The urinary tract is a major site of nosocomial infections (4, 5). The leading cause of nosocomial urinary tract infections is urinary catheterization which, in turn, is the most common predisposing factor for fatal gram-negative sepsis in hospitals (6). A recent publication suggested that catheters coated with silver powder and containing a silver-plated connector could protect patients from c...

In-situ powder neutron diffraction studies have been performed during the heating treatment of a set of Nb3Sn wires obtained by the internal tin process. The different phases appearing during the process have been evidenced. A strong reorientation of the deformed copper and niobium metals induces an orientation on the Nb3Sn formed. Among the phases formed, the δ-CuSn phase is decomposed at 890K...

A monophasic sample of Ag2MnSn3S8 has been prepared by heating stoichiometric amounts of the constituent metals and sulfur in evacuated silica tubes at 670° C. Structural analysis of Ag2MnSn3S8 using Rietveld refinement of powder X-ray diffraction data shows that it crystallizes in the Fd3%m space group with a — 10:6984ð2Þ A. Magnetization measurements in the temperature range 5300 K indicate p...

The hcp-fcc transformation induced in cobalt powder by ball milling at room temperature was studied using the excess Gibbs free energy for the metals, in nanometric form, to calculate the activation barriers that the atoms must overcome for the phase transformation to occur. The crystalline component of the nanocrystaline cobalt produced in our laboratory, via ball milling, was analized using t...

We report on the synthesis of TiO2 nanotube (NT) powders using anodic oxidation and ultrasonication. Compared to free-standing NT array films, the powder-type NTs can be easily fabricated in a cost-effective way. Particularly, without the substrate effect arising from underlying Ti metals, highly crystallized NT powders with intact tube structures and pure anatase phase can be obtained using hi...

Over the last years a new type of tubular plug flow reactor, the segmented flow tubular reactor (SFTR), has proven its versatility and robustness through the water-based synthesis of precipitates as varied as CaCO3, BaTiO3, Mn(1-x)NixC2O4·2H2O, YBa oxalates, copper oxalate, ZnS, ZnO, iron oxides, and TiO2 produced with a high powder quality (phase composition, particle size, and shape) and high...

Recently, the use of renewable energies has increased to  environmental pollution, limitation of fossil energy resources and energy security  One of the means that enable us to use such energies is fuel cells (FC). However, there are many problems  in the commercialization of FC from an economically and operation perspective. One of the most important problems is heat management. New heat pipes...