Synthesis and Characterization of an α-Fe2O3-Decorated g-C3N4 Heterostructure for the Photocatalytic Removal of MO

This study describes the preparation of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄), hematite (α-Fe₂O₃), and their g-C₃N₄/α-Fe₂O₃ heterostructure for the photocatalytic removal of methyl orange (MO) under visible light illumination. The facile hydrothermal approach was utilized for the preparation of the nanomaterials. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) were carried out to study the physiochemical and optoelectronic properties of all the synthesized photocatalysts. Based on the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and UV-visible diffuse reflectance (DRS) results, an energy level diagram vs. SHE was established. The acquired results indicated that the nanocomposite exhibited a type-II heterojunction and degraded the MO dye by 97%. The degradation ability of the nanocomposite was higher than that of pristine g-C₃N₄ (41%) and α-Fe₂O₃ (30%) photocatalysts under 300 min of light irradiation. The formation of a type-II heterostructure with desirable band alignment and band edge positions for efficient interfacial charge carrier separation along with a larger specific surface area was collectively responsible for the higher photocatalytic efficiency of the g-C₃N₄/α-Fe₂O₃ nanocomposite. The mechanism of the nanocomposite was also studied through results obtained from UV-vis and XPS analyses. A reactive species trapping experiment confirmed the involvement of the superoxide radical anion (O₂^•−) as the key reactive oxygen species for MO removal. The degradation kinetics were also monitored, and the reaction was observed to be pseudo-first order. Moreover, the sustainability of the photocatalyst was also investigated.     

Transient creep during transformation in Cd-Zn alloys

Transient creep of Cd-2 wt. % Zn and Cd-17·4 wt. % Zn alloys has been studied under different constant stresses ranging from 6·4 MPa to 12·7 MPa near the transformation temperature. The results of both compositions showed two transient deformation regions, the low temperature region (below 483 K) and the high temperature region (above 483 K). From the transient creep described by the equation _tr=Bt ⁿ, where _tr andt are the transient creep strain and time. The parametersB andn were calculated. The parameterB was found to change with the applied stress from 0·3×10^–4 to 3×10^–4 and from 0·6×10^–4 to 18×10^–4 for Cd-2 wt. % Zn and Cd-17·4 wt. % Zn, respectively. The exponentn was found to change from 0·8 to 0·95 for both alloys. The parameterB was related to the steady state creep rate through the equation , the exponent was found to be 0·5 for Cd-2 wt. % Zn and 0·6 for the eutectic composition. The activation energies of transient creep in the vicinity of the transformation regions (above 483 K) were found to be 50·2 kJ/mole for Cd-2 wt. % Zn and 104·7 kJ/mole for the eutectic composition characterizing the mechanisms of grain boundary diffusion and volume diffusion in Cd, respectively.     

An efficient meshless computational technique to simulate nonlinear anomalous reaction–diffusion process in two-dimensional space

Nonlinear Dynamics - In this paper, a numerical simulation of an anomalous reaction–diffusion process in two-dimensional space with a nonlinear source term is presented. An efficient and...     

A proper orthogonal decomposition variational multiscale meshless interpolating element-free Galerkin method for incompressible magnetohydrodynamics flow

In the recent decade, the meshless methods have been handled for solving most of PDEs due to easiness of the meshless methods. One of the popular meshless methods is the element-free Galerkin (EFG) method that was first proposed for solving some problems in the solid mechanics. The test and trial functions of the EFG are based on the special basis. Recently, some modifications have been developed to improve the EFG method. One of these improvements is the variational multiscale EFG procedure. In the current article, the shape functions of interpolation moving least squares approximation have been applied to the variational multiscale EFG technique for solving the incompressible magnetohydrodynamics flow. In order to reduce the elapsed CPU time of simulation, we employ a reduced-order model based on the proper orthogonal decomposition technique. The current combination can be referred to as the reduced-order variational multiscale EFG technique. To illustrate the reduction in CPU time used as well as the efficiency of the proposed method, we applied it for the two-dimensional cases.     

Role of bio-derived zinc oxide nanoparticles in antifungal and photocatalytic activities

Research on Chemical Intermediates - Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) are known as a material in the treatment of environmental pollutions. In this study, ZnO-NPs were synthesized using...     

