Photocatalytic activity of Lu^(3+)/TiO_2 prepared by ball milling method

Ball milling method was applied to prepare Lu^3＋/TiO2 photocatalysts. The catalysts were characterized with X-ray powder diffraction（XRD）, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy（XPS）, UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectra（UV-vis DRS）, energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer（EDS）, transmission electron microscopy（TEM） and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller（BET） method. The photocatalytic activities were determined by the degradation of methylene blue（MB） equipped with a 300 W medium pressure mercury lamp. Results show that the first order reaction rate constants of Lu^3＋/TiO2 and pure TiO2 are0.0565 and 0.0263 min-1, respectively, which both were evaluated under the condition of catalysts loading of 0.2 g/L,initial concentration of 25 mg/L for MB, mole ratio of Lu^3＋/TiO2 of 1.5% and milling time of 4 h. The average crystal sizes of 1.5 mol% Lu^3＋/TiO2 and pure TiO2 are 18.7 and 19.3 nm, respectively.

Effects of low melting point metals(Ga,In,Sn) on hydrolysis properties of aluminum alloys

Low melting point metals（Ga, In, Sn） as alloy elements were used to prepare Al-In-Sn and Al-Ga-In-Sn alloys through mechanical ball milling method. The effects of mass ratio of In to Sn and Ga content on the hydrolysis properties of aluminum alloys were investigated. X-ray diffraction（XRD） and scanning electron microscopy（SEM） with energy disperse spectroscopy（EDS） were used to analyze the compositions and morphologies of the obtained Al alloys. The results show that the phase compositions of Al-In-Sn ternary alloys are Al and two intermetallic compounds, In3 Sn and In Sn4. All Al-In-Sn ternary alloys exhibit poor hydrolysis activity at room temperature. Al-In-Sn alloy with the mass ratio of In to Sn equaling 1：4 has the highest hydrogen yield. After Ga is introduced to the ternary alloys, the hydrolysis activity of aluminum alloys at room temperature is greatly improved. It is speculated that the addition of Ga element promotes the formation of defects inside the Al alloys and Ga-In3Sn-In Sn4 eutectic alloys on the alloys surface. Al atoms can be dissolved in this eutectic phase and become the active spots during the hydrolysis process. The small size and uniform distribution of this eutectic phase may be responsible for the enhancement of hydrolysis activity.

Effects of Doped Elements on Electrochemical Performance of Ni(OH)_2 Materials

High energy ball milling （HEBM） method was applied to synthesize Ni （OH）2 with different doped elements sub-stitution for Ni^2＋. The morphology, structure and electrochemical behavior of prepared powders were studied. The re-suits reveal that all the synthesized Ni（OH）2 particles were in sub-micron sizes and greatly agglomerated. Co-, Mg-,Fe- or Mn-doped Ni （OH） 2 was of β-phase with 0.400-0.500 nm crystal interlayer distance, while A1- and Zn-doped products displayed a-phase with larger crystal interlayer spaces. The electrochemical mechanisms of synthe-sized Ni（OH）2 electrodes were discussed by EIS spectra. The specific capacity of Co-doped Ni （OH）2 is 245 mA·h · g^-1, i. e. , 60 mA· h · g^-1 higher than that of Al-doped electrode, which has the highest discharging plat-form of a mid-voltage of 1.30 V.