Carbon combustion synthesis of lithium cobalt oxide as cathode material for lithium ion battery

Lithium cobalt oxide （LiCoO2） was synthesized by carbon combustion synthesis （CCS） using carbon as fuel. X-ray diffraction （XRD） and scanning electron microscope （SEM） measurements showed that carbon combustion led to the formation of layered structure of LiCoO2 and the particle size could be controlled by carbon content. For the LiCoO2 sample prepared at 800℃ for 2 h, at molar ratio of C/Co = 0.5, the particle-size distribution fell in the narrow range of 3-5 μm. Electrochemical tests indicated this LiCoO2 sample delivered an initial discharge capacity of 148 mAh/g with capacity retention rate higher than 97% after 10 cycles.

Chemical Analysis Method for Carbon Bearing Refractory Products——Determination of the Total Carbon by Combustion Gravimetric Method

GB/T 13245-91 1 Theme and Scope This standard specifies the method abstract, reagents, apparatus, specimen, analyzing procedure, result calculation and permissible tolerance used for determination of the total carbon with combustion gravimetric method.

Emission of organic carbon, elemental carbon and water-soluble ions from crop straw burning under flaming and smoldering conditions

Emissions from major agricultural residues were measured using a self-designed combustion system. Emission factors （EFs） of organic carbon （OC）, elemental carbon （EC）, and water-soluble ions （WSIs） （K＋, NH4＋, Na＋, Mg2＋, Ca2＋, Cl-, NO3-, SO42–） in smoke from wheat and rice straw were measured under flaming and smoldering conditions. The OC1/TC （total carbon） was highest （45.8% flaming, 57.7% smoldering） among carbon fractions. The mean EFs for OC （EFOC） and EC （EFEC） were 9.2 ± 3.9 and 2.2 ± 0.7 g/kg for wheat straw and 6.4 ± 1.9 and 1.1 ± 0.3 g/kg for rice straw under flaming conditions, while they were 40.8 ± 5.6 and 5.8 ± 1.0 g/kg and 37.6 ± 6.3 and 5.0 ± 1.4 g/kg under smoldering conditions, respectively. Higher EC ratios were observed in particulate matter （PM） mass under flaming conditions. The OC and EC for the two combustion patterns were significantly correlated （p 〈 0.01, R = 0.95 for wheat straw; p 〈 0.01, R = 0.97 for rice straw）, and a higher positive correlation between OC3 and EC was observed under both combustion conditions. WSIs emitted from flaming smoke were dominated by Cl- and K＋, which contributed 3.4% and 2.4% of the PM mass for rice straw and 2.2% and 1.0% for wheat straw, respectively. The EFs of Cl- and K＋ were 0.73 ± 0.16 and 0.51 ± 0.14 g/kg for wheat straw and 0.25 ± 0.15 and 0.12 ± 0.05 g/kg for rice straw under flaming conditions, while they were 0.42 ± 0.28 and 0.12 ± 0.06 g/kg and 0.30 ± 0.27 and 0.05 ± 0.03 g/kg under smoldering conditions, respectively. Na＋, Mg2＋, and NH4＋ were vital components in PM, comprising from 0.8% （smoldering） to 3.1% （flaming） of the mass. Strong correlations of Cl- with K＋, NH4＋, and Na＋ ions were observed in rice straw and the calculated diagnostic ratios of OC/EC, K＋/Na＋ and Cl-/Na＋ could be useful to distinguishing crop straw burning from other sources of atmospheric pollution.

Optical characterization of nano-sized organic carbon particles emitted from a small gasoline engine

The nano-sized organic carbon （NOC） particles emitted from a small gasoline engine were characterized using various ex situ optical techniques to assess their hazardous impact. The exhaust gas was sampled iso-kinetically by a quartz probe and passed through de-ionized water to gather the hydrophilic car- bonaceous particulates as hydrosol. The hydrodynamic diameter of the particles ranged between 1.7 and 3.6 nm at no load, with a mean diameter of 2.4 nm. The particle size in the engine exhaust was found to increase at higher loads, which is attributed to coagulation of the particles. The chemical structure of the particles was analyzed using UV-vis and infra-red spectroscopy. Both the band gap energy and oscillator strength data evaluated from the UV-vis absorbance showed that the NOC particles contained polyaromatic hydrocarbon structures with three to five aromatic rings. Infra-red spectroscopy analysis further confirmed the presence of aliphatic and carbonyl functionalities in the aromatic structures of the particles. The fine size of the particles, their high number concentration for the type of the engine under study and their structural features, make the particles extremely hazardous for environment and health.