Solubility Enhancement of Fe in ZnO Nanoparticles Prepared by Co-Precipitation Method

Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism - Crystalline ZnO offers an excellent host matrix to create a dilute magnetic semiconductor (DMS) owing to its facile Zn-atom substitution with the...     

Stripping and recycling of metal ions in aqueous nitric acid solutions: Experimental and molecular dynamics insights

Stripping of metal ions (i.e., Cs⁺ and Na⁺) in presence of ionophore such as dibenzo-18-crown-6, (DB18C6) from the ionic liquid phase to the aqueous nitric acid phase by molecular dynamics simulation is reported. The experimentally determined stripping percentages of Na⁺ (i.e., 43.4, 38.5, 34.4, and 31.9%) were found to be higher than the same for Cs⁺ (i.e., 32.6, 32.0, 31.3, and 30.2%). The nonbonded and the hydrogen bond energies between Na⁺ and water (i.e., −356.41 and −363.77 kcal/mol) were higher when compared with Cs⁺ (i.e., −212.43 and −221.04 kcal/mol). The spatial distribution functions further confirmed that the surfaces of Na⁺ were very closely distributed around the active sides of water whereas for Cs⁺, it was distributed very far from the water molecules. In the penultimate section, the effect of methanol to the aqueous phase was studied so as to enhance the extraction efficiency of the complex.     

Microstructure of oxides in thermal barrier coatings grown under dry/humid atmosphere

The microstructure of thermally grown oxide (TGO) in thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) oxidized under dry/humid atmosphere at 1100 °C has been characterized by transmission electron microscopy. A thin and continuous oxide layer is formed in the as-deposited TBCs produced by electron beam physical vapor deposition. The TGO formed in dry atmosphere consists of an outer layer of fine α-alumina, zirconia grains and an inner layer of columnar α-alumina grains. However, a small amount of spinel is observed in the TGO under humid atmosphere. The presence of water vapour promotes the formation of spinel.     

Effect of water vapor on the phase transformation of alumina grown on NiAl at 950 °C

This particular study includes the analysis of the effect of H₂O on promoting the phase transformation in thermally grown aluminum oxides formed on NiAl at 950 °C. Oxidation of NiAl is carried out at 950 °C in O₂ and O₂ + 15 vol.% H₂O. It is observed that transient alumina initially formed on NiAl transforms to stable α-alumina in the presence of water vapor which promotes the subject transformation and eventually results in a compact scale, offering superior oxidation resistance. Present study includes the analysis of θ to α-alumina transformation under the effect of temperature and environment.     

Failure Analysis of a Threaded Pipe Ruptured During Hydraulic Testing

In the present case study, failure analysis of a piping system that ruptured during hydraulic testing has been carried out to find the root cause and determine the mode and mechanism of failure. Chemical composition of the pipe was found to be in compliance with the standard composition of AISI4130. The failure cause of the pipe has been investigated through visual examination, microstructural observation, hardenability analysis, and fractography. Threaded grooves were produced through machining after heat treatment. Variation in hardness and strength through thickness (from case to core) was evaluated using standard hardenability graph. Hardenability analysis showed that the strength of the pipe after machining was still well above the calculated maximum stress at any point of piping system. This finding was further supported by the microstructural study. The actual cause of pipe failure during hydraulic test was found to be due to the stress concentration factor being developed by some notch from improper thread machining which lead brittle failure and was also revealed by fractography analysis.     

Comparative study on effect of oxide thickness on stress distribution of traditional and nanostructured zirconia coating systems

Numerical based assessment of traditional and nanostructured yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) thermal barrier coating systems (TBCs) has been carried out with varying thickness of thermally grown oxide (TGO). Radial, axial and shear stresses are determined for both coatings and are presented in comparison with few novel and interesting results. Elastic strain energy for TGO failure assessment is determined from calculated stress within TGO for varying thickness. Radial stresses at TGO/bond coat interface and maximum axial stresses in nanostructured zirconia coatings are found to be lower than in traditional YSZ up to a critical TGO thickness of 6 –7 μm, after which stresses in nanostructured zirconia coatings increase considerably. However, radial compressive stresses in nanostructured TBCs are lower in all TGO thickness cases and shear stresses are slightly higher with relatively more prominent difference at high oxide thickness.     

Synthesis,Surface Properties,and Corrosion Inhibition of 1‐Butyl‐3‐dodecanoylthiourea

Nonionic surfactants have a number of applications because they are effective in hard water, maintain their integrity in acidic, neutral, and basic media, show favorable skin compatibility, and can be formulated with ionic surfactants. Thus, spurred on by their favorable characteristics, a novel candidate of this class, 1‐butyl‐3‐dodecanoylthiourea, was synthesized in high yield. The structure was characterized by ¹H‐NMR, ¹³C‐NMR, FTIR and UV–vis spectroscopy. This surfactant demonstrated very low solubility in water and sub‐millimolar critical micelle concentrations (CMC) in ethanol and hexane, signifying that they are reasonably amphiphobic. This thio‐urea based surfactant shows corrosion inhibition of metals like chromium and aluminum.     

Ligands for selective metal ion extraction: A molecular modeling approach

We present a density functional theory (DFT) based study on interaction of alkali metal cations (Li⁺ and Na⁺) with macrocyclic crown ethers of different ring sizes. The minimum energy structures, binding energies, and binding enthalpies of crown ether–cation complexes have been determined with a correlated hybrid density functional, namely Becke’s three-parameter functional, B3LYP using a split valence basis function, 6-311++G(d, p). Geometry optimizations for all the crown ether–cation complexes were carried out with several initial guess structures based on semi-empirical PM3 optimized results. For both metal ions, the calculated values of binding energy and binding enthalpy increase with the increase in size of the crown ether ring, i.e. with the increase in the number of donor oxygen atoms in crown ether. The calculated values of gas phase binding energy for lithium ions are always higher than those for sodium ions in the case of all macrocyclic crown ethers studied at present. The calculated values of binding enthalpy are in good agreement with the reported experimental data.