Search results for "cerium"
showing 10 items of 140 documents
Distribution of REEs in box-core sediments offshore an industrial area in SE Sicily, Ionian Sea: Evidence of anomalous sedimentary inputs
2009
The distribution of rare earth elements and yttrium (REEs+Y) has been investigated in box-core sediments recovered from four stations in the Sicilian coastal zone seawards of Augusta, one of the most industrialized and contaminated areas in the Mediterranean region. Shale-like REE patterns and low Y/Ho ratios (close to the chondritic ratio) suggest a dominant terrigenous (geogenic) source for REE. Slight enrichment of LREE over the HREE is interpreted as due to preferential adsorptive transfer of LREE from seawater to sediment particles. Samples from offshore cores exhibit slightly positive Gd and negative Ce anomalies. It is here hypothesized that main drivers of anthropogenic Gd flux towa…
Time-Resolved Luminescence of Nanocrystalline Inorganic Complex Oxides
2007
Two types of complex nanosized oxides – cerium doped Y3Al5O12 (YAG) and CaWO4– have been studied by means of time-resolved luminescence spectroscopy. Comparative study of time-resolve luminescence characteristics of cerium doped YAG single crystal, nanopowders and nanoceramic as well as for CaWO4 macro- and nanocrystals has been done. Two components in the decay kinetic of Ce3+ related emission in YAG nanocrystals were detected and it was suggested that a different energy transfer rate to volume and surface Ce3+ ions takes place. It is shown that the segregation of Ce3+ ions near nanoparticles surface and/or dislocation lines plays a crucial role in degradation of light yield of cerium rela…
SOX: search for short baseline neutrino oscillations with Borexino
2015
International audience; The Borexino detector has convincingly shown its outstanding performances in the low energy regime through its accomplishments in the observation and study of the solar and geo neutrinos. It is then an ideal tool to perform a state of the art source-based experiment for testing the longstanding hypothesis of a fourth sterile neutrino with ~ eV(2) mass, as suggested by several anomalies accumulated over the past three decades in source, reactor, and accelerator-based experiments. The SOX project aims at successively deploying two intense radioactive sources, made of Cerium (antineutrino) and Chromium (neutrino), respectively, in a dedicated pit located beneath the det…
The high precision measurement of the 144Ce activity in the SOX experiment
2015
International audience; In order to perform a resolutive measurement to clarify the neutrino anomalies and to observe possible short distance neutrino oscillations, the SOX (Short distance neutrino Oscillations with BoreXino) experiment is under construction. In the first phase, a 100 kCi (144)Ce-(144)Pr antineutrino source will be placed under the Borexino detector at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS), in center of Italy, and the rate measurement of the antineutrino events, observed by the very low radioactive background Borexino detector, will be compared with the high precision (< 1%) activity measurement performed by two calorimeters. The source will be embedded in a 19 mm …
The $^{144}$Ce source for SOX
2015
International audience; The SOX (Short distance neutrino Oscillations with BoreXino) project aims at testing the light sterile neutrino hypothesis. To do so, two artificials sources of antineutrinos and neutrinos respectively will be consecutively deployed at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in close vicinity to Borexino, a large liquid scintillator detector. This document reports on the source production and transportation. The source should exhibit a long lifetime and a high decay energy, a requirement fullfilled by the (144)Ce-(144)Pr pair at secular equilibrium. It will be produced at FSUE “Mayak” PA using spent nuclear fuel. It will then be shielded and packed according t…
Solar neutrino detectors as sterile neutrino hunters
2016
International audience; The large size and the very low radioactive background of solar neutrino detectors such as Borexino at the Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy offer a unique opportunity to probe the existence of neutrino oscillations into new sterile components by means of carefully designed and well calibrated anti-neutrino and neutrino artificial sources. In this paper we briefly summarise the key elements of the SOX experiment, a program for the search of sterile neutrinos (and other short distance effects) by means of a (144)Ce-(144)Pr anti-neutrino source and, possibly in the medium term future, with a (51)Cr neutrino source.
Au/TiO2-CeO2 Catalysts for Photocatalytic Water Splitting and VOCs Oxidation Reactions
2016
Photocatalytic water splitting for H2 production and photocatalytic oxidation of 2-propanol, an example of volatile organic compounds, were investigated over TiO2 catalysts loaded with gold and/or ceria. In the water splitting reaction the presence of gold only slightly affected the performance of TiO2 whereas the presence of CeO2 had a more remarkable positive effect. In the 2-propanol oxidation Au/TiO2 was the most active sample in terms of alcohol conversion whereas Au/TiO2-CeO2 exhibited the highest CO2 yield. On the basis of characterization experiments (X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis EDX, surface area measurements, Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (DRS) and …
Influence of SMSI effect on the catalytic activity of a Pt(1%)/ Ce0.6Zr0.4O2 catalyst: SAXS, XRD, XPS and TPR investigations
2004
Abstract The steady-state activity of NO reduction by C3H6, in lean conditions, was studied on a Pt(1%)/Ce0.6Zr0.4O2 catalyst, in a plug-flow reactor, in the temperature range 100–500 °C. The influence of reductive pre-treatments on the catalytic performance at low temperature (250 °C) was investigated. Enhancement of the activity was found for the catalyst pre-treated in hydrogen at 350 °C as compared to the sample pre-treated in H2 at 800 and 1050 °C. Moreover, transient reactivity tests of NO reduction by hydrogen were also carried out. As previously observed, the sample reduced at 350 °C was the most active catalyst. In both types of reactions the temperature and the nature of pre-treat…
Influence of Ce codoping and H2 pre-loading on Er/Yb-doped fiber: Radiation response characterized by Confocal Micro-Luminescence
2011
International audience; Confocal microscopy luminescence measurements were applied to study the X-ray radiation response of Er/Yb-doped optical fibers in connection with H2 pre-loading and with the addition of another lanthanide element (Cerium) in the core composition. Laser excitations at 488 nm and 325 nm allow deriving the emission and absorption pattern of Er3+, the latter derived from the dips appearing in a wide luminescence band related to defects in silica. We found that the luminescence spectrum of the X-irradiated Er/Yb-doped core fiber evidences an increase in the emission intensity around 520 and 660 nm; in contrast, no changes are induced by radiation neither after H2 pre-load…
(Table 1) Geochemistry of ODP Site 160-963 sediments
2010
The Mediterranean Sea acts as a miniature ocean with the development of its own conveyor belt. It constitutes an ideal location to study and forecast how the marine environment responds to rapid climatic change. Here we present a palaeoenvironmental study carried out on the sediments of ODP Site 963, recovered in the Sicily Channel, the sill which divides the western from the eastern Mediterranean basin. We focused on the transition between the penultimate glacial (MIS 6) and the last interglacial (MIS 5), between approximately 130 and 115 kyr BP. A novel approach is proposed, taking into account centennial-scale geochemical data on major elements, selected trace elements, and yttrium and R…