Iranian Journal of Materials Science and Engineering

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gasification (BBLG). One particularly harsh application is linings for gasifiers used in the treatment of black liquor (BL). Black liquor is a water solution of the non-cellulose portion of the wood (mainly lignin) and the spent pulping chemicals (Na2CO3, K2CO3, and Na2S). Development of new refractory materials for the black liquor gasification (BLG) application is a critical issue for implementation of this technology. FactSage® thermodynamic software was used to analyze the phases present in BL smelt and to predict the interaction of BL smelt with different refractory compounds. The modeling included prediction of the phases formed under the operating conditions of high temperature black liquor gasification (BLG) process. At the operating temperature of the BLG, FactSage® predicted that the water would evaporate from the BL and that the organic portion of BL would combust, leaving a black liquor smelt composed of sodium carbonate (70-75%), potassium carbonate (2-5%), and sodium sulfide (20-25%). Exposure of aluminosilicates to this smelt leads to significant corrosion due to formation of expansive phases with subsequent cracking and spalling. Oxides (ZrO2, CeO2, La2O3, Y2O3, Li2O, MgO and CaO) were determined to be resistant to black liquor smelt but non-oxides (SiC and Si3N4) would oxidize and dissolve in the smelt. The other candidates such as MgAl2O4 and BaAl2O4 were resistant to sodium carbonate but not to potassium carbonate. LiAlO2 was stable with both sodium carbonate and potassium carbonate. Candidate materials selected on the basis of the thermodynamic calculations are being tested by sessile drop test for corrosion resistance to molten black liquor smelt. Sessile drop testing has confirmed the thermodynamic predictions for Al2O3, CeO2, MgO and CaO. Sessile drop testing showed that the thermodynamic predictions were incorrect for ZrO2.

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Abstract: Nano- size alumina particles have been synthesized by mechanical activation of a dry powder mixture of AlCl3 and CaO. Mechanical milling of the above raw materials with the conditions adopted in this study resulted in the formation of a mixture consisting of crystalline CaO and amorphous aluminum chlorides phases. There was no sign of chemical reaction occurring during milling stage as evidenced by x-ray diffraction studies. Subsequent heat treatment of the milled powder at 350ºC resulted in the occurrence of displacement reaction and the formation of Al2O3 particles within a water soluble CaCl2 matrix. The effect of higher temperature calcinations on the phase development in this powder mixture was followed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis and scanning electron microscope ( SEM). Differential thermal analysis (DTA) was used to compare the thermal behavior between the milled and unmilled powders. Perhaps the most important result in this study was the observation of á-Al2O3 phase at a very low temperature of 500ºC.

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Abstract:

materials can be fabricated by sintering of W-Cu composite powders. In this research W-20%wt Cu composite powders

was synthesized via a co-precipitation method. Precipitate obtained from a mixture of copper nitrate and ammonium

paratungstate (APT) in distilled water contained W-Cu compounds. This precipitate was washed, dried and calcined

at 550

of dried precipitate powder was determined by thermogravimetry (TG), differential thermal analysis (DTA) and X-ray

diffraction (XRD). The sintering of the reduced powders was investigated as a function of temperature. Relative density

of more than 98% obtained for the powders sintered at 1200

close to theoretical calculations. The hardness of the sintered powders was 320 Vickers.

W-Cu composites are widely used as contacts, heat sinks and electro discharge electrodes. These kinds of°C in air and then reduced in H2 atmosphere in order to convert to W-Cu powders. The calcination temperature°C . The corresponding electrical conductivity was too

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Free swelling index (FSI) is an important parameter for cokeability and combustion of coals. In this research, the effects of chemical properties of coals on the coal free swelling index were studied by artificial neural network methods. The artificial neural networks (ANNs) method was used for 200 datasets to estimate the free swelling index value. In this investigation, ten input parameters such as moisture, volatile matter (dry), fixed carbon (dry), ash (dry), total sulfur (organic and pyretic)(dry), (British thermal unit (Btu)/lb) (dry), carbon (dry), hydrogen (dry), nitrogen (dry) as well as oxygen (dry) were used. For selecting the best model for this study the outputs of models were compared. A three-layer ANN was found to be optimum with architecture of ten and four neurons in first and second hidden layer, respectively, and one neuron in output layer. Results of artificial neural network shows that training, testing and validating data’s square correlation coefficients (R2) achieved 0.99, 0.92 and 0.96, respectively. The sensitivity analysis showed that the highest and lowest effects of coal chemical properties on the coal free swelling index were nitrogen (dry) and fixed carbon (dry), respectively. Keywords: Coal Chemical Properties, Free Swelling Index, Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), Cokeability and Back Propagation Neural Network (BPNN).

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Abstract: Composite specimens were prepared by dispersion of various amounts of nano-sized Al2O3 fillers in a monomer system containing 60% Bis-GMA and 40% TEGDMA. For comparative purposes, composite samples containing micrometer size Al2O3 fillers were also prepared following the same procedure. The mechanical properties of the light- cured samples were assessed by three-point flexural strength, diametral tensile strength, and microhardness tests. The results indicated a more than hundred percent increase in the flexural strength and nearly an eighty percent increase in the diametral tensile strength values in the samples containing nano-size Al2O3 filler particles. It is interesting to note that, this improvement was observed at a much lower nano-size filler content. Fracture surfaces analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, indicated a brittle type of fracture in both sets of specimens.

