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Recent Projects
Transmission electron microscopy and analysis
of sugar cane bagasse char
Work done in assistance to a study of on gasification properties and
porosity of bagasse chars.
Electron microscope imaging enables direct visualisation of
porosity and particle microstructure in these chars.
By examining the chars in a low power dissection microscope it was
observed that there were three different morphological forms in the
char (these forms are related to basic structures in the sugar
cane). These three forms were separated and studied separately in
the electron microscope.
Analysis of the chars by electron imaging, electron diffraction, and
energy dispersive X-ray analysis led to identification of the
constituent particles by crystallinity (physical form), elemental
composition (chemistry), and by surface roughness/particle
size/porosity (surface area). The results were summarised and
tabulated.
It was found that the major contribution to char porosity was from the
mineral phases (the ash) rather than carbonaceous phases (the active
component). This finding was surprising, but also very
significant – it changed the thinking about the gasification
process.
A study on copper
hydroxide fungicide
This was a project in developing new formulations in the
production of fungicides. It is essential that
the new formulations produce copper hydroxide material which has
properties identical to material made by the traditional route.
The suspension properties and fungicide activity of
the material depend upon crystal morphology. Through the work
done at PicaMS it was found that scanning electron microscopy imaging
is an excellent technique
for the elucidation of both crystal morphology and crystal
agglomeration. Although the crystals are quite
small, being less than 30 nm in diameter in some cases, the spectacular
resolution of the scanning electron microscope revealed not only
crystal
shape but also revealed differences in surface structure in the
crystals.
The SEM imaging performed through PicaMS proved to be a very efficient
way of establishing
the outcomes and reproducibility of various processing methods.
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