Chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs) are toxic chemical entities emitted invariably from stationary thermal operations when a trace of chlorine is present. Replacing the high-temperature destruction operations of these compounds with catalytic oxidation has led to the formulation of various potent metal oxides catalysts; among them are ceria-based materials. Guided by recent experimental measurements, this study theoretically investigates the initial steps operating in the interactions of ceria surface CeO2(111) with three CVOC model compounds, namely chloroethene (CE), chloroethane (CA) and chlorobenzene (CB). We find that, the CeO2(111) surface mediates fission of the carbon–chlorine bonds in the CE, CA and CB molecules via modest reaction barriers. As a result of localization of excess electrons left behind after creation of oxygen vacancies, analogous fission over an oxygen vacant surface systematically necessitates lower energy barriers. Dehydrochlorination of CE and CA molecules preferentially proceeds via a dissociative addition route; however, subsequent desorption of vinyl and ethyl moieties requires less energy than surface assisted β C–H bond breakage. The profound stability of hydrocarbon species on the surface contributes to the observed deactivation of ceria at temperatures as low as 580 K under pyrolytic conditions. Adsorption of an oxygen molecule at an oxygen vacant site initiates decomposition of the adsorbed phenyl moiety. Likewise, adsorbed surface hydroxyl groups serve as the hydrogen source in the observed conversion of CB into benzene. A plausible mechanism for the formation of 1,4-dichlorobenzene incorporates abstraction of a para hydrogen in the CB molecule by an O− surface anion followed by chlorine transfer from the surface. Plotted conversion–temperature profiles via a simplified kinetic model against corresponding experimental profiles exhibit a reasonable agreement. The results from this study could be useful in the ongoing efforts to improve ceria's catalytic capacity for destroying CVOCs.
Changing oil-wet surfaces toward higher water wettability is of key importance in subsurface engineering applications. This includes petroleum recovery from fractured limestone reservoirs, which are typically mixed or oil-wet, resulting in poor productivity as conventional waterflooding techniques are inefficient. A wettability change toward more water-wet would significantly improve oil displacement efficiency, and thus productivity. Another area where such a wettability shift would be highly beneficial is carbon geo-sequestration, where compressed CO2 is pumped underground for storage. It has recently been identified that more water-wet formations can store more CO2. We thus examined how silica based nanofluids can induce such a wettabil
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Soil stabilization with stone powder is a good solution for the construction of subgrade for road way and railway lines, especially under the platforms and mostly in transition zones between embankments and rigid structures, where the mechanical properties of supporting soils are very influential. Stone powder often has a unique composition which justifies the need for research to study the feasibility of using this stone powder type for ground improvement applications. This paper presents results from a comprehensive laboratory study carried out to investigate the feasibility of using stone powder for improvement of engineering properties of clays.
The stone powder contains bassanite (CaSO4. ½ H
... Show MoreThe objective of this study is to investigate the application of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) in the treatment of wastewater contaminated with furfural. The AOPs investigated is the homogeneous photo-Fenton (UV/H2O2/Fe+2) process. The experiments were conducted by using cylindrical stainless steel batch photo-reactor. The influence of different variables: initial concentration of H2O2 (300-1300mg/L), Fe+2(20-70mg/L), pH(2-7) and initial concentration of furfural (50-300 mg/L) and their relationship with the mineralization efficiency were studied.
Complete mineralization for the system UV/H2O2/Fe+2 was achieved at: initi
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This investigation presents an experimental and analytical study on the behavior of reinforced concrete deep beams before and after repair. The original beams were first loaded under two points load up to failure, then, repaired by epoxy resin and tested again. Three of the test beams contains shear reinforcement and the other two beams have no shear reinforcement. The main variable in these beams was the percentage of longitudinal steel reinforcement (0, 0.707, 1.061, and 1.414%). The main objective of this research is to investigate the possibility of restoring the full load carrying capacity of the reinforced concrete deep beam with and without shear reinforcement by using epoxy resin as the material of repair. All be
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Leishmaniasis is endemic ofIraq in both cutaneous and visceral form. The available tools for diagnosis and detection of Leishmaniaare nonspecific and may interfere with other species. In this study, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) has been used to identify Iraqi isolate of visceral leishmaniasis (MHOM/ IQ/2005/MRU15) which a previously diagnosed by classical serological tests. PCR amplificationwas carried out using species-specific primers of Leishmania donovani. Four primer pairs of mini-circle DNA and ITS-1 were used.13A/13B, which is used to identify Leishmaniaas a genus, NM12, LITSR/L5.8S and BHUL18S, were used to detect the sub species of L. donovani.The result ofPCR
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