Study of a high power density sodium polysulfide/bromine energy storage cell

Nickel catalyst supported on carbon was made by reduction of nickelous nitrate with hydrogen at high temperature. Ni/ C catalyst characterization was carried out by XRD. It was found that the crystal phase of NiS and NiS2 appeared in the impregnated catalyst. Ni/ C and Pt/ C catalysts gave high performance as the positive and negative electrodes of a sodium polysulfide/ bromine energy storage cell, respectively. The overpotentials of the positive and negative electrodes were investigated. The effect of the electrocatalyst loading and operating temperature on the charge and discharge performance of the cell was investigated. A power density of up to 0.64 W cm(-2) ( V = 1.07 V) was obtained in this energy storage cell. A cell potential efficiency of up to 88.2% was obtained when both charge and discharge current densities were 0.1 A cm(-2).

Carbon monoxide adsorption on molybdenum phosphides: Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic and density functional theory studies

Molybdenum phosphide (MoP) and supported molybdenum phosphide (MoP/gamma-Al2O3) have been prepared by the temperature-programmed reduction method. The surface sites of the MoP/gamma-Al2O3 catalyst were characterized by carbon monoxide (CO) adsorption with in situ Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. A characteristic IR band at 2037 cm(-1) was observed on the MoP/gamma-Al2O3 that was reduced at 973 K. This band is attributed to linearly adsorbed CO on Mo atoms of the MoP surface and is similar to IR bands at 2040-2060 cm(-1), which correspond to CO that has been adsorbed on some noble metals, such as platinum, palladium, and rhodium. Density functional calculations of the structure of molybdenum phosphides, as well as CO chemisorption on the MoP(001) surface, have also been studied on periodic surface models, using the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) for the exchange-correlation functional. The results show that the chemisorption of CO on MoP occurred mainly on top of molybdenum, because the bonding of CO requires a localized mininum potential energy. The adsorption energy obtained is DeltaH(ads) approximate to -2.18 eV, and the vibrational frequency of CO is 2047 cm-1, which is in good agreement with the IR result of CO chernisorption on MoP/gamma-Al2O3.

A density function theory study on the properties and decomposition of CF3OF

The density function theory was used to calculate the potential energy surface for the decomposition of CF3OF. The geometries, vibrational frequencies and energies of all stationary points were obtained. The calculated harmonic frequencies agreed well with the experimental ones. Three decomposition channels of CF3OF were studied. The calculated reaction enthalpy (29.85 kcal/mol) of the elimination reaction CF3OF --> CF2O + F-2 was in good agreement with the experimental value (27.7 kcal/mol). The O-F bond of CF3OF is broken easily by comparing the energies, while the decomposition channel to yield the CF30 and F radicals is the main reaction path. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.