Artículos SCI

From nanostructured mechanically synthesized powder a set of FeCoNiCrMn,(Al) based (Ti,Ta,Nb)(C,N) cermets were fabricated and sintered by a pressureless procedure. Highly dense cermets were obtained, and the nature of chemical change, microstructure, mechanical properties and coarsening kinetic of ceramic phase were characterized by image analysis, microindentation, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The design of the material was performed using a set of three different chemical cermet composition and three different sintering temperatures, or comparative purposes.

The anionic iodine I-129 has a significant contribution to overall long-term dose resulting from the nuclear waste storage and its immobilization by clay barrier is crucial. Organoclays have been tested as ideal adsorption materials, being the clay layer charge and the length and type of organic molecules the most relevant parameters affecting the adsorption. In this work, a family of designed organomicas are explored in term of iodine adsorption capacity. Their adsorption capacities were always higher than that of the traditional clays and organoclays. C-18-M4 shows a maximum monolayer adsorption capacity one order of magnitude higher than natural organoclays, with a free energy typical of physical adsorption and adsorption sites of high affinity. However, its surface is not homogeneous in terms of stability constant according to the Scatchard adsorption parameters. Hence, this study can provide a guidance for the design and construction of ultrahigh-capacity iodine adsorbents.

Photonic nanostructures have proven useful to enhance the performance of a wide variety of materials and devices for sensing, catalysis, light harvesting, or light conversion. Herein, we discuss the role of nanophotonics in current and next-generation designs of white light-emitting diodes (LEDs). We discuss recent developments on luminescent materials designed as alternatives to rare earth-doped inorganic microcrystals, i.e., phosphors, for color conversion in LEDs, which has opened the door to the integration of resonant photonic architectures. Nanophotonics enables the devised light-matter interaction with luminescent materials in the nanoscale, which allows providing emitting devices with both enhanced performance and novel functionalities to tackle technological challenges

Water electrolysis to obtain hydrogen in combination with intermittent renewable energy resources is an emerging sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. Among the available electrolyzer technologies, anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE) has been paid much attention because of its advantageous behavior compared to other more traditional approaches such as solid oxide electrolyzer cells, and alkaline or proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers. Recently, very promising results have been obtained in the AEMWE technology. This review paper is focused on recent advances in membrane electrode assembly components, paying particular attention to the preparation methods for catalyst coated on gas diffusion layers, which has not been previously reported in the literature for this type of electrolyzers. The most successful methodologies utilized for the preparation of catalysts, including co-precipitation, electrodeposition, sol-gel, hydrothermal, chemical vapor deposition, atomic layer deposition, ion beam sputtering, and magnetron sputtering deposition techniques, have been detailed. Besides a description of these procedures, in this review, we also present a critical appraisal of the efficiency of the water electrolysis carried out with cells fitted with electrodes prepared with these procedures. Based on this analysis, a critical comparison of cell performance is carried out, and future prospects and expected developments of the AEMWE are discussed.

In this work, the core–shell PANI@WO₃ composite was obtained from the reaction of aniline monomer polymerization with WO₃ particles; sodium persulfate was used as an oxidant. Various analytical techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used to characterize the as-prepared PANI@WO₃ adsorbent, which well confirmed that the WO₃ particles were coated by polyaniline polymer. The PANI@WO₃ composite was tested as an adsorbent to remove reactive orange G (OG) for the first time. pH, adsorbent dose, contact time, initial dye concentration, and temperature were systematically investigated in order to study their effect on the adsorption process. The experimental findings showed that the PANI@WO₃ composite has considerable potential to remove an aqueous OG dye. Langmuir and Freundlich's models were used to analyze the equilibrium isotherms of OG dye adsorption on the PANI@WO₃ composite. As a result, the best correlation of the experimental data was provided by the Langmuir model, and the maximum capacity of adsorption was 226.50 mg g⁻¹. From a thermodynamic point of view, the OG dye adsorption process occurred spontaneously and endothermically. Importantly, PANI@WO₃ still exhibited an excellent adsorption capability after four regeneration cycles, indicating the potential reusability of the PANI@WO₃ composite. These results indicate that the as prepared PANI@WO₃ composite could be employed as an efficient adsorbent and was much better than the parent material adsorption of OG dye.

