Cobalt promoted Ni/MgAl2O4 catalyst in lean methane catalytic oxidation

In the present research, magnesium aluminate spinel was prepared as catalyst support using a novel, facile, and efficient mechanochemical method. The Co-promoted catalysts with 20 wt.% of Ni were fabricated using an impregnation route and the samples were analyzed by the X-ray diffraction (XRD), N₂ adsorption/desorption (BET), temperature-programmed reduction and desorption (H₂-TPR and O₂-TPD), and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) tests. The results confirmed that all samples have a mesoporous structure with a high specific surface area and the presence of cobalt caused complete CH₄ oxidation at low temperatures, and no side reactions were observed. The results indicated that the 3%Co-20%Ni/MgAl₂O₄ catalyst was the optimal sample among the prepared catalysts, owing to the improvement of reduction features and oxygen mobility. The 50 and 90% of methane conversion was obtained at 530 and 600 °C, respectively. Also, the influence of calcination temperature, GHSV, and feed ratio was determined on the catalytic activity. The obtained outcomes revealed that the calcination temperature has a significant effect on the textural properties and catalytic efficiency. The sample calcined at 700 °C showed the weakest performance, which was related to the sintering of particles at high temperatures. The catalytic stability showed that the 3%Co-20%Ni/MgAl₂O₄ has acceptable stability during 600 min time of reaction.

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Caesium carbonate supported on hydroxyapatite‐encapsulated Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 nanocrystallites as a novel magnetically basic catalyst for the one‐pot synthesis of pyrazolo[1,2‐b]phthalazine‐5,10‐diones

A novel nanomagnetic basic catalyst of caesium carbonate supported on hydroxyapatite‐coated Ni_0.5Zn_0.5Fe₂O₄ magnetic nanoparticles (Ni_0.5Zn_0.5Fe₂O₄@HAP‐Cs₂CO₃) was prepared. This new catalyst was fully characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, transmission and scanning electron microscopy, X‐ray diffraction and vibrating sample magnetometry techniques, and then the catalytic activity of this catalyst was investigated in the synthesis of 1H‐pyrazolo[1,2‐b]phthalazine‐5,10‐dione derivatives. Also, Ni_0.5Zn_0.5Fe₂O₄@HAP‐Cs₂CO₃ could be reused at least five times without significant loss of activity and could be recovered easily by applying an external magnet. Thus, the developed nanomagnetic catalyst is potentially useful for the green and economic production of organic compounds. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Efficacy of incorporating PCMs into the commercial wall on the energy-saving annual thermal analysis

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - In this study, the efficacy of incorporating phase change material (PCM) into the building walls on the annual heat transfer reduction is examined....     

Superior performance of the machine-learning GAP force field for fullerene structures

Structural Chemistry - Carbon force fields are widely used for obtaining structural properties of carbon nanomaterials. We evaluate the performance of a wide range of carbon force fields for...     

Fully developed mixed convection in horizontal and inclined tubes with uniform heat flux using nanofluid

Fully developed laminar mixed convection of a nanofluid consists of water and Al₂O₃ in horizontal and inclined tubes has been studied numerically. Three-dimensional elliptic governing equations have been solved to investigate the flow behaviors over a wide range of the Grashof and Reynolds numbers. Comparisons with previously published experimental and numerical works on mixed convection in a horizontal and inclined tube are performed and good agreements between the results are observed. Effects of nanoparticles concentration and tube inclinations on the hydrodynamics and thermal parameters are presented and discussed. It is shown that the nanoparticles concentration does not have significant effects on the hydrodynamics parameters. Heat transfer coefficient increases by 15% at 4 Vol.% Al₂O₃. Skin friction coefficient continually increases with the tube inclination, but the heat transfer coefficient reaches a maximum at the inclination angle of 45°.     

Black-body radiation of noncommutative gauge fields

The black-body radiation is considered in a theory with noncommutative electromagnetic fields; that is noncommutativity is introduced in field space, rather than in real space. A direct implication of the result on cosmic microwave background map is argued.     

3D discrete X-ray transform

The analysis of 3D discrete volumetric data becomes increasingly important as computation power increases. 3D analysis and visualization applications are expected to be especially relevant in areas like medical imaging and nondestructive testing, where elaborated continuous theory exists. However, this theory is not directly applicable to discrete datasets. Therefore, we have to establish theoretical foundations that will replace the existing inexact discretizations, which have been based on the continuous regime. We want to preserve the concepts, properties, and main results of the continuous theory in the discrete case. In this paper, we present a discretization of the continuous X-ray transform for discrete 3D images. Our definition of the discrete X-ray transform is shown to be exact and geometrically faithful as it uses summation along straight geometric lines without arbitrary interpolation schemes. We derive a discrete Fourier slice theorem, which relates our discrete X-ray transform with the Fourier transform of the underlying image, and then use this Fourier slice theorem to derive an algorithm that computes the discrete X-ray transform in O(n⁴logn) operations. Finally, we show that our discrete X-ray transform is invertible.