Enhanced Optical Dichroism of Graphene Nanoribbons

The optical conductivity of graphene nanoribbons is analytical and exactly derived. It is shown that the absence of translation invariance along the transverse direction allows considerable intra-band absorption in a narrow frequency window that varies with the ribbon width, and lies in the THz range domain for ribbons 10-100nm wide. In this spectral region the absorption anisotropy can be as high as two orders of magnitude, which renders the medium strongly dichroic, and allows for a very high degree of polarization (up to ~85) with just a single layer of graphene. The effect is resilient to level broadening of the ribbon spectrum potentially induced by disorder. Using a cavity for impedance enhancement, or a stack of few layer nanoribbons, these values can reach almost 100%. This opens a potential prospect of employing graphene ribbon structures as efficient polarizers in the far IR and THz frequencies.Comment: Revised version. 10 pages, 7 figure

Black hole particle emission in higher-dimensional spacetimes

In models with extra dimensions, a black hole evaporates both in the bulk and on the visible brane, where standard model fields live. The exact emissivities of each particle species are needed to determine how the black hole decay proceeds. We compute and discuss the absorption cross-sections, the relative emissivities and the total power output of all known fields in the evaporation phase. Graviton emissivity is highly enhanced as the spacetime dimensionality increases. Therefore, a black hole loses a significant fraction of its mass in the bulk. This result has important consequences for the phenomenology of black holes in models with extra dimensions and black hole detection in particle colliders.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX 4. v3: Misprints in Tables correcte

Disorder Induced Localized States in Graphene

We consider the electronic structure near vacancies in the half-filled honeycomb lattice. It is shown that vacancies induce the formation of localized states. When particle-hole symmetry is broken, localized states become resonances close to the Fermi level. We also study the problem of a finite density of vacancies, obtaining the electronic density of states, and discussing the issue of electronic localization in these systems. Our results also have relevance for the problem of disorder in d-wave superconductors.Comment: Replaced with published version. 4 pages, 4 figures. Fig. 1 was revise

Impact of the reactor bottom shape on the solid sodium borohydride hydrolysis for hydrogen generation

Sodium borohydride (NaBH4) is a chemical hydride that produces hydrogen (H2) ‘on-demand’ through the reaction with water, and exhibits high gravimetric hydrogen storage capacity (10.8 wt.%). NaBH4 has been appointed as an efficient energy/hydrogen carrier for use with fuel cells [1-6]. Unfortunately, problems also exist with NaBH4 hydrolysis: H2 production rates are not sufficiently fast, reaction completion is not always reachable and effective gravimetric (and volumetric) H2 storage capacity is far from the theoretical value. The present study reports original experimental work on generation of hydrogen, by hydrolysis of solid sodium borohydride with stoichiometric amount of distilled water (H2O/NaBH4: 2, 3 and 4 mol/mol), in the presence of a powder unsupported Ni-Ru based catalyst, reused about 320 times. The experiments, performed in two batch reactors with equal internal volume but with different bottom shapes (flat and conical), reveal - for the conical bottom shape with any excess of water - 8.1 H2 wt% and 92 kg H2/m3 (materials-only basis), and a H2 rate of 87.4 L(H2) min-1g-1 catalyst. The role of reactor bottom geometry on the solid NaBH4 hydrolysis - with any excess of water - is, as the authors are aware, for the first time here referred

Hydrogen generation by borohydrides: critical issues for portable applications

High volumetric and gravimetric efficiency are key to potential hydrogen energy carriers. Sodium borohydride emerges as such potentiality and a storage capacity well within DOE targets for 2015. Limitations exist due to the fact that hydrolysis is restricted by available water and due to the lack of low cost re-usable catalysts. An extensive amount of work has been done in our laboratories on Ni and Ru based catalysts, including synthesis and characterization and solutions have been found for durability, stability and reutilization under operating conditions in small volume batch reactors. Results showed that the Langmuir-Hinshelwood model described fairly well the reaction kinetics for all tested temperatures up to 60ºC and up to reactant exhaustion. In this work, issues such as self-hydrolysis, stability of solutions for storage, water management, some aspects of the catalyzed hydrolysis as well as gas conditioning are studied in order to associate a storage solution with sodium borohydride to a low power air breathing cathode PEM fuel cell

A new gravitational N-body simulation algorithm for investigation of cosmological chaotic advection

