Design of self-cleaning TiO2 coating on clay roofing tiles

The phenomenon of heterogeneous photocatalysis takes place in the degradation process of many organic contaminants on solid surfaces. Photocatalysis is based on the excitation of the semiconductor by irradiation with supraband gap photons and the migration of electron-hole pairs to the surface of the photocatalysts, leading to the reaction of the holes with adsorbed H₂O and OH^? to form hydroxyl radicals. Due to the stability and photosensitivity of TiO₂ semiconductors, this system is well studied and is of great interest from an ecological and industrial point of view for use in the field of building materials. Clay roofing tiles, due to their long-term exploitation, are subject to physical, chemical and biological degradation that leads to deterioration. Ceramic systems have a high percentage of total porosity and considering their non-tolerance of organic coating, the use of surface active materials (SAM) that induce porosity in TiO₂ coatings is of vital significance. Photocatalytic coatings applied on clay roofing tiles under industrial conditions were designed by varying the quantity of TiO₂ (mass/cm²) on the tile surface (thin and thick TiO₂ layer). The positive changes in specific surface area and mesopore structure of the designed coatings were made by the addition of PEG 600 as a surface active material. It was shown that a thin photocatalytic layer (0.399 mg suspension/cm² tile surface), applied onto ceramic tiles under industrial conditions, had better photocatalytic activity in methylene blue decomposition, hydrophilicity and antimicrobial activity than a thick photocatalytic coating (0.885 mg suspension/cm²).     

The feasibility of Al-based oxide precipitation in Fe–10%Cr alloy by ion implantation

This paper reports the feasibility of nano-oxide precipitate formation in Fe–Cr alloy by ion implantation synthesis. High contents of Al⁺ and O⁺ ions were implanted into thin films of high purity Fe–10%Cr alloy at room temperature and were studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atom probe tomography (APT). In contrast, to the common two-stage implantation/annealing scheme of precipitate ensemble synthesis by ion beams, cluster formation took place at the implantation stage in our study, requiring no subsequent high-temperature annealing. The post-implantation microstructural examination revealed in the as-implanted thin foil an array of precipitates with diameters in the range of 3–30?nm. The precipitate number density distribution was found to depend on the foil thickness. The precipitate enrichment with both Al and O was confirmed by the energy-filtered TEM analysis. Judging from the electron diffraction pattern and high-resolution TEM analysis, the crystal lattice of precipitates corresponds to some cubic modification of aluminium-rich oxide or pure aluminium oxide. The precipitate lattice alignment with the host matrix was revealed for at least a part of precipitates. The analysis of APT data using cluster detection algorithm indicates the presence of local zones enriched in Al and O, even in those areas of as-implanted samples where no clusters were visible by TEM.     

Crystal plasticity modeling of irradiation growth in Zircaloy-2

Abstract

A physically based reaction-diffusion model is implemented in the visco-plastic self-consistent (VPSC) crystal plasticity framework to simulate irradiation growth in hcp Zr and its alloys. The reaction-diffusion model accounts for the defects produced by the cascade of displaced atoms, their diffusion to lattice sinks and the contribution to crystallographic strain at the level of single crystals. The VPSC framework accounts for intergranular interactions and irradiation creep, and calculates the strain in the polycrystalline ensemble. A novel scheme is proposed to model the simultaneous evolution of both, number density and radius, of irradiation-induced dislocation loops directly from experimental data of dislocation density evolution during irradiation. This framework is used to predict the irradiation growth behaviour of cold-worked Zircaloy-2 and trends compared to available experimental data. The role of internal stresses in inducing irradiation creep is discussed. Effects of grain size, texture and external stress on the coupled irradiation growth and creep behaviour are also studied and compared with available experimental data.     

In-situ and ex-situ study of crystallization behaviour of magnetron sputtered Ni63Zr37 amorphous thin film

ABSTRACT

The stages of crystallization of magnetron sputter-deposited Ni₆₃Zr₃₇ film with mostly amorphous structure have been investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and in-situ annealing at 300°C by use of heating stage on a high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM). These results have been further confirmed by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction analyses of thin film specimens annealed ex-situ at 300°C for various durations. The temperature for crystallization found by DSC has been found to increase from 371°C to 434°C with an increase in heating rate from 3°C/min to 10°C/min, and the apparent activation energy for amorphous to crystalline transformation has been found as ～260.2?kJ/mol from the Kissinger plot. Studies on HRTEM using in-situ heating stage have shown the crystallization to occur on annealing at 300°C for ～10?min. Crystallization at a temperature lower than that found by DSC is attributed to structural relaxation with reduction of free volume due to thermal activation. It has been observed that Ni₃Zr forms first due to its large negative enthalpy of formation, and is followed by the formation of Ni-rich solid solution (Ni_ss) grains. HRTEM studies have shown grain rotation with the formation of partial dislocations at Ni₃Zr-Ni_ss interfaces as well as twinning followed by detwinning with dislocation formation in the Ni_ss matrix possibly to reduce the interfacial energy.     

