Phase tuning of a thermal plasma synthesized cobalt oxide catalyst and understanding of its surface modification during the hydrolysis of NaBH.

NaBH is an attractive candidate for closed-loop hydrogen generation in small practical applications owing to its ambient condition hydrogen release mechanism, non-toxic byproduct, ability to regenerate, and stability at ambient conditions. The hydrolysis of NaBH requires a catalyst to accelerate the hydrogen generation process and cobalt oxide is one such promising catalyst in this reaction. The surface species and crystalline phases of cobalt oxide catalysts play an important role in determining the hydrogen generation rate and overall hydrolysis process.

Structural and morphological tuning of iron oxide polymorphs by ECR plasma-assisted thermal oxidation.

The work presented involves the generation of oxygen plasma species at low pressure utilizing an Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) plasma reactor, and their interactions with micron- and nano-sized iron films (M-Fe and N-Fe film respectively) prepared using ethyl cellulose processed at high temperature. A specially designed radiation heater (RH) was used to raise the surface temperature of the film rapidly, exactly at the film interface, where the plasma species interact with the surface. As a result of the interaction of oxygen plasma species and temperature, iron is oxidized to different polymorphs depending on the operating pressure and hence oxygen gas flow rate.

Effective degradation of organic water pollutants by atmospheric non-thermal plasma torch and analysis of degradation process.

The paper reports the use of atmospheric non-thermal plasma torch as a catalyst for degradation of various organic pollutants dissolved in water. A flow of He mixed with air was used to produce the dielectric barrier discharge (DBD), at the tip of the torch, using pulsed electric excitation at 12 kV. The torch, operated at a power of 750 mW/mm, was seen to completely degrade the aqueous solutions of the pollutants namely methylene blue (MB), methyl orange (MO) and rhodamine-B (RB), at around 10 M concentrations, the concentration of polluants is one order higher than of routinely used heterogeneous photocatalytic reactions, within 10 min of irradiation time at room temperature.

Synthesis and characterization of Nd2O3 nanoparticles in a radiofrequency thermal plasma reactor.

The synthesis of nanocrystalline Nd2O3 through an inductively coupled radiofrequency thermal plasma route is reported. Unlike in conventional synthesis processes, plasma-synthesized nanoparticles are directly obtained in a stable hexagonal crystal structure with a faceted morphology. The synthesized nanoparticles are highly uniform with an average size around 20 nm.