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The present work is the first detailed description of the endothermic catalytic reaction of methylcyclohexane (MCH) over H-ZSM-5 zeolites (HZ) and activated charcoals (AC) coated in a multichannel micro-reactor module with novel ultra-compact wavy structure (MR) under supercritical conditions (550 °C, 5 MPa). The MR has an ultra-compact structure with nine micro-channels in parallel that exhibit a size of 120 × 30 mm and a total cross-sectional area of 36 cm2. The catalytic performance of the conventional tube reactor (TR) packed with HZ and AC catalysts was also studied for comparative purposes. All catalysts and reactors were characterized using various techniques such as field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), ammonia temperature-programmed desorption (NH3-TPD). In general, MRs showed always a significantly enhanced MCH conversion (%) performance and heat sink compared with conventional TRs. AC-coated MR showed the highest MCH conversion (%) performance compared to the other reactors. MCH conversion (%) was higher in the following order AC-coated MR (78.70%) > AC-packed TR (70.49%) > HZ-coated MR (68.87%) > HZ-packed TR (54.81%). The AC-coated MR can be one of the candidates for a heat-absorbing reaction for aircraft cooling system control.

The present study has endeavored to establish the relations between the CO2 absorption properties of five single amine-based absorbents including monoethanolamine (MEA), diethylamine (DEA), N-methyldiethanolamine (MDEA), 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP), and piperazine (PZ), and their sixteen binary mixtures in the blended amine-based absorbents for CO2 chemical absorption using a hydrophobic modified ceramic hollow fiber membrane contactor (HFMC). Keeping all other variables constant, the CO2 absorption properties of single and blended amine-based absorbents for CO2 chemical absorption using hydrophobic modified ceramic HFMCs are highly dependent on their chemical nature and concentration. MEA and DEA have the highest CO2 absorption flux among the single amine solutions. For the CO2 absorption in the blended amine-based absorbents, the replacement of MDEA with 20 wt% DEA increased the CO2 chemical absorption from 1 × 104 mol/m2 s to about 7 × 104 mol/m2 s. Aqueous MDEA blended DEA reaches a percentage of increase of CO2 absorption flux over 500% in comparison with the corresponding aqueous solution of single MDEA.

In this study, an experimental method for estimating the relative membrane mass transfer resistance ( R m H F M C ) by comparing the results obtained using a ceramic hollow fiber membrane contactor (HFMC) with those obtained using a wetted-wall column (WWC) was proposed. The method was successfully applied for the determination of the optimal pore structure to increase the CO2 absorption. To find a relationship between relative R m H F M C in the ceramic HFMCs and its pore characteristics, the method was tested on two ceramic HFMCs prepared by non-solvent induced phase separation method. The pore structures were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, capillary flow porometry, and gas permeability measurements. The results obtained show that the relative R m H F M C contribution ranged from ∼90 to ∼27% of the overall mass transfer resistance ( R o H F M C ) and was related to the variation of the pore structure properties. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to estimate the relative R m H F M C element of the ceramic HFMC through an experimental comparison with a WWC performed in the same experimental conditions. The proposed method is expected to provide a practical solution for estimating the relative R m H F M C of the ceramic HFMCs.

Due to its greater physical-chemical stability, ceramic nanofiltration (NF) membranes were used in a number of industrial applications. In this study, a novel NF membrane was prepared by co-depositing a titanium dioxide (TiO

TiO2 oxide was deposited on a microstructured α-Al2O3 ceramic hollow fiber substrate by a simple one-step solution-immersion process with tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as a binder. The effects of the starting coating solution's composition on the photocatalytic properties of TiO2 powders deposited on a substrate was determined by using TiO2-supported Al2O3 ceramic hollow fiber substrates fabricated from coating solutions with different compositions and examining the substrates' effect on the methylene blue (MetB) degradation reaction under ultraviolet light. A strong correlation was observed between the initial coating solution compositions and the final photocatalytic characteristics of the TiO2-supported Al2O3 ceramic hollow fiber substrates. Under optimal conditions, the MetB removal efficiency reached about 91% in a few minutes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest and most rapidly attained MetB removal efficiency reported for TiO2-supported Al2O3 ceramic hollow fiber substrates. Furthermore, apart from attaining an extremely high photocatalytic activity within minutes, the fabricated TiO2-supported Al2O3 ceramic hollow fiber substrates exhibited high photocatalytic stability even after several cycles.