Rates of diffusion controlled reactions for one-dimensionally-moving species in 3D space

ABSTRACT

The asymmetry in diffusion dimensionality between self-interstitial atom (SIA) clusters and vacancies is a fundamental feature of irradiation damage in crystals, leading to a defect buildup imbalance that manifests itself as measurable dimensional and mechanical property changes. It is well known that, while vacancies and mobile vacancy clusters diffuse in a three-dimensional (3D) fashion, SIA clusters perform one-dimensional motion along mostly rectilinear trajectories. Despite this, a complete set of kinetic coefficients, including coagulation reaction rates and sink strengths, does not exist for 1D-moving objects. In this paper, we derive analytical expressions for these coefficients from continuum diffusion theory particularised to 1D motion. Moreover, we carry out kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of numerical replicas of the geometry of diffusing particles and sinks to validate the proposed solutions. Our simulations, which are conducted entirely independently from the analytical derivations, reveal excellent agreement with the proposed expressions, adding confidence to their validity. We compare the 1D and 3D cases and discuss their relevance for kinetic codes for damage accumulation calculations.     

Effect of chemical substitution and oxide additives on the Tc behaviour of the oxide superconductor,Bi4Sr3Ca3Cu4O16

Studies on the superconductivity behaviour of pure and doped (Pb,TI) Bi₄Sr₃Ca₃Cu₄O₁₆ phases are reported. Effect of oxide additives PbO, BaPbO₃ and BaBiO₃ has also been examined. Results show that an oxygen treatment at 600°C for 12 h during the final stages of the synthesis has the beneficial effect of sharpening the T_c ^zero of the 4334 Bi-composition. Pb and TI substitution has only a marginally beneficial effect on the T_c , though it is not definitely known whether substitution is actually occurring in the system. PbO as an additive raises the T_c ^zero to 89 K, whereas other additives do not basically affect the properties of the 4334 system.     

基于氧化石墨烯的长周期光纤光栅的全光控制

实验验证了一种通过将氧化石墨烯分散液沉积在长周期光纤光栅的全光控制的相关研究。通过外加的垂直泵浦光的作用,氧化石墨烯吸收泵浦光产生热量,改变长周期光纤光栅的包层模式的相位差,由于热膨胀的作用改变了氧化石墨烯所覆盖部分的光栅周期,使得谐振谱发生了移动,其最大调制深度可达10.6 dB,谐振谱最大可红移12.8 nm。通过实验发现,沉积相同浓度氧化石墨烯分散液的次数影响实验结果,通过在相同光栅的相同位置分别沉积三次,发现沉积三次可以在光纤表面获得更加均匀的氧化石墨烯膜,进行了时间响应的测试,其中沉积三次后的长周期光纤光栅的响应速度可达0.61 ms,沉积多次氧化石墨烯分散液可以在光纤表面沉积得更加平整均匀,从而获得更大的导热性能。     

