Oxygen and nitrogen in coal by instrumental neutron activation analysis

The feasibility of using fast neutron (14 MeV) activation analysis techniques for the determination of oxygen and nitrogen in coal has been investigated. Conditions that favor instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) include the absence of problems associated with sample dissolution and the capability of extremely rapid analyses as compared to older techniques such as the Kjeldahl method for nitrogen. Most previous oxygen determinations have been by difference after major component analyses. In the present study, oxygen was determined in sized coal and its low temperature ash (LTA) with the difference representing the organic oxygen content. Both the oxygen and nitrogen analyses employ a multiscaling technique with the former based on the¹⁶O(n, p)¹⁶N reaction, while the latter utilizes the annihilation radiation produced by the product of the¹⁴N(n, 2n)¹³N reaction. The high-energy gamma-radiation associated with the decay of¹⁶N was essentially free of spectral interferences for coal analysis, although fluorine could cause a primary interference if the F/O ratio exceeds 0.02. In the nitrogen work, experiments were performed to determine correction factors to account for the effects of the¹²C(p, γ)¹³N and¹³C(p, n)¹³N “knock-on” reactions and the³⁹K(n, 2n)³⁸K reaction which produce interfering β⁺ emitting radionuclides. Data are presented for oxygen in Western Kentucky No. 9 and No. 11 coal and coal ash and for nitrogen in eleven different coals.     

Depth profiling of oxygen in oxide films by 18O(p,α)15N nuclear reaction analysis

The paper describes the determination and depth profiling of oxygen in thin oxide films using ¹⁸O(p,??)¹⁵N nuclear reaction. The excitation function of ¹⁸O(p,??)¹⁵N nuclear reaction exhibits a resonance at 629?keV and a plateau at 730?keV with uniform cross-section. The resonance is used to determine the depth profile of oxygen in films while the plateau, to estimate its overall concentration. The resonance, characterized by a width of 2.1?keV enables high-depth resolution (~20?nm) measurements and has a probing depth of more than a micron. The paper presents depth profile measurements of oxygen in several metal oxide films (SiO₂, TiO₂ and HfO₂) using this resonance. Possible interferences arising from ¹⁵N(p,??)¹²C, ¹⁹F(p,??)¹⁶O and ¹¹B(p,??)2?? nuclear reactions are also discussed. It has been shown that it can serve as a suitable alternative to 3.05?MeV ¹⁶O(??,??)¹⁶O resonant scattering which is generally used for depth profiling oxygen. It is, in fact, more reliable and precise in materials that witness significant large angle multiple scattering. It can also be advantageously used to monitor ¹⁸O, when used as a tracer.     

Trace determination of oxygen in gold-copper alloys and in high purity gold using3He and4He activation analysis

Trace amounts of oxygen in gold-copper alloys and high purity gold have been determined by³He and⁴He activation analysis. Interferences from the matrix have been identified and the factors which can have an effect upon the precision and the accuracy of the method have been investigated. Thus a destructive technique has been choosen. The¹⁸F produced was chemically separated by steam distillation and precipitated as PbClF. The values of the oxygen concentration were found to range between 0.2 and 2 μg·g⁻¹ depending on the copper concentration and the thermal treatment applied to the samples. A possible mechanism of internal oxidation is presented.     

Reaktivität von Koordinationsverbindungen XVII Die Autoxydation von CuI-Komplexen mit Ammoniak und Imidazol

The autoxidation of two cuprous complexes, Cu(NH₃)₂+ and Cu(imidazole)₂+, has been studied by following the oxygen consumption with a coated oxygen sensor, and the formation of Cu^II by means of a stopped flow technique. The reaction was found to be of third order being proportional to the concentrations of Cu^I, oxygen, and free ligand. pH variation was without effect in the range studied. The rate constants are k_IM = 5,5 ·10³ 1²· Mol^?2·s^?1 for imidazole, and k_NH3 = 1,6·10⁴ 1²· Mol^?2· s^?1 for NH₃ as ligand, resp. An apparent activation energy of less than 2 Kcal/mole has been found for the autoxidation of the cuprous imidazole complex. This can be explained by the assumption of a rapidly playing equilibrium proceeding the rate determining step.     

