O2 Physisorption in Coal Pore: Effects of Pore Size, Pressure, Temperature and Function Group

In this paper, the physical adsorption characteristics of oxygen in coal pores were systematically investigated by the Grand Canonical Monte Carlo and the COMPASS force field. Firstly, coal pore structures of different sizes were constructed by graphite slit models and different groups. Secondly, the physisorption behavior of oxygen in graphite slit models of different sizes was simulated. Finally, the physisorption behavior of oxygen in graphite slit models at different pressures and temperatures was analyzed. The results showed that the physisorption density and excess physical adsorption of oxygen were divided into the rapidly decreasing stage (0.4-0.7 nm), the slowly decreasing stage (0.7-1.4 nm), and the stable stage (1.4 nm-5 nm) with the increase of coal pores, and the excess oxygen physisorption amount was more sensitive to the change of pressure. The O2 isosteric heat of physisorption decreased with increasing pore size of coal. Oxygen is more strongly adsorbed by hydroxyl and ether bonds than by methyl, carboxyl and carbonyl groups. Through this study, the mechanism of oxygen physical adsorption in coal pores and the characteristics influenced by temperature and pressure can be better understood.

The Influences of Oxygen Concentration and External Heating on Carbon Nanotube Growth in Diffusion Flame

Tight control of the carbon nanotube (CNT) synthesis process in flames remains a challenge due to the highly non-uniform gradient of flame thermochemical properties. The present study aims to establish a baseline model for flame-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (FECVD) synthesis of CNT and to analyze the CNT growth region at varying flame and furnace conditions. The numerical model comprises a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation that is coupled with the CNT growth rate model to simulate the flow field within the furnace and the CNT growth respectively. Validation of the flame shape, flame length, and temperature profile are carried with a reasonable comparison to experimental measurements. A parametric study on the effects of furnace heating capacity and oxidizer concentration is conducted. The results of the CNT growth rate model reveal that there is a positive correlation between the heater power and CNT length. Supplying a higher concentration oxidizer at a fixed furnace power is predicted to result in further improvement in CNT length and high yield region. Flame structure analysis showed that with the heater turned on at 750 W (corresponding to heat flux of 21,713W/m2), the growth region expands twofold when oxygen concentration is increased from 19% to 24%. However, the growth region shrinks when the oxygen concentration is further increased to 27% which indicates depletion of carbon source for CNT growth due to excess oxygen. The finding of this research could guide and optimize the experiment of the flame-assisted CNT production in the future.

Extremely Overdoped Superconducting Cuprates via High Pressure Oxygenation Methods

Within the cuprate constellation, one fixed star has been the superconducting dome in the quantum phase diagram of transition temperature vs. the excess charge on the Cu in the CuO2-planes, p, resulting from O-doping or cation substitution. However, a more extensive search of the literature shows that the loss of the superconductivity in favor of a normal Fermi liquid on the overdoped side should not be assumed. Many experimental results from cuprates prepared by high-pressure oxygenation show Tc converging to a fixed value or continuing to slowly increase past the upper limit of the dome of p = 0.26–0.27, up to the maximum amounts of excess oxygen corresponding to p values of 0.3 to > 0.6. These reports have been met with disinterest or disregard. Our review shows that dome-breaking trends for Tc are, in fact, the result of careful, accurate experimental work on a large number of compounds. This behavior most likely mandates a revision of the theoretical basis for high-temperature superconductivity. That excess O atoms located in specific, metastable sites in the crystal, attainable only with extreme O chemical activity under HPO conditions, cause such a radical extension of the superconductivity points to a much more substantial role for the lattice in terms of internal chemistry and bonding.

Amorphous WO3 thin films designed as gigahertz/terahertz dielectric lenses

Herein, tungsten oxide thin films comprising excess oxygen are treated as optical resonator suitable for gigahertz/terahertz applications. WO 3 thin films which are prepared by the thermal evaporation technique under a vacuum pressure of 10 -5 mbar are structurally, compositionally and optically evaluated. The amorphous WO 3.33 films which showed high transparency permit electronic transitions within an indirect allowed energy band gap of 3.05 eV. The band gap comprised energy band tails of width of 190 meV. Four dominant dielectric resonators centered in the infrared (IR), visible (VIS) and ultraviolet (UV) ranges of light are detected. Analysis of the optical conductivity in accordance with the Drude-Lorentz approaches have shown that the drift mobility of free holes in this amorphous layer can be as large as 5.61 cm 2 /Vs an as low as 1.59 cm 2 /Vs when exposed to IR and UV light signals, respectively. In addition, the gigahertz/terahertz cutoff frequency ( ) spectra demonstrated values in the gigahertz frequency domain when exposed to IR light. Excitations with light signals in the VIS and UV spectral ranges allow values that extends from 0.7-40.0 THz. The wide range of tunability of the WO 3 dielectric resonators nominates them as dielectric lenses suitable for optical communications.

Environmental oxygen regulates astrocyte proliferation to guide angiogenesis during retinal development

ABSTRACT Angiogenesis in the developing mammalian retina requires patterning cues from astrocytes. Developmental disorders of retinal vasculature, such as retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), involve arrest or mispatterning of angiogenesis. Whether these vascular pathologies involve astrocyte dysfunction remains untested. Here, we demonstrate that the major risk factor for ROP – transient neonatal exposure to excess oxygen – disrupts formation of the angiogenic astrocyte template. Exposing newborn mice to elevated oxygen (75%) suppressed astrocyte proliferation, whereas return to room air (21% oxygen) at postnatal day 4 triggered extensive proliferation, massively increasing astrocyte numbers and disturbing their spatial patterning prior to the arrival of developing vasculature. Proliferation required astrocytic HIF2α and was also stimulated by direct hypoxia (10% oxygen), suggesting that astrocyte oxygen sensing regulates the number of astrocytes produced during development. Along with astrocyte defects, return to room air also caused vascular defects reminiscent of ROP. Strikingly, these vascular phenotypes were more severe in animals that had larger numbers of excess astrocytes. Together, our findings suggest that fluctuations in environmental oxygen dysregulate molecular pathways controlling astrocyte proliferation, thereby generating excess astrocytes that interfere with retinal angiogenesis.

Study of Phase Purity of Eu2-xCexCuO4 Synthesized by Solid State Method without Annealing Process

The samples of Eu2-xCexCuO4 (ECCO) with x = 0.10, 0.13, 0.17 and 0.20 have been synthesized by the solid reaction method without annealing process [1,2]. Each sample is covered by CuO powder to prevent excess oxygen entering the sample during heating process. The purpose of this research is to study the crystal structure and the level of phase purity in ECCO samples in the wide ranges of doping concentration of ECCO. The results of X-ray diffraction (XRD) characterization showed that the main peaks of T' tetragonal structure were observed in all samples. From the XRD analysis, it was found that the level of phase purity of ECCO was 100 % for x = 0.10, 100 % for x = 0.13, 79.5.% for x = 0.17, and 79.1 % for x = 0.20, respectively. For the lattice constant, it is found that both a and c-axis did not change significantly as the concentration increased. These results show that the synthesis method with CuO covering has succeeded in synthesizing materials with high phase purity although the constants do not change significantly when the concentration increased. However, there are some impurity phases found in high concentration of x that is probably due to the existence of excess oxygen, which was not fully absorbed by CuO Covering.