Plasma Thermal Conversion of Methane to Acetylene

This paper describes a re-examination of a known process for the direct plasma thermal conversion of methane to acetylene. Conversion efficiencies (% methane converted) approached 100% and acetylene yields in the 90–95% range with 2–4% solid carbon production were demonstrated. Specificity for acetylene was higher than in prior work. Improvements in conversion efficiency, yield, and specificity were due primarily to improved injector design and reactant mixing, and minimization of temperature gradients and cold boundary layers. At the 60-kilowatt scale cooling by wall heat transfer appears to be sufficient to quench the product stream and prevent further reaction of acetylene resulting in the formation of heavier hydrocarbon products or solid carbon. Significantly increasing the quenching rate by aerodynamic expansion of the products through a converging–diverging nozzle led to a reduction in the yield of ethylene but had little effect on the yield of other hydrocarbon products. While greater product selectivity for acetylene has been demonstrated, the specific energy consumption per unit mass of acetylene produced was not improved upon. A kinetic model that includes the reaction mechanisms resulting in the formation of acetylene and heavier hydrocarbons, through benzene, is described.     

Progress on phthalocyanine-conjugated Ag and Au nanoparticles: Synthesis,characterization, and photo-physicochemical properties

Phthalocyanine (Pc) complexes are an important class of dyes with numerous (e.g., biological, photophysical, and analytical) applications. Among the methods used to improve the properties of these complexes, one should mention the introduction of different substituents, variation of the central metal ion, ligand exchange, and conjugation to nanomaterials (e.g., carbon-based nanomaterials and metal nanoparticles (NPs)). This work briefly reviews Pc complex conjugation to Ag and Au NPs, highlights the different NP shapes, and discusses the diversity of conjugation approaches. Moreover, the use of UV–Vis spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, dynamic light scattering and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy to characterize Pc-NP hybrids is summarized. The effect of conjugation on Pc photo-physicochemical properties (fluorescence, singlet oxygen generation, triplet state formation, and optical limiting behavior) is discussed, and future perspectives for the synthesis and applications of new hybrids are provided.     

Conversion ofn-hexane over Pt?Sn/γ-Al2O3 catalyst

Conversion ofn-hexane has been applied as a test reaction to study differences between the series of Pt−Sn/γ-Al₂O₃ catalysts obtainedvia different methods of preparation. Preliminary results of catalytic experiments have been compared with some changes occurring on the catalysts surfaces as the results of the preparation technique applied. It has been found that catalysts with the second metal (Sn) introduced to the support by the coprecipitation technique were much more stable in comparison to the catalysts where the tin component has been added by the impregnation method, however, we have not observed large differences in catalytic activity.     

Chemical conversion of various celluloses to glucose and its derivatives in supercritical water

The supercritical water biomass conversion system was designed and developed in our laboratory. The reaction vessel with cellulose sample was treated with this system at supercritical state of water for a designated period (3–105s) under the conditions of a tin bath temperature of 500°C and pressure of 35MPa. The recovered products of hydrolysates were then analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography. The obtained results indicated that a high amount of glucose and levoglucosan can be achieved from both celluloses I and II for 5–10s supercritical treatment, while that from starch for 3–5s treatment. Although this difference could be due to a difference in the molecular structure between cellulose and starch, a difference between celluloses I and II was not significant. Instead, an accessibility of the water towards cellulose molecules seemed to be significant for their chemical conversion. With the longer treatment, amounts of these compounds observed were decreased due to decomposition. Therefore, it may be concluded that, compared with acid hydrolysis or enzymatic saccharification, cellulose may be hydrolyzed to glucose and its derivatives more or less to the same degree as in corn starch under supercritical state. This finding suggests that the supercritical treatment can overcome the difficulties in hydrolyzing cellulose to glucose, found in the acid hydrolysis or enzymatic saccharification techniques.     

