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The adsorption of textile dyes onto Layered Double Hydroxides (LDH) and their thermally decomposed products is a promising strategy for the treatment of contaminated effluents-combining high removal efficiency with reasonable cost. The main purpose of this paper was to investigate the adsorption of textile azo dye Acid Yellow 42 (AY) onto calcined and uncalcined Mg-Al-CO 3-LDH. A set of analytical techniques was used to characterize the materials, namely X-ray diffraction (XRD), Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), thermogravimetric analyses (TGA), N 2 adsorption-desorption isotherms and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). In the study of azo dye adsorption, the following factors were assessed: kinetics, adsorption capacity, effect of temperature, initial pH value, and recyclability of the adsorbent material. The adsorption capacity of calcined LDH (CLDH) was almost four times greater than that of the LDH precursor: 1266 mg•g −1 (1.669 mmol•g −1) and 330.0 mg•g −1 (0.4350 mmol•g −1), respectively, at pH equal to 7.0 and 25°C. The greater adsorption capacity for CLDH is related to the recovery property of these materials in light of the so called "memory effect", which allows an intercalation process of the anionic dye, as demonstrated by XRD data.

The primary relaxation time scale tau(T) derived from the glass forming supercooled liquids (SCLs) is discussed within ergodic-cluster Gaussian statistics, theoretically justified near and above the glass-transformation temperature T(g). An analysis is given for the temperature-derivative data by Stickel et al. on the steepness and the curvature of tau(T). Near the mode-coupling-theory (MCT) crossover T(c), these derivatives separate by a kink and a jump, respectively, the moderately and strongly SCL states. After accounting for the kink and the jump, the steepness remains a piecewise conitnuous function, a material-independent equation for the three fundamental characteristic temperatures, T(g), T(c), and the Vogel-Fulcher-Tamman (VFT) T(0), is found. Both states are described within the heterostructured model of solidlike clusters parametrized in a self-consistent manner by a minimum set of observable parameters: the fragility index, the MCT slowing-down exponent, and the chemical excess potential of Adam and Gibbs model (AGM). Below the Arrhenius temperature, the dynamically and thermodynamically stabilized clusters emerge with a size of around of seven to nine and two to three molecules above and close to T(g) and T(c), respectively. On cooling, the main transformation of the moderately into the strongly supercooled state is due to rebuilding of the cluster structure, and is attributed to its rigidity, introduced through the cluster compressibility. It is shown that the validity of the dynamic AGM (dynamically equivalent to the standard VFT form) is limited by the strongly supercooled state (T(g) < T < T(c)) where the superrigid cooperative rearranging regions are shown to be well-chosen parametrized solidlike clusters. Extension of the basic parameter set by the observable kinetic and diffusive exponents results in prediction of a subdiffusion relaxation regime in SCLs that is distinct from that established for amorphous polymers.

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In this article, using first-principles electronic structure calculations within the spin density functional theory, alternated magnetic and non-magnetic layers of rutile-CrO2 and rutile-SnO2 respectively, in a (CrO2)n(SnO2)n superlattice (SL) configuration, with n being the number of monolayers which are considered equal to 1, 2, ..., 10 are studied. A half-metallic behavior is observed for the (CrO2)n(SnO2)n SLs for all values of n. The ground state is found to be FM with a magnetic moment of 2 μB per chromium atom, and this result does not depend on the number of monolayers n. As the FM rutile-CrO2 is unstable at ambient temperature, and known to be stabilized when on top of SnO2, the authors suggest that (CrO2)n(SnO2)n SLs may be applied to spintronic technologies since they provide efficient spin-polarized carriers.

First-principles calculations done via density functional theory were used to study the structural and electronic properties of sodium montmorillonite clay (Mt-Na+) of general formula MxAl3Si8O24H4Na·nH2O (Mx: Mg or Fe). The final position of the interlamellar sodium atom is found to be close to the oxygen atoms located on the upper surface of silica. Following Fe-Mt-Na+ system relaxation, with subsequent analysis of magnetic moment and magnetic states, the electroneutrality of the system established that both Fe2+ and Fe3+ oxidation states are possible to occur. The Mg2+-Mt-Na+ material shows a band gap energy greater than that of Fe2+-Mt-Na+ when iron is in the octahedral site. It is found that the valence-band maximum and the conduction-band minimum of iron-doped montmorillonite are both at the Γ-point, while it is at V → Γ for magnesium-doped montmorillonite. The calculated band gap from hybrid functional (HSE06) of Fe2+-Mt-Na+ is equal to 4.3 eV, exhibiting good agreement with experimental results obtained from ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy of the natural Mt-Na+ (Cloisite-Na+).

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