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This article is an editorial on the research topic Microbial C1 Metabolism and Biotechnology. This special topic presents studies focused on the fundamental aspects of C1 metabolism in diverse microbial systems with the ability to convert anthropogenic greenhouse gases into valuable products.

By means of the saturation shake-flask technique, the saturation solubility data of 3,3′-diaminodiphenyl sulfone in 14 monosolvents (n-propanol, N,N-dimethylformamide, methanol, ethanol, ethylene g...

Progress in science often follows or parallels the development of new techniques. The optical microscope helped convert medicine and biology from a speculative activity in old times to today's sophisticated scientific disciplines. The telescope changed the study and interpretation of heavens from mythology to science. X-ray diffraction enabled the flourishing of solid state physics and materials science. The technique object of this review, Ambient Pressure Photoelectron Spectroscopy or APPES for short, has also the potential of producing dramatic changes in the study of liquid and solid surfaces, particularly in areas such as atmospheric, environment and catalysis sciences. APPES adds an important missing element to the host of techniques that give fundamental information, i.e., spectroscopy and microscopy, about surfaces in the presence of gases and vapors, as encountered in industrial catalysis and atmospheric environments. APPES brings electron spectroscopy into the realm of techniques that can be used in practical environments. Decades of surface science in ultra high vacuum (UHV) has shown the power of electron spectroscopy in its various manifestations. Their unique property is the extremely short elastic mean free path of electrons as they travel through condensed matter, of the order of a few atomic distances in the energy rangemore » from a few eV to a few thousand eV. As a consequence of this the information obtained by analyzing electrons emitted or scattered from a surface refers to the top first few atomic layers, which is what surface science is all about. Low energy electron diffraction (LEED), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS), and other such techniques have been used for decades and provided some of the most fundamental knowledge about surface crystallography, composition and electronic structure available today. Unfortunately the high interaction cross section of electrons with matter also prevents them from traveling long distances unscattered in gas environments. Above the millibar pressure range this distance is reduced to less that a millimeter, effectively preventing its use in the most relevant environments, usually between millibars and atmospheric pressures. There is therefore a large gap of several orders of magnitude where information about surfaces is scarce because these powerful electron spectroscopies cannot operate. One characteristic of surfaces in ambient pressure environments is that they are covered by dense layers of molecules, even when their binding energy is weak. Water for example is known to form layers several molecules thick at room temperature in humid environments. Metals readily form oxide films several layers thick in oxygen atmospheres. Dense layers of adsorbed molecules can also be produced in ultra high vacuum, often by the simple and expedient method of cooling the sample to cryogenic temperatures. A large amount of data has been obtained in the past in UHV by surface scientists using this method. While this has provided valuable information it begs the question of whether the structures formed in this manner represent equilibrium structures or metastable ones, kinetically trapped due to high activation energies that cannot be overcome at low temperature. From a thermodynamic point of view is interesting to consider the entropic contribution to the Gibbs free energy, which we can call 'the pressure factor', equal to kT.logP. This factor amounts to a sizeable 0.3 eV difference at room temperature between UHV (<10{sup -8} Pascal) and atmospheric pressures. Such change if free energy can definitely result in changes in surface structure and stability. Entire areas of the phase diagram are out of reach due to the pressure gap. Even when cooling is not necessary, many surface treatments and most chemical reactions necessitate the presence of gases at pressures ranging from millibar to bars. What is the structure and chemical nature of the species formed on the surface in equilibrium with such gases? As we shall illustrate in this review, APPES provides a much needed electron spectroscopy to analyze surface electronic structure and composition in equilibrium with gases.« less

High current discharge channels can neutralize both current and space charge of very intense ion beams. Therefore, they are considered an interesting solution for final focus and beam transport in a heavy ion beam fusion reactor. At the Gesellschaft fuer Schwerionenforschung accelerator facility, 50 cm long, free-standing discharge channels were created in a 60 cm diameter metallic chamber. Discharges with currents of 45 kA in 2 to 25 mbar ammonia (NH3) gas are initiated by a CO2 laser pulse along the channel axis before the capacitor bank is triggered. Resonant absorption of the laser, tuned to the v2 vibration of the ammonia molecule, causes strong gas heating. Subsequent expansion and rarefaction of the gas prepare the conditions for a stable discharge to fulfill the requirements for ion beam transport. The influence of an electric prepulse on the high current discharge was investigated. This article describes the laser–gas interaction and the discharge initiation mechanism. We found that channels are magnetohydrodynamic stable up to currents of 45 kA, measured by fast shutter and streak imaging techniques. The rarefaction of the laser heated gas is studied by means of a one-dimensional Lagrangian fluid code (CYCLOPS) and is identified as the dominant initiation mechanism of the discharge.

Abstract Ammonia oxidation experiments were conducted at high pressure (30 bar and 100 bar) under oxidizing and stoichiometric conditions, respectively, and temperatures ranging from 450 to 925 K. The oxidation of ammonia was slow under stoichiometric conditions in the temperature range investigated. Under oxidizing conditions the onset temperature for reaction was 850–875 K at 30 bar, while at 100 bar it was about 800 K, with complete consumption of NH3 at 875 K. The products of reaction were N2 and N2O, while NO and NO2 concentrations were below the detection limit even under oxidizing conditions. The data were interpreted in terms of a detailed chemical kinetic model. The rate constant for the reaction of the important intermediate H2NO with O2 was determined from ab initio calculations to be 2.3 × 102 T2.994 exp(−9510 K/T) cm3 mol−1 s−1. The agreement between experimental results and model work was satisfactory. The main oxidation path for NH3 at high pressure under oxidizing conditions is NH3 ⟶ + OH NH2 ⟶ + HO 2 , NO 2 H2NO ⟶ + O 2 HNO ⟶ + O 2 NO ⟶ + NH 2 N2. The modeling predictions are most sensitive to the reactions NH2 + NO = NNH + OH and NH2 + HO2 = H2NO + OH, which promote the ammonia consumption by forming OH radicals, and to NH2 + NO = N2 + H2O and NH2 + NO2 = N2O + H2O, which are the main chain-terminating steps.

Graphene has been used as an electrically tunable material for switchable devices. A large area fabrication of Al-doped ZnO/Al2O3/graphene/Al2O3/gold/silicon device was enabled by a spin-processible hydrophilic mono-layer graphene oxide. The graphene was obtained directly from graphene oxide during the atomic layer deposition without other extra steps. A significant shift of Raman frequency up to 360 cm−1 was observed from graphene in the fabricated device, indicating a structural change in graphene. The absorption from the device was tunable with a negative voltage applied on the Al-doped ZnO side. The generated absorption change was sustainable when the voltage was off and erasable when a positive voltage was applied. The sustainability of tuned optical property in the graphene under investigation can lead to a design of device with less power consumption and many other applications.