This paper examines a simple one-step and catalyst-free method for synthesizing carbon nanoparticles from aliphatic alcohols and n-hexane with linear molecule formations by using a stable solution plasma process with a bipolar pulse and an external resistor. When the external resistor is adopted, it is observed that the current spikes are dramatically decreased, which induced production of a more stable discharge. Six aliphatic linear alcohols (methanol- hexanol) containing carbon with oxygen sources are studied as possible precursors for the massive production of carbon nanoparticles. Additional study is also carried out with the use of n-hexane containing many carbons without an oxygen source in order to enhance the formation of carbon nanoparticles and to eliminate unwanted oxygen effects. The obtained carbon nanoparticles are characterized with field emission-scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. The results show that with increasing carbon ratios in alcohol content, the synthesis rate of carbon nanoparticles is increased, whereas the size of the carbon nanoparticles is decreased. Moreover, the degree of graphitization of the carbon nanoparticles synthesized from 1-hexanol and n-hexane with a high carbon (C)/oxygen (O) ratio and low or no oxygen is observed to be greater than that of the carbon nanoparticles synthesized from the corresponding materials with a low C/O ratio.
It is well known that the membrane permeation in pervaporation is governed by both the chemical nature of the membrane material and the physical structure of the membrane and also the separation can be achieved by differences in either solubility, size or shape. The solubility of the penerrant in the polymeric membrane can be described qualitively by applying the Hildebrand relation [1] which relates the energy of mixing of the penerrant and the polymer material. Froehling et al. have tried to predict the swelling behavior of polymers for the systems of polyvinylchloride(PVC)-toluene-methanol, PVC-trichloroethylene-nitromethane and PVC-n-butylacetate-nitromethane[2]. The former two systems which do not show the donor/acceptor interactions upon mixing showed the successful results[2]. In addition to this technique, there are several other possible approaches to predict the swelling behaviors of polymers, such as the surface thermodynamic approach[3, 4], the comparison of the membrane polarity with the solvent polarity in terms of Dimroth's solvent polarity value[5].
Present study evaluated the low-temperature destruction of n-hexane and benzene using mesh-type transition-metal platinum(Pt)/stainless steel(SS) catalyst. The parameters tested for the evaluation of catalytic destruction efficiencies of the two volatile organic compounds(VOC) included input concentration, reaction time, reaction temperature, and surface area of catalyst. It was found that the input concentration affected the destruction efficiencies of n-hexane and benzene, but that this input-concentration effect depended upon VOC type. The destruction efficiencies increased as the reaction time increased, but they were similar between two reaction times for benzene(50 and 60 sec), thereby suggesting that high temperatures are not always proper for thermal destruction of VOCs, when considering the destruction efficiency and operation costs of thermal catalytic system together. Similar to the effects of the input concentration on destruction efficiency of VOCs, the reaction temperature influenced the destruction efficiencies of n-hexane and benzene, but this temperature effect depended upon VOC type. As expected, the destruction efficiencies of n-hexane increased as the surface area of catalyst, but for benzene, the increase rate was not significant, thereby suggesting that similar to the effects of the reaction temperature on destruction efficiency of VOCs, high catalyst surface areas are not always proper for economical thermal destruction of VOCs. Depending upon the inlet concentrations and reaction temperatures, almost 100% of both n-hexane and benzene could be destructed. The current results also suggested that when applying the mesh type transition Metal Pt/SS catalyst for the better catalytic pyrolysis of VOC, VOC type should be considered, along with reaction temperature, surface area of catalyst, reaction time and input concentration.