Observation of unusual Griffith’s phase behavior in quadruple perovskite oxide CaCu3Mn4O12 (CCMO) synthesized through chemical route

The CaCu₃Mn₄O₁₂ (CCMO) ceramic was successfully synthesized through the chemical route. The phase formation was confirmed by the X-ray diffraction pattern. Thermogravimetric (TGA), FT-IR, SEM, TEM, EDX, and XPS analysis were performed for investigation of the thermal behavior, phase identification, microstructural analysis, elemental analysis and oxidation state of the CCMO ceramic respectively. FT-IR spectra confirmed the existence of MnO₆ octahedral in body-centered cubic (BCC) complex perovskite oxide that resembles the CaCu₃Ti₄O₁₂ structure. The average particle size was observed by TEM in the range between 100 and 200 nm. AFM shows the average roughness of the surface was found to be in the range of 30 ± 5 nm. XPS and EDX studies confirmed the purity and oxidation state of the CCMO ceramic. The synthesized material shows very interesting unique Griffith’s phase (T_G) results that arise disorder in magnetic susceptibility in which ferromagnetic transition was to be observed in the paramagnetic region.     

A study on the phase transformation behaviour of Cu-20wt.Sn alloy produced using powder metallurgy method: Experimental and molecular dynamics modelling

In this study, Cu-20wt.Sn alloy was produced by powder metallurgy (PM) method by using high purity element powders. The phases in the microstructure of the produced alloy were determined by XRD study. The phase transformation behaviour of the alloy was investigated by DSC and modelling method. Moreover, the Cu-20wt.Sn alloy system was modelled with molecular dynamics (MD) simulation based on modified Embedded Atom Method (MEAM). The radial distribution function (RDF) was calculated to determine the structural properties of system during the phase transformations. The experimental results showed that the transformation ($\alpha +\delta$) → ($\alpha +\gamma$) occur at temperature above 500°C. The simulation results showed that the phase transformation $\alpha +\delta \to \alpha +\gamma$ occurs at 550°C temperature. Our simulation results are in reasonable agreement with the experimental data.     

Kinetics of oxidation of benzyl alcohols with molecular oxygen catalyzed by N-hydroxyphthalimide: Role of hydroperoxyl radicals

A kinetic study of the initiated oxidation of benzyl alcohol and cumene by molecular oxygen was performed. The oxidation rate was more enhanced with N-hydroxyphthalimide (NHPI) in the case of cumene than that of benzyl alcohol. HOOH inhibits cumene oxidation and does not affect the rate of oxidation of benzyl alcohol. It was shown that termination chain reactions of phthalimid-N-oxyl radicals (PINO^•) does not occur with RОО^• and proceeds with HOO^•. A kinetic scheme of the process and an equation describing the kinetics of oxidation of benzyl alcohol in the presence of NHPI are proposed. Using the PM7 method, the thermodynamic characteristics of elementary steps of oxidation explaining the obtained results were calculated.     

Portable,Ambient PM2.5 Sensor for Human and/or Animal Exposure Studies

A field-portable device for logging PM_2.5 mass concentration data has been developed. The device combines the Arduino microprocessor with an SD card, a Sharp DN7C3CA006 optical dust monitor, and 10,000-mAh battery. The dust sensor uses a virtual impactor to size select particles <2.5 microns prior to illuminating the selected fraction with an LED. The LED is triggered by a circuit controlled with the Arduino. Nephelometric detection at 120° referenced to incidence is used. The voltage signal reported by the dust sensor is converted to PM_2.5 mass through calibration onboard the Arduino. Data points can be saved to the SD card as rapidly as 0.3?s, although averaging signals over 60?s produced more optimal detection limits. For a 60?s average, the PM_2.5 mass limit of detection was 9?µg?m^?3, indicating that the sensor will be useful for monitoring human exposure to fine particles. Portable exposure monitoring has been demonstrated with the sensing platform as several individuals carried the device with them during daily activities in Lubbock, TX and Atlanta, GA. For this group of test subjects, values of PM_2.5 exposure varied from 0 to 1000?µg?m^?3 during the sampling periods. It was observed that, by far, the highest levels of PM_2.5 occur during periods of cooking, or being near cooking operations. Other periods of high PM_2.5 occurred during ground transportation, use of personal care products, vacuuming, and visiting restrooms. When hourly personal exposure data were correlated with hourly average PM_2.5 for outdoor air for the Atlanta data set, a very weak correlation was found (R²?=?0.026). Only two out of eight sampling periods did the personal monitoring estimate of exposure agree with that predicted by outdoor monitoring to within 15%. Personal exposure was often affected by circumstantial, short-term, high exposure events that are difficult to model or predict effectively. The short-term exposure events generally cause true exposure to be higher than that predicted by using outdoor ambient PM_2.5 to generate estimates. This finding complicates interpretation of epidemiological studies that find links between ambient outdoor PM_2.5 levels and human health, while it buttresses the case for using personal ambient monitors.     