In recent years, reactive ammonia (NH

Amorphous iron hydroxide-based material was selected as a suitable adsorbent for the siloxanes from biogas and landfill gas. The adsorptive characteristics of the desiloxanation (DeSiloxs) process were studied through a lab-scale experiment using a simulated gas containing a mixture of siloxanes (D4, and D5) and a field experiment on an actual environment scale. The iron hydroxide-based adsorbents exhibited high activity in adsorption of siloxanes during lab-scale experiments, where the obtained adsorption capacity was about 26.3 % with N2 as a carrier gas. However, from an applicability point of view, the effectiveness of the siloxane removal process was significantly affected by the space velocity during the in-situ test in anaerobic digestion gas plant using wastewater sludge. In the experimental case of various space velocities (50, 100, 300 h−1), a very high removal efficiency (100 %) was obtained.

The chemical absorption of CO2 in a monoethanolamine (MEA) solution by a ceramic hollow fiber membrane contactor (HFMC) was investigated experimentally and numerically to obtain the best compromise between the mass transfer coefficient and structural characteristics such as membrane pore size and porosity. The mathematical model derived is based on the three resistances in the resistance-in-series model. The accuracy of the numerical simulation was verified quantitatively by the experimental data obtained in this study. A good agreement between experimental and computational results was found with an average absolute deviation (AAD) between observed data and predicted values of 2.86%. In addition, the effects of the operating condition (i.e., gas and liquid flow rates) on the mass transfer coefficients for ceramic HFMC systems were also studied, revealing that the membrane and gas-phase mass transfer resistances were dominant factors in the overall mass transfer. In conclusion, the present study suggests that the membrane structure plays a very important role in the optimization of HFMC performance. In fact, the best results were obtained with an intermediate range of the pore size between 102 and 104 nm, corresponding to the best compromise between performance (i.e., overall mass transfer coefficient) and applicability (i.e., breakthrough pressure).

A series of one-side closed Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3-δ (BSCF) hollow fiber membrane decorated with Sm/Sr co-doped ceria (SSDC) with Ce0.8(Sm1-xSrx)0.2O2-δ compositions have been studied as a function of strontium content (x = 0.0, 0.3, 0.5, and 0.7) for high temperature vacuum driven oxygen separation from air. The oxygen permeation flux of all SSDC-decorated BSCF hollow fiber membranes is higher than that decorated with Sm-doped ceria (SDC, x = 0.0). The BSCF hollow fiber membrane decorated with SSDC with Sr content x = 0.5 exhibits the highest among the series (˜8 mL/cm2min, 950 °C), which can be mainly ascribed to the increase of oxygen vacancies for the surface exchange reaction.

We present an advanced hybrid process coupling a fixed-bed photocatalysis reactor with the TiO2 photo-catalyst film coated on microstructured α-Al2O3 hollow fibers (AlHF) under UV exposure, with a second fixed-bed reactor where the zeolite-based adsorbent is fixed onto AlHF support for water and wastewater treatment. The physicochemical properties of both coated films were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX). The sequential activity of the dual fixed bed reactor was overall evaluated by examining the degradation of 20 ppm Methylene Blue (MB), 1 ppm Iron and 0.04 ppm Arsenic solution as a general model of a complex aqueous solution containing not only an organic pollutant but also heavy metal and toxic cations. The results show that the proposed hybrid process by coupling two processes together could remove MB, Fe (II), and As (III) effectively, and the removal rates reached nearly 90%, 30%, and 70%, respectively, in 1 hour. These excellent results using the UV-TiO2/zeolite-based adsorbent combined process could be attributed to a synergistic effect between photocatalysis and adsorption process.

α-Al2O3 hollow fibers (AlHF)-supported TiO2 photocatalysts were prepared by a single dip-coating process. In order to tentatively improve the adhesion strength of TiO2 photocatalysts on the surface of microstructured AlHFs, the use of an adhesion promoter as a Silica-based binder (SBB) was further studied. TiO2 powders, as well as AlHF-supported TiO2 and SBB AlHF-supported TiO2 photocatalysts, were investigated for the photodegradation of the Methylene Blue (MB) under UV irradiation. MB was selected as a model of organic pollutant. AlHF-supported TiO2 photocatalysts show higher photo-catalytic activity than TiO2 powders. Best performance was achieved with an SBB AlHF-supported TiO2 photocatalysts, whereby a degradation ratio of about 65% was obtained.