GOSs-稀土配合物紫外增强材料的光谱分析与稳定性研究

氧化石墨烯薄片(GOSs)作为一种新型的二维片状材料,具有较高的比表面积、丰富的表面含氧官能团以及良好的光热稳定性。而稀土配合物通过无机稀土元素与有机配体的结合表现出优异的荧光特性。为了将两类材料具有的物化特性结合起来应用于紫外光谱探测领域。选取了合适的有机配体啉菲罗啉(1,10-邻二氮杂菲,phen)、2’2-联嘧啶(bpm)作为桥联分子,把氧化石墨烯(GOSs)与稀土配合物通过氢键自组装作用进行复合,制备了高效稳定可调的GOSs-稀土配合物复合荧光材料GOSs-Eu(BA)3phen和GOSs-Eu(TTA)3bpm,并且制备了相应的聚乙烯醇(PVA)共混紫外增强薄膜,对其光谱特性与稳定性进行了深入的研究。采用红外光谱、扫描电镜和金相显微镜等方法,对紫外增强材料进行了性能表征。采用吸收光谱,荧光光谱等方法,对紫外增强薄膜进行了性能表征。此外,通过热重测试(TGA)表征了GOSs氢键复合前后紫外增强材料的热稳定性,通过荧光强度-紫外光照次数表征了GOSs氢键复合前后紫外增强薄膜的光稳定性。红外光谱分析发现,进行配位前后有机配体的特征峰产生了频移,表明稀土配合物中Eu 3+与配体之间存在着明显的配位作用。在进行复合之后,桥联配体的特征峰也产生了偏移,表明GOSs与稀土配合物通过桥联分子的氢键作用进行了进行复合。吸收光谱与荧光光谱测定结果表明增强薄膜吸收峰在200~400 nm,荧光主峰在612 nm左右,为Eu 3+特征红色荧光峰,且不同配体可以实现不同范围的吸收产生差异化的荧光表现。扫描电镜和金相显微镜清晰地展示了稀土配合物复合前后的微观形貌,即颗粒状稀土配合物附着在石墨烯薄片上。光稳定性测试表明经过GOSs氢键复合之后,Eu(BA)3phen和Eu(TTA)3bpm稀土配合物荧光材料在进行25次荧光强度测试后光漂白程度分别下降了4.26%和6.41%,提高了其光稳定性。热重测试也表明在经过GOSs氢键复合之后,稀土配合物的热稳定性有了很大提高。总之,得益于GOSs和稀土配合物的特性结合,所制备的紫外增强材料表现出优异的荧光特性与稳定性,必将在紫外探测方面有着广阔的应用前景。     

金属Al背电极二维AZO光栅的制备和陷光特性

研究了背电极金属Al膜上二维ZnO:Al光栅的制备及其反射光谱特性.在厚度为300 nm的Al膜上溅射80 nm ZnO:Al薄膜,旋涂AZ5206光刻胶,用波长为325 nm的激光进行光刻制作光栅掩模.采用溶脱-剥离法在Al衬底上制备周期(624~1250 nm)和槽深(100~300 nm)可独立调控的ZnO:Al二维光栅.表面形貌采用原子力显微镜和扫描电镜观察,反射光谱用带积分球的分光光度计测试,双向反射分布函数用散射仪测量.结果表明,300 nm Al膜上织构二维ZnO:Al光栅背电极结构,当光栅槽深为228 nm,周期从624 nm增加到986 nm时,背电极总反射率、漫反射率以及雾度均随光栅周期增大而显著增加,而当周期从986 nm增加到1250 nm时,总反射率、漫反射率以及雾度略有增加.双向反射分布函数测试结果进一步证实了上述实验结果,即随着周期增大,漫反射峰值越大,衍射峰个数也增多.提示背反电极上槽深为228 nm、周期为986 nm的二维ZnO:Al光栅具有较好的散射效果,其中漫反射占总反射的百分比为45%.     

Lossy mode resonance-based uniform core tapered fiber optic sensor for sensitivity enhancement

A lossy mode resonance (LMR)-supported fiber optic sensor in which a uniform fiber core is placed among two identical tapered regions, is investigated numerically. Indium tin oxide (ITO) and aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) are considered as LMR active materials used to excite several lossy modes and gold and silver are used as surface plasmon resonance (SPR) active materials. In this probe design, a central uniform core coated with ITO/AZO is the active sensing region, whereas tapered regions are meant for bringing the incident angle close to the critical angle. The sensitivity of the present fiber optic bio-sensor is evaluated for first two LMRs utilizing both ITO and AZO separately, along with its variation with the taper ratio (TR). For ITO, the maximum sensitivity values are observed to be 18.425 μm RIU⁻¹ (refractive index unit) and 0.825 μm RIU⁻¹, corresponding to the first and second LMRs, respectively, at a TR of 1.6 and for AZO, equivalent values are 0.79 μm RIU⁻¹ and 0.35 μm RIU⁻¹, respectively, at a TR of 2.0. The results illustrate that the first LMR is more sensitive than the second LMR and the ITO-coated probe possesses greater sensitivity than the AZO-coated probe for both LMRs. Similarly, for the fiber optic SPR sensor, the maximum value of sensitivity is 5.6425 μm RIU⁻¹, in the case of gold and 5.0615 μm RIU⁻¹ in the case of silver, at a TR of 1.6. Hence, the result shows that the sensor with the present fiber optic probe design has around a 3-fold enhancement in sensitivity compared with conventional SPR sensors. This study will have applications in many sensing schemes where the requirement of large sensitivity is vital.