Preparation and electrochemical properties of Y-doped Li_3V_2(PO_4)_3 cathode materials for lithium batteries

Y-doped Li3V2（PO4）3 cathode materials were prepared by a carbothermal reduction（CTR） process.The properties of the Y-doped Li3V2（PO4）3 were investigated by X-ray diffraction（XRD） and electrochemical measurements.XRD studies showed that the Y-doped Li3V2（PO4）3 had the same monoclinic structure as the undoped Li3V2（PO4）3.The Y-doped Li3V2（PO4）3 samples were investigated on the Li extraction/insertion performances through charge/discharge, cyclic voltammogram（CV）, and electrochemical impedance spectra（EIS）.The optimal doping content of Y was x=0.03 in Li3V2-xYx（PO4）3 system.The Y-doped Li3V2（PO4）3 samples showed a better cyclic ability.The electrode reaction reversibility was enhanced, and the charge transfer resistance was decreased through the Y-doping.The improved electrochemical perormances of the Y-doped Li3V2（PO4）3 cathode materials were attributed to the addition of Y3＋ ion by stabilizing the monoclinic structure.

Characteristics of Heavy Metals and Their Evaluation in Sediments from Middle and Lower Reaches of the Huaihe River

We have collected 18 samples corresponding to 18 locations in the middle and lower reaches of the Huaihe River. The sediment samples were tested for their pH level,percentage of solids,organic matter and five heavy metals (Cr,Cu,Zn,Cd and Pb). The average concentrations of Cr,Cu,Zn,Cd and Pb of the 18 sampling locations were re-spectively 56.1,22.2,70.0,0.17 and 20.4 μg/g. Compared with their background values,the average concentrations of Zn and Cu in sediment samples from the Huaihe River were slightly higher,while the average concentrations of Cr and Pb were slightly lower. The concentration of Cd in all sediment samples was higher than its background value,while the average concentration of Cd in all sediment samples was about twice the amount of the background value. The concen-tration of the five heavy metals was lower than that of the Yangtze River. A correlation analysis revealed that heavy metals have similar geochemical feautures. The geo-accumulation index (Igeo) was used to evaluate the degree of pollu-tion of the Huaihe River sediments. The index reveals that the sediment samples are largely ranked from zero pollution to no to medium pollution.

Multifractal characteristics and spatial variability of soil particle-size distribution in different land use patterns in a small catchment of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region,China

Characterizing soil particle-size distribution is a key measure towards soil property.The purpose of this study was to evaluate the multifractal characteristics of soil particle-size distribution among different land-use from a purple soil catchment and to generalize the spatial variation trend of multifractal parameters across the catchment.A total of 84 soil samples were collected from four kinds of land use patterns(dry land,orchard,paddy,and forest)in an agricultural catchment in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region,China.The multifractal analysis method was applied to quantitatively characterize the soil particle size distribution.Six soil particle size distribution(PSD)multifractal parameters(D(0),D(1),D(2),(35)a(q),(35)f[a(q)],α(0))were computed.Additionally,a geostatistical analysis was employed to reveal the spatial differentiation and map the spatial distribution of these parameters.Evident multifractal characteristics were found.The trend of generalized dimension spectrum of four land use patterns was basically consistent with the range of 0.8 to 2.0.However,orchard showed the largest monotonic decline,while the forest demonstrated the smallest decrease.D(0)of the four land use patterns were ranked as:dry land<orchard<forest<paddy,the order of D(1)was:dry land<paddy<orchard<forest,D(2)presented a rand-size relationship as dry land<forest<paddy<orchard.Furthermore,all land-use patterns presented asΔf[α(q)]<0.The rand-size relationship ofα(0)was same as D(0).The best-fitting model for D(0),D(1),D(2)andΔf[α(q)]was spherical model,forΔα(q)was gaussian model,and forα(0)was exponential model with structure variance ratio was 1.03%,49.83%,0.84%,1.48%,22.20%and 10.60%,respectively.The results showed that soil particles of each land use pattern were distributed unevenly.The multifractal parameters under different land use have significant differences,except forΔα(q).Differences in the composition of soil particles lead to differences in the multifractal properties even though they belong to the same soil texture.Farming behavior may refine particles and enhance the heterogeneity of soil particle distribution.Our results provide an effective reference for quantifying the impact of human activities on soil system in the Three Gorges Reservoir region.

