TG/FT-IR techniques, UV-spectroscopy, microwave extraction, XRD and SEM were used to study how densification of the three types of agricultural biomass wastes (wheat straw, soft wood, and sunflower husk) changes the composition and structure of their pyrolysis products. It was determined that densification changes the composition of volatile products of pyrolysis at the temperature of 420 °C: sunflower husk emits 4.9 times less saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons and 1.9 times less compounds with carbonyl group; soft wood emits 1.8 times more saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons and compounds with carbonyl groups and 1.3 times more alcohols and phenols; and wheat straw emits 2 times more compounds with carbonyl groups. These changes are probably caused by the differences in interaction of formed volatiles with the surface of chars. These differences can be caused by distinct places of cumulation of inorganic components in the densified samples. In the densified char, the inorganics cumulate on the surface of sunflower husk whereas for wheat straw they cumulate inside the sample. In the case of soft wood, the inorganics cumulate both inside and on the surface. The decreased contribution of hydrocarbons in volatiles can be connected with the morphology of nano-particles formed in inorganics.

EUV lithography at 13nm wavelengths will require the use of reflective multi-layer mask substrates with a patterned absorbing top layer. As the height of the absorber is many times the wavelength of the exposure radiation, EUV masks are true topographical entities. Therefore, scalar Frauenhofer diffraction simulations are not completely valid and accurate. Rigorous solution of Maxwell's equations in the topography is necessary to accurately predict many of the lithographic effects of these masks. Additionally, the interactions of the non-vertical radiation reflectance from the multilayer stack with the absorber causes further non-intuitive lithographic results which need to be understood and optimized. To further the rigorous understanding of EUV mask effects, we have extended existing 2D and 3D rigorous simulators to model EUV lithography diffraction. These simulators, METRO and METROPOLE-3D respectively, use the waveguide method for fast and accurate computation of topographical mask structures. Modifications of these simulators enable an order of magnitude speedup in the calculation of results containing large numbers of EUV multilayers, improve mask dimension modeling accuracy and enable accurate modeling of the non-normal EUV source illumination through a range of pitch values. Rigorous illumination and multilayer defect analysis results will also be shown. Additional comparisons to recently published rigorous EUV simulations results and impressive runtime results on standard desktop workstations are presented. The results show that for EUV lithography the best focus position and the symmetry of the aerial image intensity profile with respect to best focus is affected by the pattern pitch.

A research study was conducted on the thermal behaviour of leaves of urban greenery (birch, maple, and rowan) and the products of their pyrolysis and extraction as assisted by microwaves. The obtained products of pyrolysis and extraction were investigated with the use of FT-IR and UV spectroscopies and XRD techniques. A contractive analysis of samples of chars, condensates, after-extraction residue, and extracts showed that the changes in structural-chemical parameters of leaves of different types of trees during pyrolysis and extraction take place in distinct ways. About 22% of material was removed from birch leaves during extraction, and more than 17% of material was extracted from maple and rowan leaves. It was determined that, during pyrolysis of after-extraction residue of leaves, many fewer PAH compounds with carbonyl groups along with alcohols and phenols are emitted than during pyrolysis of non-extracted leaves. Taking into account that pyrolysis is the first stage of combustion, a decrease in the amount of dangerous compounds in the volatile products of pyrolysis leads to a lower contribution of such compounds in combustion products. This indicates that leaves of urban greenery can be subjected to combustion after extraction, and the obtained extracts can be used as a source of phytochemicals and chemical reagents.

The quantitative X-ray phase analysis and scanning electron microscopy were used to determine the influence of coal tar pitch on structural changes in co-pyrolyzed Polish coals—P, Z, and B—with good caking properties. It was stated that coal tar pitch weakened interactions between fragments of coal macromolecules and favored their higher mobility at the stage of swelling of the coal grains, which contributed to making the removal of plasticizing substances from these grains easier. It reduced the mobility of the macromolecular structure at the viscous-liquid stage. The decrease in the amount of the crystalline phase was influenced by the coal tar pitch at the temperature of re-solidification of the co-pyrolyzates of coals P and B. The intracrystalline ordering was blocked in the plastic layer of the co-pyrolyzates of coal Z and evaluated by an increase in the d₀₀₂ parameter.