Gas permeation of porous organic/inorganic hybrid membranes

Selective gas permeation of porous organic/inorganic hybrid membranes via sol-gel route and its thermal stability are described. Separation performance of the hybrid membrane was improved compared with porous membranes governed by the Knudsen flow, and gas permeability was still much higher than that through nonporous membranes. Additionally, it was shown that these membranes were applicable at higher temperatures than organic membranes.SEM observation demonstrated that the thin membrane was crack-free. Nitrogen physisorption isotherms showed the pore size was in the range of nanometers. Gas permeability through this membrane including phenyl group was in the range of 10^–8 [cc(STP) cm/(cm² s cmHg)] at 25°C. The ratios of O₂/N₂ and CO₂/N₂ were 1.5 and 6.0, respectively, showing the permeation was not governed by the Knudsen flow. The permeability decreased as the temperature increased. Furthermore, the specific affinity between gas molecules and surface was observed not only in the permeation data of the hybrid membranes but in the physisorption data. These results suggested that the gas permeation through the hybrid membrane was governed by the surface flow mechanism.Thermal analysis indicated that these functional groups were still stable at higher temperatures. The phenyl group especially remained undamaged even at 400°C.     

CdS和CdSe新型纳米结构的高效溶剂热合成

采用快速高效的溶剂热法合成了海星形CdS纳米结构和一维CdSe纳米结构。用XRD、SEM和UV-Vis等表征手段对产物进行了表征，结果表明产物为单一的CdS和CdSe纳米结构，且CdS纳米结构具有良好的分散性，其形成极大地受到pH值影响，而CdSe先形成层状的二维结构、再形成一维纳米结构。     

孔性氧化铝模板与一维纳米新材料的制备

纳米材料尤其是以碳纳米管有序阵列为代表的一维纳米阵列材料的重要价值,促进了人们对模板合成方法的研究。本文简要回顾和总结了近年来有关孔性氧化铝模板的制备及其应用的研究进展,结合我们实验室的部分相关研究工作,揭示了孔性氧化铝模板在合成与组装一维纳米新材料方面的重要作用,以进一步活跃和促进该重要领域的研究和发展。     

Early Stages of Crystallization in Gel Derived ZrO2 Precursors

Three different precursor materials giving rise to contrasted nanostructures, xerogels, aerogels and precipitates, are prepared by a sol gel route in the Zrn -propoxide—acetylacetone—water—n-propanol system. Clear homogeneous gels are made by using a proper amount of acetylacetone and water. The gels are dried either by conventional processing (xerogels) or by supercritical evacuation of alcoholic solvent (aerogels). The complexation ratio (R = [acetylacetone]/[Zr(OR)₄]) is the main parameter controlling the size of ZrO₂ primary particles. WhenR = 0 , precipitates are obtained.Xerogels, aerogels and precipitates are characterized and their textures are compared through small angle X-ray scattering measurements. The fractal structure of gels is destroyed by conventional drying and is preserved in aerogels. On the other hand precipitates are described as homogeneous agglomerates of very small primary units.The first crystallization steps are studied by transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction experiments. The contribution of crystallite size and microstrain effects are investigated by Rietveld whole pattern fitting. The crystallization of precipitate powders starts at the agglomerate scale with large crystal like distorted lattices.     

阳极氧化与超临界干燥结合制备多孔硅

多孔硅（PS）在室温下发射强可见光，这一发现在国际上引起极大关注，成为材料科学、半导体物理和化学以及信息科学领域研究的热点［1，2］．最近三、四年，国内外对PS制备工艺、影响PS发光的因素、PS发光机制、PS应用前景等方面进行了广泛的研究［2］，但有一些基本问题仍待解决，如关于PS发光机制尚存在分歧；PS电致发光效率低，离应用差距甚远；高多孔度PS微孔结构不稳定等．PS微孔内溶剂蒸发过程中，由于毛细管张力的存在，造成微孔骨架受力不匀．强的应力使PS骨架脆弱，甚至微孔结构坍缩，从而导致PS结构不稳定．对于高多孔度…     

Chitosan as a biosorbent for adsorption of iron (II) from fracking wastewater

In this work, porous chitosan (CS) was investigated as a biosorbent for the removal of iron (II) from the synthetic fracking wastewater. The underlying problem with the production water from fracking industries is that it contains iron (II) up to 55 mg/L, which needs to be eliminated. Porous CS had a specific surface area of 1.05 m²/g with the average pore diameter of 319 A, as determined by using Brunauer‐Emmett‐Teller surface area analysis. The kinetics, isotherms, and thermodynamic analysis confirm that the porous CS can be a potential candidate for iron (II) removal. Both the pseudo‐first‐order model and pseudo‐second‐order model have good fit on iron (II) adsorption with the porous CS. Kinetic studies revealed that the CS‐iron (II) adsorption system was controlled by intraparticle diffusion. The monolayer adsorption capacity of the porous CS from Langmuir model was found to be 51.81 mg/g. The experimental data were fitted against common adsorption isotherms and yielded excellent fits in the following order: Langmuir > Temkin > Freundlich > Dubinin‐Radushkevich isotherms. Thermodynamic studies revealed that the adsorption of iron (II) onto porous CS was feasible and spontaneous. The adsorption process is endothermic, and the entropy is the driving force.     

Porous Tungsten Oxide: Recent Advances in Design,Synthesis, and Applications

Tungsten oxide (WO₃) has received ever more attention and has been highly researched over the last decade due to its being a low-cost transition metal semiconductor with tunable, yet widely stable, band gaps. This minireview briefly highlights the challenges in the design and synthesis of porous WO₃ including methods, precursors, solvent effects, crystal phases, and surface activities of the porous WO₃ base material. These topics are explored while also drawing a connection of how the morphology and crystal phase affect the band gap. The shifts in band gap not only impact the optical properties of tungsten but also allow tuning to operate on different energy levels, which makes WO₃ highly desirable in many applications such as supercapacitors, batteries, solar cells, catalysts, sensors, smart windows, and bioapplications.     

Flow over rectangular porous block in a fixed width channel: influence of porosity and aspect ratio

Flow over a rectangular porous block placed in a fixed width channel is considered and the influence of block aspect ratio on the heat transfer rate from the block is examined. A non-porous solid block is also accommodated to compare the effect of porosity on the flow field and heat transfer characteristics. Aspect ratio and the porosity of the block are varied in the simulations. A numerical scheme employing a control volume approach is considered when predicting the flow and temperature fields. The Reynolds number is selected to yield the mix convection situation in the flow field. It is found that the aspect ratio significantly influences Nu and Gr numbers, in which case increasing the aspect ratio enhances Nu while lowering Gr. Increasing porosity improves the heat transfer rates from the porous block, provided that at high aspect ratios, this situation ceases due to blockage effect of the body in the channel.     

Convergence of the Finite Difference Scheme for a Fast Diffusion Equation in Porous Media

We are concerned with an implicit scheme for the finite difference solution to a nonlinear parabolic equation with a multivalued coefficient that describes the fast diffusion in a porous medium. The boundary conditions contain the multivalued function as well. We prove the stability and the convergence of the scheme, emphasizing the precise nature of convergence in this specific case, and compute the error level of the approximating solution. The method is aimed to simplify the numerical computations for the solutions to equations of this type, without performing an approximation of the multivalued function. The theory is illustrated by numerical results.