The increasing population growth resulting in the tremendous increase in consumption of fuels, energy, and petrochemical products and coupled with the depletion in conventional crude oil reserves and production make it imperative for Nigeria to explore her bitumen reserves so as to meet her energy and petrochemicals needs. Samples of Agbabu bitumen were subjected to thermal cracking in a tubular steel reactor operated at 10 bar pressure to investigate the effect of temperature on the cracking reaction. The gas produced was analyzed in a Gas Chromatograph while the liquid products were subjected to Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. Heptane was the dominant gas produced in bitumen cracking at all temperatures and the r

The electrochemical behavior of Al-17%Si alloy is investigated in 3.5wt% NaCl solution. Many alloys with addition of the different wt% magnesium metal of  1wt%, 2%, 3wt% ,4.5wt% ,and 9wt% were prepared by gravity die casting . The microstructures of prepared alloys were examined by optical and SEM microscopes. Corrosion behavior was investigated by using potentiostat instrument under static potentials test and corrosion current was recorded to determine corrosion resistance of all prepared samples. It was found that the addition of Mg metal improves the corrosion resistance of Al-17%Si alloy in 3.5%NaCl solution. The alloy containing 1%Mg shows less corrosion rate than the others while the alloys containing 4.5%Mg, 9%Mg content have

In this work, the effect of preparing a composite of copper oxide nanoparticles with carbon on some of its optical properties was studied. The composite preparing process was carried out by exploding graphite electrodes in an aqueous suspension of copper oxide. The properties of the plasma which is formed during the explosion were studied using emission spectroscopy in order to determine the most important elements that are present in the media. The electron’s density and their energy, which is the main factor in the composite process, were determined. The particle properties were studied before and after the exploding process. The XRD showed an additional peak in the copper oxides pattern corresponding to the hexagonal graphite struct

Functionalized-multi wall carbon nanotubes (F-MWCNTs) and functionalized-single wall carbon nanotubes (F-SWCNTs) were well enhanced using CoO Nanoparticles. The sensor device consisted of a film of sensitive material (F-MWCNTs/CoONPs) and (F-SWCNTs/CoO NPs) deposited by drop- casting on an n-type porous silicon substrate. The two sensors perform high sensitivity to NO₂ gas at room temperatures. The analysis indicated that the (F-MWCNTs/CoONPs) have a better performance than (F-SWCNTs/CoONPs). The F-SWCNTs/CoONPs gas sensor shows high sensitivity (19.1 %) at RT with response time 17 sec, while F-MWCNTs/CoONPs gas sensor show better sensitivity (39 %) at RT with response time 13 sec. The device shows a very reproducible sensor p

Electrochemical method was used to prepare carbon quantum dots (CQDs). Size of matter was nature when evaluate via X-ray diffraction (XRD). A distinct peak at 2θ equal to 31.6° and three other small peaks at 38.28°, 56.41° and 66.12° were observed. The measures of Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) showed the bonds in the transmittance spectrum are manufactured with carbon nanostructures in view. The first peaks are the O–H stretching vibration bands at (3417 and 2922) cm−1, (C–O–H at 1400, and 1317) cm−1, (C–H), (C=C), (C–O–H), (C=O), and (C–O) bonds at 2850, 1668, 1101, and 1026 cm−1 sequentially. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results presented that the spherical CQDs are in shape and on a

   Zinc-air fuel cells (ZAFCs) are a promising energy source that could compete with lithium-ion batteries and perhaps proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) for next-generation electrified transportation and energy storage applications. In the present work, a flow-type ZAFC with mechanical rechargeable was adopted, combined with an auxiliary cell (electrolyzer) for zinc renewal and electrolyte recharge to the main cell. In this work a practical study was performed to calculate the cell capacity (Ah), as well as study the electrolysis cell efficiency by current efficiency, and study the effective parameters that have an influence on cell performance such as space velocity and current density. The best parameters were selected to

Transparent thin films of CdO:Ce has been deposited on to glass and silicon substrates by spray pyrolysis technique for various concentrations of cerium (2, 4, and 6 Vol.%). CdO:Ce films were characterized using different techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy(AFM) and optical properties. XRD analysis show that CdO films exhibit cubic crystal structure with (1 1 1) preferred orientation and the intensity of the peak increases with increasing's of Ce contain when deposited films on glass substrate, while for silicon substrate, the intensity of peaks decreases, the results reveal that the grain size of the prepared thin film is approximately (73.75-109.88) nm various with increased of cerium content. With a sur

In this research, a sensor for chemical solutions was designed and formed using optical fiber-based on a surface Plasmon resonance technology. A single-mode optical fiber with three different diameters (25, 45 and 65) µm was used, respectively.  The second layer of the low refractive fiber was replaced by gold, which was electrically deposited at 40 µm thickness. For each of the three types of optical fiber, different saline concentrations (different index of refraction) were used to evaluate the performance of the refractive index sensor (chemical sensor) by measuring its sensitivity and resolutions. The highest values we could get for these two parameters were 240mm/RIU, and 6*10^-5 RIU respectively, when the diameter of a