Quartz sand was used as bed material in a small fluidized bed reactor with 1 kg/h feed. Corn straw powder with particle size of 20–40 mesh, 40–60 mesh, 60–80 mesh and 80–120 mesh was used as raw material for rapid pyrolysis at reaction temperatures of 400 °C, 450 °C, 500 °C and 550 °C. The bio-oil obtained after liquefaction of pyrolysis gas was analyzed. The variation trend of bio-oil composition in pyrolysis of corn straw powder with different reaction temperatures and raw material sizes was compared. The results show that: (1) the content of 3-hydroxyl-2-phenyl-2-acrylic acid in bio-oil increases with the decrease of raw material particle size, but it is less at 450 °C; (2) with the increase of reaction temperature, the content of hydroxyacetaldehyde in bio-oil increases at first and then decreases: the content of hydroxyacetaldehyde in bio-oil is the highest at 500 °C when the particle size is 20–40 mesh, and the highest at 450 °C with the other three particle sizes. Compared with other particle sizes, raw material with the particle size of 60–80 mesh is not conducive to the formation of aldehyde compounds; (3) the reaction temperature of 500 °C and the particle size of 60–80 mesh of raw materials are more conducive to the formation of phenolic compounds in bio-oil; (4) the ester compounds with particle size of 20–40 mesh in bio-oil is 20% higher than that of other particle sizes; (5) the reaction temperature and the particle size of raw materials had no significant effect on the formation of ketones, alcohols and alkane compounds in bio-oils.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) increase the uptake of soluble phosphates, while phosphorus solubilizing fungi (S) promote the solubilization of insoluble phosphate complexes, together benefiting plant nutrition. The use of these organisms in combination with minerals or rocks that provide nutrients is another alternative to maintain crop productivity. The objective of this work was to combine AMF and S with pyroclastic materials (ashes and pumicites) from the Puyehue volcano and phosphoric rocks (PR) from the Río Chico Group (Chubut) and to evaluate the performance of these mixtures as substrates for potted production of Lactuca sativa. To formulate the substrates, a mixture of Ter-rafertil® with ashes was used as a base. Penicillium thomii was the S and spores of the fungus Rhizophagus intraradices (AEGIS® Irriga) served as the source of AMF. Various combinations of microorganisms and the addition or not of RP were evaluated. The treatments were: (1) substrate; (2) substrate + AMF; (3) substrate + S; (4) substrate + AMF + S; (5) substrate: PR; (6) substrate: PR + AMF; (7) substrate: PR + S, and (8) substrate: PR + AMF + S. There were 3 replicates per treatment. The parameters evaluated were total and assimilable P content in the substrate, P in plant tissue and dry biomass. All of them were significantly higher in the plants grown in the substrate added with PR and inoculated with S and AMF. This work confirms that the S/AMF combination with volcanic ashes from Puyehue and PR from Grupo Río Chico formulated with a commercial substrate promote the growth of L. sativa. Thus, it is possible to increase the added value of geomaterials of national origin.

Theoretically, within the diatomic model, the relative stability of most abundant boron clusters B₁₁, B₁₂, and B₁₃ with planar structures in neutral, positive and negative charged-states is studied. According to the specific (per atom) binding energy criterion, B₁₂⁺ (6.49 eV) is found to be the most stable boron cluster, while B₁₁^– + B₁₃⁺ (5.83 eV) neutral pair is expected to present the preferable ablation channel for boron-rich solids. Obtained results would be applicable in production of boron-clusters-based nanostructured coating materials with super-properties such as lightness, hardness, conductivity, chemical inertness, neutron-absorption, etc., making them especially effective for protection against cracking, wear, corrosion, neutron- and electromagnetic-radiations, etc.

The rare earth mining area in South China is the main production base of ionic rare earth in the world, which has brought inestimable economic value to the local area and even the whole nation. However, due to the lack of mining technology and excessive pursuit for economic profits, a series of environmental problems have arisen, which is a great threat to the ecosystem of the mining area. Taking Lingbei rare earth mining area in Ganzhou as an example, this paper discriminated and analyzed such aspects as the ecological source, ecological corridor and ecological nodes of the mining area based on the landscape ecological security pattern theory and the minimum cumulative resistance model (MCR) method, and constructed a landscape ecological security pattern of the mining area during the 2009, 2013 and 2018. The results show that: i) The patch area of the ecological source of rare earth mining area is small, mainly concentrated in the east and west sides of the mining area. ii) During the selected year, the ecological source area, ecological corridors, radiation channels and the number of ecological nodes in the rare earth mining area are increasing, indicating that the landscape ecological security of the rare earth mining area has been improved to some extent, but it remains necessary for relevant departments to make a optimized planning to further reconstruct the ecological security pattern of the rare earth mining area.

New hybrid magnetic materials based on HDPE filled with Со and Ni nanoparticles have been prepared via the metal vapor synthesis. Properties of the metal-polymer composites have been elucidated as a function of MVS parameters and metal nature. The Faraday method has been applied to characterize the magnetic properties of the systems. The microstructure of the samples has been studied with a number of X-ray and synchrotron techniques, including XRD, EXAFS and SAXS. Core-level and valence band spectra were measured by XPS. The peak at binding energy of 282.8 eV characteristic of C-Ni bond was recorded in the C 1s spectrum. It was shown that properties of nanocomposite materials with similar compositions are determined both by the synthesis conditions and post-synthesis factors.

The objective of this work was to evaluate the combined effect of bovine manure, Pseudomonas putida and Trichoderma aureoviride on the development of lettuce (Lactuca sativa). The promotion of plant growth by microorganisms may be a viable and sustainable alternative for lettuce crop management. The experimental design was entirely randomized with five treatments: T0 (witness without fertilization, P. putida and T. aureoviride), TE (cattle manure), TEB (cattle manure + P. putida), TEF (cattle manure + T. aureoviride), TEFB (cattle manure + P. putida + T. aureoviride) and ten repetitions each. The following variables were analyzed: germination velocity index (GVI), first count (FC), germination percentage (GP), leaf area index and productivity. The TEFB treatment proved to be a viable alternative for the production of lettuce, especially for small producers, since all the vegetable production in the region comes from family farming.