14 research outputs found
Novel strategies to design and construct efficient semiconductor-based photocatalyst for enhancing photocatalytic hydrogen evolution and nitrogen fixation under sunlight irradiation
L'Ă©nergie solaire est la source d'Ă©nergie la plus abondante au monde et elle peut ĂȘtre convertie en Ă©nergie chimique via des processus photocatalytiques. Au cours des derniĂšres dĂ©cennies, la photocatalyse sous la lumiĂšre du soleil est apparue comme une alternative innovante aux combustibles fossiles afin de rĂ©soudre et prĂ©venir des problĂšmes graves liĂ©s Ă la crise environnementale et Ă©nergĂ©tique. Actuellement, les matĂ©riaux Ă base de semi-conducteurs (tels que TiOâ, CâNâ, InâOâ, WOâ) sont intensivement Ă©tudiĂ©s pour diverses applications photocatalytiques, y compris la rĂ©action dâĂ©volution d'hydrogĂšne (HER) et la rĂ©duction de l'azote en ammoniac (NRR). Par consĂ©quent, diverses approches telles que l'ingĂ©nierie structurelle, les hĂ©tĂ©rojonctions nanocomposites ont Ă©tĂ© Ă©tudiĂ©es afin de surmonter les problĂšmes de ces matĂ©riaux et ainsi augmenter l'activitĂ© catalytique. Dans le cadre de cette thĂšse, nous avons dĂ©veloppĂ© des nouvelles stratĂ©gies pour la synthĂšse des quatre types de photocatalyseurs efficaces pour la production d'hydrogĂšne et la fixation de l'azote sous la lumiĂšre du soleil. Nos matĂ©riaux prĂ©sentent une structure unique, qui favorise l'absorption de la lumiĂšre visible, la sĂ©paration des charges Ă©lectrons-trous et lâaugmentation du nombre de sites actifs.Pour l'application de la gĂ©nĂ©ration d'hydrogĂšne photocatalytique, nous avons d'abord synthĂ©tisĂ© les sphĂšres de type Ă©ponge CdIânSâ monophasĂ©es via une mĂ©thode solvothermique suivie d'un traitement au gaz contenant HâS. La formation du complexe Cd/In avec une distribution uniforme de CdÂČâș et InÂłâș a jouĂ© un rĂŽle crucial dans la formation du spinelle monophasĂ© CdInâSâ. L'Ă©nergie de la bande interdite s'est avĂ©rĂ©e ĂȘtre significativement rĂ©duite, ce qui permet une absorption Ă©tendue de la lumiĂšre visible jusqu'Ă 700 nm, ceci est principalement attribuĂ© Ă la dispersion d'espĂšce sulfure sur la bande de valence du CdInâSâ monophasĂ©. Avec le dĂ©pĂŽt de Ni mĂ©tallique comme cocatalyseur de rĂ©duction, le photocatalyseur hybride Ni-CdInâSâ a montrĂ© une efficacitĂ© amĂ©liorĂ©e pour la production d'hydrogĂšne sous la lumiĂšre solaire, ce qui reprĂ©sente une augmentation de lâactivitĂ© dâenviron, respectivement, 5,5 et 3,6 fois que celle des Ă©chantillons Pt-CdInâSâ et Pd-CdInâSâ. Le deuxiĂšme systĂšme photocatalytique dĂ©veloppĂ© implique la prĂ©paration de nitrure de carbone graphitique dopĂ© au S (Ni-SCN). Ce dernier est chimiquement ancrĂ© au nickel par une technique connue sous le nom de processus de photo-dĂ©pĂŽt assistĂ© par sulfuration. L'origine de la structure distinctive du Ni-SCN est dĂ» Ă l'existence de liaisons chimiques NiS-C-N dans le systĂšme, ce qui favorisait la sĂ©paration des charges photogĂ©nĂ©rĂ©es et amĂ©liorait la capacitĂ© dâabsorption lumineuse du photocatalyseur. Par consĂ©quent, lâĂ©chantillon NiSCN synthĂ©tisĂ© prĂ©sente une excellente activitĂ© photocatalytique pour la production d'hydrogĂšne sous la lumiĂšre du soleil. En effet, ce systĂšme prĂ©sente une activitĂ© beaucoup plus Ă©levĂ©e que celle des systĂšmes g-CâNâ dopĂ©s au S, Ni supportĂ© g-CâNâ et Pt supportĂ© g-CâNâ dopĂ©s au S. Pour une application photo (Ă©lectro) catalytique de fixation de l'azote, nos travaux sont les premiers Ă rapporter la synthĂšse de nanoparticules d'Au chargĂ©es de nanoparticules WââOââ dopĂ©es au Fe (notĂ©es WOF-Au) par une synthĂšse solvothermique suivie d'un dĂ©pĂŽt in situ des nanoparticules d'Au. L'incorporation de dopants Fe peut non seulement guĂ©rir les Ă©tats de dĂ©faut de masse dans les rĂ©seaux non stĆchiomĂ©triques WââOââ, mais Ă©galement favoriser la sĂ©paration et la migration interfaciale des Ă©lectrons du photocatalyseur vers les molĂ©cules Nâ chimisorbĂ©es; tandis que les nanoparticules Au dĂ©corĂ©es sur la surface dopĂ©e au Fe WââOââ ont fourni les Ă©lectrons Ă haute Ă©nergie pour la rĂ©duction de Nâ via l'effet de rĂ©sonance plasmonique de surface localisĂ© (LSPR). Le systĂšme WOF-Au plasmonique rĂ©sultant montre un rendement amĂ©liorĂ© pour la production de NHâ, beaucoup plus Ă©levĂ© que celui du WââOââ pur ainsi qu'une trĂšs