Review of proton conductors for hydrogen separation

There is a global push to develop a range of hydrogen technologies for timely adoption of the hydrogen economy. This is critical in view of the depleting oil reserves and looming transport fuel shortage, global warming, and increasing pollution. Molecular hydrogen (H₂) can be generated by a number of renewable and fossil-fuel-based resources. However, given the high cost of H₂ generation by renewable energy at this stage, fossil or carbon fuels are likely to meet the short- to medium-term demand for hydrogen. In view of this, effective technologies are required for the separation of H₂ from a gas feed (by-products of coal or bio-mass gasification plants, or gases from fossil fuel partial oxidation or reforming) consisting mainly of H₂ and CO₂ with small quantities of other gases such as CH₄, CO, H₂O, and traces of sulphur compounds. Several technologies are under development for hydrogen separation. One such technology is based on ion transport membranes, which conduct protons or both protons and electrons. Although these materials have been considered for other applications, such as gas sensors, fuel cells and water electrolysis, the interest in their use as gas separation membranes has developed only recently. In this paper, various classes of proton-conducting materials have been reviewed with specific emphasis on their potential use as H₂ separation membranes in the industrial processes of coal gasification, natural gas reforming, methanol reforming and the water–gas shift (WGS) reaction. Key material requirements for their use in these applications have been discussed.     

Joule–Thomson inversion curves of mixtures by molecular simulation in comparison to advanced equations of state: Natural gas as an example

Molecular modelling and simulation as well as four equations of state (EOS) are applied to natural gas mixtures regarding Joule–Thomson (JT) inversion. JT inversion curves are determined by molecular simulation for six different natural gas mixtures consisting of methane, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and ethane. These components are also regarded as pure fluids, leading to a total of 10 studied systems. The results are compared to four advanced mixture EOS: DDMIX, SUPERTRAPP, BACKONE and the recent GERG-2004 Wide-Range Reference EOS. It is found that molecular simulation is competitive with state-of-the-art EOS in predicting JT inversion curves. The molecular based approaches (simulation and BACKONE) are superior to DDMIX and SUPERTRAPP.     

Ne-CH4分子间相互作用势的局域密度近似计算

利用基于密度泛函理论框架下的局域密度近似方法对Ne-CH4分子间的相互作用势进行了计算. 发现: 当Ne原子和CH4分子之间的距离约为5.8 a.u.时, 计算的势能曲线存在最小值, 对应的势阱深度约为0.053 eV. 计算结果与实验值符合较好.     

新型Eu~(3+)、Tb~(3+)掺杂配合物的合成与荧光性能研究

合成了稀土(Eu3+和Tb3+)与二苯甲酰甲烷(DBM)、2,2′-联吡啶(Dipy)的一系列稀土配合物EuxTb1-x(DBM)3Dipy。元素分析和红外分析确定了配合物的组成,荧光光谱研究了荧光性质。铽掺入配合物后,铽能极大地增强铕的特征荧光,铽对铕配合物的发光有协同作用。在该系列配合物中,不仅有机配体可以将吸收的能量传递给发光的铕离子使其发光,而且铽离子也可将其吸收的能量通过分子内能量传递给铕离子。     

1.65μm附近CH_4分子高分辨率吸收光谱研究

采用连续可调谐二极管半导体激光器为探测光源,以可调怀特型长光程多通池(46.36～1158.90m)作为吸收池,采用直接吸收的方法,探测了室温下1.65μm附近CH4分子的高分辨率吸收光谱。在6043.00～6053.72cm-1范围内探测了5组不同压力和光程下的吸收光谱,观测到了259条线新的CH4分子吸收谱线,实验数据用Gaussian线型进行拟合,得到了这些吸收谱线的线强、线位置以及线强的标准偏差值,并对光谱中难以分辨的吸收谱线进行了分析。探测得到的最小谱线线强是4.3×10-27cm-1·(molcule·cm-2)-1,吸收谱线线强大于3.0×10-24cm-1·(mol·cm-2)-1由于吸收饱和而未被处理,同时所测得的光谱也显示出CH4分子在1.65μm附近有非常丰富的弱吸收谱线和复杂的结构。文中所报道的吸收谱线都是HITRAN2004数据库中所未报道的,而且也未见有其他文献报道过。     

Cryogenic absorption cells operating inside a Bruker IFS-125HR: First results for CH4 at 7 μm

New absorption cells designed specifically to achieve stable temperatures down to 66 K inside the sample compartment of an evacuated Bruker IFS-125HR Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) were developed at Connecticut College and tested at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The temperature stabilized cryogenic cells with path lengths of 24.29 and 20.38 cm were constructed of oxygen free high conductivity (OFHC) copper and fitted with wedged ZnSe windows using vacuum tight indium seals. In operation, the temperature-controlled cooling by a closed-cycle helium refrigerator achieved stability of ±0.01 K. The unwanted absorption features arising from cryodeposits on the cell windows at low temperatures were eliminated by building an internal vacuum shroud box around the cell which significantly minimized the growth of cryodeposits. The effects of vibrations from the closed-cycle helium refrigerator on the FTS spectra were characterized. Using this set up, several high-resolution spectra of methane isotopologues broadened with nitrogen were recorded in the 1200-1800 cm⁻¹ spectral region at various sample temperatures between 79.5 and 296 K. Such data are needed to characterize the temperature dependence of spectral line shapes at low temperatures for remote sensing of outer planets and their moons. Initial analysis of a limited number of spectra in the region of the R(2) manifold of the ν₄ fundamental band of ¹³CH₄ indicated that an empirical power law used for the temperature dependence of the N₂-broadened line widths would fail to fit the observed data in the entire temperature range from 80 to 296 K; instead, it follows a temperature-dependence similar to that reported by Mondelain et al. [17] and [18]. The initial test was very successful proving that a high precision Fourier transform spectrometer with a completely evacuated optical path can be configured for spectroscopic studies at low temperatures relevant to the planetary atmospheres.     

