Spark plasma sintering of titanium nitride in nitrogen: Does it affect the sinterability and the mechanical properties?

Titanium nitride ceramics have an intrinsic interest due to its optical and structural applications. However, the conditions for sintering of dense pieces are not still clarified. This research work is focused on the spark plasma sintering (SPS) of near-fully dense fine-grained TiN. The main goal is giving a response to a longstanding debate: can the…

Bimetallic Ni-Co/SBA-15 catalysts for reforming of ethanol: How cobalt modifies the nickel metal phase and product distribution

In this study, five mono and bimetallic xNi-(10-x)Co/SBA-15 catalysts (x = 10, 8, 5, 2 and 0, with a total metallic content of 10 wt%) have been synthesized using a deposition-precipitation (DP) methodology. Catalytic performances on the steam reforming of ethanol reaction (SRE) have been determined and correlated with their physical and chemical state. A…

Cesium adsorption isotherm on swelling high-charged micas from aqueous solutions: Effect of temperature

The potential use of a new family of synthetic swelling micas for cesium immobilization from aqueous solution was evaluated and the structural modifications after adsorption were analyzed. The results have revealed that they are good cesium adsorbents compared to natural clays and as the layer charge increases, the adsorption capacity and affinity increase. The cesium…

Numerical study of the accuracy of temperature measurement by thermocouples in small-scale reactors

Proper temperature measurement is imperative in any laboratory study if reliable data are to be obtained, particularly in the field of chemical kinetics. In this paper we analyze in silico some typical thermowell configurations used in small-scale reactors by coupling computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with conjugated heat transfer phenomena. This allows us to identify deviations…

Robust polarization active nanostructured 1D Bragg Microcavities as optofluidic label-free refractive index sensor

In this work we report the use of polarization active porous 1D Bragg microcavities (BM) prepared by physical vapor deposition at oblique angles for the optofluidic analysis of liquid solutions. These photonic structures consist of a series of stacked highly porous layers of two materials with different refractive indices and high birefringence. Their operational principle…

Synthesis of Pd-Al/biomorphic carbon catalysts using cellulose as carbon precursor

This work presents the results obtained with novel Pd and Pd-Al catalysts supported on carbon, which have been prepared using a biomorphic mineralization technique. The catalyst synthesis procedure includes a stage of thermal decomposition under reductive atmosphere of cellulose previously impregnated with the metallic precursors. We have studied the influence of the temperature and time…

Investigation of use of coal fly ash in eco-friendly construction materials: fired clay bricks and silica-calcareous non fired bricks

The use of coal fly ash (CFA) as raw material for the manufacture of two construction materials, fired clay bricks and silica-calcareous non-fired bricks, was investigated. Fired clay bricks were manufactured using a commercial clay and different waste ratios (0-50 wt%), moulded at 10 MPa and fired at 1000 degrees C (4 h). Silica-calcareous non…