Influence of the sodium/proton replacement on the structural, morphological and photocatalytic properties of titanate nanotubes

Titanate nanotubes (TNT) with different sodium contents have been synthesised using a hydrothermal approach and a swift and highly controllable post-washing processes. The influence of the sodium/proton replacement on the structural and morphological characteristics of the prepared materials was analysed. Different optical behaviour was observed depending on the Na+/H+ samples' content. A band gap energy of 3.27\pm0.03 eV was estimated for the material with higher sodium content while a value of 2.81\pm0.02 eV was inferred for the most protonated material, which therefore exhibits an absorption edge in the near visible region. The point of zero charge of the materials was determined and the influence of the sodium content on the adsorption of both cationic and anionic organic dyes was studied. The photocatalytic performance of the TNT samples was evaluated in the rhodamine 6G degradation process. Best photodegradation results were obtained when using the most protonated material as catalyst, although this material has shown the lowest R6G adsorption capability.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A: Chemistr

Synthesis of titanate nanofibers co-sensitized with ZnS and Bi2S3 nanocrystallites and their application on pollutants removal

The synthesis of nanocomposite materials combining titanate nanofibers (TNF) with nanocrystalline ZnS and Bi2S3 semiconductors is described in this work. The TNF were produced via hydrothermal synthesis and sensitized with the semiconductor nanoparticles, through a single-source precursor decomposition method. ZnS and Bi2S3 nanoparticles were successfully grown onto the TNF's surface and Bi2S3-ZnS/TNF nanocomposite materials with different layouts were obtained using either a layer-by-layer or a co-sensitization approach. The samples' photocatalytic performance was first evaluated through the production of the hydroxyl radical using terephthalic acid as probe molecule. All the tested samples show photocatalytic ability for the production of this oxidizing species. Afterwards, the samples were investigated for the removal of methylene blue. The nanocomposite materials with best adsorption ability for the organic dye were the ZnS/TNF and Bi2S3ZnS/TNF. The removal of the methylene blue was systematically studied, and the most promising results were obtained considering a sequential combination of an adsorption-photocatalytic degradation process using the Bi2S3ZnS/TNF powder as a highly adsorbent and photocatalyst material.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figure

The d'-Dibaryon in the Nonrelativistic Quark Model

The narrow peak recently found in various pionic double charge exchange (DCX) cross sections can be explained by the assumption of a universal resonance at 2065 MeV, called d'. We calculate the mass of a six-quark system with J^P=0^-, T=0 quantum numbers employing a cluster model and a shell model basis to diagonalize the nonrelativistic quark model Hamiltonian.Comment: 7 pages, Latex, 2 figures, invited talk at 6th Int. Symp. on Mesons and Nucleons 1995, Blaubeuren, Germany, 10-14 July 1995, to be published in pi-N Newsletter

Morphological and Structural Characterization of Cro2/Cr2o3 Films Grown by Laser-CVD

This work reports on the synthesis of chromium (III, IV) oxides films by KrF laser-assisted CVD. Films were deposited onto sapphire substrates at room temperature by photodissociation of Cr(CO)6 in dynamic atmospheres containing oxygen and argon. A study of the processing parameters has shown that partial pressure ratio of O2 to Cr(CO)6 and laser fluence are the prominent parameters that have to be accurately controlled in order to co-deposit both crystalline oxide phases. Films consistent with such a two-phase system were synthesised for a laser fluence of 75 mJ cm-2 and a partial pressure ratio about 1. PACS: 81.15.Fg, 81.15.Kk, 81.05.JeComment: 17 pages, 4 figure

Cr2O3 thin films grown at room temperature by low pressure laser chemical vapour deposition

