The present invention relates to near-infrared quantum emitters, and in particular carbon nanostructures with chemically incorporated fluorescent defects, and methods of synthesizing near-infrared emitting nanostructures.

A system and method are provided for the separation of hydrogen from natural gas feedstock to form hydrocarbon radicals. Aspects of the system include perpendicular magnetic and electric fields, a method of radical formation that separates hydrogen from the reaction process, and a separation method based on centrifugal forces and phase transitions. The gases rotate in the chamber due to the Lorentz force without any mechanical motion. Rotation separates gases and liquids by centrifugal force. The lighter species are collected from the mid region endpoint of the apparatus and fed back for further reaction. A new concept of controlled turbulence is introduced to mix various species. A novel magnetic field device is introduced comprised of two specially magnetized cylinders. A novel control of temperatures, pressures, electron densities and profiles by, RF, microwaves, UV and rotation frequency are possible especially when atomic, molecular, cyclotron resonances are taken into account. The electrodes can be coated with catalysts; the entire apparatus can be used as a new type of chemical reactor.

A method of heating solids in a reactor to produce a heat-treated material, such as a cementitious, a supplementary cementitious, or a pozzolanic material, includes conveying the solids through the reactor from a feeding end to a discharge end so as to form a material bed extending from the feeding end to the discharge end; heating the solids during the conveying to at least 600 C. to transform the solids into the heat-treated material, wherein the heating includes applying radiative heating to the material bed from above and/or from the sides, wherein the radiative heating contributes at least 60% of the thermal energy needed for the heating, and wherein the material bed is mobilized during the conveying in order to renew the surface of the material bed that is exposed to the radiative heating.

A hybrid slurry reactor for performing photocatalytic reactions is provided. The hybrid slurry reactor includes a photoreactor, including a conduit, having a transparent portion, a light-emitting diode (LED) array disposed within the conduit; wherein the conduit is configured such that photons from an external source enter the conduit through the transparent portion and the LED array is directed to emit photons into the conduit.

A photochemical reactor (1) having a hollow container body (10) having a side wall (11) made of a material arranged to contain an excited luminous plasma with electromagnetic fields and defining a closed excitation chamber (12) in which, in use, an excitable material (15) is present in such a way to obtain a discharge of the excited luminous plasma by microwave irradiation. The hollow container body (10) is provided with at least a hollow (20) that protrudes into the excitation chamber (12) and at least a microwave radiation source positioned, in use, in the hollow (20), and arranged to emit radiations in such a way to excite the excitable material (15) producing a luminous plasma.

Dye-sensitized ion-pumping membranes and methods of preparing said membranes are described herein. A regenerative and reversible photoactive dye is covalently-bonded to membrane or separator for ion-pumping. The photoactive dye-functionalized membranes can be arranged with other ion-exchange membranes, which serve as selective contacts to afford photovoltaic action and therefore form a power-producing membrane that pumps ions for use in driving an ion-exchange or ion-transport process, such as desalination and electrodialysis.

A technology for curing a photocurable resin composition by ultraviolet ray/infrared ray hybrid irradiation is provided. An infrared ray irradiation is applied at least one of before or after the application of ultraviolet ray irradiation to a photocurable resin composition, from which volatile components have been removed by a heating process, to have the photocurable resin composition cured. It becomes possible to relax the ultraviolet ray irradiation conditions for photo curing by applying an infrared ray irradiation as compared with the case in which the infrared ray irradiation is not applied, and, in particular, the scratch resistance characteristics of a cured film are significantly enhanced. Moreover, because of a combination of ultraviolet ray irradiation and infrared ray irradiation, the curing time period of a cured film can be reduced and/or stress relaxation effects can be produced. Besides, it becomes possible to control the reflectance of a cured film by varying an irradiation amount of infrared ray.

A helical photoreactor includes a lamp module and a tube coil, which has a plurality of tube windings between an input section and an output section. The tube coil is arranged around the lamp module. The helical photoreactor has a carrier device, which carries the tube coil, and a protective housing, which surrounds a receiving space, in which the carrier device with the tube coil and the lamp module are arranged. The carrier device provides a predetermined positioning of the tube coil with respect to the lamp module and the protective housing. An elongated guide element, on which an engagement element is arranged so as to be capable of being guided in a longitudinally movable manner and so as to be capable of being positioned. The elongated guide element specifies the positioning of the carrier device with the tube coil by the engagement element guided on the elongated guide element.

Provided herein are devices for utilizing vibrational strong coupling (VSC) in a chemical reaction comprising a reaction chamber defined in a housing, at least one inlet for introducing one or more reactants into the reaction chamber, at least one outlet for removing one or more reactants and/or one or more reaction products form the reaction chamber, and a window defined on opposed first and second sides of the housing and comprising a material which does not strongly absorb infrared radiation and arranged such that infrared radiation directed from a source outside of the housing can enter into the reaction chamber. Also provided are methods of modifying chemical reactions as well as catalyzing chemical reactions.

A process for the production of energetically rich compounds comprising: using externally supplied thermal energy to heat an electrolyzable compound to a temperature greater than the ambient temperature; generating electricity from a solar electrical photovoltaic component; subjecting the heated electrolyzable compound to electrolysis with the solar generated electricity to generate an energetically rich electrolytic product.