No more glasses! (Not)

As he approaches the end of his epic ophthalmic journey of retinopexy, cryopexy, vitrectomy and IOL surgery, Professor Nathan Efron rues the fact that he is still partially dependent on glasses.

Sampling frequency affects estimates of annual nitrous oxide fluxes

Quantifying nitrous oxide (N(2)O) fluxes, a potent greenhouse gas, from soils is necessary to improve our knowledge of terrestrial N(2)O losses. Developing universal sampling frequencies for calculating annual N(2)O fluxes is difficult, as fluxes are renowned for their high temporal variability. We demonstrate daily sampling was largely required to achieve annual N(2)O fluxes within 10% of the best estimate for 28 annual datasets collected from three continents, Australia, Europe and Asia. Decreasing the regularity of measurements either under- or overestimated annual N(2)O fluxes, with a maximum overestimation of 935%. Measurement frequency was lowered using a sampling strategy based on environmental factors known to affect temporal variability, but still required sampling more than once a week. Consequently, uncertainty in current global terrestrial N(2)O budgets associated with the upscaling of field-based datasets can be decreased significantly using adequate sampling frequencies.

Nitrification (DMPP) and urease (NBPT) inhibitors had no effect on pasture yield, nitrous oxide emissions nor nitrate leaching under irrigation in a hot-dry climate

Modern dairy farming in Australia relies on substantial inputs of fertiliser nitrogen (N) to underpin economic production. However, N lost from dairy systems represents an opportunity cost and can pose a number of environmental risks. Nitrogen cycle inhibitors can be co-applied with N fertilisers to slow the conversion of urea to NH4+ to reduce losses via volatilisation, and slow the conversion of NH4+ to NO3- to minimize leaching of NO3- and gaseous losses via nitrification and denitrification. In a field campaign in a high input ryegrass-kikuyu pasture system we compared the soil N pools, losses and pasture production between a) urea coated with the nitrification inhibitor (3,4-dimethyl pyrazole phosphate - DMPP) b) urea coated with the urease inhibitor (N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide - NBPT) and c) standard urea. There was no treatment effect (P>0.05) on soil mineral N, pasture yield, N2O flux nor leaching of NO3- cf. standard urea. We hypothesise that at our site, because gaseous losses were highly episodic (rainfall was erratic and displayed no seasonal rainfall nor soil wetting pattern) that there was a lack of coincidence of N application and conditions conducive to gaseous losses, thus the effectiveness of the inhibitor products was minimal and did not result in an increase in pasture yield. There remains a paucity of knowledge on N cycle inhibitors in relation to their effective use in field system to increase N use efficiency. Further research is required to define under what field conditions inhibitor products are effective in order to be able to provide accurate advice to managers of nitrogen in production systems.

Thermal performance of magnesium oxide wall board using numerical modelling

Fire resistance of light-gauge steel frame (LSF) walls can be enhanced by lining them with single or multiple layers of wall boards. This research is focused on the thermal per-formance of Magnesium Oxide (MgO) wall boards in comparison to the conventional gypsum plasterboards exposed to standard fire on one side. Thermal properties of MgO board and gypsum plasterboard were measured first and then used in the finite element heat transfer models of the two types of panels. The measured thermal property results show that MgO board will perform better than the gypsum plasterboards due to its higher specific heat values at elevated temperatures. However, MgO board loses 50% of its ini-tial mass at about 500 °C compared to 16% for gypsum plasterboard. The developed finite element models were validated using the fire test results of gypsum plasterboards and then used to study the thermal performance of MgO board panels. Finite element analysis re-sults show that when MgO board panels are exposed to standard fire on one side the rate of temperature rise on the ambient side is significantly reduced compared to gypsum plas-terboard. This has the potential to improve the overall thermal performance of MgO board lined LSF walls and their fire resistance levels (FRL). However, full scale fire tests are needed to confirm this. This paper presents the details of this investigation and the results.

