Raman spectroscopy for the analysis of coal: a review

The advances in the characterization of amorphous carbons by Raman spectroscopy over the last four decades are of interest to many industries, especially those involving the combustion, gasification and pyrolysis of coal. Many researchers report on the Raman character of the natural organic matter in carbon‐containing compounds, such as coal, and relate the Raman bands to the structural order of the amorphous carbons. The basis of most of these studies evolved around the assignment of the G (graphitic, ∼1580 cm⁻¹) band to crystalline graphite and any other bands, called D bands, (disorder, various from 1100 to 1500 cm⁻¹) to any type of structural disorder in the graphitic structure. Concerning coal analysis, the information gained by Raman investigations has been used to describe char evolution as a function of temperature, the presence of catalysts and different gasification conditions. In addition, researchers looked at maturation, grade, doppleritization and many more aspects of interest. One aspect that has, however, not been addressed by most of the researchers is the natural inorganic matter (NIM) in the carbon‐containing compounds. Micro‐Raman spectroscopy (MRS) has many advantages over other characterization tools, i.e. in situ analysis, nondestructive, no sample preparation, low detection limit, micrometer‐scale characterization, versatility and sensitivity to many amorphous compounds. With the distinct advantages it has over that of other molecular characterization tools, such as powder X‐ray diffraction (PXRD), Fourier‐transform infrared spectrometry (FT‐IR) and scanning electron microscopy with X‐ray detection (SEM/EDS), it is surprising that it has not yet been fully exploited up to this point for the characterization of the NIM in coal and other amorphous carbons. This paper reviews the work published on the Raman characterization of the natural organic matter (NOM) of coals and reports on preliminary results of the NIM character of various South African coals, whereby various inorganic compounds and minerals in the coal have been characterized. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Recent developments and applications of NSE in soft matter

Neutron Spin Echo is probably the youngest spectroscopic method in neutron scattering. After a brief introduction I will try to give a short account of recent progress on the instrumentation. Through some recent examples I will illustrate that NSE is a powerful tool in colloid science applied to both “old” and recent problems. With new instrumentation we will be able to tackle new problems and one of those areas in which there has been recently exciting progress is the field of surface science.     

Binary bubble languages and cool-lex order

A bubble language is a set of binary strings with a simple closure property: The first 01 of any string can be replaced by 10 to obtain another string in the set. Natural representations of many combinatorial objects are bubble languages. Examples include binary string representations of k-ary trees, unit interval graphs, linear-extensions of B-posets, binary necklaces and Lyndon words, and feasible solutions to knapsack problems. In co-lexicographic order, fixed-weight binary strings are ordered so that their suffixes of the form i¹⁰ occur (recursively) in the order i=max,max−1,…,min+1,min for some values of max and min. In cool-lex order the suffixes occur (recursively) in the order max−1,…,min+1,min,max. This small change has significant consequences. We prove that the strings in any bubble language appear in a Gray code order when listed in cool-lex order. This Gray code may be viewed from two different perspectives. On one hand, successive binary strings differ by one or two transpositions, and on the other hand, they differ by a shift of some substring one position to the right. This article also provides the theoretical foundation for many efficient generation algorithms, as well as the first construction of fixed-weight binary de Bruijn sequences; results that will appear in subsequent articles.     

An investigation of a genomewide supported psychosis variant in ZNF804A and white matter integrity in the human brain

ZNF804A, a genomewide supported susceptibility gene for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, has been associated with task-independent functional connectivity between the left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortices. Several lines of evidence have converged on the hypothesis that this effect may be mediated by structural connectivity. We tested this hypothesis using diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging in three samples: one German sample of 50 healthy individuals, one Scottish sample of 83 healthy individuals and one Scottish sample of 84 unaffected relatives of bipolar patients. Voxel-based analysis and tract-based spatial statistics did not detect any fractional anisotropy (FA) differences between minor allele carriers and individuals homozygous for the major allele at rs1344706. Similarly, region-of-interest analyses and quantitative tractography of the genu of the corpus callosum revealed no significant FA differences between the genotype groups. Examination of effect sizes and confidence intervals indicated that this negative finding is very unlikely to be due to a lack of statistical power. In summary, despite using various analysis techniques in three different samples, our results were strikingly and consistently negative. These data therefore suggest that it is unlikely that the effects of genetic variation at rs1344706 on functional connectivity are mediated by structural integrity differences in large, long-range white matter fiber connections.     

