Radiochemical neutron activation analysis of trace impurities in high purity aluminum

Rapid radiochemical neutron activation analysis (RNAA) procedures were developed and employed for the determination of 32 trace impurities in high purity aluminum thin foils. Anion exchange column chromatography was developed for the sequential group chemical separation of various elements which helped in reducing the spectral interferences and improving the sensitivity of the method. The procedure is simple and requires a very short time to separate the elements in three groups for radiometric assay. To determine very low contents of uranium and thorium,²³⁹Np and²³³Pa as activation products were separated using anion exchange and coprecipitation methods. The impurity contents were found to be low, therefore, their adverse effects on microelectronic devices would be negligible. Our data could partially be compared with the data reported in literature.     

Entrained Flow Gasification of Polypropylene Pyrolysis Oil

Petrochemical products could be produced from circular feedstock, such as waste plastics. Most plants that utilize syngas in their production are today equipped with entrained flow gasifiers, as this type of gasifier generates the highest syngas quality. However, feeding of circular feedstocks to an entrained flow gasifier can be problematic. Therefore, in this work, a two-step process was studied, in which polypropylene was pre-treated by pyrolysis to produce a liquid intermediate that was easily fed to the gasifier. The products from both pyrolysis and gasification were thoroughly characterized. Moreover, the product yields from the individual steps, as well as from the entire process chain, are reported. It was estimated that the yields of CO and H₂ from the two-step process were at least 0.95 and 0.06 kg per kg of polypropylene, respectively, assuming that the pyrolysis liquid and wax can be combined as feedstock to an entrained flow gasifier. On an energy basis, the energy content of CO and H₂ in the produced syngas corresponded to approximately 40% of the energy content of the polypropylene raw material. This is, however, expected to be significantly improved on a larger scale where losses are proportionally smaller.     

Behavioral effects of a four-wing attractor with circuit realization: a cryptographic perspective on immersion

In this paper, we propose an innovative chaotic system, combining fractional derivative and sine-hyperbolic nonlinearity with circuit execution. The study of this system is conducted via an analog circuit simulator, using two anti-parallel semiconductor diodes to provide hyperbolic sine nonlinearity, and to function as operational amplifiers. The multi-stability of the system is also enhanced with the help of multi-equilibrium points for distinct real orders of system. The system explores the generation of a four-wing attractor in different phases, both numerically and electronically. By changing the input parameters of the system, different graphs are generated for current flow in state, phase, and space, to confirm the precision of the fractional order derivatives. A reasonable simulation shows that the deliberate circuit provides effective chaos in terms of speed and accuracy, which is comensurate with the numerical simulation. This nonlinear chaotic behavior is utilized to encrypt sound (.wav), images (.jpg), and animated (.gif) data which are a major requirement for the security of communication systems. The proposed circuit performs chaos and cryptographic tasks with high-effective analog computation, and constitutes a novel approach to this area of research.     

An Oxygen-Insensitive Hydrogen Evolution Catalyst Coated by a Molybdenum-Based Layer for Overall Water Splitting

For overall water-splitting systems, it is essential to establish O₂-insensitive cathodes that allow cogeneration of H₂ and O₂. An acid-tolerant electrocatalyst is described, which employs a Mo-coating on a metal surface to achieve selective H₂ evolution in the presence of O₂. In operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy identified reduced Pt covered with an amorphous molybdenum oxyhydroxide hydrate with a local structural order composed of polyanionic trimeric units of molybdenum(IV). The Mo layer likely hinders O₂ gas permeation, impeding contact with active Pt. Photocatalytic overall water splitting proceeded using MoO_x/Pt/SrTiO₃ with inhibited water formation from H₂ and O₂, which is the prevailing back reaction on the bare Pt/SrTiO₃ photocatalyst. The Mo coating was stable in acidic media for multiple hours of overall water splitting by membraneless electrolysis and photocatalysis.     

Synthesis of Highly Potent Anti-Inflammatory Compounds (ROS Inhibitors) from Isonicotinic Acid

In search of anti-inflammatory compounds, novel scaffolds containing isonicotinoyl motif were synthesized via an efficient strategy. The compounds were screened for their in vitro anti-inflammatory activity. Remarkably high activities were observed for isonicotinates 5–6 and 8a–8b. The compound 5 exhibits an exceptional IC₅₀ value (1.42 ± 0.1 µg/mL) with 95.9% inhibition at 25 µg/mL, which is eight folds better than the standard drug ibuprofen (11.2 ± 1.9 µg/mL). To gain an insight into the mode of action of anti-inflammatory compounds, molecular docking studies were also performed. Decisively, further development and fine tuning of these isonicotinates based scaffolds for the treatment of various aberrations is still a wide-open field of research.     

EFFECT OF NOZZLE FAN ANGLE ON SPRAYS IN GAS-SOLID RISER FLOW

A three-dimensional simulation study is performed for investigating the hydrodynamic behaviors of a cross-flow liquid nitrogen spray injected into an air-fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) riser of rectangular cross-section. Rectangular nozzles with a fixed aspect ratio but different fan angles are used for the spray feeding. While our numerical simulation reveals a generic three-phase flow structure with strong three-phase interactions under rapid vaporization of sprays, this paper tends to focus on the study of the effect of nozzle fan angle on the spray coverage as well as vapor flux distribution by spray vaporization inside the riser flow. The gas-solid (air-FCC) flow is simulated using the multi-fluid method while the evaporating sprays (liquid nitrogen) are calculated using the Lagrangian trajectory method, with a strong two-way coupling between the Eulerian gas-solid flow and the Lagrangian trajectories of spray. Our simulation shows that the spray coverage is basically dominated by the spray fan angle. The spray fan angle has a very minor effect on spray penetration. The spray vaporization flux per unit area of spray coverage is highly non-linearly distributed along the spray penetration. The convection of gas-solid flow in a riser leads to a significant downward deviation of vapor generated by droplet vaporization, causing a strong recirculating wake region in the immediate downstream area of the spray.