This study was aimed to evaluate the hydrogen sulfide (H2S) removal efficiency of an economic iron hydroxide-based adsorbent from simulated biogas mixture with an H2S concentration range of 500–10300 ppm. The properties of these porous materials such as crystal structures, surface patterns, surface area, pore volume and pore size were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and BET measurements. The H2S adsorption capacity (Adscap) is nearly independent of the drying temperature of hydroxide-based adsorbent over the range of temperatures tested (100–200 °C) as well as relative humidity (0–80%) under equal conditions of H2S concentration. In addition, the experimental results revealed that the Adscap increased exponentially from 23.3 to 48.7 wt% with the increased retention time from to 0.5–52.9 s and decreasing space velocity from 7433 to 68 h-1. At the same time, Adscap increased linearly from 20.57 to 35.18 wt% with the increasing H2S concentration from 500 to 10300 ppm.

In this study, the effects of the strontium (x = 0.2–0.7) contents on oxygen permeation properties of 60 wt% Ce 0.8 Sm 0.2 O 2-d − 40 wt% Sm 0.8 Sr 0.2 Cu 0.2 Fe 0.8 O 3-d (SDC-8228) and 60 wt% Ce 0.8 Sm 0.2 O 2-d − 40 wt% Sm 0.3 Sr 0.7 Cu 0.2 Fe 0.8 O 3-d (SDC-3728) dual-phase (DP) ceramic membranes obtained by one-pot synthesis of a pure Ionic Conducting (IC) phase with a Mixed Ionic–Electronic Conducting (MIEC) phase were investigated under different conditions of temperature (800–1000 °C) and CO 2 atmosphere (0–100%). As a result, it was confirmed that the oxygen permeation properties of selected IC/MIEC DP membranes had increased when the Strontium content (Sr x ) of the MIEC phase increased from Sr x = 0.2 to Sr x = 0.7 . The results showed that the SDC-3728 DP membrane exhibits higher oxygen flux than the SDC-8228 DP membrane. In detail, the oxygen permeation flux reached ∼0.5 mL min −1 cm −2 at 1000 °C, which was about was one and a half times higher than the SDC-8228 DP membrane. An additional performance improvement was achieved by coating the SDC-3728 DP membrane with a pure Electron Conductor (EC) like Palladium (Pd) by the electroless deposition technique. The oxygen permeation flux of the Pd surface-modified SDC-3728 DP membrane was ∼2.0 mL min −1 cm −2 in 100% CO 2 at 1000 °C, which was about three times higher than the SDC-8228 DP membrane.

Oxygen-permeable Ba 0.5 Sr 0.5 Co 0.8 Fe 0.2 O 3−δ (BSCF) hollow fiber membranes was prepared by a phase inversion spinning process. In the second stage, La 0.6 Sr 0.4 Ti 0.3 Fe 0.7 O 3−δ (LSTF) was coated on the surface of the prepared BSCF hollow fiber membranes by dip coating method in an attempt to improve not only the oxygen permeation performance but also the long-term chemical stability. The oxygen permeation fluxes were measured in the temperature range of 850–1000 °C in air. The oxygen permeation flux reached to 9.18 mL/min/cm 2 at 1000 °C. In addition, long-term operation test results indicated that the oxygen permeation fluxes remained consistently during the 240 h operation. With the dual aims of reviewing existing work in the topic and understanding the effects of membrane morphology and thickness on the performance of BSCF membrane, the oxygen permeation property of LSTF-coated BSCF hollow fiber membrane with engineered morphology was compared directly with its corresponding uncoated case and then with other configuration types, such as BSCF disk-shaped and tubular BSCF membranes.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate and improve the ammonia adsorption performance of Na/K-ETS-10 material using an ion exchange method followed by calcination process to replace its Na+/K+ ions with H+ ions. The Na/K-ETS-10 starting material and the obtained H-type ETS-10 sample were investigated by temperature-programmed desorption of NH3, NH3 breakthrough test and NH3 absorption isotherm (10–30 °C). When the modification method is used, not only the H-type ETS-10 sample showed the highest NH3 adsorption capacity of 6.2 mol/kg at 10 °C, but also there is an overall remarkable improvement in the NH3 breakthrough time in comparison with original one.

