Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Isotopic fractionation of tritium is a highly relevant issue in radiation protection and requires certain radioecological considerations. Sound evaluation of this factor is indeed necessary to determine whether environmental compartments are enriched/depleted in tritium or if tritium is, on the contrary, isotopically well-distributed in a given system. The ubiquity of tritium and the standard analytical methods used to assay it may induce biases in both the measurement and the signification that is accorded to the so-called fractionation: based on an exhaustive review of the literature, we show how, sometimes large deviations may appear. It is shown that when comparing the non-exchangeable fraction of organically bound tritium (neOBT) to another fraction of tritium (e.g. tritiated water) the preparation of samples and the measurement of neOBT reported frequently led to underestimation of the ratio of tritium to hydrogen (T/H) in the non-exchangeable compartment by a factor of 5 % to 50 %. In the present study, corrections are proposed for most of the biological matrices studied so far. Nevertheless, the values of isotopic fractionation reported in the literature remain difficult to compare with each other, especially since the physical quantities and units often vary between authors. Some improvements are proposed to better define what should encompass the concepts of exchangeable and non-exchangeable fractions.
ISSN: 0160-4120

hal-01117744
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01117744
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01117744/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01117744/file/Article%20review%20discrimination%20isotopique-envoy%C3%A9.pdf
DOI : 10.1016/j.envint.2013.12.020

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Physical Society
Résumé : We study the equilibrium properties of a liquid phase condensed at the nanoscale between the surfaces of a sharp crack in fused silica in a moist controlled atmosphere. The extension of the condensed phase along the fracture is measured by in situ atomic force microscopy phase imaging and it is shown to be determined by a critical distance between the opposite crack surfaces, which is an increasing function of humidity. The present technique is very promising for measuring the properties of confined liquids at the nanoscale as well as for modeling the physics and chemistry of slow crack propagation in glasses.
ISSN: 0031-9007

hal-00411946
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00411946
DOI : 10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.165505

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD MDPI
Résumé : International audience
This work investigates the structural formation and analyses of titania membranes (TM) prepared using different vacuum exposure times for molecular weight (MW) cut-off performance and oil/water separation. Titania membranes were synthesized via a sol-gel method and coated on macroporous alumina tubes followed by exposure to a vacuum between 30 and 1200 s and then calcined at 400 °C. X-ray diffraction and nitrogen adsorption analyses showed that the crystallite size and particle size of titania increased as a function of vacuum time. All the TM membranes were mesoporous with an average pore diameter of ~3.6 nm with an anatase crystal morphology. Water, glucose, sucrose, and polyvinylpyrrolidone with 40 and 360 kDa (PVP-40 kDa and PVP-360 kDa) were used as feed solutions for MW cut-off and hexadecane solution for oil filtration investigation. The TM membranes were not able to separate glucose and sucrose, thus indicating the membrane pore sizes are larger than the kinetic diameter of sucrose of 0.9 nm, irrespective of vacuum exposure time. They also showed only moderate rejection (20%) of the smaller PVP-40 kDa, however, all the membranes were able to obtain an excellent rejection of near 100% for the larger PVP-360 kDa molecule. Furthermore, the TM membranes were tested for the separation of oil emulsions with a high concentration of oil (3000 ppm), reaching high oil rejections of more than 90% of oil. In general, the water fluxes increased with the vacuum exposure time indicating a pore structural tailoring effect. It is therefore proposed that a mechanism of pore size tailoring was formed by an interconnected network of Ti-O-Ti nanoparticles with inter-particle voids, which increased as TiO2 nanoparticle size increased as a function of vacuum exposure time, and thus reduced the water transport resistance through the TM membranes. © 2016 by the authors.
ISSN: 1996-1944

hal-01683214
https://hal.univ-antilles.fr/hal-01683214
DOI : 10.3390/ma9110938

Éditeur(s) : Counc. Meet. of the Int. Counc. for the Exploration of the Sea, La Rochelle (France), 26 Sep-4 Oct 1991
Résumé : The oyster population in the Maryland portion of the Chesapeake Bay has declined b y more than 38-fold since the early part of the century. Although the effects of fishing have been implicated, the decline has been attributed primarily to water quality and recently oyster disease. The decline has also been thought to have affected the biota and chemistry of the Bay. Our analysis provides a quantitative demonstration that the long-term declines are largely the result of habitat loss related to over fishing early in the century, stock over fishing, early in the century' through the recent times. Furthermore, the major ecological effects on Chesapeake Bay occurred well-before World War 1/, before industrialization and the prevalence of disease

