Three‐Dimensional Branched and Faceted Gold–Ruthenium Nanoparticles: Using Nanostructure to Improve Stability in Oxygen Evolution Electrocatalysis

Achieving stability with highly active Ru nanoparticles for electrocatalysis is a major challenge for the oxygen evolution reaction. As improved stability of Ru catalysts has been shown for bulk surfaces with low‐index facets, there is an opportunity to incorporate these stable facets into Ru nanoparticles. Now, a new solution synthesis is presented in which hexagonal close‐packed structured Ru is grown on Au to form nanoparticles with 3D branches. Exposing low‐index facets on these 3D branches creates stable reaction kinetics to achieve high activity and the highest stability observed for Ru nanoparticle oxygen evolution reaction catalysts. These design principles provide a synthetic strategy to achieve stable and active electrocatalysts.     

Mid-infrared heterodyne phase-sensitive dispersion spectroscopy in flame measurements

We present the first demonstration of heterodyne phase-sensitive dispersion spectroscopy (HPSDS) for in situ, non-intrusive and quantitative CO₂ concentration measurements in flames. Dispersion spectroscopy retrieves gas properties by measuring the refractive index in the vicinity of a molecular resonance. The HPSDS scheme features a significant diagnostic advantage of the intrinsic immunity to laser power fluctuations caused by beam steering, thermal radiation and soot scattering in combustion environments, and thus no extra calibration process is required. In this work, we described the spectroscopic fundamentals for measuring heterodyne phase signals in flames. As a proof of principle, we used a mid-infrared interband cascade laser (ICL) near 4183?nm to exploit the strong CO₂ transitions in the R-branch of the v₃ fundamental band. The HPSDS signals of four CO₂ lines, R(76), R(78), R(80) and R(82), were measured in CH₄/air flames to obtain CO₂ concentrations at different equivalence ratios (Φ?=?0.8–1.2), yielding a good agreement with the simultaneous laser absorption measurements using the same ICL. With its immunity to laser power fluctuations verified experimentally, the HPSDS sensor was successfully implemented to measure CO₂ concentrations in C₂H₄/air sooting flames (Φ?=?1.78–2.38). Laser dispersion spectroscopy proves to be a promising and alternative diagnostic tool for combustion measurements.     

Pressurized hot water extraction of bioactive or marker compounds in botanicals and medicinal plant materials

To reduce the use of organic solvent, pressurized hot water extraction (PHWE) has been shown to be a feasible option for the extraction of bioactive and marker compounds in botanicals and medicinal plants. The parameters that may affect the extraction efficiencies in PHWE include temperature, extraction time and addition of small percentage of organic solvent or surfactants. Currently, applications of PHWE for the extraction of thermally labile compounds in botanicals are still rather limited. PHWE with and without the additional of a small percentage of organic solvent such as ethanol is highly suited for the chemical standardization and quality control of medicinal plants. At the same time, it can be applied at the pilot scale as a manufacturing process for medicinal plants. Surfactant assisted PHWE was found to enhance the extraction of thermally labile and more hydrophobic species in medicinal plants at a lower temperature. The addition of small amount of surfactants in PHWE is highly suited for the determination of bioactive or marker compounds in medicinal plants. With proper optimization, PHWE was observed to have good extraction efficiency and precision when compared to other reference methods of extraction.     

The Modified Ghost Fluid Method Applied to Fluid-Elastic Structure Interaction

In this work, the modified ghost fluid method is developed to deal with 2D compressible fluid interacting with elastic solid in an Euler-Lagrange coupled system. In applying the modified Ghost Fluid Method to treat the fluid-elastic solid coupling, the Navier equations for elastic solid are cast into a system similar to the Euler equations but in Lagrangian coordinates. Furthermore, to take into account the influence of material deformation and nonlinear wave interaction at the interface, an Euler-Lagrange Riemann problem is constructed and solved approximately along the normal direction of the interface to predict the interfacial status and then define the ghost fluid and ghost solid states. Numerical tests are presented to verify the resultant method.     

Magnetic order and spin dynamics in ferroelectric HoMnO3

Hexagonal HoMnO3 is a frustrated antiferromagnet (T(N)=72 K) ferroelectric (T(C)=875 K) in which these two order parameters are coupled. Our neutron measurements of the spin-wave dispersion for the S=2 Mn3+ on the layered triangular lattice are well described by a two-dimensional nearest-neighbor Heisenberg exchange J=2.44 meV, and an anisotropy D that is 0.28 meV above the spin-reorientation transition at 40 K and 0.38 meV below. For H parallel c the magnetic structures and phase diagram have been determined, and reveal additional transitions below 8 K where the ferroelectrically displaced Ho3+ ions are ordered magnetically.