Novel carboxylated oligothiophenes as sensitizers in photoelectric conversion systems

Novel carboxylated oligothiophenes with different thiophene units were designed and synthesized as photosensitizers in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) for efficient opto-electric materials. The introduction of -COOH into thiophene molecules can lead to a red shift of UV-visible absorption, increase light-harvesting efficiency, and enhance photoinduced charge transport by forming efficient covalent bonds to the substrate surface. A red shift of the absorption spectrum of oligothiophene is also achieved by the increase in the number of thiophene units. The DSSCs based on the oligomers have excellent photovoltaic performances. Under 100 mW cm(-2) irradiation a short-circuit current of 10.57 mA cm(-2) and an overall energy conversion efficiency of 3.36 % is achieved when pentathiophene dicarboxylated acid was used as a sensitizer. The incident photo-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) has a maximum as high as 80 %. In addition, photovoltage and photocurrent transients show that slow charge recombination in DSSCs is important for efficient charge separation and excellent photoelectric conversion properties of the oligomers. These initial and promising results suggest that carboxylated oligothiophenes are efficient photosensitizers.     

The Mutual Conversion of CO2 and CO in Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD)

Non-equilibrium plasma, which was engendered by dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) was used to analyze the mutual conversion between CO₂ and CO. The results showed that the conversion ratio of CO increased monotonously with the increasing voltage. But CO₂ was not so. Its conversion ratio reached maximum when the voltage was 3600 V in Ar system. It also showed that the existence of water molecules was more advanageous for the conversion of CO to CO₂ in Air system than in oxygen system, and the conversion ratio could reach 75.8% when the relative humidity was 100%. We also discussed the energy yield and energy efficiency, and the result was that high voltage and high concentration of reactant was disadvantageous for energy utilization.     

Solar-Driven Artificial Carbon Cycle

Constituting the artificial carbon cycle,for example,through recycling CO₂ and converting CH₄ to value-added fuels and chemicals with solar energy,offers a sustainable future for humankind to tackle the global environmental issues and energy crisis.However,significant bottlenecks remain in such photocatalytic conversion,mainly related to the reaction activity and product selectivity.Herein,we share our efforts and systematic research progress on addressing the double bottlenecks for achieving solar-driven artificial carbon cycle,with specifically focusing on the photocatalytic CO₂ and CH₄ conversion.We further elucidate the common fundamentals behind various designed photocatalytic materials systems.Toward future development,we highlight the opportunities and challenges in the research field.     

重氮树脂-聚(4-羧酸苯基)乙炔自组装膜与光电转换

近年来 ,自组装及其形成的多层复合膜已经在导电、生物传感器及非线性光学等领域得到深入研究 ,特别是以聚阴离子与聚阳离子相互作用的静电自组装研究更为深入 .这一技术制备方法简单 ,无需特别的设备 ,对膜层厚度能随意调控 ,并以水作为介质 ,对环境无害 [1～ 3] .共轭高分子 (如聚苯胺、聚吡咯及聚苯亚乙烯等 )通过自组装形成共轭高分子膜 ,对制备具有导电、光电和传输等功能的薄膜半导体器件具有重要意义 .聚乙炔类是最早被发现且理论与应用研究最多的一类共轭高分子材料[4 ,5] .本文以聚 ( 4 -羧酸苯基 )乙炔 ( PCPA)为聚阴离子 ,以重…     

Fractional Power Series and Pairings on Drinfeld Modules

Let be an algebraically closed field containing which is complete with respect to an absolute value . We prove that under suitable constraints on the coefficients, the series converges to a surjective, open, continuous -linear homomorphism whose kernel is locally compact. We characterize the locally compact sub--vector spaces of which occur as kernels of such series, and describe the extent to which determines the series. We develop a theory of Newton polygons for these series which lets us compute the Haar measure of the set of zeros of of a given valuation, given the valuations of the coefficients. The ``adjoint' series converges everywhere if and only if does, and in this case there is a natural bilinear pairing

which exhibits as the Pontryagin dual of . Many of these results extend to non-linear fractional power series. We apply these results to construct a Drinfeld module analogue of the Weil pairing, and to describe the topological module structure of the kernel of the adjoint exponential of a Drinfeld module.

     

电化学数值模拟算法改进及未补偿溶液电阻存在下的快扫循环伏安研究

本文报道使用Ｇ１算法改进了积分方程数值解的一种电化学数值模拟方法,并用它模拟研究了未补偿溶液电阻对快扫循环伏安曲线的影响,分析了充电电流和法拉第电流的耦合效应,对有效电势校正法和背景电流扣除法的误差来源和可能的消除方法进行了探讨．