Pumice is a porous volcanic rock containing a significant proportion of silica and alumina, and which has a low iron content. This natural, silica-rich material attracts wide attention because of its applications in adsorption processes, heterogeneous catalysis and nanotechnology. In this contribution, the white amorphous silica nanoparticles were extracted using an optimized alkaline treatment and an acid-precipitation process using grey pumice powder. The isolated amorphous silica SiO2 was characterized via X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Transmission Electronic Microscopy (TEM-EDS), N2 adsorption/desorption measurements and simultaneous Thermal Gravimetry/Differential Thermal Analysis (TG/DTA). The obtained results indicated that the nanosilica powder was successfully prepared via the acid-base route with a predominantly amorphous mesoporous structure having a high surface area (422m2/g). The TEM images exhibited relatively homogeneous dispersed nanosilica particles with small sizes about 5–15 nm, in accordance with XRD data. Thermal analysis of the silica powder under air atmosphere showed total mass losses of 6.5%, with endothermic effects corresponding to the removal of water molecules and the OH of silanol groups contained in the material. The investigations performed in this work have indicated that there is great scope for pumice exploitation as a raw material in the production of amorphous silica nanopowder on large scale.
We use the concept of vectorial photochemical tweezing to rationalize the experimental observations of surface relief gratings in azo-polymers, e.g., the photochemically induced motion of the polymer in a one-dimensional intensity gradient produced by two-laser beam interference. Vectorial motion of matter occurs when photochemically active, polarization sensitive molecules are photo-selected in a gradient of light intensity. Directional motion is imposed parallel to the gradient vector with an efficiency that depends on the respective orientations of the vectors of light polarization and intensity gradient. Different combinations of polarizations of the interfering beams leading to differing efficiencies of matter motion are revisited and discussed. We show that the magnitude of photoisomerization force dictates the efficiency of the observed matter motion. We also show that the spatial distribution of the photo-moved matter is Gaussian, the height and width of which exhibit an intensity dependence which is predicted by the theory of photochemical vectorial tweezing; both theory and experiments indicate that the photoisomerization force, which acts on thin films of azo-polymers, is in the mN range.
The present study aims to quantify the carbon stored in a degraded cork oak (Quercus suber L.) ecosystem in the north west of Morocco, in view of potential management implications. To this end, carbon stocks were evaluated in the first 100 cm of the soil, the cork oak trees, and the understorey species (both above-and belowground). Results show that the total carbon stocks in the cork oak ecosystem ranges from 65 to 237 Mg ha -1 with a mean value of 121 Mg ha -1 . The first 100 cm of the soil (including the forest floor) represents the largest carbon pool (~51% of the total organic carbon) of the ecosystem. Tree biomass (above-and belowground tissues of cork oak) represents the second largest pool (47%), whereas the contribution of the understorey is less than 2%. Within the first 100 cm of the soil, over 87% of all the soil organic carbon is situated in the first 40 cm of the soil depth. The amount of carbon stored here ranges from 30 to 110 Mg ha -1 and these organic carbon stocks vary considerably with the stand basal area of the cork oak (R 2 = 0.82). In practice, the carbon stocks of the different pools considered are strongly correlated with the stand density of the cork oak stands. In the semi-arid forest ecosystems of our study, management prescriptions aiming at increasing the standing biomass of the cork oak should thus considerably contribute, both directly through tree biomass and indirectly through increased soil organic matter, to efficient carbon sequestration.
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