The effect of thermodynamic changes in the cooling of saline soils on the corrosion system of carbon steels.

In this experiment, Q235 and X80 carbon steels, which are widely used in oil and gas pipelines and ancillary facilities, were selected to study the changes in the corrosion behaviour and mechanism of carbon steels in the process of natural saline soil cooling to a freezing state through electrochemical testing. The equivalent circuit model of carbon steel before and after the freezing phase transformation in the soil was determined. Based on the corrosion kinetic parameters and soil thermodynamic changes, the influencing factors of steel corrosion during the cooling process were systematically analysed.

Chitin/egg shell membrane@FeO nanocomposite hydrogel for efficient removal of Pb from aqueous solution.

The development of adsorbents by using the byproducts or waste from large-scale industrial and agricultural production is of great significance, and is considered to be an economic and efficient strategy to remove the heavy metals from polluted water. In this work, a novel chitin/EM@FeO nanocomposite hydrogel was obtained from a NaOH/urea aqueous system, where the proteins of egg shell membrane and FeO nanoparticles were chemically bonded to chitin polymer chains with the help of epichlorohydrin. Due to the existence of a large number of -NH, -OH, -CONH-, -COOH and hemiacetal groups, the adsorption efficiency for Pb into the absorbent was dramatically enhanced.

Enhanced adsorption behaviors of Co on robust chitosan hydrogel microspheres derived from an alkali solution system: kinetics and isotherm analysis.

Chitosan hydrogel microspheres derived from the LiOH/KOH/urea aqueous system demonstrate great characteristics of high mechanical strength, relative chemical inertness, renewability and 3-D fibrous network, making them promising functional supports. This work aims to investigate the tunable Co adsorption behaviors on these robust chitosan microspheres in detail, providing the theoretical basis for optimizing the preparation procedure of chitosan microspheres supported CoO catalysts in the future. The experimental results revealed that the fabricated original chitosan microspheres with more extended chain conformation could display enhanced adsorption capacity for Co at determined concentration both in water and alcohol solutions, which is about 2-7 times higher than that of the conventional chitosan hydrogel microspheres prepared from the acetic acid solution.

Stable contrast mode on TiO(110) surface with metal-coated tips using AFM.

We investigated a method to obtain a stable contrast mode on the TiO(110) surface. The stable contrast rate is approximately 95% with a W-coated Si cantilever, which demonstrates that a stable tip apex plays an important role to obtain the real geometry of the surface during atomic force microscopy measurement. Information related to surface structure and tunnelling current on the TiO(110) surface can be obtained by the W-coated Si cantilever.

Growth models of coexisting p(2 × 1) and c(6 × 2) phases on an oxygen-terminated Cu(110) surface studied by noncontact atomic force microscopy at 78 K.

We present an experimental study of coexisting p(2 × 1) and c(6 × 2) phases on an oxygen-terminated Cu(110) surface by noncontact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM) at 78 K. Ball models of the growth processes of coexisting p(2 × 1)/c(6 × 2) phases on a terrace and near a step are proposed. We found that the p(2 × 1) and c(6 × 2) phases are grown from the super Cu atoms on both sides of O-Cu-O rows of an atomic spacing.