Droits : info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/1991/acte-3058.pdf
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/3058/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
A shallow field experimental site for CO2 injection was established at Maguelone (Languedoc, France), in order to test in an integrated manner a suite of surface and downhole hydrogeophysical monitoring methods. The objective is to improve monitoring of gas transport in the shallow subsurface and to determine the sensitivity of CO2 monitoring systems for leakage detection. The site offers a natural laboratory to study the processes associated with CO2 injection in a clastic and clay-rich context saturated with saline fluids. Prior to CO2 injection, three nitrogen (N2) injections were undertaken in 2012 to measure the site response to neutral gas injection. In 2013, a volume of 111 m3 (mass of 220 kg) of CO2 was injected during 3.5 h at 15 m depth. During each experiment, the gas plumes were successfully detected from pressure monitoring, time-lapse induction logging and downhole resistivity monitoring with dipole–dipole array. Increases in resistivity are attributed to free gas propagation (either N2 or CO2) whereas decreases in resistivity correlate with CO2 dissolution in the pore fluid. Chemical analyses confirm this hypothesis with a decrease in pH and an increase in the concentration of dissolved species in the latter case.
ISSN: 1750-5836

hal-01355943
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01355943
DOI : 10.1016/j.ijggc.2015.12.005

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
Abstract View references (38)This work presents a facile, scalable method for the fabrication of graphene oxide-iron oxide (GO-Fe3O4) nanocomposites produced by co-precipitation of iron ions onto the GO surfaces in basic aqueous media. FTIR and XRD characterisation suggests that Fe3O4 was chemically anchored to the GO sheets, possibly via the carboxyl and hydroxyl groups. Small GO loadings of 0.5 and 1 wt% were not sufficient to alter the Fe3O4 structures. However, increasing the GO loading to 5 and 10 wt% resulted in significant loss in pore volume, thus suggesting the lamellar GO sheets decorated with Fe3O4 were assembling into GO-Fe3O4 nanocomposite stacks. It was found that the GO-Fe3O4 nanocomposites had an enhanced catalytic activity in the heterogeneous Fenton-like oxidation of Acid Orange 7 (AO7) compared to pure GO flat sheets and Fe3O4 nanoparticles. Interestingly, the GO-Fe3O4 nanocomposite with 5 wt% loading ratio exhibited the best catalytic activity with 76% degradation of AO7 dye observed within 90 min of reaction. This was attributed to the synergistic effect of GO by enriching the adsorbed AO7 molecules onto the nanocomposite to be further oxidised in the vicinities of active sites. This finding suggests the promising employment of GO-Fe3O4 nanocomposites in removing organic dyes from polluted water by heterogeneous Fenton-like reaction. © 2014 by American Scientific Publishers.
SCIENCE OF ADVANCED MATERIALS

hal-01683207
https://hal.univ-antilles.fr/hal-01683207
DOI : 10.1166/sam.2014.1812

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Mesoporous cobalt oxide silica matrices and membranes were successfully prepared using a dual acid-base catalysed sol-gel and interlayer-free approach for desalination applications. The effects of cobalt addition (0-35 mol%) on the structure-property relationship of the silica materials and membrane performance were systematically studied as a function of feed salt concentration (0.3-7.5 wt.% NaCl) and temperature (22-60 °C). As cobalt concentration increases beyond 5 mol%, the concentration of tricobalt tetroxide and proportion of silica mesopores were found to increase within the matrices. Silica membranes with high amount of tricobalt tetroxide (35 mol%) were found to be highly mesoporous with water fluxes of 20, 11.3 and 7.7 kg m-2 h-1 for the 0.3, 3.5 and 7.5 wt.% solutions at 60 °C, respectively, with >99.7% salt rejection at all times. This is attributed to the high pore volume (mesopores formation) and structural robustness of the silica network provided by the presence of tricobalt tetroxide. Even higher performance was achieved for low tricobalt tetroxide (mol%) silica membranes with water fluxes of 47.6 (0.3 wt.%) and 31.5 (3.5 wt.%) kg m-2 h-1 at 60 °C, respectively, though with reduced salt rejections of 90%. © 2015 Elsevier B.V.
ISSN: 0011-9164

hal-01683209
https://hal.univ-antilles.fr/hal-01683209
DOI : 10.1016/j.desal.2015.02.034

