Improved photoelectrochemical hydrogen production over decorated titania with copper and nickel oxides by optimizing the photoanode and reaction characteristics

We optimized photocatalytic hydrogen production over TiO₂-based photocatalyst by varying the dopant (nickel and copper oxide), thin film active area, nature and concentration of sacrificial agents, and light intensity in a photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell/dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). Various characterization techniques have been used to investigate the structural, morphological, optical, and PEC behavior of single and codoped TiO₂. The TiO₂ decorated with both Cu and Ni oxides with active area of 1 cm² in a mixture of 5 vol % glycerol and 1 M KOH under light intensity of 100 mWcm^?2 produced the maximum hydrogen of 338.4 μmol cm^?2 for 2 h. The superior photocatalyst performance of this photocatalyst is attributed to its small crystallite size and large pore size, as confirmed by X-ray diffractometer, Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and surface area of Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (S_BET). The absorption edges of this photocatalyst had the highest red shift compared with single doped and pure TiO₂ because of more indirect transitions of the photoexcited electrons, greater charge carrier separation, and lower recombination rate. The photoanode active area of 1 cm² with better photocatalytic performance correlated with the number of defects and grain boundaries. Glycerol shifted the conduction band of the photocatalyst to more negative flat potential compared with others. Increasing the concentration of glycerol further than 5 vol% saturated the photocatalyst active sites, increased photooxidation intermediates of glycerol, and reduced the hydrogen production. The light intensity had the maximum impact on the hydrogen production and could strongly control the number of charge carriers in both the PEC cell and the DSSC.     

The Significance of Mobilization and Immobilization of Specific Radionuclides for Optimum Bioleaching Conditions Using Aspergillus lentulus

Physics of Particles and Nuclei Letters - Gamma spectrometry is applied for measurement of natural radioactivity by Hyper-pure germanium (HPGe) systems during the application of bioleaching optimum...     

Mathematical Modeling to Simulate the Movement of Contaminants in Groundwater

The objectives of this paper are twofold. Firstly, we formulate a system of partial differential equations that models the contamination of groundwater due to migration of dissolved contaminants through unsaturated to saturated zone. A closed form solution using the singular perturbation techniques for the flow and solute transport equations in the unsaturated zone is obtained. Indeed, the solution can be used as a tool to verify the accuracy of numerical models of water flow and solute transport. The second part of this paper, deals with how the water level in a water reserve drops due to pumping water out of a well that is some distance away.     

Effective synthesis of carbon nanotubes via catalytic decomposition of methane: Influence of calcination temperature on metal–support interaction of Co–Mo/MgO catalyst

The present work investigated the influence of calcination temperature for bimetallic Co–Mo/MgO catalyst on the synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) via catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) of methane. The experimental results showed that variation in the catalyst calcination temperature affected carbon yield, diameter distribution and quality of the CNTs. Increasing the catalyst calcination temperature enabled Co–Mo/MgO catalysts in growing CNTs at higher yield, narrower diameter distribution and better degree of graphitization, credited to the strong metal–support interaction (MSI) formed between CoO species and MgO support. We also discovered that the catalysts of weak MSI were beneficial to the nucleation and growth of CNTs, meanwhile the catalysts with strong MSI provoked the growth of CNTs with narrow diameter distribution. The catalyst calcined at 700 °C, possessing moderate MSI, was found to be the most suitable catalyst for the growth of high quality CNTs with the diameter of 7.70±0.77 nm and the carbon yield of as high as 647.4%.     

Free vibration analysis of linear particle chain impact damper

Impact dampers have gained much research interest over the past decades that resulted in several analytical and experimental studies being conducted in that area. The main emphasis of such research was on developing and enhancing these popular passive control devices with an objective of decreasing the three parameters of contact forces, accelerations, and noise levels. To that end, the authors of this paper have developed a novel impact damper, called the Linear Particle Chain (LPC) impact damper, which mainly consists of a linear chain of spherical balls of varying sizes. The LPC impact damper was designed utilizing the kinetic energy of the primary system through placing, in the chain arrangement, a small-sized ball between each two large-sized balls. The concept of the LPC impact damper revolves around causing the small-sized ball to collide multiple times with the larger ones upon exciting the primary system. This action is believed to lead to the dissipation of part of the kinetic energy at each collision with the large balls.     