Kinetic and thermodynamic studies of the esterification of acidified oil catalyzed by sulfonated cation exchange resin

This study describes the kinetics and thermodynamics of the esterification of acidified oil with methanol catalyzed by sulfonated cation exchange resins（SCER）. The effects of the mass ratio of methanol to acidified oil,reaction temperature,and catalyst loading were studied to optimize the conditions for maximum conversion of free fatty acids（FFAs）. The results showed that the optimal conversion rate of FFAs was 91.87% at the mass ratio of methanol to acidified oil of 2.5：1.0,reaction temperature of 65.0 °C,catalyst loading of 5.0 g and reaction time of 8.0 h. The external and internal mass transfer resistances were negligible based on the experimental results and a pseudo-homogeneous kinetic model was proposed for the esterification. The activation energy and thermodynamic parameters including G,S and H were determined. The conversion rates of FFAs obtained from the established model were in good agreement with the experimental data.

Weathering,shock metamorphism and type distribution patterns of 98 ordinary chondrites from the Grove Mountains,Antarctica

Petrography and mineral chemistry of ninety-eight ordinary chondrites from Grove Mountains （GRV）, Antarctica, were presented and their. Weathering effect, shock metamorphism and type distribution patterns were discussed in this study. Among them, six are unequilibrated ordinary chondrites, including 3 H3 and 3 L3 ; and 92 meteorites are equilibrated ordinary chondrites, including 24 H-group （ 13 H4, 10 H5, 1 H6）, 64 L-group （2 L4, 44 L5, 18 L6） and 4 LL-group （3 LL4, 1 LL5）. Most GRV ehondrites （ 〉 90% ） displayed minor weathering effect （ W1 and W2）. About half of the meteorites experienced severe shock metamorphism. They commonly contain shock-induced melt veins and pockets. These heavily shocked meteorites provide us with natural samples for study of high-pressure polymorphs of minerals. In addition, the Grove Mountains collection seems to have more abundant unequilibrated and L group ordinary ehondrites compared to the US Antarctic meteorite collection which were mainly found along the Transantarctic Mountains.

APPLICATION AND INTERACTION MECHANISMS OF POLYMERIC CARBOHYDRATE IN OXIDES AND SALT-TYPE MINERALS

A systematic analysis has been carried out to investigate the fields of application and interaction mechanism of polymeric carbohydrate, i.e. polysaccharides (including starch, dextrin, cellulose and cellulosic derivatives) on various oxides and salt-type minerals in the article, interaction mechanisms of electrostatic, of hydrogen bonding, and of chemical interaction between polymeric carbohydrate and these minerals are put forward.

Major and Trace Element Chemical Compositional Signatures of Some Granitic Rocks Related to Metal Mineralization in Japan

We analyzed the major and trace element chemical compositions of 66 granitic rocks from 15 different areas in Japan. The intrusions from which the samples were collected were associated with Pb-Zn, Mo, Cu-Fe, Sn, or W mineralization and, for comparison, samples were also collected from intrusions not associated with any metal mineralization. The analyses indicated that the granitic rocks associated with Pb-Zn, Mo, or Cu-Fe mineralization were granites, granodiorites, or diorites, and that they were all I-type and formed in a volcanic arc tectonic setting. The granitic rocks associated with Sn or W mineralization and barren granitic rocks were classified as granites and as I-type with the exception of a few S-type granitic rocks. Most of the Sn- or W-associated granitic rocks and barren granitic rocks are thought to have formed in a volcanic arc tectonic setting. The Pb-Zn-, Mo-, or Cu-Fe-associated granitic rocks rarely shows negative Eu anomalies and a few of them are adakitic rocks, whereas all of the Sn- or W-associated granitic rocks and barren granitic rocks show negative Eu anomalies. For these Japanese granitic rocks, the contents of K2O, La, Y, Rb, Ta, Pb, Th, U, and REEs other than Eu increase with increasing SiO2. Conversely, the contents of major components other than Na2O and K2O and the trace components V, Zn, Sr, Eu, and Sc decrease with increasing SiO2. The Zr, Sn, and Hf abundances increase with increasing SiO2 up to 70 wt%, but their abundances decrease when the SiO2 exceeds 70 wt%. This suggests that granitic magma is saturated with these elements at 70 wt% of SiO2, approximately.