Determination of fluorine in organic compounds by epithermal neutron activation analysis

Classical activation analysis of fluorine by thermal neutrons has a limited application because of frequent interference from chlorine, the short half life²⁰F (11.4 s) and too high dead time of detectors. A procedure is described for fluorine determination using¹⁹F (n,p)¹⁹O reaction. Use of a boron carbide shield has no effect on the activity of¹⁹O (boron ratio −1) but considerably reduces background and interference due to¹⁸O (n, γ)¹⁹O reaction. The technique has been successfully applied to the determination of fluorine in organic compounds even in the presence of large amounts of chlorine and oxygen.     

CH bond activation in the presence or absence of oxygen or nitrous oxide

The reaction of C₂H₆with lattice oxygen, O^2- (in the absence of gaseous oxygen), or “adsorbedℍ oxygen (in the presence of gaseous oxygen) over NiMoO₄ catalysts has been performed and compared to C₃H₈ activation. The results obtained indicate that adsorbed oxygen exhibits a higher reactivity to C₂H₆, while lattice oxygen is more reactive relative to C₃H₈. Kinetic studies of these two reactions in presence of molecular oxygen have indeed shown that the ethane oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) is dependent on the oxygen partial pressure, whilst on the contrary propane ODH is not. In order to confirm the presence of “adsorbed” oxygen for ethane activation, ODH tests have been performed with N₂O. On increasing temperature, the O^- adsorbed species enhances the mild oxidation of ethane. The activation energy of ethane consumption E_C2H6, relative to propane (E_C3H8 = 133 kJ/mol) is 145 kJ/mol. A possible mechanism is proposed for the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Effect of vanadium on oxygen diffusivity in niobium

The effect on the diffusivity of oxygen of vanadium additions to niobium was investigated by a diffusion couple technique. The addition of vanadium to niobium results in an increase of the activation energy for oxygen diffusion from 107 kJ mol⁻¹ for oxygen in niobium to 176 ± 9 kJ mol⁻¹ for the Nb-0.5at.%V alloy and to 194 ± 9 kJ mol⁻¹ for the Nb-10at.%V alloy. This increase in the activation energy is attributed to the trapping of oxygen by vanadium atoms. Applying Kirchheim's trapping model and the results of internal friction measurements, trapping energies of about −64 and −49 kJ mol⁻¹ were obtained for the Nb-0.5at.%V and the Nb-10at.%V alloys respectively.     

Charged particle activation analysis for carbon,nitrogen and oxygen in semiconductor silicon

Convenient processes are described for the charged particle activation analysis for carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen in semiconductor silicon. Suitable activation reactions and incident particle energies were selected, and the interferences examined; the activation curves for the Si+³He→¹¹C and Si+³He→¹⁸F reactions, which may seriously interfere with³He activation analysis, were measured, and the interference caused by the fission of the matrix itself is discussed. A simple technique for the separation of¹¹C present in silicon is proposed. Reliable determination of as low as several parts per billion of the three elements has thus become possible. Semiconductor silicons of various origin were analyzed for C, N and O, and the behaviour of these elements during zone-melting is reported.     

Nuclear activation methods for the characterization of fossil fuels

A review is presented on the use of neutron activation analysis (NAA) for the analyses of coal, oil shale, tar sands and petroleum. Fast NAA has been widely used for the determination of oxygen, and to a limited extent, of other elements such as nitrogen and silicon. Reactor NAA followed by instrumental counting, and in specific cases, after radiochemical separations is discussed. Thermal and epithermal neutrons are both used. Limited use of the²⁵²Cf source has been made in fuel analysis. A complementary technique to NAA is the photon-activation analysis with linear accelerator. It can determine over thirty elements, many of them not possible to do by NAA. Round-robin analyses of standard coal, fly ash, or oil shale samples indicate nuclear activation methods are comparable in accuracy and precision to X-ray fluorescence or atomic spectrometric methods for most elements.     

