Conversion of calcium carbonate (calcite; CC) to hydroxyapatite (HAp) was examined when the CC particles of sub μm size were soaked at 37 °C for up to 10 d in 0.15 M K₂HPO₄ (20 ml), whose pH was set to 3–12.

The effects of process conditions on Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis (FTS) product distributions were studied using a fixed-bed microreactor and a Co–Mn/CNT catalyst. Cobalt and Manganese, supported on Carbon Nanotubes (CNT) catalyst were prepared by a Strong Electrostatic Adsorption (SEA) method. CNT supports were initially acid and thermally treated in order to functionalize support to uptake more Co clusters. Catalyst samples were characterized by Transmitted Electron Microscope (TEM), particle size analyzer, and Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA). TEM images showed catalyst metal particle intake on CNT support with different Co and Mn loading percentage. Performance test of Co–Mn/CNT in Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) was carried out in a fixed-bed micro-reactor at different pressures (from 1 atm to 25 atm), H2/CO ratio (0.5–2.5), and reduction temperature and duration. The reactor was connected to the online Gas Chromatograph (GC) for product analysis. It was found that the reaction conditions have the dominant effect on product selectivity. Cobalt catalyst supported on acid and thermal pre-treated CNT at optimum reaction condition resulted in CO conversion of 58.7% and C5+ selectivity of 59.1%.

Pure Zn and Zn–ERGO composite coatings were prepared by direct current electrodeposition on 304 stainless steel. Samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDS), and laser Raman spectroscopy (Raman). Results obtained have shown that the concentration of GO sheets in zinc sulfate electrolyte has an important effect on the preferred crystal orientation and the surface morphology of Zn–ERGO composite coatings. A study of the corrosion behavior of the coatings by Tafel polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopic (EIS) methods leads to the conclusion that the Zn-1.0 g/L ERGO composite coating possesses the best corrosion resistance compared to the pure Zn coating and other composite coatings in this study.

Mo-48.2% Ag films were fabricated by direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering and annealed in an argon atmosphere. The effects of annealing on the surface morphology, resistivity and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) performance of Mo-48.2% Ag films were investigated. Results show a mass of polyhedral Ag particles grown on the annealed Mo-48.2% Ag films’ surface, which are different from that of as-deposited Mo-Ag film. Moreover, the thickness and the resistivity of Mo-48.2% Ag films gradually decrease as the annealing temperature increases. Furthermore, finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations proved that the re-deposition Ag layer increases the “hot spots” between adjacent Ag nanoparticles, thereby greatly enhancing the local electromagnetic (EM) field. The Ag layer/annealed Mo-48.2% Ag films can identify crystal violet (CV) with concentration lower than 5 × 10⁻¹⁰ M (1 mol/L = 1 M), which indicated that this novel type of particles/films can be applied as ultrasensitive SERS substrates.

Three titanium (Ti) targets with different purities were used to prepare Ti films on polyimide substrates by DC magnetron sputtering. The microstructures of Ti films were characterized by a metallographic microscope, X-ray diffractometer, field emission scanning electron microscope and three-dimensional surface topography instrument. In this study, we investigated the effects of Ti target purity and microstructure on film deposition rate, surface roughness, microstructure and resistivity. The results show that the deposition rate increased with increasing Ti target purity. Ti film deposited by the high-purity (99.999%) Ti target has fewer surface particles with smaller size, lower surface roughness and lower resistivity when compared to that prepared by the Ti target of low purity (99.7%). The surface roughness of Ti film prepared by the high-purity Ti target was Sa = 121 nm, the deposition rate was 16.3 nm/min and the resistivity was 6.9 × 10⁻⁶ Ω·m. For Ti targets of the same purity, the performance of Ti film prepared by a target with equiaxed α-phase grains is better than that of Ti film prepared by a target with twins and β-phase grains.