光谱分辨率对黑土有机质预测模型的影响

高光谱遥感以其高光谱分辨率适于反射光谱特征复杂的地物识别与参数反演,但对于反射光谱特征平滑的地物,高光谱数据可能存在数据冗余问题。本研究对实验室测定的黑土高光谱反射率进行重采样,基于统计分析方法研究了光谱分辨率对黑土有机质预测模型精度的影响,结果表明:黑土有机质含量高,土壤有机质的光谱作用范围宽(445～1 380nm);黑土有机质光谱预测模型精度随光谱分辨率降低,呈现先增后减的趋势,最优模型的光谱分辨率为50nm,低于高光谱遥感波段设置,略高于多光谱传感器波段设置;黑土有机质光谱预测最优模型以倒数对数微分为自变量,模型决定系数R2=0.799,RMSE=0.439,研究成果为土壤有机质遥感反演、光谱速测仪器的研制,以及传感器波段设置提供理论基础与技术支持。     

獐子岛附近海域溶解有机物的荧光特征

利用平行因子分析(PARAFAC)模型对三维荧光光谱(EEMs)进行解析,研究了獐子岛附近海域不同季节荧光溶解有机物(DOM)荧光的组成特点及分布变化。调查水域在不同季节的DOM荧光组成基本一致,包含类腐殖质荧光组分C1(265/440nm),C2(410～450/520～550nm)和类蛋白荧光组分C3(230,280/330nm),且三者有很好的相关性,表明它们有着相同的来源或彼此间存在某种关系。各组分在不同季节不同水层的分布有在獐子岛周围海域荧光强度相对较大的共同点。通过对各组分与叶绿素a和盐度变化的关系研究发现,调查海区OM受现场浮游植物和人类生产活动的共同作用。分析结果有效的证明了EEMs与PARAFAC相结合对DOM荧光进行分析鉴别的可行性。     

Associated Production of a Photon with Dark Matter Pair at the ILC within the Littlest Higgs Model with T-parity

Within the context of the Littlest Higgs model with T -parity, the heavy photon (AH) is supposed to be an ideal dark matter (DM) candidate. One direct proof of validity of the model is to produce the heavy photon at collider. In this paper, we investigate the associated production of a photon with heavy photon pair at the planned international e+e- linear collider (ILC),i.e., e+e-→ AHAHγ and show the distributions of the transverse momenta of the photon. The numerical results indicate that the heavy photon production rate could reach several fb at the low mass parameter space and the characteristic signal is a single high energetic photon and missing energy, carried by the heavy photons. All in all, it can be a good chance to observe the heavy photon via this process with the high yearly luminosity of the ILC.     

振动颗粒物质“巴西果”分离效应实验和理论研究

本文通过实验和理论研究了影响"巴西果"分离的因素及其物理机理. 分析了振动加速度、大小颗粒尺寸和密度对分离时间的影响, 并利用流体模型对分离时间作估算, 对实验结果进行定性解释. 结果表明在振动频率固定时, 调节振动加速度是控制"巴西果"分离的一个主要手段. 振动加速度存在一个临界值, 当高于此临界值时, "巴西果"分离的主要物理机理由对流机理转变为几何填空机理, 且振动加速度对分离影响变小, 大颗粒尺寸对分离的影响增大. 可通过调节大颗粒的尺寸来改变分离效果. 当大、 小颗粒密度比为1时, 仍会出现"巴西果"分离现象. 增大小颗粒尺寸或密度可以促进"巴西果"分离.     

颗粒密度对旋转筒内二元颗粒体系分离的影响

用分子动力学的方法研究了颗粒密度对旋转筒内二元颗粒体系混合与分离的影响. 当增大粒度较小的颗粒密度时, 颗粒体系表现为巴西果效应, 而增加粒度较大的颗粒密度时, 分离状态则会发生反转, 表现为反巴西果效应. 进一步的研究发现二元颗粒体系的分离指数与颗粒的密度比之间存在定量的关系, 并利用Hong的渗流与凝聚竞争机理理论对密度分离状态的反转现象给予了理论解释.