grande stabilitĂ©. L'amĂ©lioration des performances photoĂ©lectrocatalytiques est principalement due Ă l'effet synergique des dopants Fe et des nanoparticules Au dans l'hĂŽte WââOââ. Enfin, les cacahuĂštes creuses de InâOâ dopĂ©es au Ru (dĂ©notĂ©es Ru-InâOâ HPN) ont Ă©tĂ© fabriquĂ©es par la nouvelle stratĂ©gie d'auto-matrice suivie de la calcination des prĂ©curseurs synthĂ©tisĂ©s. Les nanoparticules uniformes InâOâ sont Ă©troitement agglomĂ©rĂ©es ensemble pour former une structure de cacahuĂšte creuse, ce qui facilite la sĂ©paration et le transport des l'Ă©lectrons-trous photoexcitĂ©s, amĂ©liorant lâabsorption de la lumiĂšre par multi-rĂ©flexion. De plus, l'introduction des dopants Ru induit de nombreuses lacunes en oxygĂšne Ă la surface et rĂ©duit l'Ă©nergie de la bande interdite du systĂšme photocatalytique. Ces lacunes d'oxygĂšne agissent comme des centres de piĂ©geage, facilitant la sĂ©paration des Ă©lectrons trous photoexcitĂ©s. Par consĂ©quent, le taux de production d'ammoniac des Ru-InâOâ HPNs est 5,6 fois plus Ă©levĂ© que celui des InâOâ HPNs purs et largement supĂ©rieur au matĂ©riau en vrac d'InâOâ, lorsquâil est soumis Ă lâirradiation solaire.Solar energy is the most abundant energy source in the world, and it can be converted into chemical energy via photocatalytic processes. Over the last decades, sunlight-driven photocatalysis has emerged as an innovative alternative to fossil fuels for solving the severe problems related to environmental diseases and the energy crisis. Currently, semiconductorbased materials (such as TiOâ, CâNâ, InâOâ, WOâ, BiVOâ) have been intensively studied for diverse photocatalytic applications, including the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) to produce ammonia. However, the drawbacks of weak visible light absorption, low electron-hole separation with high recombination rate, and lack of surface active-sites have limited the photocatalytic performance of these semiconductorbased photocatalysts. Therefore, various approaches such as structural engineering, nanocomposite heterojunctions have been applied to overcome the limitations of these materials and boosting the catalytic activity. In this thesis, we employed novel strategies to develop four efficient photocatalytic systems for hydrogen production and nitrogen fixation. Our materials possessed a unique structure, which is advantageous to promote the visiblelight absorption, facilitate the separation of charge carrier, and increase the number of surface-active sites. For the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution application, we firstly synthesized the singlephase CdInâSâ sponge-like spheres via solvothermal method followed by HâS gas treatment. The formation of CdIn-complex with uniform distribution of CdÂČâș and InÂłâș played a crucial role in achieving the spinel structured-single phase CdInâSâ. The bandgap energy was found to be significantly reduced, resulting in the extended visible light absorption up to 700 nm, which was primarily attributed to the sulfide species-mediated modification of the valence band in CdInâSâ single-phase. With the deposition of Ni metal as a reduction cocatalyst, the hybrid Ni-CdInâSâ photocatalyst showed enhanced solar light-driven photocatalytic hydrogen evolution efficiency, which is around 5.5 and 3.6 folds higher than that of Pt-CdInâSâ and Pd-CdInâSâ samples, respectively. The second developed photocatalytic system involved the preparation of chemically bonded nickel anchored S-doped graphitic-carbon nitride (Ni-SCN) through a technique known as sulfidation assisted photo-deposition process. The origin of the distinctive structure of Ni-SCN was due to the existence of Ni-S-C-N chemical bonds in the system, which fundamentally favored the separation of photogenerated electron-hole and improved the light-harvesting capabilities of the photocatalyst. Consequently, the synthesized Ni-SCN exhibited an excellent sunlight-driven photocatalytic activity toward hydrogen evolution, which was several times higher than Sdoped g-CâNâ, Ni supported g-CâNâ and Pt loaded S-doped CâNâ systems. For photo(electro)catalytic nitrogen fixation application, our work is the first to report the synthesis of Au nanoparticles loaded Fe doped WââOââ (denoted as WOF-Au) nanorods through a solvothermal synthesis following by in situ deposition of Au nanoparticles. The incorporation of Fe dopants can not only heal the bulk-defect-states in nonstoichiometric WââOââ lattices but also promote the separation and interfacial migration of electrons from photocatalyst to chemisorbed Nâ molecules; while Au nanoparticles decorated on the Fe doped WââOââ surface provided the high energetic electrons for Nâ reduction via the localized surface plasmon resonance effect (LSPR). The obtained plasmonic WOF-Au system shows an enhanced NHâ yield, which is much higher than that of the bare WââOââ, as well as very high stability. The enhancement in photoelectrocatalytic performance is mainly contributed by the synergetic effect of Fe dopants and plasmonic Au nanoparticles on the WââOââ host. Lastly, Ru doped InâOâ hollow peanuts (demoted as Ru-InâOâ HPNs) were fabricated by the novel self-template strategy followed by the calcination of the as-synthesis precursors. The uniform InâOâ nanoparticles were closely packed together to form a hollow peanut structure, which facilitated the separation and transportation of photoinduced electron-hole and favored the light-harvesting ability by the internal multi-reflection process. Furthermore, the introduction of Ru dopants induced numerous surface oxygen vacancies and narrow down the bandgap energy of the photocatalytic system. These oxygen vacancies act as trapping centers, facilitating the separation of photoexcited electrons and holes. Consequently, the ammonia production rate of Ru-InâOâ HPNs was 5.6 times and much higher as compared to pure InâOâ HPNs and bulk material of InâOâ under solar light irradiation
REGIONAL LINKAGE IN TOURISM: THE CASE OF VIETNAM
Abstract. This research is conducted for investigating the current situations of regional linkage in tourism development in the areas of Midlands and Northern Mountains in Vietnam. Data were collected from a survey of 755 people, including officials from State management bodies in charge of tourism, officials and staffs at tourism resorts, tourism firms, tourism scientists and tourists. In addition, we conducted focus group and interviewed tourism agency officials and tourism firms in the Midland and Mountainous provinces of Vietnam. The results show that tourism development in Vietnam in general and the Northwest region in particular is extremely fragmented, not yet forming a regional linkage; regional and national tourism development projects are just formalistic. Some causes are the limited regional integration policy, lack of appropriate regional governance mechanisms and inactive participation of the private sector in regional integration. Based on the findings, we propose a tourism sector linkage model; besides, policyimplications are given for fulfilling the linkage policies in Vietnam in particular, and more broadly for emerging countries in general.Keywords: Midlands and Northern Mountains, tourism linkage, Vietnam
Survey on Vietnamese teachersâ perspectives and perceived support during COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented damage to the educational system worldwide. Besides the measurable economic impacts in the short-term and long-term, there is intangible destruction within educational institutions. In particular, teachers â the most critical intellectual resources of any schools â have to face various types of financial, physical, and mental struggles due to COVID-19. To capture the current context of more than one million Vietnamese teachers during COVID-19, we distributed an e- survey to more than 2,500 randomly selected teachers from two major teacher communities on Facebook from 6th to 11th April 2020. From over 373 responses, we excluded the observations which violated our cross-check questions and retained 294 observations for further analysis. This dataset includes: (i) Demographics of participants; (ii) Teachers' perspectives regarding the operation of teaching activities during the pandemic; (iii) Teachers' received support from their schools, government bodies, other stakeholders such as teacher unions, and parents' associations; and (iv) teachers' evaluation of school readiness toward digital transformation. Further, the dataset was supplemented with an additional question on the teachers' primary source of professional development activities during the pandemic