The exponential growth of greenhouse gas emissions and their associated climate change problems have motivated the development of strategies to reduce CO2 levels via CO2 capture and conversion. Reverse water gas shift (RWGS) reaction has been targeted as a promising pathway to convert CO2 into syngas which is the primary reactive in several reactions to obtain high-value chemicals. Among the different catalysts reported for RWGS, the nickel-based catalyst has been proposed as an alternative to the expensive noble metal catalyst. However, Ni-based catalysts tend to be less active in RWGS reaction conditions due to preference to CO2 methanation reaction and to the sintering and coke formation. Due to this, the aim of this work is to study the effect of the potassium (K) in Ni/CeO2 catalyst seeking the optimal catalyst for low-temperature RWGS reaction. We synthesised Ni-based catalyst with different amounts of K:Ni ratio (0.5:10, 1:10, and 2:10) and fully characterised using different physicochemical techniques where was observed the modification on the surface characteristics as a function of the amount of K. Furthermore, it was observed an improvement in the CO selectivity at a lower temperature as a result of the K-Ni-support interactions but also a decrease on the CO2 conversion. The 1K catalyst presented the best compromise between CO2 conversion, suppression of CO2 methanation and enhancing CO selectivity. Finally, the experimental results were contrasted with the trends obtained from the thermodynamics process modelling observing that the result follows in good agreement with the modelling trends giving evidence of the promising behaviour of the designed catalysts in CO2 high-scale units.

One of the main objectives of a sustainable development and circular economy is the recycling of by-products generated in industrial and agricultural production processes. One of the possible solution is the use of such by-product materials in the synthesis of environmental adsorbents. In the current research, we present the synthesis of a high charge swelling mica with enhance adsorbent properties from blast furnace slag and rice husk ash. Moreover, to ensure the sustainable synthesis a natural bentoniteis used as Si and Al source. Thus, the current study investigated the fabrication of swelling high charged micas, Na-Mn (n (layer charge) = 2 or 4), from FEBEX bentonite, blast furnace slag and rice husk ash thorough the NaCl melt method. The reaction yield, cation framework distribution and structural characteristic of micas have been studied thorough X-ray Diffraction and Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. The yields of Na-Mn synthesis and degree of purity of the mica depends on the nature of these precursors. Thus, a sustainable, non-expensive and environmental friendly process has been evaluated.

This work deals with the indentation analysis of nanocolumnar thin films and the difficulties encountered to deduce relevant mechanical parameters by this methodology. SiO2 thin films prepared by physical vapour oblique angle deposition with different nanocolumnar microstructures have been subjected to indentation analysis. Despite the fact that the films had been made of the same material, deposited on the same substrate and had similar thickness, their indentation responses were different and depended on their particular microstructure. It has been also realised that the measured hardness and elastic modulus variation with the indentation depth were length scale dependent and that there is not a unique analytical thin-film nanoindentation model to extract the mechanical properties from the experimental nanoindentation curves. To overcome these limitations a numerical finite element model (FEM) of the nanocolumnar coatings has been built to figure out the contributions of the different physical phenomena intervening in the indentation process. This FEM simulation relies on a description of the elasto-plastic microstructural units of the coatings and the contact friction interactions between them. Based on this simulation a parametrical representation, incorporating two length scales and the contributions of densification and/or the buckling of nanocolumnar units, has been developed to account for the evolution of the apparent elastic modulus deduced from numerical indentation tests. A Hall-Petch modification of this description considering two length scales instead of the common approximation considering a single length scale has rendered the best agreement with the elastic values determined experimentally. Although, at the present stage, the particular microstructure of the films can not be deduced from the evolution of their elastic moduli with the indentation depth, the obtained results and their interpretation constitute a first though essential step for the elaboration of an inverse analysis methodology capable of correlating microstructure and elastic response of nanocolumnar coatings.

In heterogeneous catalysis, the benefits of employing adequate textural properties on the catalytic performances are usually stated. Nevertheless, the quantification of the extent of improvement is not an easy task since variations on the catalysts' specific areas and pore structures might involve modifications on a number of other surface catalytic features. This study establishes the impact of the catalyst textural properties on the CO₂ methanation performance by investigating bimetallic Ni–Fe catalysts supported over carbon supports with different textural properties regarding surface area and pore structure. The comparable metal loading and dispersions attained for all systems enabled establishing forthright relationships between the catalyst textural properties and CO₂ methanation rate. Once the influence of the external mass diffusions on the catalysts’ performance was experimentally discarded, the estimated Thiele modulus and internal effectiveness (φ and η_Eff) values showed that the catalyst performance was majorly governed by the surface reaction rate whilst the pore size affected in no significant manner within the examined range (D_pore = 10.2 to 5.8 nm). Therefore, the rapport between the catalyst performance and surface area was quantified for the CO₂ methanation reaction over Ni–Fe catalysts: increasing the surface area from 572 to 802 m²/g permit obtaining ca. 10% higher CO₂ conversions.