Temporal and Spatial Evolution of Lakes in the Bashang Plateau for Nearly Recent 30 Years

Lakes are important ecological water sources in the Bashang Plateau. Its expansion or shrinkage directly affects the ecological security of the plateau and its surrounding areas. In this study, Landsat images from 1984 to 2015 were selected to monitor the area of lakes in the Bashang Plateau and to analyze the spatiotemporal evolution and driving forces of lakes in the Bashang Plateau. The results showed that there were 47 lakes in the Bashang Plateau in 2015, with a total area of 37.63 km2, mainly distributed in the central and western regions of the region. From 1984 to 2015, the lakes in Bashang Plateau showed a shrinking trend. At the same time, there are obvious stage differences in lake changes. During 1984-1996, the number of lakes increased by 99 and the total area increased by 124.43 km2. From 1996 to 2015, the number of lakes decreased by 142, and the total area decreased by 183.96 km2. Before 1996, climate change was the dominant factor. However, the shrinkage of lakes after 1996 is the result of climate change and human activities. Among them, the large-scale planting of water consuming crops such as vegetables is the main human activity mode leading to lake shrinkage. This study will help to understand the expansion and contraction factors of the Bashang Plateau lakes in Hebei province and provide a reference for the future protection and management of the lakes.

Stratigraphy and Structure of Dhamtaur Area, District Abbottabad, Eastern Hazara, Pakistan

Pre-Cambrian to Paleocene age sedimentary rocks predominantly characterize the fold and thrust belt of eastern Hazara division. The Hazara Slate Formation is the oldest rock unit which represents the Precambrian sequence. The Permian and Triassic sequences are missing. The Jurassic sequence comprises Samana Suk Formation whereas the Cretaceous exposed is Chichali and Lumshiwal formations. The Eocene sequence consists of Nammal and Sakessar formations. The structural fabric of the area is mainly attributed to a series of northwest trending parallel to en echelon anticlines and synclines. Most of these folds are found to be asymmetric and are Northwest facing. Several thrust faults verging both to the north have been mapped that generally dissect the forelimbs of the anticlinal structures. But the following study going to be focus on surface structural features as well as subsurface projections of folds and faults. Study of such structural features has get prime importance in economic geology such as petroleum geology, mining geology and engineering geology. In our study area subsurface projection of folds and faults along the structural transects of the area suggests that these structures have formed as a result of shortening associated with ramping from a regional basal decollement. All the structures clearly demonstrate that the eastern Hazara area has been subjected to compressional deformation/stresses oriented northeast southwest. The repetition of rock units indicates, folding in the area and thrusting of Pre-Cambrian Hazara Formation over younger Paleocene Lockhart Formation, evidence of thrust fault. There are unconformable contacts between Hazara and Samana Suk, Chichali and Lumshiwal, Kawagarh and Hangu and Lockhart formations indicate fluctuation in the environment of deposition. The Bagnotar Fault, Dhamtaur syncline and Thai anticline are the major structural features identified and reported in the study area.

