Energy-Efficient Separation of Water–Petroleum Emulsion

Russian Engineering Research - Systems are considered for the dehydration of petroleum so as to separate water–petroleum emulsions. In particular, the low-temperature microwave (UHF)...     

Co?N graphene encapsulated cobalt catalyst for H2O2 decomposition under acidic conditions

Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) has been listed as one of the 100 most important chemicals in the world. However, huge amount of residual H₂O₂ is hard to timely decomposed into O₂ and H₂O under acidic condition, easily resulting in explosion hazard. Here, we reported a core–shell structure catalyst, that is graphene with Co N structure encapsulated Co nanoparticles. Co N graphene shell serves as the active site for the H₂O₂ decomposition, and Co core further enhance this decomposition. Benefiting from it, the H₂O₂ decomposition were close to 100% after 6 cycles without pH adjustment, which increased 6 orders of magnitude compared with no catalyst. At the same time, the O₂ generation reached 99.67% in 2 h with little metal leaching, and ·OH has been greatly inhibited to only 0.08%. This work can cleanly remove H₂O₂ with little deep oxidation and protect the process of H₂O₂ utilization to achieve a safer world.     

A numerical model to predict the powder–binder separation during micro-powder injection molding

The micro-powder injection molding (micro-PIM) process has the potential to bridge the gap between the design and manufacturing of micro-components that are often used in small and handy devices. Numerical modeling helps to analyze and overcome various difficulties of micro-PIM. In the present work, a numerical model is developed to predict the powder–binder separation (a common defect in PIM and especially severe in micro-PIM) during the injection of an alumina feedstock. A powder–binder separation criterion is proposed dealing with applied injection pressure and friction force between the powder and binder. An indirect comparison of feedstock travel time between two locations is used to validate the model. The predicted segregation from the simulated result is supported by a qualitative experimental measurement. The developed model can be used to optimize injection parameters to get a defect-free product.     

Adsorption and Photocatalytic Activity of the Porous Glass–ZnO–Ag Composite and ZnO–Ag Nanopowder

Glass Physics and Chemistry - This article presents the results of a study of the effect on the adsorption properties of microporous glass of its modification with ZnO–Ag nanocrystals. The...     

State of the Art and Prospects for Studies of Structure Formation in Extraction Systems with Metal Compounds

Theoretical Foundations of Chemical Engineering - The state of the art of studies in the field of structure formation in extraction systems with metal compounds is considered. Structure formation...     

Influence of thermal runaway in styrene–acrylonitrile bulk copolymerization revealed by computational fluid dynamics modeling

The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and kinetic-based moment methods coupled approach is adopted to simulate the bulk copolymerization of styrene–acrylonitrile (SAN) in a stirred tank reactor. Numerical simulations are carried out to investigate the impacts of impeller speed, monomer ratio, initiator ratio, and initial reaction temperature on the copolymerization process and product properties. Particularly, the Chaos theory is selected as a criterion for evaluating the occurrence of the thermal runaway. The Flory's and Stockmayer's distributions are employed to calculate chain length distribution and copolymer composition distribution of copolymer. The simulation results highlight that the appearance of thermal runaway can be postponed by properly increasing the rotation speed, decreasing the initiator loadings, initial acrylonitrile contents and initial reactor temperature. Furthermore, significant differences exist in the product properties that predicted by the ideal and non-ideal models, which demonstrates that the temperature heterogeneity plays a crucial role in SAN copolymerization. This study could offer references for the safe operation and design of polymerization processes.     

CO2 sensing properties and mechanism of PrFeO3 and NdFeO3 thick film sensor

The CO_2 sensing of PrFeO_3 and NdFeO_3 sensors were investigated. Experimental results show that the resistances for PrFeO_3 and NdFeO_3 in CO_2 gas are larger than those in air and the responses for PrFeO_3and NdFeO_3 sensors increase with an increase in room-temperature relative humidity. When exposed to1000 ppm CO_2, the response of PrFeO_3 thick film based on nano-powders annealed at 700℃can reach8.44 at 160℃for the background of wet air with 58%of room-temperature relative humidity (RH),which is much larger than the corresponding value (3.03) in wet air with 25%RH. The sensing response S of NdFeO_3 thick-film sensor based on nano-powders annealed at 600℃to 3000 ppm CO_2 at the operating temperature 200℃can reach 2.36 for the background of wet air with 72%RH, which is larger than the corresponding value (1.83) in the air with 25%RH. Compared with other CO_2 sensing materials, the PrFeO_3 sensor has larger response at lower operating temperature for CO_2 gas and may be used as a new CO_2 sensing material.     

Assessing students' conceptual understanding using an online three‐tier diagnostic test

When solving a mathematical problem, students who do not have sufficient conceptual understanding may perform poorly and exhibit misconceptions. This study was aimed to examine students' conceptual understanding and significant misconceptions when solving number sense‐related problems. An online three‐tier diagnostic test was administered to 125 fifth‐grade students with varied socio‐economic backgrounds in Hong Kong. Only 14.40% of the students exhibited high performance with high confidence, indicating that these students had a profound conceptual understanding of number sense. In addition, the majority of the students (66.40%) did not demonstrate number sense; these students exhibited several significant misconceptions and could solve the questions only by using a rule‐based method or guessing. Accordingly, most students performed unsatisfactorily on number sense‐related problems. This study is imperative in identifying early predictors and provides information for further compatible interventions in the teaching and learning of number sense in Hong Kong in particular and worldwide in general.     

Short-Term Creep of St3 Steel Under Low-Frequency Cyclic Loading

Strength of Materials - Creep constitutive equations have been derived for the materials that exhibit the properties of orthotropy (transversal isotropy) and transient creep under cyclic loading. A...