Studies on influence of hydrogen and carbon monoxide concentration on reduction progression behavior of molybdenum oxide catalyst

Temperature programmed reduction (TPR) analysis was applied to investigate the chemical reduction progression behavior of molybdenum oxide (MoO₃) catalyst. The composition and morphology of the reduced phases were characterized by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The reduction progression of MoO₃ catalyst was attained with different reductant types and concentration (10% H₂/N₂, 10% and 20% CO/N₂ (%, v/v)). Two different modes of reduction process were applied. The first approach of reduction involved non-isothermal mode reduction up to 700 °C, while the second approach of reduction involved the isothermal mode reduction for 60 min at 700 °C. Hydrogen temperature programmed reduction (H₂-TPR) results showed the reduction progression of three-stage reduction of MoO₃ (Mo⁶⁺ → Mo⁵⁺ → Mo⁴⁺ → Mo⁰) with Mo⁵⁺ and Mo⁴⁺. XRD analysis confirmed the formation of Mo₄O₁₁ phase as an intermediate phase followed by MoO₂ phase. After 60 min of isothermal reduction, peaks of metallic molybdenum (Mo) appeared. Whereas, FESEM analysis showed porous crater-like structure on the surface cracks of MoO₂ layer which led to the growth of Mo phase. Meanwhile, the reduction of MoO₃ catalyst in 10% carbon monoxide (CO) showed the formation of unstable intermediate phase of Mo₉O₂₆ at the early stage of reduction. Furthermore, by increasing 20% CO led to the carburization of MoO₂ phase, resulted in the formation of Mo₂C rather than the formation of metallic Mo, as confirmed by XPS analysis. Therefore, the presented study shows that hydrogen gave better reducibility due to smaller molecular size, which contributed to high diffusion rate and achieved deeper penetration into the MoO₃ catalyst compared to carbon monoxide reductant. Hence, the reduction of MoO₃ in carbon monoxide atmosphere promoted the formation of Mo₂C which was in agreement with the thermodynamic assessment.     

Mixed-Metal MOF-74 Templated Catalysts for Efficient Carbon Dioxide Capture and Methanation

The vast chemical and structural tunability of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are beginning to be harnessed as functional supports for catalytic nanoparticles spanning a range of applications. However, a lack of straightforward methods for producing nanoparticle-encapsulated MOFs as efficient heterogeneous catalysts limits their usage. Herein, a mixed-metal MOF, NiMg-MOF-74, is utilized as a template to disperse small Ni nanoclusters throughout the parent MOF. By exploiting the difference in Ni O and Mg O coordination bond strength, Ni²⁺ is selectively reduced to form highly dispersed Ni nanoclusters constrained by the parent MOF pore diameter, while Mg²⁺ remains coordinated in the framework. By varying the ratio of Ni to Mg in the parent MOF, accessible surface area and crystallinity can be tuned upon thermal treatment, influencing CO₂ adsorption capacity and hydrogenation selectivity. The resulting Ni nanoclusters prove to be an active catalyst for CO₂ methanation and are examined using extended X-ray absorption fine structure and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. By preserving a segment of the Mg²⁺-containing MOF framework, the composite system retains a portion of its CO₂ adsorption capacity while continuing to deliver catalytic activity. The approach is thus critical for designing materials that can bridge the gap between carbon capture and CO₂ utilization.     

TEM Studies of High Temperature Corrosion Behaviour of TiAl Intermetallics with Surface Modifications

The oxidation/sulphidation behaviour of a Ti‐46.7Al‐1.9W‐0.5Si alloy with a TiAl₃ diffusion coating was studied in an environment of H₂/H₂S/H₂O at 850^oC. The kinetic results demonstrate that the TiAl₃ coating significantly increased the high temperature corrosion resistance of Ti‐46.7Al‐1.9W‐0.5Si. The SEM, EDX, XRD and TEM analysis reveals that the formation of an Al₂O₃ scale on the surface of the TiAl₃‐coated sample was responsible for the enhancement of the corroison resistance. The Ti‐46.7Al‐1.9W‐0.5Si alloy was also modified by Nb ion implantation. The Nb ion implanted and as received sampels were subjected to cyclic oxidation in an open air at 800^oC. The Nb ion implantation not only increased the oxidation resistance but also substantially improved the adhesion of scale to the substrate.     

