Air Cooler for Crystal Growth in a Laboratory Tube Furnace

Crystallography Reports - A new air cooler design (“specific two-level crystallization incubator”) with a specific arrangement of laboratory vessels by levels and double-branch air...     

Crystallization tests bench

A model of an air-cooled tube (“air-heat saw”) installed in a laboratory tube furnace is presented. The setup (“crystallization tests bench”) allows easy regulation and simultaneous crystallization tests of a series of different crystallization parameters in crucible columns, enabling fast studies of obtaining crystals from materials with unknown crystallization parameters. The relationships between the crystallization rate and parameters of air-cooled tube are given and numerically analyzed. This method can also be applied in crucible or chamber furnaces.     

Cooler for obtaining crystals

A modular air‐cooled tube, with a series of movable Tamman test tubes or plugs (modular unilateral and bilateral “crystallization comb”), installed in a laboratory tube furnace is presented. The setup allows easy regulation and simultaneous crystallization tests of a series of different crystallization parameters in crucible columns, enabling rapid acquisition of crystals. The relationship between the crystallization parameters has been given and numerically analyzed. This method can also be applied in crucible and chamber furnaces. (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Using Surface Segregation To Design Stable Ru‐Ir Oxides for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction in Acidic Environments

The methods used to improve catalytic activity are well‐established, however elucidating the factors that simultaneously control activity and stability is still lacking, especially for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts. Here, by studying fundamental links between the activity and stability of well‐characterized monometallic and bimetallic oxides, we found that there is generally an inverse relationship between activity and stability. To overcome this limitation, we developed a new synthesis strategy that is based on tuning the near‐surface composition of Ru and Ir elements by surface segregation, thereby resulting in the formation of a nanosegregated domain that balances the stability and activity of surface atoms. We demonstrate that a Ru_0.5Ir_0.5 alloy synthesized by using this method exhibits four‐times higher stability than the best Ru‐Ir oxygen evolution reaction materials, while still preserving the same activity.