Kinetics of ethylene glycol electrooxidation on the noble metal-based nano-catalysts

A comparative electrooxidation of Eg in the alkaline solution was investigated over Pt, Pd and Au nanoparticle-modified carbon-ceramic electrode. The kinetic parameters of Eg oxidation, i.e., Tafel slope and activation energy (E _a), were determined on the modified electrodes. The lowest E _a value of 8.9 kJ mol^?1 was calculated on Pt|CCE. In continuation, the reaction orders with respect to the Eg and NaOH concentrations on Pd|CCE were found to be 0.4–0.2 and 0.6, respectively. An adsorption equilibrium constant (b) of 22.36 M^?1 and the adsorption Gibbs energy change (ΔG°) of ?7.7 kJ mol^?1 were obtained on Pd|CCE. The chronopotentiometry (CP) and chronoamperometry (CA) results showed that Pd|CCE and then Au|CCE have better performance stability than Pt|CCE for Eg electrooxidation. Additionally, the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) suggested faster electron-transfer kinetics on Pt than that on the Pd and Au electrocatalysts.     

Novel thin film nanocomposite membranes incorporated with polyoxovanadate nanocluster for high water flux and antibacterial properties

Using interfacial polymerization (IP) of m-phenylenediamine aqueous solution containing polyoxovanadate nanoclusters (POV) and trimesoyl chloride (TMC) in organic solution, we fabricated a novel polyamide (PA)- polyoxovanadate nanocluster (POV) nanocomposite membranes (PA-POV TFN). The chemical structures and morphologies of the synthesized membranes were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, atomic force microscope (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and water contact angle measurements. Experimental results showed that the performances of PA-POV TFN membranes are remarkably dependent on POV incorporation in the membranes, which could be controlled by using different amounts of POV particles. Moreover, the PA-POV TFN membranes illustrated outstanding antibacterial properties against Gram-negative E. coli. On the other hand, the incorporation of various amounts of POV in the membranes improved the membrane separation performances (water flux and salt rejection) as well as the antibacterial activity in FO process as compared to the original thin-film composite (TFC) polyamide membrane.     

On self-regular IPMs

Primal-dual interior-point methods (IPMs) have shown their power in solving large classes of optimization problems. However, at present there is still a gap between the practical behavior of these algorithms and their theoretical worst-case complexity results, with respect to the strategies of updating the duality gap parameter in the algorithm. The so-called small-update IPMs enjoy the best known theoretical worst-case iteration bound, but work very poorly in practice. To the contrary, the so-called large-update IPMs have superior practical performance but with relatively weaker theoretical results. In this paper we discuss the new algorithmic variants and improved complexity results with respect to the new family of Self-Regular proximity based IPMs for Linear Optimization problems, and their generalizations to Conic and Semidefinite Optimization This research was supported by the MITACS project “New IPMs and Software for Convex Conic-Linear Optimization and Their Application to Solve VLSI Circuit Layout Problems”, by an NSERC discovery grant, and the CRC program. The first author would also like to thank the Iranian Ministry of Science, Research and Technology for supporting his research.     

Application of polymeric nanofibers in soft tissues regeneration

Nanotechnology has wide applications in many fields, especially in the biological sciences and medicine. Nanomaterials are applied as potential materials for treatment and diagnosis. The development of nanofibers has greatly enhanced the scope for fabricating designs that can potentially be used in medical sciences. The application of polymeric nanofibers in biomaterials sciences and tissue engineering review in fields of skin and eye, neural and cardiovascular tissues, and urological tissues. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Study About Nanocluster Deposition of Thin-film Formation by Molecular Dynamics Simulation

The thin-film growth has been confirmed to be assembled by an enormous number of clusters in ICBD method. In sequence of clusters’ depositions proceeds to form the thin-film to understand quantitatively the interaction mechanisms between the cluster atoms and the substrate atoms, we use molecular dynamics simulation with EAM potential. The quantitative of flatness of deposition and percent of disordered atoms were proposed to evaluate the property of thin-film. In this simulation, three different Co cluster sizes of 55, 70, and 100 atoms with different velocities (100 up to 800 m/s) were deposited on a Al(0 0 1) substrate whose temperatures were set between 300 and 500 K. The simulations begin at specific equilibrium temperature of clusters and the substrate. The simulations are performed at different temperatures of the clusters and substrate and for different sizes of clusters. We showed that the percent of disordered atoms of substrate are affected by the cluster size and velocity of the clusters. Temperature dependence of the number of disordered atoms for different cluster’s velocity was observed. We investigated the effect of cluster size and initial velocity of cluster on the value of flatness.     

Lead-doped carbon ceramic electrode as a renewable surface composite electrode for the preparation of lead dioxide film and detection of <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">l</Emphasis>-tyrosine

Lead-doped carbon ceramic electrode as a new type of renewable composite electrode was prepared by mixing the lead powder with electrode matrix before gelation. Pb on the electrode surface was then converted to lead dioxide by the potential scanning of the composite electrode in 0.1 M NaOH solution in the range of ? 0.3 to 0.7 V versus SCE. The composition and morphology of the electrodes were studied by energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy techniques. Cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry techniques were also used to study the electrocatalytic activity of the modified electrode toward the oxidation of the l-tyrosine. The best results were obtained at a working potential of 0.45 V (vs. SCE) in 0.1 M NaOH solution. The sensor exhibited a good linear response in the range of 5–1458 µM with a coefficient of determination of 0.9963. The detection limit was 0.77 µM, and sensitivity was 37.4 μA mM^?1. In addition, the modified electrode showed high stability and interference-free response for to detection of the l-tyrosine.