Economic linkage in key economic zones: The case of Vietnam
This study was conducted to measure the level of economic linkage in key economic zones in central Vietnam generally and to measure the level of economic linkage in the tourism sector. Secondary data were collected from the Statistical Yearbook published by the General Statistics Office and the Local Bureau of Statistics and primary data collected from surveys of 102 hotels and tourism firms in the center of Vietnam. We used the Moran Index (I) to quantify overall economic aggregation across the region and that scoring method was used to measure the degree of linkage in regional tourism. The results show that the level of overall regional economic linkages was very low and this was also relevant when analyzing the tourism sector in some areas of the center of Vietnam. Based on the results, some recommendations are given for strengthening economic linkages in key economic regions of Vietnam
Insights into the Recent Progress and Advanced Materials for Photocatalytic Nitrogen Fixation for Ammonia (NH<sub>3</sub>) Production
Ammonia (NH3) is one of the key agricultural fertilizers and to date, industries are using the conventional Haber-Bosh process for the synthesis of NH3 which requires high temperature and energy. To overcome such challenges and to find a sustainable alternative process, researchers are focusing on the photocatalytic nitrogen fixation process. Recently, the effective utilization of sunlight has been proposed via photocatalytic water splitting for producing green energy resource, hydrogen. Inspired by this phenomenon, the production of ammonia via nitrogen, water and sunlight has been attracted many efforts. Photocatalytic N2 fixation presents a green and sustainable ammonia synthesis pathway. Currently, the strategies for development of efficient photocatalyst for nitrogen fixation is primarily concentrated on creating active sites or loading transition metal to facilitate the charge separation and weaken the N⁻N triple bond. In this investigation, we review the literature knowledge about the photocatalysis phenomena and the most recent developments on the semiconductor nanocomposites for nitrogen fixation, following by a detailed discussion of each type of mechanism
Approximation of Capacity for Downlink Multi-User System with Combination of Precoding and NOMA Methods
Enhancing performance of downlink MU systems is an attractive and important research for future wireless systems. The non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) method was proposed to improve the performance of MU systems. In order to further improve the outage probability (OP) and ergodic capacity (EC) of downlink NOMA MU systems, we propose the combination of precoding and NOMA methods, and then the OP and EC of MU systems with our novel method are derived in scenarios of perfect and imperfect successive interference cancellation (SIC) scheme. Moreover, the closed-form expression of OP and EC for both scenarios is theoretically derived and compared with Monte Carlo simulations. The results show that, the analysis method is accurate, and the proposed combining precoding and NOMA can further enhance the performance of MU systems in comparing with the original orthogonal multiple access method
Chemically Bonded Ni Cocatalyst onto the S Doped gâC<sub>3</sub>N<sub>4</sub> Nanosheets and Their Synergistic Enhancement in H<sub>2</sub> Production under Sunlight Irradiation
Nickel
deposited S-doped carbon nitride (NiâS:g-C<sub>3</sub>N<sub>4</sub>/Ni-SCN) nanosheets have been synthesized using calcination
followed by a sulfidation process. X-ray photoelectron spectra revealed
that the doped S atoms are successfully introduced into the 301 lattices
of the host g-C<sub>3</sub>N<sub>4</sub>. XPS spectra indicated that
the deposited Ni species are chemically bonded onto the host SCN nanosheets
through sulfur bonds. The sunlight-driven photocatalytic hydrogen
production efficiency of the synthesized Ni-SCN nanosheets is found
to be 3628 ÎŒmol g<sup>â1</sup> h<sup>â1</sup>,
which is around 1.5 folds higher than that of Pt-SCN that synthesized
in the present study. The observed efficiency is attributed to the
chemical bonding of Ni through S that largely favored the photocatalytic
process in terms of charge-separation as well as self-catalytic reactions.
