Hydrogen and carbon allotrope production through methane cracking over Ni/bimodal porous silica catalyst: Effect of nickel precursor

Nickel-based catalyst is highly active for hydrogen production through methane cracking reaction at moderate reaction temperature. However, Ni catalyst is easily deactivated by carbon encapsulation. In order to solve this problem, this research studies the effect of nickel precursors—nickel acetate (NA), nickel carbonate (NC) and nickel nitrate (NN)—on the activity and stability of nickel/bimodal porous silica (Ni/BPS) catalyst in methane cracking reaction. It was found that these nickel precursor solutions had different pH values, resulting in different interactions between surface silanol groups of BPS supports and Ni. Among these catalysts, Ni(NC)/BPS catalyst exhibited high nickel dispersion and weak interaction between Ni and BPS support; it then gave the highest CH₄ conversion and better stability compared to the other catalysts. In addition, H₂ yield of Ni(NC)/BPS catalyst was 2.90 and 1.40 times higher than those of Ni(NA)/BPS and Ni(NN)/BPS catalysts, respectively. Moreover, carbon nanofibers were grown in Ni(NC)/BPS and Ni(NN)/BPS catalysts, whereas carbon nanotubes were formed on Ni(NA)/BPS catalyst, due to the different nickel particle sizes, dispersions, and Ni—BPS support interactions.     

Photocatalytic degradation of benzene,toluene, ethylbenzene,and xylene (BTEX) using transition metal-doped titanium dioxide immobilized on fiberglass cloth

Transition metal (Fe, V and W)-doped TiO₂ was synthesized via the solvothermal technique and immobilized onto fiberglass cloth (FGC) for uses in photocatalytic decomposition of gaseous volatile organic compounds—benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX)—under visible light. Results were compared to that of the standard commercial pure TiO₂ (P25) coated FGC. All doped samples exhibit higher visible light catalytic activity than the pure TiO₂. The V-doped sample shows the highest photocatalytic activity followed by the W- and Fe-doped samples. The UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra reveal that the V-doped sample has the highest visible light absorption followed by the W- and Fe-doped samples. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns indicate that all doped samples contain both anatase and rutile phases with the majority (>80%) being anatase. No new peaks associated with dopant oxides can be observed, suggesting that the transition metal (TM) dopants are well mixed into the TiO₂ lattice, or are below the detection limit of the XRD. The X-ray absorption near-edge structure spectra of the Ti K-edge transition indicate that most Ti ions are in a tetravalent state with octahedral coordination, but with increased lattice distortion from Fe- to V- and W-doped samples. Our results show that the TM-doped TiO₂ were successfully synthesized and immobilized onto flexible fiberglass cloth suitable for treatment of gaseous organic pollutants under visible light.     

Effects of Sn4+ doping and oxygen vacancy on magnetic and electrical properties of yttrium iron garnet prepared by sol-gel method

Sn-substituted yttrium iron garnet samples, Y₃Fe_5-xSn_xO₁₂ (x = 0–0.1, step 0.02) were prepared using a citrate sol–gel method and followed by a sintering process. Synchrotron X-ray diffraction (SXRD), X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) measurements were used to investigate the structure parameters, valence state of Fe, oxygen vacancies and lattice distortion in the samples. The magnetic properties of the samples were measured with the SQUID and VSM equipments. The Sn substitution and oxygen vacancies cause the transformation of Fe³⁺ to Fe²⁺ which leads to the decrease of Curie temperature and slight increase of saturation magnetization. Temperature dependence of the resistivity in the range of 300–573 K was investigated to elucidate the conduction mechanism in the samples. The resistivity of the sol-gel derived samples was found to be nine orders of magnitudes lower than the value for the bulk sample prepared by flux-grown method. The effects of Fe²⁺ centers, lattice dislocation, porosity and grain boundary on the resistivity are discussed. This study indicates that Sn-substituted yttrium iron garnets are good candidates for sensor elements which operate based on electrical signals.     

The dimensional effects of windowing on crosstalk for high speed hard disk drive interconnects

As the areal density rapidly changes, the signal reflection increases. In order to avoid the reflection between a magnetic recording head and a read/write driver on hard disk drive interconnects (HDDIs), the windowing technique is used to keep low insertion loss and it causes the higher crosstalk between lines. In this work, the crosstalk on idealized HDDI with windowing is investigated. The crosstalk represented by the scattering parameters calculated by using the full wave simulation software based on finite integral technique. From the results, the improvement of insertion loss and transmission bandwidth (?3 dB bandwidth) can be found when the window percentage is increased. For the 90% windowed structure, these are improved as 4.27 dB at 1 GHz and 4.53 GHz comparing with the conventional structure, respectively. Besides, the crosstalk increases with the increasing of window percentage. However, it can be suppressed up to 5.68 dB in a range of 0.24–1 GHz when the window percentage is 90%. Furthermore, the 90% of windowed structure with 8 mm window pitch possess the lowest crosstalk about 30.22 dB in a range of 0.32–6.4 GHz. In addition, the placing position of windows in a reference plane with a half of the rest length at both ends should be avoided because it increases both crosstalk and insertion loss. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 24:217–222, 2014.     

