Search Results for chemical activity

The chemical process being catalyzed should have a high productivity within a specified reactor volume with high reaction rates for the desired reactions and low rates for undesired reaction pathways. This article reviews the general catalyst preparation procedures, namely, impregnation, ion exchange, and precipitation. Catalyst carriers are usually high-surface-area inorganic materials with complex pore structures, into which catalytic materials such as palladium, platinum, cobalt, chromium oxide, and vanadium pentoxide are deposited using these procedures. The article also provides information on catalyst powder processing.

This article focuses on lubricants classified as either internal combustion engine or nonengine lubricants, and the lubricant additives. The functional groups of chemically active and inert additives, as well as friction modifiers and other additives, are described in detail. The chemically active additives include dispersants, detergents, antiwear, and extreme-pressure agents, oxidation inhibitors, and rust and corrosion inhibitors. The chemically inert additives include emulsifiers, demulsifiers, pour-point depressants, foam inhibitors, and viscosity improvers. The article also discusses the multifunctional nature of additives and concludes with information on lubricant formulation.

Soldering is defined as a joining process by which two substrates are bonded together using a filler metal with a liquidus temperature. This article provides an overview of fundamentals of soldering and presents guidelines for flux selection. Types of fluxes, including rosin-base fluxes, organic fluxes, inorganic fluxes, and synthetically activated fluxes, are reviewed. The article describes the joint design and precleaning and surface preparation for soldering. It addresses some general considerations in the soldering of electronic devices. Soldering process parameters, affecting wetting and spreading phenomena, such as temperature, time, vapor pressure, metallurgical and chemical nature of the surfaces, and surface geometry, are discussed. The article also describes the applications of furnace soldering, resistance soldering, infrared soldering, and ultrasonic soldering. It contains a table that lists tests commonly used to evaluate the solderability properties of selected soldered components.

Cutting fluids play a major role in increasing productivity and reducing costs by making possible the use of higher cutting speeds, higher feed rates, and greater depths of cut. After listing the functions of cutting fluids, this article then covers the major types, characteristics, advantages and limitations of cutting and grinding fluids, such as cutting oils, water-miscible fluids, gaseous fluids, pastes, and solid lubricants along with their subtypes. It discusses the factors considered during the selection of cutting fluid, focusing on machinability (or grindability) of the material, compatibility (metallurgical, chemical, and human), and acceptability (fluid properties, reliability, and stability). The article also describes various application methods of cutting fluids and precautions that should be observed by the operator.

Molten salt baths are anhydrous, fused chemical baths used at elevated temperatures for a variety of industrial cleaning applications. This article discusses their applications in paint stripping, polymer removal, casting cleaning, glass removal, and plasma/flame spray removal. It provides an overview of the basic design and safety considerations of the salt bath equipment and describes the environmental impact of molten salt bath cleaning.

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) involves the formation of a coating by the reaction of the coating substance with the substrate. Serving as an introduction to CVD, the article provides information on metals, ceramics, and diamond films formed by the CVD process. It further discusses the characteristics of different pack cementation processes, including aluminizing, siliconizing, chromizing, boronizing, and multicomponent coating.

This article discusses the adhesion behavior of materials in low-pressure and vacuum environments and provides a schematic illustration of an apparatus for measuring adhesion and friction in ultrahigh vacuum. It describes the effects of low-oxygen pressures and vacuum environments on adhesion and friction, as well as the effects of defined exposure to oxygen on friction. The article discusses the wear of various metals in contact with ceramics, and alloying element effects on friction, wear, and transfer of materials. It also describes studies that characterize the contributions of surface contamination and chemical changes to tribology in low-pressure and vacuum environments.

Phosphating is used in the metalworking industry to treat substrates like iron, steel, galvanized steel, aluminum, copper, and magnesium and its alloys. This article provides an overview of the types, uses, and theory of phosphate coatings and their formation. It also discusses the composition of phosphating baths, phosphate layers, and their analysis, as well as the process hardware necessary to realize these treatments. A summary of the different types of phosphate layers is tabulated, and the chemical formulas for a number of different phosphate compounds that are theoretically possible in crystalline phosphate layers are illustrated. The article presents four chemically important phosphating steps, namely, cleaning, activation or conditioning, phosphating, and posttreatment plus standard rinsing. It describes the physical and chemical properties by gravimetric analysis, chemical analysis, structure and morphology, thermal analysis, and alkaline resistance.

Soldering involves heating a joint to a suitable temperature and using a filler metal (solder) that melts below 450 deg C (840 deg F). Beginning with an overview of the specification and standards and applications, this article discusses the principal levels and effects of the most common impurity elements in tin-lead solders. It describes the various processes involved in the successful soldering of joints, including shaping the parts to fit closely together; cleaning and preparing the surfaces to be joined; applying a flux; assembling the parts; and applying the heat and solder.

Metallographic analysis is primarily a collection of visual and imaging techniques that provide an insight into the background of a material or part and its behavior. Metallic specimens, both porous and pore-free, are opaque, and as a result, an optical examination must be performed on carefully prepared planar (two-dimensional) surfaces. This article discusses the preparation sequence of ferrous powders, which is normally separated into several well-defined steps: sample selection, sectioning, mounting, grinding, polishing, drying, and chemical etching and/or coating. It provides several suggestions to promote and encourage the safety of those performing metallographic preparation and analysis.

This article presents the principles of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) with illustrations. It discusses the types of CVD processes, namely, thermal CVD, plasma CVD, laser CVD, closed-reactor CVD, chemical vapor infiltration, and metal-organic CVD. The article reviews the CVD reactions of materials related to hard, tribological, and high-temperature coatings and to free-standing structures. It concludes by reviewing the advantages, disadvantages, and applications of CVD.

Quenching and partitioning (Q&P) steel is a term used to describe a series of C-Si-Mn, C-Si-Mn-Al, or other steels subjected to the quenching and partitioning heat treatment process. This article discusses the Q&P steel's chemical compositions and mechanical properties, and provides an overview of the important background and product characteristics with a focus on the automotive sheet steel application. It schematically represents the continuous annealing process, consequent phase-transformation behaviors, and forming-limit curves of Q&P steels. The article describes the parameters associated with resistance spot welding, laser welding, and metal active gas welding. It also provides useful information of retained austenite volume fraction measured by x-ray diffraction and electron backscatter diffraction. The article also examines microstructure evolution during tensile testing at different strain levels using electron backscatter diffraction.