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Extractives that provide natural resistance to Bagassa guianensis Aubl. heartwood were examined. Soil-bed tests showed that the B. guianensis heartwood resistance was significantly reduced after ethyl acetate extraction, whereas methanol and especially water extractions improved the resistance. The ethyl acetate extract was submitted to a bioguided fractionation, and fractions were tested against one wood-destroying fungal strain (Pycnoporus sanguineus) and two human pathogenic fungal strains (Candida glabrata (yeast) and Trichophyton rubrum (filamentous dermatophyte)). Fraction F7, which exhibited the strongest antifungal activity, was subsequently fractionated by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Six previously described compounds were isolated. Although the two moracins, 6-O-methyl-moracin N (3) and moracin N (4) were the most active against fungal strains with MIC values between 4 and 16 μg ml−1, the isolated compounds showed less or equivalent antifungal activity than the initial fraction. Possible synergism between compounds 3 and 4 and other secondary metabolites have been hypothesized. Our study demonstrated that this extract as a whole might be used as a wood preservation or antimycotic product.
International Biodeterioration and Biodegradation

hal-00694532
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00694532
DOI : 10.1016/j.ibiod.2011.10.016

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Abstract This work shows the preparation, characterisation and testing of TiO2 membranes dip-coated on commercial α-Al2O3 tubes for desalination. TiO2 thin films (∼400 nm) were synthesised from titanium propoxide and exposed to a gentle thermal treatment to control particle and pore sizes (dp ∼ 4 nm). The TiO2 membranes were tested for brackish (0.3 wt%), sea water (3.5 wt%) and brine concentrations (7.5 and 10 wt%) up to 75°C in a pervaporation setup. Water fluxes as high as 10.5 kg m-2 h-1 were achieved for brackish concentrations, whilst values of up to 4.0 and 6.0 kg m-2 h-1 were measured for the highest brine concentration (10 wt%). Concentration and temperature polarisation both affected the water fluxes, particularly for brine solutions, though the latter was more dominant. Salt rejection remained very high at ∼99% for all tested conditions, thus demonstrating the feasibility of mesoporous inorganic TiO2 structures for desalination and brine processing. The TiO2 membranes proved to be stable for long term (>350 h) testing even under thermal cycling conditions. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
ISSN: 1383-5866

hal-01683212
https://hal.univ-antilles.fr/hal-01683212
DOI : 10.1016/j.seppur.2015.04.028

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
This work shows the preparation and separation performance assessment of carbon membranes derived from phenolic resin by a vacuum-assisted method and carbonisation in an inert atmosphere. The vacuum time played an important role in tailoring the structure of the membranes. For instance, pore volumes and surface areas increased from 0.81 and 834 to 2.2 cm3g−1and 1910 m2g−1, respectively, as the vacuum time exposure increased from 0 to 1200 s. The significant structural changes correlated very well with water permeation, as fluxes increased by 91% as the vacuum time increased from 0 to 1200 s reaching up to 169 L m−2h−1at 5 bar. Molecular weight cut-off tests showed no rejection for the smaller glucose and sucrose molecules, though this increased to ~ 80% and full rejection for 36 kDa and 400 kDa polyvinyl pyrrolidine. Interestingly, FTIR spectra showed that the peaks of C–H stretching vibration (2800–3200 cm−1) and C–O stretching (1030 cm−1) became more pronounced as a function of increasing vacuum time, strongly suggesting that the use of vacuum further assisted in the polycondensation of phenolic oligomers. Based on these outcomes, a cluster to cluster model is proposed, whereby vacuum application promoted crosslinking reactions of the phenolic resin, creating microporous regions within the clusters, and mesoporous regions between the clusters. © 2016 Elsevier B.V
ISSN: 0376-7388

hal-01683220
https://hal.univ-antilles.fr/hal-01683220
DOI : 10.1016/j.memsci.2016.11.002

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Taylor & Francis
Résumé : International audience
This work evaluates the influence of three different intensities of refinement of sisal pulp and the effect of accelerated aging cycles on the behavior of composites. Fiber-cements were prepared by the slurry de-watering method and pressing as a crude simulation of the Hatschek process. Mechanical behavior of composites was evaluated by four-point bending test at 28 days, and after 50 and 100 wet/dry cycles. Refinement of pulp and aging have increased the strength and bulk density of composites and decreased the toughness and porosity. The best mechanical performance after aging was achieved for samples with highly refined fibers.
ISSN: 1042-6914

hal-00809817
https://hal.univ-antilles.fr/hal-00809817
DOI : 10.1080/10426910601062065