Photo-thermal Cooperative Carbonylation of Ethanol with CO2 on Cu2O-SrTiCuO3-x

Carbonylation of ethanol with CO₂ as carbonyl source into value-added esters is of considerable significance and interest, while remains of great challenge due to the harsh conditions for activation of inert CO₂ in that the harsh conditions result in undesired activation of α-C−H and even cleavage of C−C bond in ethanol to deteriorate the specific activation of O−H bond. Herein, we propose a photo-thermal cooperative strategy for carbonylation of ethanol with CO₂, in which CO₂ is activated to reactive CO via photo-catalysis with the assistance of *H from thermally-catalyzed dissociation of alcoholic O−H bond. To achieve this proposal, an interfacial site and oxygen vacancy both abundant SrTiCuO_3-x supported Cu₂O (Cu₂O-SrTiCuO_3-x) has been designed. A production of up to 320 μmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹ for ethyl formate with a selectivity of 85.6 % to targeted alcoholic O−H activation has been afforded in photo-thermal assisted gas-solid process under 3.29 W cm⁻¹ of UV/Vis light irradiation (144 °C) and 0.2 MPa CO₂. In the photo-driven activation of CO₂ and following carbonylation, CO₂ activation energy decreases to 12.6 kJ mol⁻¹, and the cleavage of alcoholic α-C−H bond has been suppressed.     

Development of porous cathode powders for SOFC and influence of cathode structure on the oxygen electroreduction kinetics

Meso/macroporous La_1−xSr_xCoO_3−δ powder with the specific surface area higher than 140 m² g⁻¹ has been synthesized from the corresponding nitrates, using solution thermal decomposition method. These nanopowders have been used for preparation of SOFC cathodes, demonstrating lower oxygen electroreduction activation energy than that for less porous cathodes prepared from the powders synthesized using traditional solid state reaction method. To increase macroporosity of the cathodes the special pore forming agent has been added into the raw cathode paste. The very low total polarization resistance and activation energy values have been obtained for oxygen electroreduction, depending on the cathode porosity and potential applied.     

Industrial applications of instrumental neutron activation analysis

Neutron activation analysis is shown as a useful diagnostic technique in semiconductor industry. A better acceptance of the method for applications in industry has been achieved through a specialized analytical service. Its main application is the characterization of high purity silicon in all stages of production. Irradiation of large sample volumes allowes a very sensitive detection of impurities in silicon with detection limits down to 10^–16 g/g. Other applications discussed are the analysis of silicon carbide, quartz, pure water and titanium. Special techniques described are autoradiography, depth profiling and surface analysis. In semiconductor process technology NAA was used to monitor contamination of silicon wafers.     

