An empirical method for predicting detonation pressure of CHNOFCl explosives

This paper describes a new method for prediction of the Chapman-Jouguet detonation pressures of CHNOFCl explosives using the heat of detonation, Q_det, the number of moles of gaseous products of detonation per gram of explosive, α, and the average molecular weight of gaseous products, M. The equation has the form: P_CJ=15.88α(MQ_det)^1/2ρ₀²−11.17, where P_CJ is the Chapman-Jouguet detonation pressure and ρ₀ the loading density. Calculated P_CJ by this procedure show good result with respect to measured detonation pressure for any pure or mixture of ideal and some of less ideal CHNOFCl explosives at ρ₀>0.8 g/cm³.     

Feasibility study on reducing lead and cadmium absorption by spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) in a contaminated soil using nanoporous activated carbon

Activated carbons (AC) have been long recognized as prominent absorbents in industries and feature numerous applications in preventing or absorbing the harmful gases and liquids and could be employed for filtration and remediation or even reutilization of chemicals. In order to investigate the capacity of AC in reducing the absorption of heavy metals (HM) including lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) and dual complex (Pb?×?Cd) by spinach, a factorial experiment in a completely randomized design with three replications on a pot trial was conducted. Three factors including five levels of AC 0, 5000, 10000, 15000, 20000?mg/kg soil, one concentration level of Pb 4,000?mg/kg soil and one concentration level of cadmium Cd 8?mg/kg soil were tested. The index of heavy metal concentration was calculated in leaf, stem and root and their corresponding dry weights. Results illustrated that in contaminated soils, plants with AC exhibited a superior reduction of absorption of HM vis-à-vis the plants without AC. The foremost result regarding the impact of AC on reducing the concentration of Pb and Cd was observed in 20,000 level of AC. This reveals that AC declined the soil contamination and lessened the accumulation of HM into the shoots and roots. Results suggest that the application of AC may be an eligible solution for decreasing the translocation of HM into the plants.     

Gas storage of simple molecules in boron oxide nanocapsules

The capability of the B₂₀O₃₀ nanocapsule to store H₂, N₂, CO, CO₂, NH₃, CH₄, and Cl₂ molecules on the outer surface and inside of the cage was investigated using Monte Carlo simulations, long‐range and dispersion corrected density functional theory, and Møller–Plesset second‐order perturbation theory. Also, Monte Carlo simulations were employed to investigate the adsorption behavior of larger number of guest molecules inserted into and onto the larger B₈₀O₁₂₀ and B₂₀O₃₀@B₈₀O₁₂₀ cages. Absolute localized molecular orbitals energy decomposition analysis was used to describe the nature of intermolecular interactions in these endohedral and exohedral complexes. It is found that the hydrogen and ammonia gases are diffused to the inside of spherical B₂₀O₃₀ capsule, while other guest molecules prefer to interact with the outer surface of spherical and pyramidal capsules. For B₈₀O₁₂₀, up to 26 H₂ and 11–14 N₂, CO, CO₂, NH₃, and CH₄ molecules are stored inside the capsule. The residual molecules are adsorbed on the outer surface of nanocapsule. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Electrocatalytic activity of porous nanostructured Fe/Pt-Fe electrode for methanol electrooxidation in alkaline media

An electrochemical approach to fabricate a nanostructured Fe/Pt-Fe catalyst through electrodepo-sition followed by galvanic replacement is presented. An Fe/Pt-Fe nanostructured electrode was prepared by deposition of Fe-Zn onto a Fe electrode surface, followed by replacement of the Zn by Pt at open-circuit potential in a Pt-containing alkaline solution. Scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray techniques reveal that the Fe/Pt-Fe electrode is porous and contains Pt. The electrocatalytic activity of the Fe/Pt-Fe electrode for oxidation of methanol was examined by cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. The electrooxidation current on the Fe/Pt-Fe catalyst is much higher than that on flat Pt and smooth Fe catalysts. The onset potential and peak potential on the Fe/Pt-Fe catalyst are more negative than those on flat Pt and smooth Fe electrodes for methanol electrooxidation. All results show that this nanostructured Fe/Pt-Fe electrode is very attractive for integrated fuel cell applications in alkaline media.     