Reconfigurable hardware implementation of a phase-correlation stereoalgorithm

This paper describes the implementation of a stereo-vision system using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Reconfigurable hardware, including FPGAs, is an attractive platform for implementing vision algorithms due to its ability to exploit parallelism often found in these algorithms, and due to the speed with which applications can be developed as compared to hardware. The system outputs 8-bit, subpixel disparity estimates for 256× 360 pixel images at 30,fps. A local-weighted phase correlation algorithm for stereo disparity [Fleet, D. J.: {Int. Conf. Syst. Man Cybernetics 1:48–54 (1994)] is implemented. Despite the complexity of performing correlations on multiscale, multiorientation phase data, the system runs as much as 300 times faster in hardware than its software implementation. This paper describes the hardware platform used, the algorithm, and the issues encountered during its hardware implementation. Of particular interest is the implementation of multiscale, steerable filters, which are widely used in computer vision algorithms. Several trade-offs (reducing the number of filter orientations from three to two, using fixed-point computation, changing the location of one localized low-pass filter, and using L1 instead of L2 norms) were required to both fit the design into the available hardware and to achieve video-rate processing. Finally, results from the system are given both for synthetic data sets as well as several standard stereo-pair test images.     

Book Reviews: Extensible Middleware

A review of Distributed Infrastructure Support for Electronic Commerce Applications by Hans-Arno Jacobsen.     

Absence of detectable human herpesvirus 8 in the semen of human immunodeficiency virus-infected men without Kaposi's sarcoma

The prevalence of human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8)/Kaposi's sarcoma (KS)-associated herpesvirus was investigated in the semen of 99 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected men (median CD4 cell count, 357/mm3) by use of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay capable of detecting <10 copies of HHV-8 DNA. Of the subjects, 95 (96%) self-identified as men who have sex with men (MSM), and 3 had a history of clinical KS. Seminal cell specimens were negative for HHV-8 in 98 subjects. None of the 26 without KS (27.1% of 96 tested) who were seropositive for HHV-8 by IFA for latency-associated nuclear antigens had HHV-8 detected in their semen. The only subject with any evidence for seminal HHV-8 DNA was seropositive for HHV-8 and had active KS. HHV-8 was detected in 10 (10.4%) of 96 peripheral blood mononuclear cell specimens. The prevalence of HHV-8 DNA by PCR in semen of HIV-infected MSM without KS is low.     

The Transmogrifier-2: a 1 million gate rapid-prototyping system

This paper describes the Transmogrifier-2 (TM-2), a second-generation multifield programmable gate array (FPGA) rapid-prototyping system. The largest version of the system will comprise 16 boards that each contain two Altera 10K50 FPGA's, four I-Cube interconnect chips, and up to 8 Mbytes of memory. The inter-FPGA routing architecture of the TM-2 uses a novel interconnect structure, a nonuniform partial crossbar, that provides a constant delay between any two FPGA's in the system. The TM-2 architecture is modular and scalable, meaning that systems of various sizes can be constructed from copies of the same board, while maintaining routability and the constant delay feature. Other features include a system-level programmable clock that allows single-cycle access to off-chip memory, and programmable clock waveforms with edge resolution of 10 ns. The first Transmogrifier-2 boards have been manufactured and are functional. They have recently been used successfully in some simple graphics acceleration applications     

Second-Order optical non-linearities of {4-(dimethylamino) stilben z & e 4'-yl} dimesityl borane

Samples of {4-(dimethylamino) stilben Z & E 4'-yl} dimesityl borane (BNS) were synthesised and investigated for their non-linear optical properties. The results show that the quadratic hyperpolarisability of the Z-isomer is smaller than that of the E-isomer, the beta value found for the latter being as high as 60 × 10^?30 esu.     

Mechanical and microstructure studies on the modification of CA film by blending with PS

DriedMusa paradiciaca (banana) stem and veins of the leaves, which were hitherto discarded as a waste, were collected and used as starting material for the preparation of cellulose and cellulose acetate. This cellulose acetate was mixed with polystyrene to form blend of cellulose acetate-polystyrene in order to provide enhanced stability and extended utility to the end products. The films of these composites or their individual partners were made separately and studied for their mechanical properties, chemical modification and morphological changes. We report here that banana stem is good source of cellulose and that cellulose completely undergoes modification upon esterification.