Recently, some perovskite-type oxides with general formula La 1−x Sr x Co 0.2 Fe 0.8 O 3−d (0.2 x 0.1 Sr 0.9 Co 0.2 Fe 0.8 O 3−d (LSCF) at high Sr x content (Sr x = 0.9) as a case study to investigate the effects of O 2 content on methane oxidation reaction to remove oxygen from the LFG with two compositions characterized by low (1%) and high (2%) O 2 content. The complete oxygen conversion performance (100%) during methane oxidation was found at 425–450 °C and it was maintained throughout the duration of a long-term experiment (100 h).

Oxides are known as stable, inexpensive, and sustainable thermoelectric (TE) materials. Thermoelectric modules based on bulk oxides legs have been proposed in past years. However, main obstacles to the practical diffusion of such kind of heat harvesters are their low conversion efficiency and mechanical rigidity. Use of nanostructured oxide thin films is expected to overcome both drawbacks. This chapter reviews the recent progress on the fabrication of tiny modules based on oxide thin films.

In recent years, the purification of landfill gas (LFG) to produce pipeline-quality gas has attracted increased research interest also due to its crucial role of producing energy or other products. At present, the vast majority of catalytic deoxygen catalyst materials for the reduction of O 2 in the LFG are Pd-, Pt, and Rh-based noble metals of various compositions. In this short communication, we proposed the perovskite-type oxides with general formula La 1 − x Sr x Co 0.2 Fe 0.8 O 3 − d (Sr = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.7) as catalysts for the deoxygen of LFG at intermediate temperature with the aim to reduce the use of precious and noble metals. Continuous performance tests demonstrate an O 2 conversion of 100% at about 500 °C. In addition, the catalyst exhibits stability of the O 2 conversion efficiency without any performance impact at 525 °C over a time period of about 4 days. The high-performance and durability test results obtained in this short communication are promising and represent an important step towards the successful implementation of new LFG deoxygen treatment technologies.

To the best of our knowledge, we demonstrate for the first time that modified inorganic hollow fiber membrane contactor can be successfully used for the absorption of CO2 from a gas mixture using aqueous solutions of monoethanolamine (MEA) at room temperature with extraordinary results. The fluoroalkylsilanized Al2O3 hollow fiber membrane contactors containing a high-symmetric distribution of morphological elements showed higher permeability for the CO2. A CO2 absorption flux of about 5.4 × 10−3 mol m−2 s−1 was achieved with a single symmetric ceramic membrane, which is considerably higher compared to other conventional polymeric membrane for CO2 absorption into MEA solutions.

In this work, the influence of (a) Ba excess in the starting hydrothermal mixture with TiO 2 , (b) hydrothermal reaction temperature, and (c) washing cycles on the hydrothermal synthesis of barium titanate (BaTiO 3 ) were investigated to assess their relative contributions to the final characteristics of the sintered oxide. BaTiO 3 cake was prepared by hydrothermal synthesis at 150 °C and 180 °C using BaOH 2 ·8H 2 O and TiO 2 · x H 2 O as starting hydrothermal mixture with an excess of Barium (+1 Ba mol% and +2 Ba mol%). The obtained BaTiO 3 cake was washed several times from 0 to 14 ( W n 3 powders in terms of Ba 2+ /Ti 4+ molar ratio, crystalline structure and mean particle size. In particular, it is clear from these experiments that the removal of the unfavorable barium salts from BaTiO 3 cake by long washing cycles before final calcination is a critical step in the hydrothermal synthesis of BaTiO 3 .

This study examines the carbonaceous aerosols emitted from an indoor wood stove operating with two common oaks characterized by well distinct moisture contents (%). The results presented in this work indicate that all emission factors are significantly influenced by the amount of moisture contents. In particular, with wood samples characterized by 10.34% and 56.31% moisture contents, the total carbon emission factors per wood unit were 0.25 ± 0.05 g/kg and 1.12 ± 0.09 g/kg, respectively. In addition, the PM10 emission factors of wood characterized by a low-moisture content were quite low compared with the PM10 recognized from wood with high-moisture contents. The emission factors of woods with low-moisture contents and high-moisture contents were in the lower and higher end, respectively, of the concentration ranges reported in the literature. The main results presented in this experimental article improve some recent results reported in the literature.

