Abstract Electro-oxidation of methanol in sulfuric acid solution was studied using palladium well-dispersed on titanium nanotubes, in relation to methanol oxidation processes in the direct oxidation methanol fuel cell. Pd dispersed on titania nanotubes, which leads to high surface area substrates, showed excellent catalytic activities compared to those of pure Pd and Pd–TiO2 nanoparticles. T…
Abstract. Carbon fibrils with length of 2–3 lm formed by stacking graphite sheets of 10–40 nm in thickness along the h001i direction were prepared by pyrolysis of tetrahydrofuran at 600 C in the existence of metallic nickel. The spacing of adjacent sheets concentrated on 3.8 nm and 50 nm. Metallic nickel played a catalytic role in the formation of carbon fibrils, and a possible formati…
Abstract. Carbon-matrix composites with self-assembly interconnected carbon nano-ribbon networks were fabricated using natural and inexpensive rice husks by impregnating the rice husks with transitional metal solutions and sintering. The nano-structure of the composite was characterized using transmission electron microscopy. The electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness of the …
Abstract. Cu/SiO2 catalysts prepared by the ammonia-evaporation (AE) method have been systematically characterized focusing on the effect of the AE temperature during catalyst preparation. It is found that the texture, composition, and structure of the calcined and reduced Cu/SiO2 catalysts were profoundly affected by the AE temperature. Based on characterizations and previous findings, the…
Abstract. We demonstrate the use of molecular monolayers to enhance the nucleation of electrocatalytically active platinum (Pt) nanoparticles onto multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The MWCNT is embedded within the 1,4-benzenediamine shell (NH2–MWCNT) with large amounts of amino groups outside on the nanotube surfaces. Subsequent deposition of platinum nanoparticles led to high densi…
A range of silica-supported gold nanoparticle catalysts have been synthesized on various silica supports. The particle size was varied between 1.7 and 15 nm by varying the support (ordered mesoporous silicas, silicas with and without aluminium impurities) and the gold loading procedure. A strong influence of the gold particle size on the non-oxidative dehydrogenation of ethanol is noted: gol…
Abstract. Mesoporous siliceous SBA-15-supported Cu catalysts have been prepared by different methods and systematically characterized. The results revealed that the incipient wetness impregnation (IWI)method gives poor dispersion of copper species, whereas much better dispersion is found in catalysts prepared by the deposition precipitation (DP), grafting, and homogeneous deposition precipi…
We report a photoionization and dissociative photoionization study of B-alanine using IR laser desorption combined with synchrotron vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photoionization mass spectrometry. Fragments at m/z =45, 44, 43, and 30 yielded from photoionization are assigned to NH3CH2CH2+, NH2CHCH3+, NH2CHCH2+, and NH2CH2+, respectively. Some new conformation-specific dissociation channels and co…
We studied a novel photoanode structure inspired by butterfly wing scales with potential application on dye-sensitized solar cell in this paper. Quasi-honeycomb like structure (QHS), shallow concavities structure (SCS), and cross-ribbing structure (CRS) were synthesized onto a fluorine-doped tin-oxide-coated glass substrate using butterfly wings as biotemplates separately. Morphologies of the…
The transesterification of triacetin to methyl acetate catalyzed by 11 kinds of low boiling point amines was examined at subcritical methanol temperature as model reactions to simulate the biodiesel production. It was found that the branched amines showed higher yield of methyl acetate than normal amines. For normal amines, the yield of methyl acetate decreased with the increase of the carbo…