Influence of Boron Substitution on the Crystal and Electronic Properties of LiCrO2 Battery Cathode

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A - Boron-substituted LiCrO2 battery cathode material samples were investigated by X-ray-based techniques to probe the influence of boron on their crystal...     

Synchrotron crystal and local structures,microstructure, and electrical characterization of Cu-doped LiFePO4/C via dissolution method with ironstone as Fe source

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - Powders of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) with Cu doping and carbon coating were prepared by a dissolution method using Fe sourced from...     

Application of X-ray absorption spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulation to study the atomistic solvation structure of tetraglyme:KSCN electrolytes

The atomistic solvation structure of tetraglyme:KSCN (TET:KSCN) electrolytes with various K⁺:ether oxygen (M:O) ratio were studied by a combination of molecular dynamic (MD) simulation and Extended X-Ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) called “MD-EXAFS” method. This method gives useful information at the atomistic scale including the average distance between atom pair around the probed ion (R₀) and Coordination Number (N). MD simulation results suggest that K⁺ ions are mostly coordinated to ether oxygen and the conformation around C–C bond prefer the gauche state and TET becomes more compact shape. K⁺ ions are also coordinated to thiocyanate (SCN⁻) anion at both nitrogen and sulfur atoms due to strong electron delocalization over three atoms in SCN⁻ (S, C and N). A comparison between MD-EXAFS with the experimental spectra gives an overall good agreement for both frequency and amplitude of the oscillations.     

Sulfur speciation in soil by S K-Edge XANES spectroscopy: comparison of spectral deconvolution and linear combination fitting

Defined, quartz-diluted mixtures of sulfur (S) compounds with different oxidation state (OS) were analyzed by K-edge XANES spectroscopy using linear combination fitting (LCF) and spectrum deconvolution by fitting several Gaussian and arctangent functions (GCF). Additionally, for different soils the S speciation as calculated by both methods was compared with results of a wet-chemical S speciation. For mixtures of FeS, L-cysteine, and Na2SO4, the S speciation was recovered with satisfactory accuracy and precision by both methods at the 2 and 0.2 mg S g(-1) level. For GCF, white-line peaks must be normalized with respect to their OS-specific absorption cross-section. LCF must be conducted with dilute reference compounds to avoid self-absorption effects. For mixtures of FeS, FeS2, S°, and L-cysteine, both procedures showed poor accuracy. For the soils, similar percentages of reduced inorganic S, organic S, and sulfate were calculated by LCF, GCF, and wet chemical S speciation. GCF allows a fair estimation of S species groups with different OS (inorganic reduced S, organic reduced S, organic intermediate S, oxidized S) in soils without standards. If dilute standards of all S compounds assumed to be present in a sample are available, LCF is more objective and allows a more detailed S speciation.     

Characteristics and photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange on Ti-RH-MCM-41 and TiO<Subscript>2</Subscript>/RH-MCM-41

Our purpose was to synthesize, characterize and test photodegradation of methyl orange on two catalysts containing 10 wt% titanium supported on mesoporous MCM-41 synthesized with rice husk silica. The first catalyst was Ti-RH-MCM-41 prepared by adding tetrabutyl orthotitanate (TBOT) in a synthetic gel of RH-MCM-41, and the second catalyst was TiO₂/RH-MCM-41 prepared by grafting TBOT on the preformed RH-MCM-41. The mesoporous structures were observed on both catalysts and they had surface area of 1,073 and 1,006 m²/g. The Ti in Ti-RH-MCM-41 was in the form of Ti(IV) with tetrahedral geometry residing in the mesoporous structure. This form was less active for photodegradation of methyl orange than the other one. The Ti in TiO₂/RH-MCM-41 was anatase titania with octahedral geometry located outside the mesoporous framework. This form was more an active phase for the photodegradation and the reaction parameters on this catalyst were further investigated. The optimum catalyst weight to methyl orange volume ratio was 5 g/L and the optimum initial concentration of the dye was 2.0 ppm. The degradation rate obeyed pseudo-first order and the adsorption of methyl orange on TiO₂/RH-MCM-41 obeyed Langmuir isotherm.     

Effects of tetramethylene sulfone solvent additives on conductivity of PEDOT:PSS film and performance of polymer photovoltaic cells

A solvent additive in PEDOT:PSS solution is one of many methods to improve the conductivity of the poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) films. We explore a new type of the solvent additive, namely tetramethylene sulfone (TMS), for the fabrication of the PEDOT:PSS conductive layer in the ITO/PEDOT:PSS/P3HT:PCBM/TiO_x/Al polymer photovoltaic cells, in comparison to a more common dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) solvent additive. At optimal conditions, the TMS additive at 10 wt.% has been found to enhance the conductivity of pristine PEDOT:PSS films from 0.04 S/cm up to approximately 189 S/cm, compared with the highest conductivity for the case of the DMSO additive at 15 wt.% of 117 S/cm. Possible mechanisms of this conductivity enhancement, relating to the polymer conformation and the film morphology, have been investigated by Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The performance of the polymer photovoltaic cells fabricated with the solvent additives PEDOT:PSS films follows a similar trend to the conductivity of the films as a function of the additive concentration. The additives mainly lead to greater short circuit current density (J_sc) of the photovoltaic cells. The highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 2.24% of the device has been obtained with the 10 wt.% TMS additive of, compared to the PCE of 1.48% for the standard device without solvent additive.