapsulant for semiconductor and insulating material for electric devices. There are numerous paint/coating systems based on epoxy resin available for corrosion and fouling prevention. They however are not completely satisfactory in field applications, where high corrosion, fouling and flame resistance are required. The demand for epoxy resin as corrosion/fouling resistant coatings is restricted mainly due to its inferior characteristics like poor impact strength, high rigidity, and moisture absorbing nature besides inadequate flame retardant properties. It is for this reason that silicones and phosphorus-based compounds are used as modifier in this work by intercrosslinking network mechanism (ICN) to obtain epoxy resin with desired properties ideally suitable for field applications for preventing corrosion and fouling with flame retardantancy. The present work involves the development of solvent free silicone/phosphorus modified epoxy coating systems, since solvent free coating systems are widely used for numerous applications due to their lower cost per unit film thickness, freedom from fire and pollution hazard and ability to provide better performance. For the development of coating systems, epoxy resin (X) serves as base material, hydroxyl terminated polydimethylsiloxane (HTPDMS) as modifier, γ-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (γ-APS) as crosslinking agent and dibutyltindilaurate (DBTDL) as catalyst. Polyamidoamine (A), aromatic amine adducts (B) and phosphorus-containing diamine (C) were used as curing agents. The study also describes the evaluation of corrosion resistant behaviour of unmodified epoxy and siliconized epoxy coatings by potentiodynamic polarization method, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), salt-spray and antifouling tests. The results are discussed.     

Structure and properties of compatibilized blends of polyamide-6 and ABS

Mechanical and Morphological properties of polyamide-6/ABS blend systems, compatibilized by styrene-maleic anhydride (SMA) copolymer, have been studied. The strength, modulus, and impact properties improved upon the addition of SMA. Morphological studies, using small angle light scattering, polarizing microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy, showed that SMA acts as a compatibilizer for the above system. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Faceless identification based on temporal strips

This paper first presents a novel approach for modelling facial features, Local Directional Texture (LDT), which exploits the unique directional information in image textures for the problem of face recognition. A variant of LDT with privacy-preserving temporal strips (TS) is then considered to achieve faceless recognition with a higher degree of privacy while maintaining high accuracy. The TS uses two strips of pixel blocks from the temporal planes, XT and YT, for face recognition. By removing the reliance on spatial context (i.e., XY plane) for this task, the proposed method withholds facial appearance information from public view, where only one-dimensional temporal information that varies across time are extracted for recognition. Thus, privacy is assured, yet without impeding the facial recognition task which is vital for many security applications such as street surveillance and perimeter access control. To validate the reliability of the proposed method, experiments were carried out using the Honda/UCSD, CK+, CAS(ME)² and CASME II databases. The proposed method achieved a recognition rate of 98.26% in the standard video-based face recognition database, Honda/UCSD. It also offers a 81.92% reduction in the dimension length required for storing the extracted features, in contrast to the conventional LBP-TOP.

     

Microstructure evolution during batch annealing

Design of industrial annealing cycles requires recrystallization and grain growth studies, which are typically carried out under isothermal laboratory condition. The kinetics coefficients of these phase transformations are obtained from such studies, which are subsequently used in designing the industrial nonisothermal cycles using the additivity principles. However, the strong heating rate effects on the grain growth kinetics necessitate such kinetics studies using industrial thermal profiles. In the present work, the hot and cold spot cycles of an industrial batch annealing cycle for AIK grade steel have been simulated in a programmable laboratory furnace. Subsequently, the effect of annealing temperature, soaking time, and heating rate on the microstructural features, such as grain size distribution, grain shape anisotropy, and grain orientation, have been investigated through extensive quantitative microscopy. The implications of these results on the design of industrial batch annealing cycles have been discussed.