The apparent quantum efficiency of the photocatalyst at 420 nm is
estimated to be 17.2%, which is relatively one of the higher values
reported in the literature. The photocatalytic recyclability results
showed consistent hydrogen evolution efficiency over 4 cycles (8 h)
that revealed the excellent stability of the photocatalyst. This work
has demonstrated that the chemical bonding of cocatalyst onto the
host photocatalyst is relatively an effective strategy as compared
to the conventional deposition of cocatalyst by means of electrostatic
or van der Waals forces
Top economics universities and research institutions in Vietnam: evidence from the SSHPA dataset
Economic research is vital for creating more suitable policies to facilitate economic growth. Employing a combination of descriptive and Bayesian analyses, this paper investigates the research landscape of the economics discipline in Vietnam, in particular, the leading affiliations in the field and how these institutions compare to each other in terms of productivity, the number of lead authors, new authors and publications' journal impact factor. We also examine the differences in the authors' productivity based on their age and gender. The dataset extracted from the SSHPA database includes 1,444 articles. The findings show that among top producers of economic research in Vietnam, seven are universities, leaving only one representative of research institutes. These top producers account for 52% of research output among 178 institutes recorded in the database. We also find a correlation between a researcher's affiliation, sex, and scientific productivity in Vietnam's economic discipline. Overall, publications by male researchers outnumber those by female ones in most of the top affiliations. The findings also indicate that 40â44 is the age group with the highest scientific productivity. Researchers' collaboration, which is observed through co-authorship, is on the rise in all of the top eight economic research affiliations. However, the quality of current Vietnam's scientific works in the discipline is questionable. Therefore, it is suggested that in order to sustain scientific productivity, economic researchers might need to balance the quantity and quality of their contributions.Scientific collaboration; scientific publishing; economics discipline; Vietnam; Bayesian analysis.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe
Adsorptive Removal of Copper by Using Surfactant Modified Laterite Soil
Removal of copper ion (Cu2+) by using surfactant modified laterite (SML) was investigated in the present study. Characterizations of laterite were examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and total carbon analysis. The optimum conditions for removal of Cu2+ by adsorption using SML were systematically studied and found as pH 6, contact time 90âmin, adsorbent dosage 5âmg/mL, and ionic strength 10âmM NaCl. The equilibrium concentration of copper ions was measured by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (F-AAS). Surface modification of laterite by anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) induced a significant increase of the removal efficiency of Cu2+. The surface modifications of laterite by preadsorption of SDS and sequential adsorption of Cu2+ were also evaluated by XRD and FT-IR. The adsorption of Cu2+ onto SML increases with increasing NaCl concentration from 1 to 10âmM, but at high salt concentration this trend is reversed because desorption of SDS from laterite surface was enhanced by increasing salt concentration. Experimental results of Cu2+/SML adsorption isotherms at different ionic strengths can be represented well by a two-step adsorption model. Based on adsorption isotherms, surface charge effects, and surface modification, we suggest that the adsorption mechanism of Cu2+ onto SML was induced by electrostatic attraction between Cu2+ and the negatively charged SML surface and nonelectrostatic interactions between Cu2+ and organic substances in the laterite