Production of biodiesel from soapstock using an ion-exchange resin catalyst

The feasibility of biodiesel production from soapstock containing high water content and fatty matters by a solid acid catalyst was investigated. Soapstock was converted to high-acid acid oil (HAAO) by the hydrolysis by KOH and the acidulation by sulfuric acid. The acid value of soapstock-HAAO increased to 199.1 mg KOH/g but a large amount of potassium sulfate was produced. To resolve the formation of potassium sulfate, acid oil was extracted from soapstock and was converted to HAAO by using sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS). The maximum acid value of acid oil-HAAO was 194.2 mg KOH/g when the mass ratio of acid oil, sulfuric acid, and water was 10:4:10 at 2% of SDBS. In the esterification of HAAO using Amberylst-15, fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) concentration was 91.7 and 81.3% for soapstock and acid oil, respectively. After the distillation, FAME concentration became 98.1% and 96.7% for soapstock and acid oil. The distillation process decreased the total glycerin and the acid value of FAME produced a little.

PASSIVATION OF COPPER BY LITHIUM IN P-TYPE GAAS

We report the passivation of two deep copper-related acceptor levels in Cu-diffused p-type GaAs by the group-I element lithium. The deep-level-transient-spectroscopy (DLTS) signals of the well-known Cu-related levels with apparent activation energies 0.15 eV and 0.40 eV disappear in Cu-diffused samples when they are diffused with Li, but can be reactivated by annealing. Photoluminescence measurements show a corresponding disappearance and reappearance of the copper-related luminescence at 1.36 eV. Also we observe with DLT'S an energy level at E(V) + 0.32 eV in the Cu-Li-diff-used samples. The level is neither present in the Cu-diffused samples before Li diffusion nor in Cu-Li-diffused samples after annealing. As the level is not observed in starting materials or solely Li-diffused samples we suggest that it is related to a Cu-Li complex.

LITHIUM PASSIVATION OF ZN AND CD ACCEPTORS IN P-TYPE GAAS

We report lithium passivation of the shallow acceptors Zn and Cd in p-type GaAs which we attribute to the formation of neutral Li-Zn and Li-Cd complexes. Similar to hydrogen, another group-I element, lithium strongly reduces the concentration of free holes when introduced into p-type GaAs. The passivation is inferred from an increase of both the hole mobility and the resisitivity throughout the bulk of the sample. It is observed most clearly for Li concentrations comparable to the shallow-acceptor concentration. In addition, compensation of shallow acceptors by randomly distributed donors is present in varying degree in the Li-diffused samples. Unlike hydrogenation of n-type GaAs, Li doping shows no evidence of neutralizing shallow donors in GaAs.

Theoretical Study on Inner Shell Electron Impact Excitation of Lithium

Cross sections for electron impact excitation of lithium from the ground state 1s(2)2s to the excited states 1s2s(2), 1s2p(2), 1s2snp (n = 2-5), 1s2sns (n = 3-5), 1s2pns (n = 3-5), and 1s2pnp (n = 3-5) are calculated by using a full relativistic distorted wave method. The latest experimental electron energy loss spectra for inner-shell electron excitations of lithium at a given incident electron energy of 2500 eV [Chin. Phys. Lett. 25 (2008) 3649] have been reproduced by the present theoretical investigation excellently. At the same time, the structures of electron energy loss spectra of lithium at low incident electron energy are also predicted theoretically, it is found that the electron energy loss spectra in the energy region of 55-57 eV show two-peak structures.

Photoionization of 1s electron and corresponding shake-up process in ground and excited lithium atoms

The cross sections of the 18 electron photoionization and corresponding shake-up processes for Li atoms in the ground state 1s(2)2s and excited states 1s(2)2p, 1s(2)3p, 1s(2)3p and 1s(2)3d are calculated using the multi-configuration Dirac-Fock method. The latest experimental photoelectron spectrum at hv = 100 eV [Cubaynes D et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 99 (2007) 213004] has been reproduced by the present theoretical investigation excellently. The relative intensity of the shake-up satellites shows that the effects of correlation and relaxation become more important for the higher excited states of the lithium atom, which are explained very well by the spatial overlap of the initial and final state wavefunctions. In addition, strong dependence of the cross section on the atomic orbitals of the valence electrons are found, especially near the threshold.

eta photoproduction on the proton in a chiral constituent quark approach via a one-gluon-exchange model

A formalism based on a chiral quark model (chi QM) approach complemented with a one-gluon-exchange model, to take into account the breakdown of the SU(6)circle times O(3) symmetry, is presented. The configuration mixing of wave functions for nucleon and resonances are derived. With few adjustable parameters, differential cross-section and polarized-beam asymmetry for the gamma p -> eta p process are calculated and successfully compared with the data in the center-of-mass energy range from threshold to 2 GeV. The known resonances S-11(1535), S-11(1650), P-13(1720), D-13(1520), and F-15(1680), as well as two new S-11 and D-15 resonances, are found to be dominant in the reaction mechanism. Moreover, connections among the scattering amplitudes of the chi QM approach and the helicity amplitudes, as well as decay widths of resonances, are established. Possible contributions from the so-called missing resonances are investigated and found to be negligible.