Energy,Exergy, Exergoeconomic and Emergy-Based Exergoeconomic (Emergoeconomic) Analyses of a Biomass Combustion Waste Heat Recovery Organic Rankine Cycle

In recent decades, there has been an increasing trend toward the technical development of efficient energy system assessment tools owing to the growing energy demand and subsequent greenhouse gas emissions. Accordingly, in this paper, a comprehensive emergy-based exergoeconomic (emergoeconomic) method has been developed to study the biomass combustion waste heat recovery organic Rankine cycle (BCWHR-ORC), taking into account thermodynamics, economics, and sustainability aspects. To this end, the system was formulated in Engineering Equation Solver (EES) software, and then the exergy, exergoeconomic, and emergoeconomic analyses were conducted accordingly. The exergy analysis results revealed that the evaporator unit with 55.05 kilowatts and the turbine with 89.57% had the highest exergy destruction rate and exergy efficiency, respectively. Based on the exergoeconomic analysis, the cost per exergy unit (c), and the cost rate (C˙) of the output power of the system were calculated to be 24.13 USD/GJ and 14.19 USD/h, respectively. Next, by applying the emergoeconomic approach, the monetary emergy content of the system components and the flows were calculated to evaluate the system’s sustainability. Accordingly, the turbine was found to have the highest monetary emergy rate of capital investment, equal to 5.43×1012 sej/h, and an output power monetary emergy of 4.77×104 sej/J. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was performed to investigate the system’s overall performance characteristics from an exergoeconomic perspective, regarding the changes in the transformation coefficients (specific monetary emergy).     

Memory Effects in High-Dimensional Systems Faithfully Identified by Hilbert–Schmidt Speed-Based Witness

A witness of non-Markovianity based on the Hilbert–Schmidt speed (HSS), a special type of quantum statistical speed, has been recently introduced for low-dimensional quantum systems. Such a non-Markovianity witness is particularly useful, being easily computable since no diagonalization of the system density matrix is required. We investigate the sensitivity of this HSS-based witness to detect non-Markovianity in various high-dimensional and multipartite open quantum systems with finite Hilbert spaces. We find that the time behaviors of the HSS-based witness are always in agreement with those of quantum negativity or quantum correlation measure. These results show that the HSS-based witness is a faithful identifier of the memory effects appearing in the quantum evolution of a high-dimensional system with a finite Hilbert space.     

Theoretical and empirical approaches to understanding the effect of phosphonate groups on the thermal degradation for two chemically modified PMMA

The influence of phosphonated groups on thermal degradation and flammability has been investigated in the case of two chemically modified PMMA. Thermogravimetric analysis as well as pyrolysis combustion flow calorimetry have been used to define the efficiency of phosphorus in both condensed and vapor phases. A theoretical study was also performed to determine the contribution of phosphonated groups to the effective heat of combustion, residue content and heat release capacity. Empirical and theoretical approaches agreed to highlight that PMMA modified with monophosphonated comonomer is more efficient in both condensed and vapor phases in terms of flammability and char formation. These results were attributed to the ability of phosphonate groups to interact with ester groups and also to the weakness of the P–C–N bonds. Moreover, this study proposes a method for designing the chemical environment of phosphonate group in polymers to achieve better flame retardancy.     

Three-Component Reaction of Triphenylphosphine,Acetylenic Esters,and Arylsulfonyl Hydrazides or Aryl Hydrazines: An Efficient One-Pot Synthesis of Stable β-Nitrogen-Substituted Phosphorus Ylides

The three-component reaction between dialkyl acetylenedicarboxylates and triphenylphosphine in the presence of arylsulfonyl hydrazides or aryl hydrazines produces highly functionalized, salt-free phosphorus ylides in excellent yields.     

Superdense Coding with Uniformly Accelerated Particle

We study superdense coding with uniformly accelerated particle in single mode approximation and beyond single mode approximation. We use four different functions, the capacity of superdense coding, negativity, discord and the probability of success for evaluating the final results. In single mode approximation, all the four functions behave as expected, however in beyond single mode approximation, except the probability of success, the other three functions represent peculiar behaviors at least for special ranges where the beyond single mode approximation is strong.