Hydroxylation-induced modifications of the Al2O3/NiAl(0 0 1) surface at low water vapour pressure

STM, STS, LEED and XPS data for crystalline θ-Al₂O₃ and non-crystalline Al₂O₃ ultra-thin films grown on NiAl(0 0 1) at 1025 K and exposed to water vapour at low pressure (1 × 10⁻⁷-1 × 10⁻⁵ mbar) and room temperature are reported. Water dissociation is observed at low pressure. This reactivity is assigned to the presence of a high density of coordinatively unsaturated cationic sites at the surface of the oxide film. The hydroxyl/hydroxide groups cannot be directly identify by their XPS binding energy, which is interpreted as resulting from the high BE positions of the oxide anions (O_1s signal at 532.5-532.8 eV). However the XPS intensities give evidence of an uptake of oxygen accompanied by an increase of the surface coverage by Al³⁺ cations, and a decrease of the concentration in metallic Al at the alloy interface. A value of ∼2 for the oxygen to aluminium ions surface concentration ratio indicates the formation of an oxy-hydroxide (AlO_xOH_y with x + y ∼ 2) hydroxylation product. STM and LEED show the amorphisation and roughening of the oxide film. At P(H₂O) = 1 × 10⁻⁷ mbar, only the surface of the oxide film is modified, with formation of nodules of ∼2 nm lateral size covering homogeneously the surface. STS shows that essentially the valence band is modified with an increase of the density of states at the band edge. With increasing pressure, hydroxylation is amplified, leading to an increased coverage of the alloy by oxy-hydroxide products and to the formation of larger nodules (∼7 nm) of amorphous oxy-hydroxide. Roughening and loss of the nanostructure indicate a propagation of the reaction that modifies the bulk structure of the oxide film. Amorphisation can be reverted to crystallization by annealing under UHV at 1025 K when the surface of the oxide film has been modified, but not when the bulk structure has been modified.     

Reorientational relaxation and rotational–translational coupling in water clusters in a d.c. external electric field

Molecular dynamics simulations have been carried out for small water clusters (N=16, 32, 64) in a d.c. electric field at T=200 K. It was shown that for relatively weak fields, there was a significant decrease of reorientational and structural relaxation times for all cluster sizes examined. Regarding the molecular reorientational motions, in the strong field regime, a decoupling of tumbling and spinning librations was observed. Reorientational relaxation times of the dipole and vector joining the two hydrogen atoms were found to follow different relaxation laws, with the former decreasing and the latter increasing with electric field increase. These trends were qualitatively explained by invoking the Debye model with field-dependent friction for dipole librations and the symmetric double-well for spinning rotations on a plane perpendicular to the field axis. Finally, the interdependence of the reorientation on the translational modes of the cluster was indicated, with the translationally slow molecules being rotationally slow as well and vice versa.     

ICP-AES测定饮用水源中的Cu、Mn、Pb、Cd、Zn

用ICP－AES法同时测定饮用水源中的Cu、Mn、Pb、Cd、Zn等重金属元素，具有基体效应小、测量范围宽等优点。检出限为0．2－4．0μg/L，回收率为91．5％－103．9％，相对标准偏差为0．29％－1．5％，测定密码样与实际样品，结果令人满意。     

着生刚毛藻处理富营养化湖泊水

分别研究了室内和露天条件下在鹅卵石上着生的刚毛藻Cladophora oligoclona对富营养化湖水中氮(N)和磷(P)的净化效果及其对水华藻类生长的抑制能力,同时对处理后湖水的藻类生长潜力进行了测试.结果显示,刚毛藻在原始浓度总氮(TN)10.512 mg/L和总磷(TP)0.856 mg/L的富营养化湖水中能维持正常的生长代谢,并能有效去除水体中的N、P养分.在室内12 d培养期间,刚毛藻对TN、氨氮(NH4-N)、TP和无机磷(PO4-P)的平均去除率分别达53.13%,44.40%,35.71%和30.53%.在室外6 d培养期间,刚毛藻对TN、NH4-N、TP和PO4-P的日均减少量分别为1.643 5±0.413 9,1.350 3±0.352 4,0.113 7±0.041 1,0.074 2±0.033 0 mg/L,总去除率分别高达93.81%,94.62%,79.67%和77.66%.刚毛藻对水华微囊藻生长的抑制率达99.63%,处理后湖水的藻类生长潜力较原湖水下降了40.17%.据此认为,刚毛藻在净化污染水体、修复受损湖泊及防治水体富营养化等方面具有潜在的应用前景.     

Effect of plasma treatment on interface property of BCN/GaN structure

Interface properties of BCN/GaN metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structures are investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and capacitance versus voltage (C-V) characteristics measurements. The BCN/GaN samples are fabricated by in situ process consisting of plasma treatment and deposition of BCN film in the plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (PACVD) apparatus. XPS measurement shows that the oxide formation at the BCN/GaN interface is suppressed by nitrogen (N₂) and hydrogen (H₂) plasma treatment. The interface state density is estimated from C-V characteristics measured at 1 MHz using Terman method. The minimum interface state density appears from 0.2 to 0.7 eV below the conduction band edge of GaN. The minimum value of the interface state density is estimated to be 3.0 × 10¹⁰ eV⁻¹ cm⁻² for the BCN/GaN structure with mixed N₂ and H₂ plasma treatment for 25 min. Even after annealing at 430 °C for 10 min, the interface state density as low as 6.0 × 10¹⁰ eV⁻¹ cm⁻² is maintained.     

