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At least 91 records · Page 5

Pattern formation during electrochemical and liquid metal dealloying

Dealloying has evolved from a problematic corrosion process to a versatile tool for scalable fabrication of nanostructured metals. While the original, and majority of, work in the area has focused on electrochemical dealloying, a powerful variation of dealloying—liquid metal dealloying—has recently gained popularity. This process relies on a melt to carry out selective dissolution, replacing the traditional electrolyte solution. While electrolytes and molten metals are both suitable dealloying media, they can lead to very different morphologies. In this article, we compare and contrast what is known about the microscale physics and chemistry controlling microstructural evolution in electrochemical and liquid metal dealloying. Here, we conclude that the core phenomenology of porosity evolution—a competition between dissolution and interface diffusion—is similar in both dealloying processes, but that the relative magnitudes of these two processes control interfacial pattern formation.

McCue, Ian↗

Global patterns and controls of soil organic carbon dynamics as simulated by multiple terrestrial biosphere models. Current status and future directions

Soil is the largest organic carbon (C) pool of terrestrial ecosystems, and loss from soil accounts for a large pro portion of land-atmosphere C exchange. Due to large pool size and variable residence time from years to millennia, even small changes in soil organic C(SOC) have substantial effects on the terrestrial C budget, thereby affecting atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2)concentration and climate change. In the past decades, a wide variety of studies have been conducted to quantify global SOC stocks and soil exchange with the atmosphere through site measurements, inventories, and empirical/process-based modeling. However, these estimates are highly uncertain and identifying major driving forces controlling soil C storage and fluxes remains a key research challenge his study has compiled century-long (1901-2010)estimates of SOC storage and heterotrophic respiration (Rh) from ten terrestrial biosphere models (TBMs) in the Multi-scale Synthesis and Terrestrial Model Intercomparison Project (MsTMIP) and two observation based datasets. The ten-TBM ensemble shows that global SOC estimate range from 4 to 2111 Pg C (1 Pg = 10 15 g) with a median value of 1158 Pg C33 in 2010. Modeling approach estimates a broad range of Rh from 35 to 69 Pg C yr -1 with a median value of 51Pg C yr -1 during 200–2010. The largest uncertainty in SOC stocks exists in the 40–65°N latitude band while Rh differences are the largest in the tropics. All the models agreed that climate and land use changes have decreased SOC stocks while elevated CO 2 and atmospheric nitrogen deposition have increased SOC stocks though the response varied significantly among models. Model representations of temperature and moisture sensitivity,nutrient limitation and land use partially explain the divergent estimates of global SOC stocks and soil fluxes in this study. In addition, major sources of uncertainty from model estimation include exclusion of SOC storage in wetlands and peatlands as well as C storage in deep soil layers.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Mapping reactive flow patterns in monolithic nanoporous catalysts

The development of high-efficiency porous catalyst membranes critically depends on our understanding of where the majority of the chemical conversions occur within the porous structure. This then requires mapping of chemical reactions and mass transport inside the complex nanoscale architecture of porous catalyst membranes which is a multiscale problem in both the temporal and spatial domains. In order to address this problem, we developed a multiscale mass transport computational framework based on the lattice Boltzmann method that allows us to account for catalytic reactions at the gas–solid interface by introducing a new boundary condition. In good agreement with experiments, the simulations reveal that most catalytic reactions occur near the gas-flow facing side of the catalyst membrane if chemical reactions are fast compared to mass transport within the porous catalyst membrane.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