The present work aims to study the formation of Pd thin film at different electroless plating temperatures and optimize the operating conditions to increase the hydrogen permeation performances of Pd-coated Al2O3 hollow fibers. Deposition of Pd thin films on the structured Al2O3 hollow fiber substrate was systematically investigated at different electroless plating temperatures (30 °C, 40 °C, and 50 °C). Herein, we present data about the effects of the electroless plating temperature on the hydrogen separation properties over a wide temperature range from 350 °C to 450 °C. The Pd thin film thickness is an inverse function of the bath temperature, and the hydrogen flux is primarily dependent on the thickness. The hydrogen fluxes increase with increasing electroless plating temperature.

Temperature and pressure dependence of the CO2 absorption through a ceramic hollow fiber membrane contactor (CHFMC) modules were extensively evaluated and optimized. Results are presented for a CHFMC module consisting of 200 ceramic fibers in a single compact unit. The effect of gas temperatures and liquid absorbent temperatures was studied by altering the CO2 gas (N2 balance) and monoethanolamine (MEA) absorbent temperatures (20−50 °C). CO2 removal efficiency (%) was also evaluated as a function of CO2 gas composition (1.5–13 %, N2 balance). The CO2 removal efficiency (%) slightly increases when the temperature of the injected gas temperature increases from 20 °C to 40 °C, and then decreases as the temperature further increases from 40 °C to 50 °C. The MEA absorbent temperatures did not have a notable effect on the CHFMC module performance in the specific temperature range studied in this work. The effects of the liquid pressure drop do not appear to be significant for a given gas flow rate, but the gas pressure drop increases with gas flow rate and gas temperature. The findings in this study show that a CHFMC process is affected by the CO2 gas temperature and composition but quite independent of the MEA absorbent temperature.

An efficient Pd-decorated La0.8Sr0.2Co0.2Fe0.8O3-δ (LSCFO) catalyst for the catalytic deoxidation of landfill gas (LFG) at low temperature has been developed. Synergism between the Pd coating and the LSCFO substrate in inducing the catalytic deoxygen reaction (CDR) was observed. The results demonstrated that the Pd-decorated LSCFO catalysts studied showed excellent deoxygen performances and a low light-off temperature of about 225 °C, which is lower than the typical temperatures used in conventional catalytic deoxygen processes (T > 300 °C). A probable cause of this synergism may be the cooperative action when the Pd catalyst was coated on an active deoxygen substrate.

The objective of this work was to apply the modified hydrophobic metal oxide hollow fiber membrane in a laboratory-scale gas–liquid membrane contacting process for CO2 capture applications using H2O as low-cost absorbent at room temperature. With this aim, the porous aluminum oxide (α-Al2O3) hollow fiber membranes were prepared by a phase inversion spinning technique and a sintering method. In order to render the hydrophilic surface of prepared Al2O3 hollow fiber membrane without changing its physical properties, a fluoroalkylsilanes (FAS) film was used. The fluoroalkylsilanized Al2O3 hollow fiber membrane surface was studied by performing thermal gravimetric analysis (TG), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD). In addition, the hydrophobicity nature of modified Al2O3 hollow fiber membrane surfaces was measured by water drop contact angle test and break through pressure measurement. This work, for what we believe to be the first time, has successfully realized a room-temperature laboratory-scale gas–liquid membrane contactors using a single fluoroalkylsilanized Al2O3 hollow fiber membrane for CO2 capture. According to the experimental results, the correlations between water and gas flow rate, and CO2 mass transfer through the modified hydrophobic Al2O3 hollow fiber membranes are given. In addition, a comparative review was made between our modified hydrophobic aluminum oxide and traditional polymeric hollow fiber membrane for application in the field of CO2 absorption in water. The results indicated that studied fluoroalkylsilanized Al2O3 hollow fiber membrane may be possible candidates for the development of new gas–liquid membrane contactors for CO2 capture.

An optimized (1.0 wt%) sol-gel-grown Al-doped ZnO nanostructures by a controlled addition of suitable capping agents such as Squalane, Diethylenetriamine, Triethylene glycol dimethyl ether, Diethylamine and Diethylene glycol at the sol-gel synthesis stages in the sol mixtures, resulting the morphologies of nanosheets, sphere, aggregated disk and thin and thick plates. The as-grown sol was then used for the spin casting at 7000 rpm/30 s on a patterned ITO glass and analyzed in the inverted bulk-heterojunction solar cells. By employing such a nanostructured Al-doped ZnO layer, an improved efficiency of 3.2 % (130 % increase) was achieved in the spherical nanostructure (~40 nm) with a high fill factor (56.0) and a J SC of 13.8 mA/cm2 from the normal inverted solar cell (η = 1.34 % with J SC = 5.8 mA/cm2). However, other nanostructured morphologies show varying efficiencies in the range of 1.12 and 2.41 %. The increase in short-circuit current density employing by spherical morphology can be attributed to the efficient interface energy step, increase in carrier concentration and smoother and uniform film that might influence a better percolation pathway and efficient charge collections.