Heterojunctions between amorphous and crystalline niobium oxide with enhanced photoactivity for selective aerobic oxidation of benzylamine to imine under visible light

The formation of heterojunctions between two crystals with different band gap structures, acting as a tunnel for the unidirectional transfer of photo-generated charges, is an efficient strategy to enhance photocatalytic performance in semiconductor photocatalysts. The heterojunctions may also promote the photoactivity in the visible-light-response of any surface complex catalysts by influencing the transfer of photo-generated electrons. Herein, Nb2O5 microfibers, with a high surface area of interfaces between an amorphous phase and crystalline phase, were designed and synthesised by the calcination of hydrogen-form niobate while controlling the crystallization The photoactivity of these microfibers towards selective aerobic oxidation reactions was investigated. As predicted, the Nb2O5 microfibres containing heterojunctions exhibited the highest photoactivity. This could be due to the band gap difference between the amorphous phase and the crystalline phase, which shortened the charge mobile distance and improved the efficiency.

Generalized self-assembly of scalable two-dimensional transition metal oxide nanosheets

Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal oxide systems present exotic electronic properties and high specific surface areas, and also demonstrate promising applications ranging from electronics to energy storage. Yet, in contrast to other types of nanostructures, the question as to whether we could assemble 2D nanomaterials with an atomic thickness from molecules in a general way, which may give them some interesting properties such as those of graphene, still remains unresolved. Herein, we report a generalized and fundamental approach to molecular self-assembly synthesis of ultrathin 2D nanosheets of transition metal oxides by rationally employing lamellar reverse micelles. It is worth emphasizing that the synthesized crystallized ultrathin transition metal oxide nanosheets possess confined thickness, high specific surface area and chemically reactive facets, so that they could have promising applications in nanostructured electronics, photonics, sensors, and energy conversion and storage devices.

A novel ionic diffusion strategy to fabricate high-performance anode-supported solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) with proton-conducting Y-doped BaZrO3 films

A stable Y-doped BaZrO3 electrolyte film, which showed a good performance in proton-conducting SOFCs, was successfully fabricated using a novel ionic diffusion strategy.

Sinteractive anodic powders improve densification and electrochemical properties of BaZr0.8Y0.2O3-δ electrolyte films for anode-supported solid oxide fuel cells

The difficult sintering of BaZr0.8Y0.2O 3-δ (BZY20) powders makes the fabrication of anode-supported BZY20 electrolyte films complex. Dense BZY20 membranes were successfully fabricated on anode substrates made of sinteractive NiO-BZY20 powders, prepared by a combustion method. With respect to traditional anode substrates made of powders prepared by mechanical mixing, the anode substrates made of the wet-chemically synthesized composite NiO-BZY20 powders significantly promoted the densification of BZY20 membranes: dense BZY20 films were obtained after co-pressing and co-firing at 1300 °C, a much lower temperature than those usually needed for densifying BZY20 membranes. Improved electrochemical performance was also observed: the supported BZY20 films maintained a high proton conductivity, up to 5.4 × 10-3 S cm-1 at 700 °C. Moreover, an anode-supported fuel cell with a 30 m thick BZY20 electrolyte film fabricated at 1400 °C on the anode made of the wet-chemically synthesized NiO-BZY20 powder showed a peak power density of 172 mW cm-2 at 700 °C, using La0.6Sr0.4Co 0.2Fe0.8O3-δ-BaZr0.7Y 0.2Pr0.1O3-δ as the cathode material, with a remarkable performance for proton-conducting solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) applications.

Sinteractivity, proton conductivity and chemical stability of BaZr 0.7In0.3O3-δ for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs)

In3+ was used as dopant for BaZrO3 proton conductor and 30 at%-doped BaZrO3 samples (BaZr0.7In 0.3O3-δ, BZI) were prepared as electrolyte materials for proton-conducting solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). The BZI material showed a much improved sinteractivity compared with the conventional Y-doped BaZrO 3. The BZI pellets reached almost full density after sintering at 1600 °C for 10 h, whereas the Y-doped BaZrO3 samples still remained porous under the same sintering conditions. The conductivity measurements indicated that BZI pellets showed smaller bulk but improved grain boundary proton conductivity, when compared with Y-doped BaZrO3 samples. A total proton conductivity of 1.7 × 10-3 S cm -1 was obtained for the BZI sample at 700 °C in wet 10% H 2 atmosphere. The BZI electrolyte material also showed adequate chemical stability against CO2 and H2O, which is promising for application in fuel cells.