Temperature influence on hydrogen sorption in palladium limited-volume electrodes (Pd-LVE)

The effect of temperature on hydrogen and deuterium electrosorption into a palladium LVE (limited-volume electrode) has been investigated. A decrease in hydrogen capacity (H/Pd ratio) with increasing temperature has been observed. Temperature strongly influences the plots of measured H(D)/Pd values vs. potential scan rate. In addition, hydrogen absorption was found to be dependent on the composition of the surrounding electrolyte solution. These results have confirmed the hypothesis that two different mechanisms of hydrogen desorption from the palladium electrode take place, namely electrochemical oxidation and non-electrochemical recombination. Further, the ratio between the rate constants for these two processes has been found to change with temperature. Electronic Publication     

Kinetics of thermal decomposition of alkaline phosphates

Summary The thermal behavior of KH₂PO₄, NaH₂PO₄ and Na₂HPO₄ under non-isothermal conditions using TG method with different heating rates was studied. The values of the reaction rate were processed by means of Friedmans differential-isoconversional method. A dependence of the activation energy vs. conversion was observed. Therefore a procedure based on the compensation effect (suggested by Budrugeac and Segal) was applied. A less speculative data processing protocol was offered by the non-parametric kinetics method suggested by Serra, Nomen and Sempere. Three steps were observed by non-isothermal heating: a dehydration, a dimerization and a polycondensation. The differences in the intimate reaction mechanism are determined by the initial number of water molecules.     

Interaction of gas phase atomic hydrogen with Pt(111):Direct evidence for the formation of bulk hydrogen species

Employing hot tungsten filament to thermal dissociate molecular hydrogen,we generated gas phase atomic hydrogen under ultra-high vacuum(UHV)conditions and investigated its interaction with Pt(111) surface.Thermal desorption spectroscopy(TDS)results demonstrate that adsorption of molecular hy- drogen on Pt(111)forms surface Had species whereas adsorption of atomic hydrogen forms not only surface Had species but also bulk Had species.Bulk Had species is more thermal-unstable than surface Had species on Pt(111),suggesting that bulk Had species is more energetic.This kind of weakly- adsorbed bulk Had species might be the active hydrogen species in the Pt-catalyzed hydrogenation reactions.     

Liquid chromatography of polymer mixtures by a combination of exclusion and full adsorption mechanisms. Three- and four-component polymer blends

Summary Coupling of full adsorption-desorption and size-exclusion chromatography (FAD-SEC) has been applied to the separation and molecular characterization of three- and four-component polymer blends. The method is based on the full adsorption of alln orn−1 components of the polymer blend in a specially designed FAD minicolumn. By appropriate eluent switching the adsorbed polymers are desorbed stepwise from the FAD minicolumn into an on-line SEC column for molecular characterization. It is shown that the desorption isotherms of particular blend components give valuable information about the appropriate displacer composition. The exact position of the desorption isotherms depends, however, both on the amount of polymer adsorbed and in the presence of other, chemically different, polymers within FAD column. The nature and composition of the displacer must, therfore, be adjusted if the intervals between the desorption of particular blend components are to be large enough to prevent displacement overlap. Presented at: Balaton Symposium on High-Performance Separation Methods, Siófok, Hungary, September 3–5, 1997.     

An Easy One-Pot Procedure for the Synthesis of <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>-Sulfonyl Phosphorous Ylides and Sulfonyl Iminophosphoranes

Summary. Reaction of triphenylphosphine and an electron deficient acetylenic ester in the presence of strong N–H acid such as alkyl and aryl sulfamides or acetamide produces phosphorous ylides at room temperature in CH₂Cl₂. The aryl sulfamide phosphoranes undergo a smooth transformation reaction in boiling toluene and produce iminophosphoranes.     

Autoxidation of cyclohexane: conventional views challenged by theory and experiment.