New Developments in Activation Analysis for Material and Environmental Sciences

Activation analysis in general and mainly reactor neutron activation analysis (NAA) has been used extensively for measuring trace elements in high purity materials, particularly semiconductor materials. The advantages of NAA in determination of trace elements differ from one semiconductor material to another. For all of them the inherent properties of activation analysis especially those of non contamination with the reagents, low blanks and high sensitivity are the reasons for the choice of NAA as the main analytical procedure. These inherent properties are essential for analysis of high-purity materials where concentrations of ppb's and sub ppb's have to be measured. NAA is specially suitable for the determination of trace elements in silicon due to the very short lived very low activity induced by neutron reaction in silicon. This enables easy instrumental (i.e. without chemical separations) determination of trace elements in silicon. In the HFR reactor at Peten, Netherlands, a special facility was constructed for irradiation of silicon samples of Philips, in which silicon wafers of up to 15 cm diameter can be irradiated with 4 × 10¹³n. cm^?2. sec^?1 and the irradiation is done for 72–96 hours. using large Ge(Li) detectors (100 to 150cc) and long counting time (8–16 hours) they measured 22 elements in concentrations below ppb and 10 others between ppb and 300 ppm. Trace elements in germanium have been determined both instrumentally after very long decay time (100 days) or after short decay time removing the activities from the matrix by chemical separation. Trace elements in GaAs are determined only after chemical separtion. Several other semiconductor material such as Sc, Te, GaP and CuInS₂ were also determined by NAA. Some trace elements cannot be determined by neutron activation. Carbon, nitrogen and oxygen are determined by activation with protons, alphas or ³He particles. Boron and hydrogen are determined by prompt emission induced by charged particle activation, which gives not only the total concentration but also the depth profile. Carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and phosphorus were also determined by prompt proton activation analysis. The environmental samples studied by activation analysis can be divided into three categories: atmospheric aerosols, water samples and solid wastes. NAA of atmospheric aerosols have been used for their posible toxicological hazards, their source identification and for studies of atmospheric transport processes.     

Oxygen isotopic exchange between carbon dioxide and some molybdates or rare-earth elements

The oxygen exchange between C¹⁸O₂ and the normal molybdates of cerium, lanthanum, praseodymium and neodymium has been studied within the temperature interval 300–500°C. The specific rates and activation energies of exchange for these molybdates were found to have similar values. The reactivity of oxygen in the molybdates studied was shown to be close to the reactivity of oxygen in MoO₃     

Helium-3 activation analysis of oxygen in silicon nitride films on silicon wafers

Oxygen in silicon nitride films on silicon wafers was analyzed by activation with the¹⁶O(³He, p)¹⁸F reaction. By³He bombardment of samples propertly arranged under consideration of the¹⁸F recoil effect, total oxygen was reliably determined and its predominant part was estimated to be located whether on film surface, in film interior, or on film-substrate interface. Sample films with 0.1 to 2 μm thicknesses were found to contain 0.2 to 2 μg/cm² of oxygen in locations varying with preparation conditions. This method has been compared with ESCA and other methods for surface analysis.     

Experimental and Monte Carlo simulation on new manganese bath facility for absolute neutron source emission rate measurement at ENEA-INMRI

This work deals with the absolute measurement of the neutron emission rate from a ²⁴¹Am–Be source by means of the manganese sulphate bath technique, which is the principal method for the absolute determination of the neutron emission rate from radionuclide neutron sources. The facility consists of a spherical container filled with an aqueous solution of manganese sulphate with a ²⁴¹Am–Be neutron source placed at the center. As well known, neutrons from the source, after having been thermalized by the aqueous solution, undergo neutron capture by hydrogen, manganese, sulphur, and oxygen nuclei, thus inducing a certain activity to the solution. Subsequent gamma spectrometry measurements of ⁵⁶Mn activity generated by ⁵⁵Mn neutron activation allows to determine the neutron emission rate of the source, The experimental activity has involved a variety of measurement techniques and calculation procedures, ranging from neutron reactor activation to liquid scintillation counting and Monte Carlo calculations. Neutron activations of ⁵⁵Mn samples has been carried out with the TRIGA reactor of the ENEA-Casaccia Research Centre, and ⁵⁶Mn activated samples were subsequently characterized by liquid scintillation counting, in order to obtain reference standards for the calibration of the NaI(Tl) scintillation detectors utilized to record gamma-ray emission from ⁵⁶Mn. Monte Carlo calculations, carried out by the MCNPX code, were required to calculate neutron transport within the sulphate manganese bath, in particular to determine ⁵⁵Mn neutron capture probability, and (n, α) and (n, p) concurrent reactions, as well as the neutron leakage. Such a procedure has allowed to maintaining the neutron emission rate uncertainty well below 1 %. All the measurements have been carried out at the ENEA-Casaccia Research Centre by the Italian National Institute of Ionizing Radiation Metrology.     