The perovskite-type oxides are very important materials in several fields of studies and have been extensively studied during the past years from many different points of view in many different laboratories. In this study, the effects of the strontium (x) and iron (y) dopant contents on oxygen uptake abilities of La1−xSrxCo1−yFeyO3−d oxides were systematically investigated under thermal analysis in air after equilibration in He as feed gas between 700 and 900 °C. Single-phase nano-crystalline powders in the La1−xSrxCo1−yFeyO3−d solid solution series (0.2

Barium-chromium oxide (BaCrOx) coated Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3-δ (BSCF) tubular membranes were successfully prepared and evaluated for oxygen separation applications under high pressure–temperature conditions. The oxygen permeation flux was measured in accordance with the temperature, air pressure, and retentate flow rate, ranging from 750–950°C, 3–9 atm, and 200–1000 mL/min, respectively. The permeation testing on the BaCrOx coated BSCF tubular membranes showed that the oxygen flux increased as the temperature, pressure, and retentate flow rate increased. The oxygen permeation flux was 5.7 mL/(min cm2) with temperature, pressure, and retentate flow rate of 900°C, 9 atm, and 1000 mL/min, respectively. The temperature dependence of the oxygen permeation process is further investigated, and the Arrhenius pre-exponential factor, as well as the apparent activation energy, is determined.

How has the terrorism affected the research process and findings? The author tries to answer to this question through an exploratory analysis of the impact of these tragic events on the research outputs of scientists, institutions and countries. In particular, this report provides a wide range of scientometric data related to terrorism studies over the world during the two decades from 1991 to 2011. After the September 11, 2001 events (9/11) in the United States, the concerned academicians have responded in a way that they started producing an increasing number of research publications, as if they were under the influence of some kind of a driving force, stimulating the overall academic production linked to this tragic event. However, after this trend has reached its peak in 2002, that driving force has visibly weakened, and since the mid 2000's, the number of research publication in the field of terrorism studies has steadily decreased. Nonetheless, the number of terrorist events per year, along with the property damage and fatality rate, has continuously increased over the observed lapse of time. Using these results as a backdrop, in this paper is argued that the field of terrorism research should be explored from a critical and multi-cultural perspective, and that all scientific researchers should remain objective, for scientific research is to be independent from political systems, its contingent events in any form, and the transitory historical circumstances.

The chemical compatibility of perovskite-type Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3−δ (BSCF) oxides with Cr2O3 has been examined between room temperature and 1,100 °C. Differential thermal analysis and thermogravimetric analysis were used to analyze the thermal behavior of BSCF–Cr2O3 binary mixtures in all composition ranges (0–100 mass% BSCF). The reaction products were identified by X-ray analysis after heating at 700–1,100 °C. As we expected, it was found that perovskite-type BSCF oxide had a poor chemical compatibility with the Cr2O3 oxide. In particular, the decomposition process of the BSCF–Cr2O3 binary mixture is quite complex and it starts at about 700–750 °C. The mixtures of BSCF and Cr2O3 oxides reacted forming mixed complex oxides based on (Ba/Sr)FeO3, (Co/Fe)CrO4, and (Ba/Sr)CrO4 mixtures.

This paper concerns the development and use of a new interdisciplinary graphical approach in the statistical analysis of complexity of sentence structure for scientometric purposes. A scheme in three-dimensional space (barycentric plot) is used for a graphical representation of scientific research text correlations between the number of characters, the number of words, and the number of complex syllable words for sentences of several monolingual corpuses. The barycentric plots do not only drastically increase the visual information content in a given corpus, but at equal conditions of text-based corpus, they also contribute to the comparative analysis of different kinds of subject, section, author-style, journal, field, etc. As illustrated in present study, the proposed graphical approach can have broad implications and practical applications not only in scientometric field, but also in statistical linguistics, stylistic text research, and informetric research. This article explores the interdisciplinary approach research and applications of different areas of knowledge.