Chromia (Cr2O3) has been extensively explored for the purpose of developing widespread industrial applications, owing to the convergence of a variety of mechanical, physical and chemical properties in one single oxide material. Various methods have been used for large area synthesis of Cr2O3 films. However, for selective area growth and growth on thermally sensitive materials, laser-assisted chemical vapour deposition (LCVD) can be applied advantageously. Here we report on the growth of single layers of pure Cr2O3 onto sapphire substrates at room temperature by low pressure photolytic LCVD, using UV laser radiation and Cr(CO)6 as chromium precursor. The feasibility of the LCVD technique to access selective area deposition of chromia thin films is demonstrated. Best results were obtained for a laser fluence of 120 mJ cm-2 and a partial pressure ratio of O2 to Cr(CO)6 of 1.0. Samples grown with these experimental parameters are polycrystalline and their microstructure is characterised by a high density of particles whose size follows a lognormal distribution. Deposition rates of 0.1 nm s-1 and mean particle sizes of 1.85 {\mu}m were measured for these films.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Thin Solid Film

Methane hydrate formation in confined nanospace can surpass nature

Natural methane hydrates are believed to be the largest source of hydrocarbons on Earth. These structures are formed in specific locations such as deep-sea sediments and the permafrost based on demanding conditions of high pressure and low temperature. Here we report that, by taking advantage of the confinement effects on nanopore space, synthetic methane hydrates grow under mild conditions (3.5 MPa and 2 degrees C), with faster kinetics (within minutes) than nature, fully reversibly and with a nominal stoichiometry that mimics nature. The formation of the hydrate structures in nanospace and their similarity to natural hydrates is confirmed using inelastic neutron scattering experiments and synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction. These findings may be a step towards the application of a smart synthesis of methane hydrates in energy-demanding applications (for example, transportation).We acknowledge UK Science and Technlology Facilities Council for the provision of beam time on the TOSCA spectrometer (Projects RB1410624 and RB122099) and financial support from the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme through the 'Research Infrastructures' action of the 'Capacities' Programme (NMI3-II Grant number 283883). J.S.-A. and F.R. acknowledges the financial support from MINECO: Strategic Japanese-Spanish Cooperation Program (PLE2009-0052), Concert Project-NASEMS (PCIN-2013-057) and Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEO/2009/002). F.R. and J.L.J. thank the financial support from MINECO (MAT2012-38567-C02-01, Consolider Ingenio 2010-Multicat CSD-2009-00050 and SEV-2012-0267). K.K. thanks Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) (2424-1038), Japan. A.B. and A.U. thank the financial support from MINECO (SEV-2013-0319). J.L.J. and I.P. thank synchrotron ALBA for beamtime availability.Casco, M.; Silvestre Albero, J.; Ramirez-Cuesta, A.; Rey Garcia, F.; Jorda Moret, JL.; Bansode, A.; Urakawa, A.... (2015). Methane hydrate formation in confined nanospace can surpass nature. Nature Communications. 6(6432):1-8. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7432S1866432Sloan, E. D. Jr., & Koh, C. A. Clathrate Hydrates of Natural Gases 3rd edn CRC Press (2007).Gutt, C. et al. The structure of deuterated methane-hydrate. J. Chem. Phys. 113, 4713–4721 (2000).Holbrook, W. S., Hoskins, H., Wood, W. T., Stephen, R. A. & Lizarralde, D. Methane hydrate and free gas on the Blake Ridge from vertical seismic profiling. Science 273, 1840–1843 (1996).Sloan, E. D. Jr., Fundamental principles and applications of natural gas hydrates. Nature 426, 353–363 (2003).Rodríguez-Reinoso, F., Almansa, C. & Molina-Sabio, M. 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Carbon 46, 384–386 (2008).Marsh, H. & Rodríguez-Reinoso, F. Activated Carbon Elsevier (2006).Kubo, T. et al. Diffusion-barrier-free porous carbon monoliths as a new form of activated carbon. ChemSusChem 5, 2271–2277 (2012).Kaneko, K., Itoh, T. & Fujimori, T. Collective interactions of molecules with an interfacial solid. Chem. Lett. 41, 466–475 (2012).Nakamura, M., Ohba, T., Branton, P., Kanoh, H. & Kaneko, K. Equilibrium-time and pore-width dependent hysteresis of water adsorption isotherm on hydrophobic microporous carbons. Carbon 48, 305–308 (2010).Vysniauskas, A. & Bishnoi, P. R. A kinetic study of methane hydrate formation. Chem. Eng. Sci. 38, 1061–1072 (1983).Junhong, Q. & Tianmin, G. Kinetics of methane hydrate formation in pure water and inhibitor containing systems. Chin. J. Chem. Eng 10, 316–322 (2002).Liu, J., Zhou, Y., Sun, Y., Su, W. & Zhou, L. Methane storage in wet carbon of tailored pore sizes. Carbon 49, 3731–3736 (2011).Perrin, A., Celzard, A., Marêché, J. F. & Furdin, G. Methane storage within dry and wet activated carbons: a comparative study. Energy Fuels 17, 1283–1291 (2003).Zhou, L., Liu, L., Su, W., Sun, Y. & Zhou, Y. Progress in studies of natural gas storage with wet adsorbents. Energy Fuels 24, 3789–3795 (2010).Celzard, A. & Marêché, J. F. Optimal wetting of activated carbons for methane hydrate formation. Fuel 85, 957–966 (2006).Webb, E. B. et al. High pressure rheology of hydrate slurries formed from water-in-oil emulsions. Energy Fuels 26, 3504–3509 (2012).Urita, K. et al. Confinement in carbon nanospace-induced production of KI nanocrystals of high-pressure phase. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 133, 10344–10347 (2011).Fujimori, T. et al. Conducting linear chains of sulphur inside carbon nanotubes. Nat. Commun. 4, 2162 (2013).Tse, J. S., Ratcliffe, C. L., Powell, B. M., Sears, V. F. & Handa, Y. P. Rotational and translational motions of trapped methane. Incoherent inelastic neutron scattering of methane hydrate. J. Phys. Chem. 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Search for composite and exotic fermions at LEP 2