Recently alternative approaches in cosmology seeks to explain the nature of dark matter as a direct result of the non-linear spacetime curvature due to different types of deformation potentials. In this context, a key test for this hypothesis is to examine the effects of deformation on the evolution of large scales structures. An important requirement for the fine analysis of this pure gravitational signature (without dark matter elements) is to characterize the position of a galaxy during its trajectory to the gravitational collapse of super clusters at low redshifts. In this context, each element in an gravitational N-body simulation behaves as a tracer of collapse governed by the process known as chaotic advection (or lagrangian turbulence). In order to develop a detailed study of this new approach we develop the COsmic LAgrangian TUrbulence Simulator (COLATUS) to perform gravitational N-body simulations based on Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) for graphics processing units (GPUs). In this paper we report the first robust results obtained from COLATUS.Comment: Proceedings of Sixth International School on Field Theory and Gravitation-2012 - by American Institute of Physic

On-demand hydrogen generation by hydrolysis of sodium borohydride in batch reactors: effect of the buffer pressure

A study was undertaken in order to investigate the potential of hydrogen generation by hydrolysis of sodium borohydride in batch reactors, operating at moderate pressures, in the presence of a reused nickel-ruthenium based catalyst, to feed on-demand a proton exchange membrane fuel cell. The effect of the buffer pressure is explored and hydrogen generation rates are evaluated by changing catalyst amount, operating pressure and successive refuelin

Analysis of a stand-alone residential PEMFC Power system with sodium borohydride as hydrogen source

Catalytic hydrolysis of sodium borohydride (NaBH4) has been investigated as a method to generate hydrogen for fuel cell applications. The high purity of the generated hydrogen makes this process an ideal source of hydrogen for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). In this paper, the possibility of using a NaBH4-based hydrogen generator with a PEMFC for stand-alone residential use is examined. A complete model of the system is developed, based on models taken from literature with appropriate modifications and improvements. Supervisory control strategies are also developed to manage the hydrogen generation and storage and the power flow. The operation and performance of the integrated system over a one-week period under real loading conditions is analyzed through simulation. Finally, results of the analysis are summarized and the limitations/further scope are indicated

The effect of NaOH on the kinetics of Hydrogen production from sodium borohydride using Ni-based catalysts doped with Ruthenium

Previous work by the authors has demonstrated a high rate and high yield hydrolysis of sodium borohydride in the presence of a Ni-Ru catalyst synthesized by wet chemistry. The catalyst has been fully characterized and utilized more than 300 times, exhibiting high stability and durability. In this work, the effect of temperature on the reaction rate was studied and the activation energy of the process estimated for temperatures up to 65 ºC. Typical data in the form of an Arrhenius type relationship showed two slope regions suggesting a change of mechanism that lead to a more accentuated role of ruthenium for temperatures higher than 45 ºC. This effect is maintained with increasing Ru doping of the catalyst. The effect of NaOH as a stabilizer was also studied and the role of Ni and Ru in the hydrolysis of sodium borohydride is under study on the basis of data obtained for various Ru concentrations and data for 100% Ni and 100% Ru as catalysts. An increase in the concentration of Ruthenium in the catalyst allowed effective utilization of the catalyst without the need for the stabilizer, minimizing the induction reaction time. Excellent catalytic activity and catalyst minimal deactivation for sodium borohydride hydrolysis are characteristic of the series of Ni-Ru catalyst synthesized by wet chemistry used in this work

Caracterização fenológica de genótipos de uvas de mesa do Banco Ativo de Germoplasma da Embrapa Semiárido.

Com este trabalho, objetivou-se avaliar o comportamento fenológico de 109 genótipos de uvas de mesa do Banco Ativo de Germoplasma da Embrapa Semiárido durante o primeiro e o segundo semestres de 2010. O experimento foi instalado no Campo Experimental de Mandacaru, Juazeiro, BA. Considerou-se a média em número de dias de duas safras (2010.1 e 2010.2) para a ocorrência das principais fases fenológicas. Foram avaliados 76 genótipos de uvas de mesa com semente e 33 genótipos de uvas sem semente. Os genótipos foram classificados em precoce, mediano e tardio. Entre os genótipos de uvas com semente, houve um predomínio de genótipos tardios, tanto nos ciclos do primeiro quanto do segundo semestre de 2010, correspondendo a 60% e 64% dos genótipos, respectivamente. A maioria dos genótipos de uvas sem sementes apresentaram ciclo fenológico mediano nos dois semestres do ano. A duração das fases fenológicas sofreu variações de acordo com os ciclos do primeiro e segundo semestre, como também de acordo com o genótipo