Vanadium-modified (SiO2/MgO/MgCl2)•TiClx Ziegler-Natta catalysts were prepared through co-impregnation of water-soluble magnesium and vanadium salts under different pH values. Several key factors such as pH value of co-impregnation solution during catalyst preparation, catalyst performances including catalytic activity, ethylene/1-hexene copolymerization and hydrogen response were investigated....

Progress Report and Future Directions The fuel cell research cluster began with the DOE EPSCoR implementation grant “Fuel Cells: A Mobile Energy Source for the 21 Century” in July of 2001. The focus of this research was developing new and improved materials for hydrogen production and PEM fuel cells. Building on the major successes of this project, we proposed and were granted a renewed impleme...

A wide range of vanadium oxides have been obtained via the hydrothermal treatment of aqueous V(V) solutions. They exhibit a large variety of nanostructures ranging from molecular clusters to 1D and 2D layered compounds. Nanotubes are obtained via a self-rolling process while amazing morphologies such as nano-spheres, nano-flowers and even nano-urchins are formed via the self-assembling of nano-...

Oil shale is more than an energy source. It is also a source for various valuable materials. These materials include pyridine, carbonate minerals, alumina, ammonium sulfate, phosphate, sulfur, uranium, vanadium, and zinc, to name a few, from which numerous value-added products can be manufactured. For example, catalysts are made from vanadium and zinc, while alumina is a widely used material fo...

Few-layer V(2)O(5) nanosheets with a thickness of 2.1-3.8 nm have been successfully synthesized in this work via a simple and scalable liquid exfoliation technique. The unique nanostructure allows the high-rate transportation of lithium ions and electrons due to very short diffusion paths provided by this ultrathin thickness, resulting in Li-ion cathodes with remarkable energy and power densities.

Confinement of nanometallic Pd within the core of a hyperthermophilic ferritin cage (from Pyrococcus furiosus) is reported. The resulting nanostructured hybrid catalysts can be used for highly specific aerobic oxidation of alcohols in water.

Vanadium phosphorus oxides are used as catalysts in the selective oxidation of n-butane to maleic anhydride. The working catalyst comprises besides the main pyrophosphate phase in which the vanadium is in a 4+ oxidation state also a, predominantly preparation dependent, amount of different pentavalent vanadylorthophosphate phases. In order to elucidate the role of the pentavalent phases it is n...