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Abstract: SiC nano particles with mono dispersed distribution were synthesized by using of silicon alkoxides and phenolic resin as starting materials. After synthesis of sample, characterizations of the obtained powder were investigated via Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) with 400-4000 cm-1, X-ray Diffractometry (XRD), Laser Particle Size Analyzing (LPSA), Si29 NMR analysis, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). FTIR and Si29 NMR results of the gel powder indicated that Si-O-C bonds were formed due to hydrolysis and condensation reactions . FTIR results showed a very strong peak for heat treated powder at 1500°C after carbon removal which is corresponded to Si-C bond. Obtained pattern from X-ray diffractometry showed that the final products contain -SiC phase with poly crystalline planes and little amounts of residual carbon. PSA results showed that the average particles size were 50.6 nm with monosized distribution. Also microstructural studies showed that the SiC nano powders have semi spherical morphology with mean particles size of 30-50 nm and also there are some agglomerates with irregular shape.

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Mono dispersed nano SiC particles with spherical morphology were synthesized in this project by hydrolysis and condensation mechanism during sol gel processing. pH, temperature and precursor’s ratio considered as the main parameters which could influence particles size. According to DLS test results, the smallest size of particles in the sol (<5nm) was obtained at pH<4. It can be observed from rheology test results optimum temperature for achieving nanometeric gel is about 60 ˚C. The optimum pH values for sol stabilization was (2-5) determined by zeta potentiometery. Si 29NMR analysis was used in order to get more details on final structure of gel powders resulted from initial sol. X-ray diffraction studies showed sythesized powder consists of β-SiC phase. Scanning electron microscopy indicated agglomerates size in β-SiC synthesis is less than 100 nm. Finally, TEM studies revealed morphology of β-SiC particles treated in 1500˚C and after 1hr aging is spherical with (20-30) nm size

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The synthesis of mesoporous CuFe2O4 spinel by several nanocasting strategies (i.e., multi-step nanocasting, one step nanocasting, modified solid-liquid), in which copper and iron nitrates are used as precursors and Pluronic P123 as surfactant, is explored. We have also checked the effect of pH, citric acid and sodium citrate in multi-step nanocasting method. The modified solid-liquid method which contains impregnating mesoporous silica by molten state salts in a non-ionic solvent seems to be the best choice to obtain single phase ordered mesoporous copper ferrite. Other methods suffer from the presence of copper oxide or hematite as impurities or lack of integrity in the mesoporous structure. Increasing pH up to 9.5 does not enhance the phase formation inside the pores of the silica matrix. The citric acid yields a fine structure but does not facilitate the phase formation. Adding sodium citrate neither heals the phase formation nor the structure of the final product. Moreover, vinyl- functionalized mesoporous silica exploited in this study as a hard template entraps both metal nitrates in the pores, assisting impregnation procedure

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Multivariable regression and artificial neural network procedures were used to modeling of the input power and gas holdup of flotation. The stepwise nonlinear equations have shown greater accuracy than linear ones where they can predict input power, and gas holdup with the correlation coefficients of 0.79 thereby 0.51 in the linear, and R2=0.88 versus 0.52 in the non linear, respectively. For increasing accuracy of predictions, Feed-forward artificial neural network (FANN) was applied. FANNs with 2-2-5-5, and 2-2-3-2-2 arrangements, were capable to estimating of the input power and gas holdup, respectively. They were achieved quite satisfactory correlations of 0.96 in testing stage for input power prediction, and 0.64 for gas holdup prediction

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MgAl2O4/Ti(C,N) composites were synthesized through aluminothermic reaction between Al,TiO 2,MgO powders and phenolic resin in coke bed condition. Effect of addition of carbon black and sugar into the mixture at different temperatures were investigated. The phases and microstructures of samples were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). MgAl 2O4 /Ti(C,N) composites without additive were obtained after heat treatment at 1600˚C. With addition of carbon black TiC, TiN and Ti(C,N) were appeared after firing at 1400˚C and formation of spinel/Ti(C,N) composites were completed at 1600˚C. In sample containing sugar, MgAl2O4 -Ti(C,N) composite were completely synthesized at 1400˚C. In this sample crystallite size of Ti(C,N) were 32 nm and carbon content of titanium carbonitride (Ti(C,N)) reached to 0.442 value.

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Different volume fractions (1.3, 2.6, and 7.6 Vol.%) of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were dispersed within 8Y-TZP nanopowders. Mixed powder specimens were subsequently processed by spark plasma sintering (SPS) and effects of CNTs on the sintering process of 8Y-TZP/CNT composites was studied. Maintenance of CNTs through the SPS process was confirmed using TEM and Raman Spectroscopy. Studies on the sintering profile of zirconia-CNT composites (Z-xC composites) could, to some extent, clarify the effect of CNTs’ volume fraction on the densification rates of Z-xC composites. The specimen with the highest content of CNT (Z-7.6C) showed the lowest sintering rate while it was unable to reach full density.

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The synthesis of micro-sized, uniformly distributed Al₂O₃-15Vol% Ni powders were studied through three step co-precipitation of hydroxides mixtures from proper solution, calcination at air atmosphere and final step of calcined powders in a carbon bed. Al and Ni hydroxide and amorphous phase were first obtained from their salt’s solutions through chemical co-precipitation method by adjusting pH. The precipitated powders were then calcined to obtain a mixture of their oxides as NiO and NiAl₂O₄ which were reduced in a carbon bed at various temperatures up to 1300. Proper temperature for calcination in air was determined through TG analysis; 900. SEM observation of powders after reduction, revealed micro-sized Ni particles, along with fin distribution of Ni and Al₂O₃ elements. XRD analysis of the calcined sample showed the presence of NiAl₂O₄ and NiO and the same analysis for the reduced sample confirmed the formation of Al₂O₃ and Ni.