Porous one dimensional photonic crystals: novel multifunctional materials for environmental and energy applications

In recent times, several synthetic pathways have been developed to create multilayered materials of diverse composition that combine accessible porosity and optical properties of structural origin, i.e., not related to absorption. These materials possess a refractive index that varies periodically along one direction, which gives rise to optical diffraction effects characteristic of Bragg stacks or…

Remediation of metal-contaminated soils with the addition of materials – Part I: Characterization and viability studies for the selection of non-hazardous waste materials and silicates

Contamination episodes in soils require interventions to attenuate their impact. These actions are often based on the addition of materials to increase contaminant retention in the soil and to dilute the contaminant concentration. Here, non-hazardous wastes (such as sugar foam, fly ash and a material produced by the zeolitization of fly ash) and silicates (including…

Influence of the strong metal support interaction effect (SMSI) of Pt/TiO(2) and Pd/TiO(2) systems in the photocatalytic biohydrogen production from glucose solution

Two different catalysts consisting of Pt/TiO2 and Pd/TiO 2 were submitted to diverse oxidative and reductive calcination treatments and tested for photocatalytic reforming of glucose water solution (as a model of biomass component) in H2 production. Oxidation and reduction at 850°C resulted in better photocatalysts for hydrogen production than Degussa P-25 and the ones prepared…

Structure, Electrical Resistivity, and Thermal Conductivity of Beech Wood Biocarbon Produced at Carbonization Temperatures below 1000 degrees C

This paper reports on measurements of the thermal conductivity. and the electrical resistivity. in the temperature range 5-300 K, and, at 300 K, on X-ray diffraction studies of high-porosity (with a channel pore volume fraction of similar to 47 vol %) of the beech wood biocarbon prepared by pyrolysis (carbonization) of tree wood in an…

Structural and catalytic properties of lanthanide (La, Eu, Gd) doped ceria

Ce0.9M0.1O2-δ mixed oxides (M=La, Eu and Gd) were synthesized by coprecipitation. Independent of the dopant cation, the obtained solids maintain the F-type crystalline structure, characteristic of CeO2 (fluorite structure) without phase segregation. The ceria lattice expands depending on the ionic radii of the dopant cation, as indicated by X-ray diffraction studies. This effect also agrees…

Electrical properties and applications of carbon based nanocomposite materials: An overview

The allotropic forms of carbon (amorphous and polycrystalline graphite, carbon black, fullerenes, nanotubes, graphene) exhibit a large variety of charge transport properties which have been stimulating fundamental and applied research for the development of new devices based on micro and nano-sized electronic systems. Carbon based nanocomposites offer the possibility to improve the device performances and…

Compositional and Quantitative Microtextural Characterization of Historic Paintings by Micro-X-ray Diffraction and Raman Microscopy

This work shows the benefits of characterizing historic paintings via compositional and microtextural data from micro-X-ray diffraction (μ-XRD) combined with molecular information acquired with Raman microscopy (RM) along depth profiles in paint stratigraphies. The novel approach was applied to identify inorganic and organic components from paintings placed at the 14th century Islamic University—Madrasah Yusufiyya—in Granada…