In situ PM‐IRRAS studies of organothiols and organosilane monolayers–ZnO interfaces at high water activities

In situ photoelastic‐modulated Fourier transform infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy has been applied for the investigation of interfacial stability of organothiol and organosilane monolayer films on nanocrystalline zinc oxide thin films. It has been shown that for octadecyltriethoxysilane films, exposure to high water activities results in physisorption of water in the cross‐linked film. This high water activity at the interface leads to a reversible wet de‐adhesion of the interfacial silanol groups from the ZnO surface. However, the organothiol seems to form a denser monolayer and a stable by S–Zn bond that is resistant to the competition with adsorbed water. The reversible attachment for cross‐linked organosilanol films has been demonstrated for the first time by means of an in situ spectroscopic method on model ZnO surfaces. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Transport of airborne particulate matters originating from Mentougou, Beijing, China

In this study, a coupled regional air quality modeling system is applied to investigate the time spatial variations in airborne particulate matters （PM10）, originating from Mentougou to Beijing municipal area in the period of April 1-7, 2004, and the influences of complex terrain and meteorological conditions upon boundary layer structure and PM10 concentration distributions. An intercomparison of the performance with CALPUFF against the observed data is presented and an examination of scatter plots is provided. The statistics show that the correlation coefficient and STD between the modeled and observed data are 0.86 and 0.03, respectively. Analysis of model results illustrates that the pollutants emitted from Mentougou can be transported to Beijing municipal area along certain transport pathways, and PM10 concentration distributions show heterogeneity characteristics. Contributions of the Mentougou sources to the PM10 concentrations in Beijing municipal area are up to 0.1-15 μg/m^3.     

SPATIAL AND SEASONAL DISTRIBUTIONS OF ATMOSPHERIC CARBONACEOUS AEROSOLS IN PEARL RIVER DELTA REGION, CHINA

Concentrations and spatial distributions of organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) in atmospheric particles were measured at 8 sites in four cities (Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai) of Pearl River Delta Region (PRDR), China during 2001 winter period and 2002 summer period. PM2.5 (particie diameter smaller than 2.5 um) and PM10 (particie diameter smaller than 10 um) samples were collected on pre-fired quartz filters with mini-volume samplers and analyzed using thermal optical reflectance (TOR) method. The average PM2.5and PM10 Ievel were 60.1 and 93.1 μg·m-3, respectively, with PM2.5 constituting 65.3% of the PM10 mass. The average OC and EC concentrations in PM2.5 were 12.0 and 5.1 μg·m-3, respectively, while those in PM10 were 16.0 and 6.5 μg·m-3, respectively. The carbo-naceous aerosol accounted for 37.2% of the PM2.5 and 32.8% of the PM10. The highest concentrations of OC and EC were observed at Guangzhou city in both vvinter and summer seasons. The average OC/EC ratios were 2.     

微波消解–原子荧光法同时测定PM2.5中砷、汞含量

采用微波消解–原子荧光法测定PM2.5中砷、汞含量。实验结果表明,当还原剂硼氢化钾的质量分数为2%、溶液介质酸度为4%(体积分数)盐酸时,同时测定砷、汞可获得最佳的荧光值。砷、汞测定的检出限分别为0.027,0.006μg/L,空白滤膜的加标回收率分别为95.3%~101.7%,96.0%~106.0%,样品的加标回收率分别为95.0%~103.5%,93.3%~110.0%。该法检出限低,准确度高,适用于环境空气PM2.5中砷、汞含量的测定。     

K/LiCoO2的制备及其同时催化去除碳烟和NOx的性能研究

采用溶液燃烧法和浸渍法制备了铜铁矿结构的钴酸锂(LiCoO2)及其负载K的系列催化剂样品,并通过XRD、NOx-TPD、H2-TPR、程序升温反应等对其进行了结构表征与性能评价.结果表明LiCoO2是一种能有效同时去除碳烟(PM)和NOx的催化剂;K负载可提高其催化活性,其中10%K/LiCoO2具有最低的PM起燃温度(246℃)和最大NOx→N2转化率(35.9%);催化剂表面生成的O2-/O-活性氧物种以及较强的NOx吸附存储能力可能是K/LiCoO2催化活性提高的原因.     

融合图卷积神经网络和注意力机制的PM2.5小时浓度多步预测

PM_2.5小时浓度多为单步预测。为实现PM_2.5小时浓度的多步预测，基于“编码器-解码器”的序列-序列预测（Seq2Seq）模型，集合图卷积神经网络提取非欧式空间数据特征的能力以及注意力机制自适应关注特征的能力，提出了融合图卷积神经网络和注意力机制的PM_2.5小时浓度多步预测（GCN_Attention_Seq2Seq）模型。并与Seq2Seq模型和使用了图卷积神经网络、未使用注意力机制的GCN_Seq2Seq模型进行了对照，以2015—2016年北京市22个空气质量监测站点的空气质量数据为样本进行实例验证，结果表明，Seq2Seq模型和图卷积神经网络（GCN）可对PM_2.5小时浓度数据的时空依赖进行有效建模，注意力机制有助于减缓多步预测中的预测精度衰减，提升PM_2.5小时浓度多步预测的精度。GCN_Attention_Seq2Seq模型可有效应用于多种长度的PM_2.5浓度预测窗口。