Preparation,structure and properties of transition metal trichalcogenides

In recent years, the transition metal trichalcogenides (TX₃) of Group IVB, VB and VIB have received much more attention because of the considerable diversity in their physical properties. The most striking feature of these compounds is that the structure here may be classified into three types depending on the number of different TX₃ chains present in the unit cell. Thus ZrSe₃, TaSe₃ and NbSe₃ are the representative compounds having one, two and three types of chain based on the different bond lengths for the (X₂)^2– pairs in the base of the TX₃ trigonal prismatic framework. A similar model is also applicable in the case of NbS₃, with the addition of a 2b-superstructure associated with the formation of niobium pairs. The chain structure also facilitates the process of intercalation which has been most effectively used in secondary batteries. These compounds exhibit the superconductivity phenomena and charge density wave, etc. and also find application in photoelectrochemical cells. An attempt has been made here to review the up-to-date chemistry of transition metal trichalcogenides related with their preparation, structure and properties such as physical and chemical, thermodynamic, electrical, magnetic and optical properties, intercalation and use in the photoelectrochemical cells. 93     

Design Errors: Inefficiency or Carelessness of Designer?

Design defects are experienced in many projects; the difference is only in the extent of occurrence. This technical note discusses a design error case in a building project in Nepal, where the designer made the wrong assumptions in roof treatment work for waterproofing as well as for heat insulation purposes. From the investigation of the problem, it was found that the waterproofing polymer was not applied directly over concrete slab top. Use of heavy concrete block as a heat insulation material also helped to increase the leakage problem. The problem evoked loss of prestige for project officials, the design consortium, and the contractor.     

Improved accuracy and convergence of discretized population balance for aggregation: The cell average technique

A new discretization method for aggregation equations is developed. It is compared to the fixed pivot technique proposed by Kumar and Ramkrishna (1996a. On the solution of population balance equations by discretization—I. A fixed pivot technique. Chemical Engineering Science 51, 1311-1332). The numerical results for aggregation problems by discretized population balances are consistently overpredicting and diverge before the gelling point in the case of a gelling kernel. The present work establishes a new technique which assigns the particles within the cells more precisely. This is achieved by taking first the average of the newborn particles within the cell and then assigning them to the neighboring nodes such that pre-chosen properties are exactly preserved. The new technique preserves all the advantages of the conventional discretized methods and provides a significant improvement in predicting the particle size distribution (PSD). In addition, it is found that the technique is a powerful tool for the computation of gelling problems. The effectiveness of the technique is illustrated by application to several aggregation problems for suitably selected aggregation kernels including physically relevant kernels.     

ShOC rectifier: a new metal-semiconductor device with excellent forward and reverse characteristics

We report a new structure, called the shielded ohmic contact (ShOC) rectifier which utilizes trenches filled with a high-barrier metal to shield an Ohmic contact during the reverse bias. When the device is forward biased, the ohmic contact conducts with a low forward drop. However, when reverse biased, the Ohmic contact is completely shielded by the high-barrier Schottky contact resulting in a low reverse leakage current. Two dimensional numerical simulation is used to evaluate and explain the superior performance of the proposed ShOC rectifier.     

Liquid phase epitaxial growth of pure and doped GaSb layers: morphological evolution and native defects

Undoped and Te-doped gallium antimonide (GaSb) layers have been grown on GaSb bulk substrates by the liquid phase epitaxial technique from Ga-rich and Sb-rich melts. The nucleation morphology of the grown layers has been studied as a function of growth temperature and substrate orientation. MOS structures have been fabricated on the epilayers to evaluate the native defect content in the grown layers from theC-V characteristics. Layers grown from antimony rich melts always exhibitp-type conductivity. In contrast, a type conversion fromp- ton- was observed in layers grown from gallium rich melts below 400 C. The electron mobility of undopedn-type layers grown from Ga-rich melts and tellurium doped layers grown from Sb- and Ga-rich solutions has been evaluated. Paper presented at the poster session of MRSI AGM VI. Kharagpur. 1995     

Estimation of wood char size at the end of devolatilization in a bubbling fluidized bed combustor

Two processes, namely shrinkage and primary fragmentation are known to be the major causes of size reduction of wood during its devolatilization in a fluidized bed combustor. A simple phenomenological model incorporating these effects to compute the average char size at the end of devolatilization is proposed. Experiments are conducted in a bubbling fluidized bed combustor using wood having three different shapes namely, cylinder, cuboid and sphere, to measure the average char size at the end of devolatilization. The model prediction of average char size agrees with the measured values within a deviation of 15%. An experimental correlation is derived to determine the number of fragments and is used to estimate the mean char size.     

Modelling and experimental investigation of devolatilizing wood in a fluidized bed combustor

A two-dimensional model is developed for the determination of devolatilization time and char yield of cylindrical wood particles in a bubbling fluidized bed combustor. By using the concept of shape factor, the model is extended to particles of cuboid shape. The model prediction of the devolatilization time agrees with the measured data (present and those reported in the literature) for cylindrical and cuboidal shaped particles within ±20% while the char yield is predicted within ±17%. Influence of some important parameters namely, thermal diffusivity, external heat transfer coefficient and shrinkage, on the devolatilization time and char yield are studied. Thermal diffusivity shows noticeable influence on devolatilization time. The external heat transfer coefficient shows little influence beyond a value of 300 W/(m² K). However particle shrinkage shows negligible effect on the devolatilization time but has a significant influence on the char yield.     

Oxidation of some aliphatic polyols on anodically deposited MnO2

Galvanostatic steady state current potential measurements were carried out for oxidation of a series of aliphatic alcohols having varying number of hydroxyl groups. The anodically deposited layer of MnO₂ on platinum was used as the electrode material. The deposit was characterised by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) and electrode potential measurements. The catalytic role of MnO₂ in the electro-oxidation of alcohols was indicated by the chronopotentiograms and the cyclic voltammograms. An analysis of the electrochemical data indicated a catalytic EC mechanism in which Mn (V) is generated electrochemically and consumed chemically in succession. Based on this and the hydrogen bonding interaction between alcoholic hydroxyl groups and MnO₂ layer, a mechanism was proposed which accounts for the variation in the observed electrochemical reaction orders. Tafel behaviour was found to be followed only approximately. Current efficiency of the electrochemical oxidation of polyols was studied. Replacement of platinum by carbon as current collector was found to leave the electrocatalytic activity of the MnO₂ deposit practically unaltered.