Impact of salinity on treatment of saline wastewater by sequencing batch biofilm reactor process

High salinity industrial wastewater is difficult to treat using biological treatment system because of the high concentrations of salt.The potential of a sequencing batch biofilm reactor(SBBR)process in treating synthetic high salinity wastewater was evaluated at laboratory scale during a 110-day operation.The reactor was operated in a 12 h cycle,and each cycle consisted of 0.25 h influent addition,8 h aeration,3 h anoxic reaction,0.5 h sedimentation and 0.25 h effluent withdrawal.Gradual increase in salinity gradient was applied during the acclimatization period.The acclimated SBBR system was demonstrated to be an effective process to remove organic compounds and ammonia nitrogen under high salinity conditions with chemical oxygen demand(COD)and ammonia nitrogen(NH3-N)removal efficiencies of 88% and 80%,respectively.The microscopic examination indicated that rather than rotifers or vorticella,the zoogloea,filamentous fungus mingled with a small quantity of swimming infusorians were dominant bacteria in SBBR system.The removal efficiencies close to 80% in COD and 75% in NH3-N were achieved at an organic loading rate(OLR)of 0.96 kg COD/(m3·d),pH of 7.0,salinity of 14 g/L and NH3-N of 30 mg/L.

Synthesis of Mullite from High-alumina Fly Ash:a Case from the Jungar Power Plant in Inner Mongolia, Northern China

In this paper, an experimental study was conducted in order to test the feasibility of sintering mullite directly from the high-alumina fly ash, without adding any extra material. The results show that the mullite contents in most sintered samples are over 70%. The samples sintered from the beneficiated fly ash have a higher content of mullite than those from the as-received fly ash under the same synthetic conditions. To obtain an equal amount of mullite, a higher sintering temperature is needed for the beneficiated fly ash than for the as-received fly ash. Considering the physical properties of sintered mullite, the favorable sintering temperature is 1400℃ for the as-received fly ash and 1500℃ for the beneficiated fly ash. A higher sintering temperature and a shorter holding time are profitable to sintering mullite. The orthogonal test confirmed that the dominant factor affecting mullite synthesis is sintering temperature, and that the most profitable matching conditions are 200 MPa-1500℃-3 h for the as-received fly ash and 200 MPa-1500 ℃-4 h for the beneficiated fly ash.

Rare Earth Element Geochemistry Characteristics of Laowan Gold Deposit in Henan Province: Trace to Source of Ore-Forming Materials

The compositions of REE in quartz and pyrite from main mineralized stage of the Laowan gold deposit in Henan province and that of quartz from Laowan granite were determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass-Spectrometry （ICP-MS）. The REE of deposit ore of the Laowan gold deposit, wall-rock and Laowan granite also were studied to trace the source of metallogenic materials in Laowan gold deposit in detail. The range of ∑ REE in quartz and pyrite from gold deposit is 4.18 × 10^-6 - 30.91 × 10^-6, average of 13.39 × 10^-6, 6.68 × 10^-6 of the Laowan granite quartz, obviously lower to REE concentration of deposit, granite and wall-rock. The value of （La/ Yb）N and （La/Sm）N of ore minerals from the gold deposit is 13.23 and 4.17 respectively. The differences in REE parameters, such as δEu, δCe and diffusion degree in REE from light to heavy, among deposit ore minerals and granite mineral are weak. Especially, there are no differences between the chondrite-normalised REE curves of minerals from gold deposit and those of quartzs in Laowan granite, no similarity to wall-rock＇, which shows that ore-forming hydrothermal fluid mainly came from magma fluid resulting from the Laowan granite magma, metamorphic fluid in few. The results also show that REE characteristics of ore minerals in deposit are effective for disclosing oreforming fluid quality comparing with deposit ore＇REE compositions.