Using an application of scientometric methodology to the analysis of scientific communication, relationships between number of submissions of scientific articles and calendar events (e.g., festive seasons, weekend vacations , national public holidays, Chinese New Year, Christmas ) are examined quantitatively. With regard to the aim of understanding the complexities of these relationships, the time series include weekly, monthly, and seasonal variations on the basis of Received Date as reported on the Article History of the Elsevier paper format. Data records are collected during twenty-year (1990–2010) and one-year periods – as case study – ended 31 December 2008. The analysis shows that the overall submission rates are strongly influenced by calendar events.

ReBaCo2O5+δ (Re=Pr, Nd, Y) oxides were synthesized by solid state reaction method. The oxygen permeation flux of ReBaCo2O5+δ (Re=Pr, Nd, Y) membranes increased with temperature and oxygen partial pressure and ranked as follow: PrBaCo2O5+δ > NdBaCo2O5+δ > YBaCo2O5+δ. The oxygen permeation response of PrBaCo2O5+δ membrane was fairly stable and no detectable degradation is observed at high temperature under carbon dioxide conditions (CO2 = 500 ppm).

In this work, module containing La0.6Sr0.4Ti0.3Fe0.7O3−δ coated Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3−δ tubular membranes was successfully prepared and evaluated for oxygen production. The oxygen permeability of a single-La0.6Sr0.4Ti0.3Fe0.7O3−δ coated Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3−δ tubular membrane was studied in the same condition for comparison. The oxygen permeation flux was measured at temperature, air pressure, and retentate flow rate range of 850–950 °C, 3–9 atm, and 200–5000 mL/min, respectively. Oxygen permeation flux increased with increasing retentate flow rate, temperature and air pressure, while oxygen recovery decreased with increasing retentate flow rate at the same condition. Oxygen production rate and recovery of module containing three-La0.6Sr0.4Ti0.3Fe0.7O3−δ coated Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3−δ tubular membranes (length = 22.5 cm, total effective surface area = 75.06 cm2 (25.02 cm2 × 3), thickness = 0.8 mm) were 463 mL/min and 40% at 900 °C under 9 atm and 5000 mL/min retentate flow, respectively. Moreover, long-term operation test results indicate that the oxygen production rate was quite stable during the oxygen production operation.

Suppose there is a scientist that writes a paper for a peer-reviewed journal. How likely is it that a natural disaster will terminate, change, suspend or discontinue some aspect of this editorial process? To answer this question, the aim of present study was to determine the effects of a natural disaster on progress in materials science research. The Tsunami event in Japan and materials science are well suited to serve as a case study for both the development and application of a system to evaluate the Academic Research Output immediately after a natural disaster. In particular, the analysis focused on the short-term impacts of Japan's triple disaster – earthquake, Tsunami, and nuclear accident (11 March, 2011) – on the Academic Research Output in materials science subject from three different areas: Sendai (Miyagi Prefecture), Tsukuba (Ibaraki Prefecture) and Kyoto (Kyoto Prefecture). The last one has been used as an internal reference standard (normal/non-disaster situation) for the comparison. A geographical cluster-based study was conducted between 09 February and 10 April 2011. Consistent with the hypothesis that a disaster might slow down knowledge production, the conclusion showed that the Japan's triple disaster strongly influenced the Academic Research Output of papers in the selected field of science. Using statistical data, these findings show that the number of submitted papers and the cumulative number of authors contributing to the field of materials science decreased immediately after the March 11th events in the areas affected by disaster.

The hydrogen permeation characteristics of alloy membranes based on Pd-coated V 90 Al 10 alloy membrane have been investigated in the pressure range 1–3 atm under pure hydrogen and hydrogen–carbon dioxide gas mixture at 450 °C. Hydrogen permeation experiments have been confirmed that hydrogen flux was 21.1 ml/min/cm 2 for a Pd-coated V 90 Al 10 alloy membrane (thickness: 0.5 mm) using pure hydrogen as the feed gas. It has been found that Pd-coated V 90 Al 10 alloy membranes exhibit good resistance to hydrogen embrittlement in pure hydrogen atmosphere. After different hydrogen permeation flux tests under different pressure condition in presence of hydrogen–carbon dioxide gas mixture, the characteristics of the Pd-coated V 90 Al 10 alloy membranes were examined by ex-situ analysis techniques. The loss of cell performance observed in the presence of hydrogen–carbon dioxide gas mixture is mainly attributed to both physical and chemical degradations of membrane, which led to structural changes in the Pd-coated V 90 Al 10 alloy membrane.