Mott Gap Filling by Doping Electrons through Depositing One Sub-Monolayer Thin Film of Rb on Ca_(2)CuO_(2)Cl_(2)

Understanding the doping evolution from a Mott insulator to a superconductor probably holds the key to resolve the mystery of unconventional superconductivity in copper oxides. To elucidate the evolution of the electronic state starting from the Mott insulator, we dose the surface of the parent phase Ca_(2)CuO_(2)Cl_(2) by depositing Rb atoms, which are supposed to donate electrons to the CuO_(2) planes underneath. We successfully achieved the Rb sub-monolayer thin films in forming the square lattice. The scanning tunneling microscopy or spectroscopy measurements on the surface show that the Fermi energy is pinned within the Mott gap but close to the edge of the charge transfer band. In addition, an in-gap state appears at the bottom of the upper Hubbard band(UHB), and the Mott gap will be significantly diminished. Combined with the Cl defect and the Rb adatom/cluster results, the electron doping is likely to increase the spectra weight of the UHB for the double occupancy. Our results provide information to understand the electron doping to the parent compound of cuprates.

Stabilization of nickel nanoparticle suspensions with the aid of polymer and surfactant: static bottle tests and dynamic micromodel flow tests

Nickel nanoparticles can work as catalyst for the aquathermolysis reactions between water and heavy oil.A homogeneous and stable suspension is needed to carry the nickel nanoparticles into deeper reservoirs.This study conducts a detailed investigation on how to achieve stabilized nickel nanoparticle suspensions with the use of surfactant and polymer.To stabilize the nickel nanoparticle suspension,three surfactants including sodium dodecyl sulfate,cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide and polyoxyalkalene amine derivative(Hypermer) along with xanthan gum polymer were introduced into the nickel nanoparticle suspension.Static stability tests and zeta potential measurements were conducted to determine the polymer/surfactant recipes yielding the most stable nickel nanoparticle suspensions.Dynamic micromodel flow tests were also conducted on three suspensions to reveal how the nickel nanoparticles would travel and distribute in porous media.Test results showed that when the injection was initiated,most nickel nanoparticles were able to pass through the gaps between the sand grains and produced in the outlet of the micromodel;only a small number of the nickel nanoparticles were attached to the grain surface.A higher nickel concentration in the suspension may lead to agglomeration of nickel nanoparticles in porous media,while a lower concentration can mitigate this agglomeration.Moreover,clusters tended to form when the nickel nanoparticle suspension carried an electrical charge opposite to that of the porous media.Follow-up waterflood was initiated after the nanofluid injection.It was found that the waterflood could not flush away the nanoparticles that were remaining in the micromodel.

Toward accurate density and interfacial tension modeling for carbon dioxide/water mixtures

Phase behavior of carbon dioxide/water binary mixtures plays an important role in various CO2-based industry processes. This work aims to screen a thermodynamic model out of a number of promising candidate models to capture the vapor–liquid equilibria, liquid–liquid equilibria, and phase densities of CO2/H2O mixtures. A comprehensive analysis reveals that Peng–Robinson equation of state (PR EOS) (Peng and Robinson 1976), Twu α function (Twu et al. 1991), Huron–Vidal mixing rule (Huron and Vidal 1979), and Abudour et al. (2013) volume translation model (Abudour et al. 2013) is the best model among the ones examined;it yields average absolute percentage errors of 5.49% and 2.90% in reproducing the experimental phase composition data and density data collected in the literature. After achieving the reliable modeling of phase compositions and densities, a new IFT correlation based on the aforementioned PR EOS model is proposed through a nonlinear regression of the measured IFT data collected from the literature over 278.15–477.59 K and 1.00–1200.96 bar. Although the newly proposed IFT correlation only slightly improves the prediction accuracy yielded by the refitted Chen and Yang (2019)’s correlation (Chen and Yang 2019), the proposed correlation avoids the inconsistent predictions present in Chen and Yang (2019)’s correlation and yields smooth IFT predictions.