Instrumental neutron activation analysis of sediment reference materials using the k0-standardization method

An instrumental neutron activation analysis technique has been developed for the determination of As, Au, Ba, Co, Cr, Fe, Hf, Sb, Ta, Th, U, W and Zn in large (10–15 g) geological samples using in-pool irradiation with a SLOWPOKE-2 reactor. The technique allows for the simultaneous irradiation of multiple samples using a neutron flux of between 4·10¹³ and 8·10¹³ n·m^–2·s^–1. The detection limits obtained using the analytical methodology described in this paper are acceptable for exploration geochemistry and the technique has been used to analyze samples collected as part of a metallic minerals survey of Jamaica.     

Electrocatalysis of oxygen reduction by lanthanum-strontium manganate

The electrocatalysis of the oxygen reduction reaction by lanthanum-strontium manganate La_0.5Sr_0.5MnO₃ (LSM) has been studied by cyclic voltammetry using the rotating ring-disc electrode technique (RRDE) in alkaline medium. From the ring-disc data and other kinetic parameters it was concluded that the oxygen reduction occurs by dissociative chemisorption at low overpotentials. At higher overpotentials, the formation of hydrogen peroxide (HO₂⁻ in this case) on the electrocatalyst has been observed. The apparent exchange current density for oxygen reduction on LSM has been found to be 2 × 10⁻⁷ A cm⁻², while the corresponding Tafel slope is 0.100 V per decade. The possible reaction mechanism for electroreduction of oxygen on this oxide catalyst has been discussed. Published in Russian in Elektrokhimiya, 2008, Vol. 44, No. 7, pp. 919–923. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Detailed Description of Pulse Isotopic Exchange Method for Analyzing Oxygen Surface Exchange Behavior on Oxide Ion Conductors

A novel pulse ¹⁸O-¹⁶O isotopic exchange (PIE) technique for measurement of the rate of oxygen surface exchange of oxide ion conductors was presented. The technique employs a continuous flow packed-bed micro-reactor loaded with the oxide powder. The isothermal response to an ¹⁸O-enriched pulse passing through the reactor, thereby maintaining chemical equilibrium, is measured by on-line mass spectrometry. Evaluation of the apparent exchange rate follows from the uptake of ¹⁸O by the oxide at given reactor residence time and surface area available for exchange. The developed PIE technique is rapid, simple and highly suitable for screening and systematic studies. No rapid heating/quenching steps are required to facilitate ¹⁸O tracer anneal or analysis, as in other commonly used techniques based upon oxygen isotopic exchange. Moreover, the relative distribution of the oxygen isotopologues ¹⁸O₂, ¹⁶O¹⁸O, and ¹⁶O₂ in the effluent pulse provides insight into the mechanism of the oxygen exchange reaction. The PIE technique has been demonstrated by measuring the exchange rate of selected oxides with enhanced oxide ionic conductivity in the range of 350?900 oC. Analysis of the experimental data in terms of a model with two consecutive, lumped steps for the isotopic exchange reaction shows that for mixed conductors Ba_0.5Sr_0.5Co_0.8Fe_0.2O_3-δ(BSCF) and La₂NiO_4+δ the reaction is limited by the apparent rate of dissociative adsorption of O₂ molecules at the oxide surface. For yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), a change-over takes place, from rate-limitations by oxygen incorporation below ∽800 oC to rate-limitations by O₂ dissociative adsorption above this temperature. Good agreement is obtained with exchange rates reported for these materials in literature.     

Depth distribution of light elements in heavy matrices with charged-particle-induced reactions

Two different methods are described for measuring the depth distribution of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen in metals: Proton activation makes use of resonances in the excitation function of the (p, γ) reactions for depth determination, and with the aid of the different half-lives for for β⁺-decay provides information on the different constituents present. The other method makes use of the shape of neutron groups in the time-of-flight spectra from deuteron-induced reactions. Depths of some tens of microns with a resolution of fractions of a micron are studied. The detection limit is of the order of 100 ppm.