Two-Qubit Local Fisher Information Correlation beyond Entanglement in a Nonlinear Generalized Cavity with an Intrinsic Decoherence

In this paper, we study a Hamiltonian system constituted by two coupled two-level atoms (qubits) interacting with a nonlinear generalized cavity field. The nonclassical two-qubit correlation dynamics are investigated using Bures distance entanglement and local quantum Fisher information under the influences of intrinsic decoherence and qubit–qubit interaction. The effects of the superposition of two identical generalized coherent states and the initial coherent field intensity on the generated two-qubit correlations are investigated. Entanglement of sudden death and sudden birth of the Bures distance entanglement as well as the sudden changes in local Fisher information are observed. We show that the robustness, against decoherence, of the generated two-qubit correlations can be controlled by qubit–qubit coupling and the initial coherent cavity states.     

Simultaneous Analysis of a Ternary Mixture of Pharmaceuticals Containing Trimethoprim,Sulphamethoxazole, and Phenazopyridine Hydrochloride Using Third-Derivative and Zero-Order Photodiode Array Spectrophotometry

A simple and rapid method for the simultaneous analysis of a ternary mixture containing trimethoprim, sulphamethoxazole and phenazopyridine hydrochloride is reported. The procedure consists of extraction in 0.1 M hydrochloric acid, filteration and measurement of the amplitudes of the third-derivative spectra at 242 and 276 nm and the absorbance at 450 nm for the determination of trimethoprim, sulphamethoxazole and phenazopyridine hydrochloride, respectively. Good linearity, accuracy, precision and selectivity were found, and the method is proposed for routine quality control purposes, even for the uniformity of contents test.     

Enhancing the performance of thin film CdS/PbS photovoltaic solar cells

This work investigates dependence of the short-circuit current density, open-circuit voltage, fill factor and efficiency of a thin film CdS/PbS solar cell on thickness of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layer, thickness of window layer (CdS), concentration of uncompensated acceptors (width of space-charge region), carrier lifetime in PbS and the reflectivity from metallic back contact. The effect of optical losses, front and rear recombination losses as well as the recombination losses on space-charge region are also considered in this study. As a result, by thinning the front contact layer indium tin oxide from 400 to 100 nm and window layer (CdS) from 200 to 100 nm it is possible to reduce the optical losses from 32 to 20%. The effect of electron lifetime on the internal and external quantum efficiency can be neglected at high width of the space-charge region. The maximum current density of 18.4 mA/cm² is achieved at wide space-charge region (concentration of uncompensated acceptors = 10¹⁵ cm^?3) and the longest lifetime (τ_n = 10^?6 s) where the optical and recombination losses are about 55%. The maximum efficiency of 5.17%, maximum open-circuit voltage of 417 mV and approximately fixed fill factor of 74% are yielded at optimum conditions such as: electron lifetime = 10^?6 s; concentration of uncompensated acceptors = 10¹⁶ cm^?3; thickness of TCO = 100 nm; thickness of CdS = 100 nm; velocity of surface and rear recombination = 10⁷ cm/s and thickness of absorber layer = 3 μm. When the reflectance from the back contact is 100%, the cell parameters improve and the cell efficiency records a value of 6.1% under the above conditions.     

A note on the spectrum of an upper triangular operator matrix

Let be a upper triangular operator matrix acting on the Banach space . We investigate the set of the operators for which , where denotes the spectrum.

     

C4- and D4-Modules via perspective direct summands

In this article, we study the C4- and D4-modules in terms of perspective direct summands, providing new characterizations and results. Endomorphism rings of C4-modules and extensions of right C4-rings are also investigated. Decompositions of C4-modules with restricted ACC on direct summands and D4-modules with restricted DCC on direct summands are obtained.