Cristian Hornoiu

Electrical conductivity of γ-Al2O3 at atmospheric pressure under dehydrating/hydrating conditions

Abstract Changes of electrical conductance and capacity of γ-Al 2 O 3 were studied in situ during dehydration/rehydration in gas flow. The measurements were performed at atmospheric pressure by following a standard protocol of experiments, and were coupled with simultaneous monitoring of the composition of the inlet/effluent gas. The electrical properties are dominated by the protonic conduction. It was shown that at low temperature this occurs by vehicle mechanism, being facilitated by the presence of water molecule adsorbed on γ-Al 2 O 3 surface; the decrease of electrical conductance on heating is obviously connected with dehydration. At higher temperature ( t >200°C) conduction is dominated by proton hopping between OH groups (Grotthuss mechanism). It is suggested that in current operating conditions in catalysis, γ-Al 2 O 3 is only partially dehydrated/dehydroxylated, the bulk acting as a source of water/OH groups for the surface; this process controls the acidity of alumina and alumina-supported catalysts.

Nanostructured SnO2–ZnO composite gas sensors for selective detection of carbon monoxide

A series of SnO2–ZnO composite nanostructured (thin) films with different amounts of SnO2 (from 0 to 50 wt %) was prepared and deposited on a miniaturized porous alumina transducer using the sol–gel and dip coating method. The transducer, developed by our research group, contains Au interdigital electrodes on one side and a Pt heater on the other side. The sensing films were characterized using SEM and AFM techniques. Highly toxic and flammable gases (CO, CO2, CH4, and C3H8) were tested under lab conditions (carrier gas was dry air) using a special gas sensing cell developed by our research group. The gas concentrations varied between 5 and 2000 ppm and the optimum working temperatures were in the range of 210–300 °C. It was found that the sensing performance was influenced by the amount of oxide components present in the composite material. Improved sensing performance was achieved for the ZnO (98 wt %)–SnO2 (2 wt %) composite as compared to the sensors containing only the pristine oxides. The sensor response, cross-response and recovery characteristics of the analyzed materials are reported. The high sensitivity (R S = 1.21) to low amounts of CO (5 ppm) was reported for the sensor containing a composite sensitive film with ZnO (98 wt %)–SnO2 (2 wt %). This sensor response to CO was five times higher as compared to its response to CO2, CH4, and C3H8, thus the sensor is considered to be selective for CO under these test conditions.

ROLE OF THE HEAT-TRANSFER COEFFICIENT IN DETERMINING THE OVERALL ACTIVATION ENERGY OF THERMOKINETIC OSCILLATIONS

Thermokinetic oscillations obtained during the heterogeneous catalytic oxidation of methanol on Pd/LiAl5O8 in a dynamic calorimeter were characterized by an overall activation energy. This parameter was determined using the minimum and maximum values of the temperature oscillations. Using bifurcation diagrams with oxygen or methanol as bifurcation parameters. E values for all heating loss laws were calculated which are within the range for heterogeneous catalytic oxidation reactions. The obtained results have been discussed.

The effect of hydration/dehydration on the AC electrical conductivity of H4PVMo11O40 and some of its cesium salts used as catalysts

Changes in AC electrical conductance G of vanadium substituted 12-molybdophosphoric acid and of its (mono)-acid and neutral cesium salts were studied. Depending on the environment, the electrical conductivity is a combination of protonic and electronic conduction, the protonic one dominating at low temperature.

Sol-gel synthesis of ZnO/Zn2-xFexTiO4 powders: structural properties, electrical conductivity and dielectric behavior

AbstractThe aim of this work was an investigation of structural and electrical properties of ZnO/Zn2-xFexTiO4 (x = 0.7, 1, 1.4) powders. The compounds obtained by sol-gel method are characterized by several techniques: X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption–desorption isotherms, scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), electrical and dielectrical measurements. The XRD, SEM and XPS analysis confirmed the formation of ZnFeTiO4 inverse spinel structure. The electrical and dielectrical properties of ZnO/Zn2-xFexTiO4 (x = 0.7, 1, 1.4) were measured by impedance spectroscopy, revealing a decrease in the electrical conductivity and the dielectric constant with Fe content.

Low-Temperature synthesis and thermodynamic and electrical properties of barium titanate nanorods

Studies regarding the morphology dependence of the perovskite-type oxides functional materials properties are of recent interest. With this aim, nanorods (NRs) and nanocubes (NCs) of barium titanate (BaTiO3) have been successfully synthesized via a hydrothermal route at temperature as low as 408 K, employing barium acetate, titanium isopropoxide, and sodium hydroxide as reagents without any surfactant or template. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), used for the morphology and structure analyses, showed that the NRs were formed by an oriented attachment of the NCs building-blocks with 20 nm average crystallites size. The thermodynamic properties represented by the relative partial molar free energies, enthalpies, and entropies of the oxygen dissolution in the perovskite phase, as well as the equilibrium partial pressure of oxygen, indicated that NRs powders have lower oxygen vacancies concentration than the NCs. This NRs characteristic, together with higher tetragonallity of the structure, leads to the enhancement of the dielectric properties of BaTiO3 ceramics. The results presented in this work show indubitably the importance of the nanopowders morphology on the material properties.