Experimental study of thermal performance and pressure drop on a solar air heater with different orientations of arc-shape rib roughness

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - An exhaustive experimental investigation was carried out for the thermal performance of artificially roughened solar air heaters (SAHs) under the...     

Synthesis of α-In 2 Te 3 thin films from In/Te bilayer by Si ion irradiation

In this work, In/Te bilayer thin films were prepared using sequential thermal evaporation method and subsequently irradiated using swift heavy ions (SHIs) of 100 MeV silicon (Si) with different fluences (1×10¹³ to 5×10¹³/cm²). The inter-diffusion of In and Te layers was highly controlled by SHI irradiation and the In₂Te₃ formation capability was compared with that of the conventional annealing method. The structural as well as optical properties of a post-sintered SHI-irradiated In/Te bilayer were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements and UV–visible spectroscopy, respectively. We found that irradiated samples showed single-phase In₂Te₃ under post-annealed conditions at 150 °C unlike that prepared using the conventional thermal annealing method, which showed mixed phases under similar conditions. This confirms the effective inter-diffusion in bilayer films by SHI irradiation toward the formation of single-phase In₂Te₃. The estimated optical band gap energy was found to be 1.1±0.5 eV and strongly corroborated the XRD results. In addition, the estimated refractive index (n) value of the SHI-irradiated sample (～3.3) was higher than that of the sample obtained through the conventional annealing method (～2.8). This proves that SHI offers a highly compact nature even at low temperatures. This work has a wide scope for achieving single-phase alloyed films through bilayer mixing by SHI irradiation.     

Energetic,exergetic and enviro-economic analysis of parallel pass jet plate solar air heater with artificial roughness

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - In this work, the thermal performance of single-pass double-duct jet plate solar air heater with various designs of artificial roughness is analyzed by...     

Determination of overall kinetic constants for mediated electrochemical oxidation of phenol from CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> measurements

Mediated electrochemical oxidation is the latest achievement in environmental electrochemistry for the complete oxidation of organic pollutants. Transition or inner transition elements in an acid medium are usually employed as the mediator-electrolyte combination. The organic pollutants upon oxidation are completely converted to carbon dioxide and water. Since the oxidizing ability of the medium is so vigorous, the changes in the reactant concentrations or intermediates formed are usually difficult to analyze, but the product formed (CO₂) can be measured and quantified in most of the cases. Therefore, in MEO reactions the kinetics can be followed either by monitoring the oxidant concentration changes or by measuring the product concentrations. In real applications the oxidant is regenerated continuously in situ and, hence, the oxidant concentration is maintained throughout the system. Therefore, in continuous organic feeding reactions, the product CO₂ could be monitored and kinetics could be followed. We report in this paper a simple procedure for the calculation of the overall kinetic constants for the destruction of phenol from CO₂ measurements. The procedure is based on the summation of the difference between the total amounts of organic added to the system and reacted to obtain CO₂ evolution patterns. The CO₂ patterns were then fitted with the experimental results to obtain the overall kinetic constants. Thermodynamic parameters have been obtained for phenol destruction from the overall kinetic constants.     

Analytical investigation of exergetic performance on jet impingement solar air heater with multiple arc protrusion obstacles

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - In this present work, an exergetic efficiency of the solar air heater (SAH) with jet impingement on multiple arc protrusion roughened absorber plate is...     

Direct assembly of ZnO nanostructures on glass substrates by chemical bath deposition through precipitation method

In this work, spindle/flower-like zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructured arrays have been directly grown on glass substrates using triethanolamine (TEA) as a complexing agent by chemical bath deposition (CBD). Control over the morphology of ZnO nanocrystallites was achieved by varying the concentration of the complexing agent in the bath solution. ZnO crystallites exhibited a hexagonal wurtzite structure with preferential orientation along the c-axis. The morphology of the ZnO crystallites with star or needle-like spindles was altered to flower like nanostructures by adjusting the complexing agent concentration. Compared to as-deposited films, films sintered at 300 ^°C exhibited a sharp UV emission due to a decrease in the defect density. A possible growth mechanism for obtaining ZnO nanoflower arrays without a seed layer on glass substrates has been discussed.     

