RESUMO
Activated carbon can adsorb and desorb gas molecules onto and off its surface. Research has examined whether this sorption affects low frequency sound waves, with pressures typical of audible sound, interacting with granular activated carbon. Impedance tube measurements were undertaken examining the resonant frequencies of Helmholtz resonators with different backing materials. It was found that the addition of activated carbon increased the compliance of the backing volume. The effect was observed up to the highest frequency measured (500 Hz), but was most significant at lower frequencies (at higher frequencies another phenomenon can explain the behavior). An apparatus was constructed to measure the effective porosity of the activated carbon as well as the number of moles adsorbed at sound pressures between 104 and 118 dB and low frequencies between 20 and 55 Hz. Whilst the results were consistent with adsorption affecting sound propagation, other phenomena cannot be ruled out. Measurements of sorption isotherms showed that additional energy losses can be caused by water vapor condensing onto and then evaporating from the surface of the material. However, the excess absorption measured for low frequency sound waves is primarily caused by decreases in surface reactance rather than changes in surface resistance.
RESUMO
Computational thermodynamics using density functional theory ab initio codes is a powerful tool for calculating phase diagrams. The method is usually applied at the standard pressure of p = 1 bar and where the Gibbs energy is assumed to be equal to the Helmholtz energy. In this work, we have calculated the Gibbs energy in order to study the release temperature and phase modifications of MgH(2) at high pressures up to 10 GPa (100 kbar). The isotopic substitution of hydrogen with deuterium (or tritium) does not bring about any strong effects on the phase diagram. These considerations are of extreme importance for (i) the synthesis of novel substitutional magnesium based materials at high pressure and (ii) the determination of the correct reference states for the calculation of phase diagrams at high pressure. The calculated results are compared with experimental data obtained with an in situ neutron diffraction measurement.
RESUMO
The purpose of the present investigation was to utilize the inelastic incoherent neutron scattering (INS) technique to reveal changes at the surface of technical catalysts under the influence of hydrogen in gas/solid interactions and during chemical reactions in a liquid-phase process. The formation and the properties of supported palladium hydride and changes of the hydrogen-related surface chemistry of the corresponding activated carbon supports in 20% Pd/C catalysts after short-term and long-term hydrogen cycling at different hydrogen pressures and temperatures were studied. The spectra indicate that hydrogenation of the activated carbon support by hydrogen spillover occurs to, partly, give a material that strongly resembles a-C:H (amorphous hydrogenated carbon). Indications for different relaxation phenomena and long-range phase coherence inside of supported particles of palladium hydride compared to hydrogenated palladium black were obtained. A 5% Pd/C catalyst after use in C-C coupling reactions, the Heck reaction of bromobenzene and styrene to stilbenes, was also studied after subsequent solvent extraction. Evidence for a preferential adsorption and accumulation of cis-stilbene at the catalyst surface was obtained. INS allows identification of a certain isomer from a complex reaction mixture preferentially adsorbed at the surface of a finely divided industrial heterogeneous catalyst.