In spite of its industrial importance, the detailed reaction mechanism of cyclohexane autoxidation by O2 is still insufficiently known. Based on quantum chemical potential energy surfaces, rate coefficients of the primary and secondary chain propagation steps involving the cyclohexylperoxyl (CyOO) radical were evaluated using multiconformer transition-state theory. Including tunneling and hindered-internal-rotation effects, the rate coefficient for hydrogen-atom abstraction from cyclohexane (CyH) by CyOO was calculated to be k(T)= 1.46 x 10(-11) x exp(-17.8 kcal mol(-1)/ RT) cm3s(-1) (300-600K), close to the experimental data. A "Franck-Rabinowitch cage" reaction between the nascent cyclohexylhydroperoxide (CyOOH) and cyclohexyl radical, products from CyOO + CyH, is put forward as an initially important cyclohexanol (CyOH) formation channel. alphaH abstraction by CyOO. from cyclohexanone was calculated to be only about five times faster than that from CyH, too slow to explain all the observed side products. The a-hydrogen (alphaH) abstractions from CyOH and CyOOH by CyOO. are predicted to be about 10 and 40 times faster, respectively, than the CyOO. +CyH reaction. The very fast CyOO.+CyOOH reaction proceeds through the unstable Cy-alphaH .OOH radical that decomposes spontaneously into the ketone (Q=O) plus the OH radical; the "hot" .OH is found to produce the bulk of the alcohol via a second, "activated cage" reaction analogous to that above. It is thus shown how the very reactive CyOOH intermediate is the predominant source of ketone and alcohol, while it also leads to some side products. The alpha-hydroxycyclohexylperoxyl radical formed during the moderately fast oxidation of CyOH is shown to decompose fast into HO2 + cyclohexanone in a rapidly equilibrated reaction, which constitutes a smaller, second ketone source. These two fast cyclohexanone forming routes avoid the need for unfavorable molecular routes hitherto invoked as ketone sources. The theoretical predictions are supported and complemented by experimental findings. The newly proposed scheme is also largely applicable to the oxidation of other hydrocarbons, such as toluene, xylene, and ethylbenzene.     

Host-guest complexes of crown ethers with HN-proton-donor molecules

Crown ethers were reacted with HN-proton-donor molecules to obtain crystalline molecular host-guest complexes. It was found that complexes with crown ethers of different structure are formed, depending on the linear dimensions and mode of steric shielding of active centers of the proton-donor molecules.Translated from Zhurnal Obshchei Khimii, Vol. 74, No. 12, 2004, pp. 2030–2033.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2004 by Wang, Ganin.This revised version was published online in April 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

Molecular Beam Mass Spectrometry System for Characterization of Thermal Plasma Chemical Vapor Deposition

A molecular beam mass spectrometry system for in situ measurement of the concentration of gas phase species including radicals impinging on a substrate during thermal plasma chemical vapor deposition (TPCVD) has been designed and constructed. Dynamically controlled substrate temperature was achieved using a variable thermal contact resistance method via a backside flow of an argon/helium mixture. A high quality molecular beam with beamtobackground signal greater than 20 was obtained under film growth conditions by sampling through a small nozzle (75 m) in the center of the substrate. Mass discrimination effects were accounted for in order to quantify the species measurements. We demonstrate that this system has a minimum detection limit of under 100 ppb. Quantitative measurements of hydrocarbon species (H, H₂, C, CH₃, CH₄, C₂H₂, C₂H₄) using Ar/H₂/CH₄ mixtures and silicon species (Si, SiH, SiH₂, SiCl, SiCl₂, Cl, HCl) using Ar/H₂/SiCl₄ mixtures were obtained under thermal plasma chemical vapor deposition conditions.     

Polystyrene/thermoplastic starch blends with different plasticizers

Conventional plastics has a large impact in increasing the environment’s pollution. That’s why the interest has turned towards novel partially and completely biodegradable polymers. In this work, blends of polystyrene and thermoplastic starch with glycerol and Buriti (Mauritia flexuosa L.) oil as plasticizers were prepared. Samples were analyzed using TG/DTG and DSC techniques. The TG results indicated that the blends with Buriti oil are thermally more stable than those with glycerol. The DSC analysis that Buriti oil provides a higher degree of plasticization of PS, compared to the blends plasticized using glycerol under the studied conditions.