Highly a-axis-textured CrO2 films have been deposited on Al2O3(0001) and on isostructural TiO2(100) substrates by a chemical vapour deposition technique. For Al2O3 substrates a columnar growth of CrO2(010) on an initial Cr2O3(0001) layer has been found in transmission electron microscopy as well as in x-ray diffraction investigations. The sixfold in-plane symmetry of a (0001)-oriented Cr2O3 ini...

The electronic structure of the Cr2O3(0001) surface is studied by means of ab initio embedded cluster calculations. Charge distributions and local d–d excitations are analysed for different geometrical relaxations of the surface. In the ground state there is considerable delocalization of electrons from the oxygen 2p band into the partly occupied 3d AOs of the Cr cations at the surface such tha...

Cr2O3 nanoparticles were prepared using Cr(NO3)3.9H2O as starting material, triethanolamine (TEA) as template and water as green solvent under microwave irradiation. The products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), photoluminescence (PL) and Raman spectroscopy. The size distribution of individual particles we...

Two experiments using soybean meal (SBM) or canola meal (CM) were conducted to investigate whether the choice of digestibility marker influenced the apparent ileal digestibility (AID) or standardized ileal digestibility (SID) of N and AA in diets supplemented with phytase. In each experiment, 18 barrows fitted with T-cannulas at the ileocecal junction were assigned to 3 diets consisting of a N-...

We have measured atomic pair distribution functions of novel mesoporous metal oxides, α-Fe2O3 and Cr2O3. These have an ordered pore mosaic as well as crystalline structure within the pore walls, making them an interesting class of materials to characterise. Comparison of "bulk" and mesoporous data sets has allowed an estimate of long range structural coherence to be derived; ≈125 Å and ≈290 Å f...

The structural behavior of Cr2O3 was investigated up to ~70 GPa using single-crystal X-ray diffraction under a quasi-hydrostatic pressure (neon pressure medium) at room temperature. The crystal structure remains rhombohedral with the space group R3c (No. 167) and upon compression the oxygen atoms approach an ideal hexagonal close-packing arrangement. An isothermal bulk modulus of Cr2O3 and its ...

We report a Ni-Cr/C electrocatalyst with unprecedented mass-activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline electrolyte. The HER kinetics of numerous binary and ternary Ni-alloys and composite Ni/metal-oxide/C samples were evaluated in aqueous 0.1 M KOH electrolyte. The highest HER mass-activity was observed for Ni-Cr materials which exhibit metallic Ni as well as NiO x and Cr2O3...