Search results for " Conductivity"

Methanol and proton transport through chitosan-phosphotungstic acid membranes for direct methanol fuel cell

2020

Composite chitosan-phosphotungstic acid membranes were synthesized by ionotropic gelation. Their liquid uptake is higher for thin membranes (23 ± 2 μm), while it is lower (~70%) for thicker membranes (50-70 μm). Polarization curves recorded using single module fuel cell at 70°C allowed to estimate a peak power density of 60 mW cm−2 by using 1 M as methanol and low Pt and Pt/Ru loadings (0.5 and 3 mg cm−2) at the cathode and at the anode, respectively. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was used to estimate the membrane conductivity and to model the electrochemical behavior of methanol electrooxidation inside the fuel cell revealing a two-step mechanism mainly responsible of overall kine…

Reducing electric and thermal energy needs in buildings by using innovative envelope materials - Laboratory results of bio-composites embodying tomat…

2018

The life style of building occupants is continuously arising towards conditions that are more comfortable involving, on turn, the growing of the electric energy consumptions for climatization purposes. This calls for the improvement of the efficiencies of equipment along with environmental performance of building materials. Laboratory analyses of samples of mixed materials, utilizing tomato stems harvested in Sicily and Cataluña, have been conducted Thermal conductance and mechanical properties have been detected for different rates of bio-component and inert materials. First results of the thermal properties seem to situate such bio-composites among the insulating building materials, for a…

Effect of disorder produced by cationic vacancies at theBsites on the electronic properties of mixed valence manganites

1999

An alloy series of single-phased polycrystalline ${\mathrm{La}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{Na}}_{x}{\mathrm{MnO}}_{3+\mathrm{\ensuremath{\delta}}} (0l~xl~0.15)$ has been synthesized in order to study the effect of disorder on the electronic properties of mixed valence manganites. The synthetic variables allow one to maintain a constant proportion of ${\mathrm{Mn}}^{4+}$ in the samples $({\mathrm{Mn}}^{3+}{/\mathrm{M}\mathrm{n}}^{4+}=2.1\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.2),$ while the similar size of ${\mathrm{La}}^{3+}$ and ${\mathrm{Na}}^{+}$ ions results in no appreciable change in the tolerance factor of the perovskite structure throughout the series. In this way, the sodium content x contro…

Comparing Beerkan infiltration tests with rainfall simulation experiments for hydraulic characterization of a sandy-loam soil

2017

[EN] Saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, K-s, data collected by ponding infiltrometer methods and usual experimental procedures could be unusable for interpreting field hydrological processes and particularly rainfall infiltration. The K-s values determined by an infiltrometer experiment carried out by applying water at a relatively large distance from the soil surface could however be more appropriate to explain surface runoff generation phenomena during intense rainfall events. In this study, a link between rainfall simulation and ponding infiltrometer experiments was established for a sandy-loam soil. The height of water pouring for the infiltrometer run was chosen, establishing a sim…

New synthetic strategies for the enhancement of the ionic conductivity in Ce0.8Sm0.2O2-x

2013

Introduction Samarium-doped ceria has been widely investigat-ed for electrochemistry applications as full density elec-trolyte for intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFC), between 500°C and 800°C [1]. One of the main challenges for the ceria-based electrolytes is to decrease the resistivity at the grain boundary zone, especially in this low temperature range. Microstructure and morphology of the powder play a fundamental role on the densification behaviour and grain boundary properties, thus affecting the overall conductivity of electrolytes [2]. In this light, solution combustion syn-thesis (SCS) represents a flexible method to produce ultra fine powders with suitable mic…

Run duration effects on the hydrodynamic properties of a loam soil estimated by steady-state infiltration methods

2020

Steady-state methods for the analysis of single-ring infiltration data are commonly applied. However, the duration of an infiltrometer experiment is often established quite subjectively based on the assumption that in general infiltration stabilizes rather quickly in the field. For a loam soil, the effect of the duration of a beerkan run on sorptivity, S, and saturated hydraulic conductivity, Ks, was tested by using the BEST (Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters)-steady method and SSBI (Steady version of the Simplified method based on a Beerkan Infiltration run) method for data analysis. The standard experiment, based on a total of 15 water volumes each establishing an initial pon…

Comparing two methods of analysis of single-ring infiltrometer data for a sandy – loam soil

2009

The single-ring pressure i n filtrometer (PI) with the steady-state Two-Ponding-Depth (TPD) applic ation method were developed to simulta neously determine the saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, K , and the α ⁎ -parameter in the fi eld. Methods of analysis of transient PI data are also available but they have received little testing so far. The transient WU method and the TPD method were compared for a sandy-loam soil. A linearization technique o f the in filtration curve yielded more reliable K fs fs and α ⁎ results (i.e., falling within expected ranges) than a non-linear optimization technique. The WU method gave both positive and reasonable K and α ⁎ values for all infi ltration tests. U…

Improvement of BEST (Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters) method for soil hydraulic characterization

Interpreting and modeling soil hydrological processes require the determination of the soil hydraulic characteristic curves, i.e. the relationships between volumetric soil water content, pressure head, and hydraulic conductivity. Using traditional methods to determine these properties is expensive and time consuming. Haverkamp et al. (1996) pioneered a specific method for soil hydraulic characterization known as the “Beerkan method”. An improved version of this methodology, called the Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters (BEST) procedure, was developed by Lassabatère et al. (2006) to simplify soil hydraulic characterization. BEST considers certain analytic formulae for hydraulic c…

Growth and characterisation of MnTe crystals

2001

We report on the low temperature growth of MnTe crystals by means of travelling solution methods. Two different processes are considered; a classical THM process using a low temperature presynthesised MnTe ingot, and a modified THM process, in which an increasing length of solvent zone collects the tellurium that was added to the stoichiometric charge to decrease the reaction temperature. Ingots from the two methods are analysed by means of scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffractometry, resistivity, susceptibility and optical absorption measurements.

On Infiltration and Infiltration Characteristic Times

2022

In his seminal paper on the solution of the infiltration equation, Philip (1969), https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-1-4831-9936-8.50010-6 proposed a gravity time, tgrav, to estimate practical convergence time and the time domain validity of his infinite time series expansion, TSE, for describing the transient state. The parameter tgrav refers to a point in time where infiltration is dominated equally by capillarity and gravity as derived from the first two (dominant) terms of the TSE. Evidence suggests that applicability of the truncated two-term equation of Philip has a time limit requiring higher-order TSE terms to better describe the infiltration process for times exceeding that limit. Since …