A trust region method for solving the decentralized static output feedback design problem

The shortest-paths problem is a fundamental problem in graph theory and finds diverse applications in various fields. This is why shortest path algorithms have been designed more thoroughly than any other algorithm in graph theory. A large number of optimization problems are mathematically equivalent to the problem of finding shortest paths in a graph. The shortest-path between a pair of vertices is defined as the path with shortest length between the pair of vertices. The shortest path from one vertex to another often gives the best way to route a message between the vertices. This paper presents anO(n ²) time sequential algorithm and anO(n ²/p+logn) time parallel algorithm on EREW PRAM model for solving all pairs shortest paths problem on circular-arc graphs, wherep andn represent respectively the number of processors and the number of vertices of the circular-arc graph.     

Natural convection in a square cavity containing a nanofluid and an adiabatic square block at the center

The problem of free convection fluid flow and heat transfer of Cu–water nanofluid inside a square cavity having adiabatic square bodies at its center has been investigated numerically. The governing equations have been discretized using the finite volume method. The SIMPLER algorithm was employed to couple velocity and pressure fields. Using the developed code, a parametric study was conducted and the effects of pertinent parameters such as Rayleigh number, size of the adiabatic square body, and volume fraction of the Cu nanoparticles on the fluid flow and thermal fields and heat transfer inside the cavity were investigated. The obtained results show that for all Rayleigh numbers with the exception of Ra = 10⁴ the average Nusselt number increases with increase in the volume fraction of the nanoparticles. At Ra = 10⁴ the average Nusselt number is a decreasing function of the nanoparticles volume fraction. Moreover at low Rayleigh numbers (10³ and 10⁴) the rate of heat transfer decreases when the size of the adiabatic square body increases while at high Rayleigh numbers (10⁵ and 10⁶) it increases.     

A collocation method of lines for two‐sided space‐fractional advection‐diffusion equations with variable coefficients

We present the method of lines (MOL), which is based on the spectral collocation method, to solve space‐fractional advection‐diffusion equations (SFADEs) on a finite domain with variable coefficients. We focus on the cases in which the SFADEs consist of both left‐ and right‐sided fractional derivatives. To do so, we begin by introducing a new set of basis functions with some interesting features. The MOL, together with the spectral collocation method based on the new basis functions, are successfully applied to the SFADEs. Finally, four numerical examples, including benchmark problems and a problem with discontinuous advection and diffusion coefficients, are provided to illustrate the efficiency and exponentially accuracy of the proposed method.     

Partial dehydration of the retinal binding pocket and proof for photochemical deprotonation of the retinal Schiff base in bicelle bacteriorhodopsin crystals

In bicelle bacteriorhodopsin (bcbR) crystals, the protein has a different structure from both native bacteriorhodopsin (bR) and in-cubo bR (cbR) crystals. Recently, we studied the ability of bcbR crystals to undergo the photocycle upon laser excitation, characterized by the appearance of the M intermediate by single crystal resonance Raman spectroscopy. Calculation of the M lifetime by flash photolysis experiments demonstrated that in our bcbR crystals, the M rise time is much faster than in the native or cbR crystals, with a decay time that is much slower than these other two forms. Although it is now known that the bcbR crystals are capable of photochemical deprotonation, it is not known whether photochemical deprotonation is the only way to create the deprotonated Schiff base in the bcbR crystals. We measured both the visible and Raman spectra of crystals dried under ambient lighting and dried in the dark in order to determine whether the retinal Schiff base is able to thermally deprotonate in the dark. In addition, changes in the visible spectrum of single bcbR crystals under varying degrees of hydration and light exposure were examined to better understand the retinal binding environment.     

Spectrophotometric determination of molybdenum with phenylfluorone

Spectrophotometric studies on the reaction between molybdenum as molybdate (MoO₄^2?) and phenylfluorone are presented. The reaction conditions are optimized to develop an intense color (molar absorptivity is 3.8 × 10³) selective and sensitive for the Spectrophotometric determination of molybdenum. The absorbance is measured at 560 nm, at a pH of 1.5–3. The colored complex is stable for up to 24 hr, Beer's law is obeyed, over the concentration range of 1 to 4 μg/25 ml. The relative standard deviation is 2% and the sensitivity of the method is 1.60 × 10^?4 mg/ml.