Microstructure of laser melted Al18B4O33w/2024Al composite

The microstructure of a laser treated Al₁₈B₄O₃₃w/2024Al composite has been investigated using transmission electron microscope (TEM), low-angle (glancing angle) X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. Various surface microstructures were observed in the laser treated composite. The Al₁₈B₄O₃₃ whisker on the surface of the composite was decomposed during laser surface melting, various decomposition products were studied in the laser treated composite. Eutectic phases and the precipitation in the matrix of the composite with laser-treated were observed. The main phases detected in the molten zone were aluminum and decomposition products Al₂O₃. The effect of laser treatment on the hardness of the composite was also examined. A surface hardness of 400 Hv was noted.     

Effect of Hydrolysis Conditions on the Direct Formation of Nanoparticles of Ceria–Zirconia Solid Solutions from Acidic Aqueous Solutions

The effect of the cation concentration, hydrolysis temperature, and composition in the CeO₂–ZrO₂ system on the direct precipitation of ceria–zirconia solid solutions and the structure of the precipitates from acidic aqueous solutions of (NH₄)₂Ce(NO₃)₆ and ZrOCl₂ by hydrolysis under hydrothermal conditions were investigated. Nanometer-sized (8–10 nm) ceria–zirconia solid solution particles in a composition range of 0 to 60 mol% ZrO₂ were directly precipitated from the solutions with total metal cation concentration less than 0.2 mol/dm³ by simultaneous thermal hydrolysis at 150–240°C. The crystalline phase of the precipitates gradually changed from cubic and/or tetragonal to monoclinic with increasing the cation concentration of the solution from 0.2 to 0.8 mol/dm³ at the starting composition of 50 mol% ZrO₂ under hydrolysis condition of 150°C for 48 h, which was attributed to decrease in the supply of hydrolyzed Ce component caused by decrease in the hydrolysis ratio of (NH₄)₂Ce(NO₃)₆. Ceria–zirconia solid solutions containing large amount of ZrO₂ maintained high specific surface area and small-sized crystallite after heat-treatment at 900–1000°C for 1 h.     

Noise emitted by water supply installations

This work deals with the problem of noise generated by water supply systems in homes. Measurements were made in situ to determine normal conditions of installations and noise levels generated in different rooms in the home. In order to determine the sources of noise and the best construction methods to minimise noise generation, a laboratory was also built to reproduce the conditions of this type of installation in homes. Tests were carried out in this laboratory on different configurations of type of tap, installation material, walling and fastening of the installation, to allow quantitative determination of the differences in noise generation between the various configurations used in households.     

离子束合成钇硅化物的结构及红外谱特征

将稀土金属钇离子注入到n型单晶Si(111)中制备出钇硅化物埋层.利用x射线衍射、卢瑟福背散射和傅里叶红外吸收谱测量分析了样品的结构、原子的埋层分布和振动模式.结果表明，Y离子在注入过程中已与基底中的Si原子形成了YSi2结构相.真空下的红外光辐照处理促使YSi2择优取向生长，埋层中Si与Y的平均原子浓度比由24下降为20，与六方YSi2的化学计量比一致.还给出了钇硅化物的特征红外吸收谱.     

Transport of surface-modified iron nanoparticle in porous media and application to arsenic(III) remediation

The surface-modified iron nanoparticles (S-INP) were synthesized, characterized and tested for the remediation of arsenite (As(III)), a well known toxic groundwater contaminant of concern. The S-INP material was fully dispersed in the aqueous phase with a particle size distribution of 2–10 nm estimated from high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) revealed that an Fe(III) oxide surface film was present on S-INP in addition to the bulk zero-valent Fe⁰ oxidation state. Transport of S-INP through porous media packed in 10 cm length column showed particle breakthroughs of 22.1, 47.4 and 60 pore volumes in glass beads, unbaked sand, and baked sand, respectively. Un-modified INP was immobile and aggregated on porous media surfaces in the column inlet area. Results using S-INP pretreated 10 cm sand-packed columns containing ∼2 g of S-INP showed that 100 % of As(III) was removed from influent solutions (flow rate 1.8 mL min⁻¹) containing 0.2, 0.5 and 1.0 mg L⁻¹ As(III) for 9, 7 and 4 days providing 23.3, 20.7 and 10.4 L of arsenic free water, respectively. In addition, it was found that 100% of As(III) in 0.5 mg/L solution (flow rate 1.8 mL min⁻¹) was removed by S-INP pretreated 50 cm sand packed column containing 12 g of S-INP for more than 2.5 months providing 194.4 L of arsenic free water. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) showed S-INP had transformed to elongated, rod-like shaped corrosion product particles after reaction with As(III) in the presence of sand. These results suggest that S-INP has great potential to be used as a mobile, injectable reactive material for in-situ sandy groundwater aquifer treatment of As(III).