Comprehensive study of nanostructured supports with high surface area for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis

An extensive study of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis on nanostructure supports with high surface area such as nanostructure γ-alumina, single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), and the hybrid of SWNTs/nanostructure γ-alumina has been investigated. The nanostructure γ-alumina was promoted with lanthanum to obtain better performance of catalyst and 15 wt% cobalt loading was the basis of our investigation. Fischer-Tropsch synthesis was performed in a fixed bed reactor under different reaction conditions (220–240 °C, 15–25 bar, H₂/CO ratio of 2, GHSV of 900–1400) in order to study the effects of temperature, pressure and gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) changes on hydrocarbon selectivity and catalyst activity. The catalysts were extensively characterized by different methods including X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), inductively coupled plasma (ICP), hydrogen (H₂) chemisorption and temperature-programmed reduction (TPR). The results showed that the yield of hybrid supported catalyst (55.4%) is higher than that of nanostructure γ-alumina supported catalyst (55.0%) and lower than that of SWNTs supported cobalt catalyst (71.0%). The hybrid supported catalyst showed higher reduction degree and dispersion of cobalt particles. The temperature, pressure and GHSV effects on hybrid supported catalyst were studied and results showed that higher pressure favors the chain growth and temperature increase leads to the increases in methane selectivity and CO conversion. Higher hydrocarbon selectivity and CO conversion showed positive relationship with increasing GHSV while lower hydrocarbon selectivity diminishes.     

Applications of Non-precious Transition Metal Oxide Nanoparticles in Electrochemistry

Non-precious transition metal oxide nanomaterials offer numerous opportunities for various cost-effective electrochemical applications. This review article features the design and advancement of such nanomaterials with unique features applied for the fabrication of electrochemical devices. Also, it discusses various new syntheses of transition metal oxide nanoparticles (TMO NPs) via multiple chemicophysical and biological procedures. Further, the novel appliances of the TMO NPs with varying sizes and morphologies are appraised. The advantages and challenges of a number of investigations on the TMO NPs towards electrochemical applications are addressed with their standpoint of cost-effectiveness, applicability, and the efficiency of the introduced nanostructures for the industrial applications.     

Synthesis,characterization and photocatalytic properties of cesium tungstate (Cs<Subscript>2</Subscript>W<Subscript>3</Subscript>O<Subscript>10</Subscript>) nanofibers

In the paper cesium tungstate nanofibers for the first time have been fabricated successfully by a simple electrospinning technique followed by heat treatment. The cesium tungstate nanofibers have been characterized by XRD, SEM, and FTIR techniques. The results indicated the morphology and quality of the annealed electrospun samples are strongly dependent on the citric acid content within electrospinning solution. It is found with increasing the citric acid content from 7 to 22% the samples morphology changed from a particle structure to a fibrous structure. The average diameter of nanofibers was ~350 nm. XRD analysis reveals that all of the samples have good crystallinity with the same diffraction peaks that can be indexed to the tetragonal phase of Cs₂W₃O₁₀. Furthermore, the photocatalyst properties of cesium tungstate has not been reported to date. In the work the synthesized Cs₂W₃O₁₀ nanofibers were found to exhibit photocatalytic performance in the photodegradation of RhB aqueous solution used as a pollutant model.     

Surfactant Assisted Electrochemical Determination of Noscapine and Papaverine by TiO2 Nanoparticles/Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Modified Carbon Paste Electrode

Russian Journal of Electrochemistry - In the present study, simultaneous voltammetric determination of noscapine and papaverine as two important alkaloids in opium was studied for the first time. A...     

Effects of the evolution of two cross‐focused Gaussian laser beams on the terahertz generation in thermal collisional plasma

Generation of the terahertz (THz) radiation based on the beating of two cross‐focused high intensity Gaussian laser beams in a warm rippled density plasma is numerically investigated, taking into account the ponderomotive force, Ohmic heating, and collisional nonlinearities. The beat ponderomotive force as a result of cross‐focusing of beams induces a vertical velocity component that by coupling with the rippled density gives rise to a nonlinear current deriving THz radiation. The effect of laser beams spot size evolution and plasma parameters on the THz generation is studied. It was found that there exist special electron temperature and laser intensity ranges with “turning points” where the generation of THz radiation reaches its maximum value and outside of these ranges, it disappears. The results also indicated that increasing the background electron density as well as taking into account the collision frequency help THz generation. Moreover, the maximum yield of THz radiation occurs when the beat wave frequency approaches the plasma frequency.     

Type II c-Met inhibitors: molecular insight into crucial interactions for effective inhibition

The c-Met tyrosine kinase plays an important role in human cancers. Preclinical studies demonstrated that c-Met is over-expressed, mutated and amplified in a variety of human tumor types and design of more potent c-Met inhibitors is a priority. In this study, 14 molecular dynamics simulations of potent type II c-Met inhibitors were run to resolve the critical interactions responsible for high affinity of ligands towards c-Met considering the essential flexibility of protein–ligand interactions. Residues Phe1223 and Tyr1159, involved in pi-pi interactions were recognized as the most effective residues in the ligand binding in terms of binding free energies. Hydrogen bond interaction with Met1160 was also found necessary for effective type II ligand binding to c-Met.

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Electro-organic synthesis of tetrahydroimidazo[1,2-a]pyridin-5(1H)-one via a multicomponent reaction

Molecular Diversity - Electro-synthesis through a one-pot three-component condensation of corresponding aldehydes, Meldrum’s acid, and 2-(nitromethylene)imidazolidine resulted in a series of...