A search for unstable heavy fermions with the DELPHI detector at LEP is reported. Sequential and non-canonical leptons, as well as excited leptons and quarks, are considered. The data analysed correspond to an integrated luminosity of about 48 pb^{-1} at an e^+e^- centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV and about 20 pb^{-1} equally shared between the centre-of-mass energies of 172 GeV and 161 GeV. The search for pair-produced new leptons establishes 95% confidence level mass limits in the region between 70 GeV/c^2 and 90 GeV/c^2, depending on the channel. The search for singly produced excited leptons and quarks establishes upper limits on the ratio of the coupling of the excited fermio

Search for lightest neutralino and stau pair production in light gravitino scenarios with stau NLSP

Promptly decaying lightest neutralinos and long-lived staus are searched for in the context of light gravitino scenarios. It is assumed that the stau is the next to lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP) and that the lightest neutralino is the next to NLSP (NNLSP). Data collected with the Delphi detector at centre-of-mass energies from 161 to 183 \GeV are analysed. No evidence of the production of these particles is found. Hence, lower mass limits for both kinds of particles are set at 95% C.L.. The mass of gaugino-like neutralinos is found to be greater than 71.5 GeV/c^2. In the search for long-lived stau, masses less than 70.0 to 77.5 \GeVcc are excluded for gravitino masses from 10 to 150 \eVcc . Combining this search with the searches for stable heavy leptons and Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model staus a lower limit of 68.5 \GeVcc may be set for the stau mas

Anisotropic flow of charged hadrons, pions and (anti-)protons measured at high transverse momentum in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=2.76\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76 TeV

The elliptic, $v_2$, triangular, $v_3$, and quadrangular, $v_4$, azimuthal anisotropic flow coefficients are measured for unidentified charged particles, pions and (anti-)protons in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Results obtained with the event plane and four-particle cumulant methods are reported for the pseudo-rapidity range $|\eta|<0.8$ at different collision centralities and as a function of transverse momentum, $p_{\rm T}$, out to $p_{\rm T}=20$ GeV/$c$. The observed non-zero elliptic and triangular flow depends only weakly on transverse momentum for $p_{\rm T}>8$ GeV/$c$. The small $p_{\rm T}$ dependence of the difference between elliptic flow results obtained from the event plane and four-particle cumulant methods suggests a common origin of flow fluctuations up to $p_{\rm T}=8$ GeV/$c$. The magnitude of the (anti-)proton elliptic and triangular flow is larger than that of pions out to at least $p_{\rm T}=8$ GeV/$c$ indicating that the particle type dependence persists out to high $p_{\rm T}$.Comment: 16 pages, 5 captioned figures, authors from page 11, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/186