Swift heavy ion provoked structural, optical and electrical properties in SnO2 thin films

SnO₂ thin films grown on glass substrates at 300 ^°C by reactive thermal evaporation and annealed at 600 ^°C were irradiated by 120 MeV Ag⁹⁺ ions. Though irradiation is known to induce lattice disorder and suppression of crystallinity, we observe grain growth at a certain fluence of irradiation. X-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed the crystalline nature of the films. The particle size estimated by Scherrer’s formula for the irradiated films was in the range 10–25 nm. The crystallite size increases with increase in fluence up to 1×10¹² ions?cm^?2, whereas after that the size starts decreasing. Atomic force microscope (AFM) results showed the surface modification of nanostructures for films irradiated with fluences of 1×10¹¹ ions?cm^?2 to 1×10¹³ ions?cm^?2. The UV–visible spectrum showed the band gap of the irradiated films in the range of 3.56 eV–3.95 eV. The resistivity decreases with fluence up to 5×10¹² ions?cm^?2 and starts increasing after that. Rutherford Backscattering (RBS) reveals the composition of the films and sputtering of ions due to irradiation at higher fluence.     

Nanotechnology,Green Synthesis and Biological Activity Application of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Incorporated Argemone Mxicana Leaf Extract

Nanomaterial is a rapidly growing area that is used to create a variety of new materials and nanotechnology applications from medical, pharmaceuticals, chemical, mechanical, electronics and several environmental industries including physical, chemical and biological nanoparticles are very important in our daily life. Nanoparticles with leaf extract from the healthy plant are important in the area of research using biosynthesis methods. Because of it’s used as an environmentally ecofriendly, other than traditional physical and chemical strategies. In particular, biologically synthesized nanoparticles have become a key branch of nanotechnology. The present work presents a synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles using an extract from the Argemone leaf Mexicana. Biosynthetic nanoparticles are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Ultraviolet visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy analysis, a Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy analysis (FTIR) and a scanning electron microcopy (SEM), X-ray analysis with dispersive energy (EDAX). XRD is used to examine the crystalline size of zinc oxide nanoparticles. The FTIR test consists in providing evidence of the presence of targeted teams. UV is used for optical properties and calculates the energy of the bandwidth slot. The scanning microscope emission reveals the morphology of the surface and the energy dispersive X-ray analysis confirms the basic composition of zinc oxide nanoparticles. It is found that zinc nanoparticles are capable of achieving high anti-fungal efficacy and therefore have a high potential antimicrobial activity of ZnO NPs, like antibacterial and high antioxidant. Zinc Oxide nanoparticles from the Argemone Mexicana leaf extract have several antimicrobial applications, such as medical specialty, cosmetics, food, biotechnology, nano medicine and drug delivery system. ZnO nanoparticles are important because they provide many practical applications in industry. The most important use of nanoparticles of ZnO would be strong antibacterial and antioxidant activity with a simple and efficient biosynthesis method may be used for future work applications.     

Experimental and theoretical investigation on the effects of lower concentration CeO2/water nanofluid in flat-plate solar collector

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - Heat transfer characteristics of solar flat-plate collectors are improved by applying various nanofluids as the heat transfer media nowadays. In the...     

Sonoelectrochemical oxidation for decolorization of Reactive Red 195

The decolorization and degradation of Reactive Red 195 (RR 195) is studied using sonoelectrochemical and electrochemical oxidation. Sonoelectrochemical oxidation was found to be more efficient than electrochemical oxidation. The efficiency of decolorization was found to be 91% and 99% in the case of electrochemical and sonoelectrochemical process, respectively. The effect of different supporting electrolytes and ultrasonic power on decolorization and COD removal has been studied. The decolorization was found to be maximum in the KCl and NaCl as electrolytes. The color removal decreased with increasing ultrasonic power. Response surface methodology was used to assess optimal condition for decolorization and COD removal of RR 195. A Central Composite Design in five most important operating variables; current density, electrolyte concentration, dye concentration, time and sonication power was employed for experimental design and optimization of results. The significance of independent variables and their interactions were tested by means of the analysis of variance with 95% confidence limits. There was good agreement between the experimental and predicated values. Sonoelectrochemical degradation was found to be efficient in decolorizing simulated textile effluent. The results show that ultrasound was significantly enhanced in the electrochemical oxidation.