Multispectrum analysis of CH4 in the ν4 spectral region: II. Self-broadened half widths, pressure-induced shifts, temperature dependences and line mixing

Accurate values for line positions, absolute line intensities, self-broadened half width and self-pressure-induced shift coefficients have been measured for over 400 allowed and forbidden transitions in the ν₄ band of methane (¹²CH₄). Temperature dependences of half width and pressure-induced shift coefficients were also determined for many of these transitions. The spectra used in this study were recorded at temperatures between 210 and 314 K using the National Solar Observatory's 1 m Fourier transform spectrometer at the McMath-Pierce solar telescope. The complete data set included 60 high-resolution (0.006-0.01 cm⁻¹) absorption spectra of pure methane and methane mixed with dry air. The analysis was performed using a multispectrum nonlinear least squares curve fitting technique where a number of spectra (20 or more) were fit simultaneously in spectral intervals 5-15 cm⁻¹ wide. In addition to the line broadening and shift parameters, line mixing coefficients (using the off-diagonal relaxation matrix element formalism) were determined for more than 50 A-, E-, and F-species transition pairs in J manifolds of the P- and R-branches. The measured self-broadened half width and self-shift coefficients, their temperature dependences and the line mixing parameters are compared to self-broadening results available in the literature and to air-broadened parameters determined for these transitions from the same set of spectra.     

GOSAT-2009 methane spectral line list in the 5550-6236 cm range

A methane spectral line list for the 5550-6236 cm⁻¹ range with the intensity cut off 4×10⁻²⁶ cm/molecule at 296 K is presented. The line list is based on new extensive measurements of methane spectral line parameters performed at different temperatures and pressures of methane and buffer gases N₂, O₂ and air. This spectral line list is prepared in HITRAN-2008 format and contains the following spectral line parameters of about 11,000 lines: position, intensity, energy for lower state (where possible), air-broadening and air-shifting coefficients, exponent of temperature dependence of air-broadening coefficient and self-broadening coefficient.     

Analysis of kinetic mechanism performance in conditional moment closure modelling of turbulent,non-premixed methane flames

This paper presents results obtained from the application of a first-order conditional moment closure approach to the modelling of two methane flames of differing geometries. Predictions are based upon a second-moment turbulence and scalar-flux closure, and supplemented with full and reduced chemical kinetic mechanisms, ranging from a simple 12-step to a complex 1207-step mechanism. Alongside analysis of the full kinetic schemes' performance, is an appraisal of the behaviour of their derivatives obtained using mechanism-reduction techniques. The study was undertaken to analyse the practicality of incorporating kinetic models of varying complexity into calculations of turbulent non-premixed flames, and to make comparison of their performance. Despite extensive studies of the predictive ability of such schemes under laminar flame conditions, systematic evaluations have not been performed for turbulent reacting flows. This paper reflects upon the impact that selection of chemical kinetics has upon subsequent calculations and concludes that, although application of reduced schemes is more than adequate to reproduce experimental data, selection of the parent mechanism is of paramount importance to the prediction of minor species. Although widely used schemes are well documented and validated, their performances vary considerably. Thus, careful consideration must be made to their application and origins during the evaluation of combustion models.     

钒硼双原子阳离子活化甲烷研究

Methane activation by transition metal species has been extensively investigated over the past few decades. It is observed that ground-state monocations of bare 3d transition metals are inert toward CH₄ at room temperature because of unfavorable thermodynamics. In contrast, many mono-ligated 3d transition metal cations, such as MO⁺ (M = Mn, Fe, Co, Cu, Zn), MH⁺ (M = Fe, Co), and NiX⁺ (X = H, CH₃, F), as well as several bis-ligated 3d transition metal cations including OCrO⁺, Ni(H)(OH)⁺, and Fe(O)(OH)⁺ activate the C―H bond of methane under thermal collision conditions because of the pronounced ligand effects. In most of the above-mentioned examples, the 3d metal atoms are observed to cooperate with the attached ligands to activate the C―H bond. Compared to the extensive studies on active species comprising of middle and late 3d transition metals, the knowledge about the reactivity of early 3d transition metal species toward methane and the related C―H activation mechanisms are still very limited. Only two early 3d transition metal species HMO⁺ (M = Ti and V) are discovered so far to activate the C―H bond of methane via participation of their metal atoms. In this study, by performing mass spectrometric experiments and density functional theory calculations, we have identified that the diatomic vanadium boride cation (VB⁺) can activate methane to produce a dihydrogen molecule and carbon-boron species under thermal collision conditions. The strong electrostatic interaction makes the reaction preferentially proceed the V side. To generate experimentally observed product ions, a two-state reactivity scenario involving spin conversion from high-spin sextet to low-spin quartet is necessary at the entrance of the reaction. This result is consistent with the reported reactions of 3d transition metal species with CH₄, in which the C―H bond cleavage generally occurs in the low-spin states, even if the ground states of the related active species are in the high-spin states. For VB⁺ + CH₄, the insertion of the synergetic V―B unit (rather than a single V or B atom) into the H₃C―H bond causes the initial C―H bond activation driven by the strong bond strengths of V―CH₃ and B―H. The mechanisms of methane activation by VB⁺ discussed in this study may provide useful guidance to the future studies on methane activation by early transition metal systems.