Implementation of Statistical Analysis to Determine Optimum Ultimate Pit

The ultimate pit may affect other aspects in the life of a mine such as economical, technical, environmental, and social aspects. What makes it even more complex is that most often there are many pits which are economically minable. This calls for a heuristic approach to determine which of these pits is the ultimate pit. This study presents a means of selecting an ultimate pit during design operations of the Hebei Limestone mine. During optimization processes of the mine, many pit shells were created using Whittle Software. Normally, Whittle Software optimizes these processes and assigns a revenue factor of 1 for the ultimate pit. Unfortunately, the pit shells created did not satisfy the criteria with a revenue factor of 1 based on the parameters. As a result of this, statistical analysis was implemented to further understand the relationship, variability, and correlation of the pit shells created (data). Correlation Analysis, K-means++ Analysis, Principal Component Analysis, and Generalized Linear models were used in the analysis of the pit shells created. The results portray a salient relationship of the optimization variables. In addition, the proposed method was tested on Whittle Sample projects which satisfy the selection of ultimate pit selection with a revenue factor of 1. The results show that the proposed model produced almost the same results as the Whittle model with a revenue factor of 1 and was also able to determine the ultimate pit in cases which did not satisfy the Whittle selection criteria.

Multivariant statistical analysis for diagenetic information of chert from southern Tibet,China

There are large scale chert formations of different ages exposed widely in southern Tibet, along Yarlung-Zangbo suture zone. The typical chert specimens were sampled from Pengcuolin, Xialu and Zongzhuo profiles. Multivariate statistical analysis is applied for effectively extracting the geochemical information of the chert, and the raw data are processed by R-factor analysis. The first, second and third factors representing terrigenous, authigenic and hydrothermal constituents are extracted from the analysis results. From Pengcuolin, Xialu to Zongzhuo chert profiles, the variance ratios of continental and authigenetic factors become higher （ 51. 1% →62.9 % →91.6 % ）, while hydrothermal factor rapidly decrease （ 40. 9 % →32.2 % →0 ）. This tend- eney also present in the analysis for traee elements, indicating that Pengeuolin chert is hydrothermal origin, The Zongzhuo chert belong to normal sedimentation and the Xialu chert exhibit normal deposition interacted with hydrothermal sedimentation. The facts provide significant implications for understanding the diagenetic and palaeomineralization information of southern Tibet.

Microbial Fuel Cells for Nitrate Removal in Ground Water

The increasing nitrate concentration in groundwater has become a serious concern all over the world. In this study, the double chamber microbial fuel cell (MFC) and single chamber MFC systems were proposed for simultaneous removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and nitrate (NO3- - N). Transforming the various variables (cathod materials, external resistance and initial concentrations of NO3- - N) of double chamber MFC to determine the optimal operating parameters. Observing the treatment effect of single chamber MFC when adding an external resistance. The results showed: in the case of connecting external circuit, the double chamber MFC could reach the best degradation effect of NO3- - N and COD when cathode and anode materials are made of stainless steel velvet, the external resistance of 100 Ω and the initial concentrations of NO3- - N of around 250 mg/L. The best degradation rate of NO3- - N and COD reached 66.88% and 82.85% respectively. Adding an external solar power to single chamber could enhance the treatment effect;specifically, NO3- - N and COD removal rate reached 65.06% and 70.42% respectively, 6.14% and 9.73% higher than without external power.

On the role of buoyancy force in the ore genesis of SEDEX deposits:Example from Northern Australia

Finite element modeling on a highly conceptualized 2-D model of fluid flow and heat transport is undertaken to simulate the paleo-hydrological system as if the Mount Isa deposits were being formed in the Mount Isa basin, Northern Australia, and to evaluate the potential of buoyancy force in driving basin-scale fluid flow for the formation of sedimentary-exhalative (SEDEX) deposits. Our numerical case studies indicate that buoyancy-driven fluid flow is controlled mainly by the fault penetration depth and its spatial relation with the aquifer. Marine water recharges the basin via one fault and flows through the aquifer where it is heated from below. The heated metalliferous fluid discharges to the basin floor via the other fault. The venting fluid temperatures are computed to be in the range of 115 to 160°C, with fluid velocities of 2.6 to 4.1 m/year over a period of 1 Ma. These conditions are suitable for the formation of a Mount Isa-sized zinc deposit, provided a suitable chemical trap environment is present. Buoyancy force is therefore a viable driving mechanism for basin-scale ore-forming hydrothermal fluid migration, and it is strong enough to lead to the genesis of supergiant SEDEX deposits like the Mount Isa deposit, Northern Australia.