Pure State Research Articles

Decoherence-induced formation of sub-poissonian entangled and steerable states of collective fields

The decoherence process has a tendency to yield the evolution of a pure state into a mixed one and to cause the quantum-to-classical transition by the coupling of a system of interest to the reservoir with infinitely many degrees of freedom. This is the major obstacle to the implementation of quantum computation and hence the realization of quantum computers. We propose a scheme to create unconditionally sub-Poissonian entangled and steerable states of the collective cavity field modes by use of the dissipation process. Based on the suitable choice of combination modes, the scheme uses the inherent, efficient and controllable two-mode squeezed vacuum reservoir coupled to the combination modes of concern rather than the original cavity modes in the two-level quantum beat laser. The decoherence is shown to pull the collective modes into the sub-Poissonian entangled and steerable states in the stationary regime, while the job of the dissipation of the individual cavity fields is to give rise to the degradation of the bipartite entanglement of the two individual modes and to inhibit the occurrence of the quantum steering from one cavity mode to the other. In particular for the case that the external driving field is close to the exact resonance with the atom, the collective fields are eventually prepared asymptotically in the stationary Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen state, while the two individual cavity modes are pulled into the vacuum states and reach steady state. The disappearance of the decoherence disables the nonclassical states of the collective modes, while the ignorance of the dissipation process of the cavity field modes guarantees the generation of the entanglement between the pair of individual modes. The decoherence-induced formation of a nonclassical source is ascribed to the four-wave mixing process together with the intrinsic amplitude and phase locking.

Identification of malfunctioning quantum devices

We consider the problem of correctly identifying a malfunctioning quantum device that forms part of a network of N such devices, which can be considered as the quantum analog of classical anomaly detection. In the case where the devices in question are sources assumed to prepare identical quantum pure states, with the faulty source producing a different anomalous pure state, we show that the optimal probability of successful identification requires a global quantum measurement. We also put forth several local measurement strategies—both adaptive and nonadaptive—that achieve the same optimal probability of success in the limit where the number of devices to be checked is large. In the case where the faulty device performs a known unitary operation, we show that the use of entangled probes provides an improvement that even allows perfect identification for values of the unitary parameter that surpass a certain threshold. Finally, if the faulty device implements a known qubit channel, we find that the optimal probability for detecting the position of rank-one and rank-two Pauli channels can be achieved by product state inputs and separable measurements for any size of network, whereas for rank-three and general amplitude damping channels, optimal identification requires entanglement with N qubit ancillas. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Can imaginarity be broadcast via real operations?

Imaginarity has proven to be a valuable resource in various quantum information processing tasks. A natural question arises: can the imaginarity of quantum states be broadcast via real operations? In this work, we present explicit structures for nonreal states whose imaginarity can be broadcast and cloned. That is, for a nonreal state, its imaginarity can be cloned if and only if it is a direct sum of several maximally imaginary states under orthogonal transformation, and its imaginarity can be broadcast if and only if it is a direct sum of a real state and some nonreal qubit states which are mixtures of two orthogonal maximally imaginary states under orthogonal transformation. In particular, we show that for a nonreal pure state, its imaginarity cannot be broadcast unless it is a maximally imaginary state. Furthermore, we derive a trade-off relation on the imaginarity broadcasting of pure states in terms of the measure of irreversibility of quantum states concerning real operations and the geometric measure of imaginarity. In addition, we demonstrate that any faithful measure of imaginarity is not superadditive.

Entanglement in Lifshitz fermion theories

We study the static entanglement structure in (1+1)-dimensional free Dirac-fermion theory with Lifshitz symmetry and arbitrary integer dynamical critical exponent. This model is different from the one introduced in [Hartmann et al., SciPost Phys.11 (2021) 031] due to a proper treatment of the square Laplace operator. Dirac fermion Lifshitz theory is local as opposed to its scalar counterpart which strongly affects its entanglement structure. We show that there is quantum entanglement across arbitrary subregions in various pure (including the vacuum) and mixed states of this theory for arbitrary integer values of the dynamical critical exponent. Our numerical investigations show that quantum entanglement in this theory is tightly bounded from above. Such a bound and other physical properties of quantum entanglement are carefully explained from the correlation structure in these theories. A generalization to (2+1)-dimensions where the entanglement structure is seriously different is addressed.

Riemannian optimization of photonic quantum circuits in phase and Fock space

We propose a framework to design and optimize generic photonic quantum circuits composed of Gaussian objects (pure and mixed Gaussian states, Gaussian unitaries, Gaussian channels, Gaussian measurements) as well as non-Gaussian effects such as photon-number-resolving measurements. In this framework, we parametrize a phase space representation of Gaussian objects using elements of the symplectic group (or the unitary or orthogonal group in special cases), and then we transform it into the Fock representation using a single linear recurrence relation that computes the Fock amplitudes of any Gaussian object recursively. We also compute the gradient of the Fock amplitudes with respect to phase space parameters by differentiating through the recurrence relation. We can then use Riemannian optimization on the symplectic group to optimize MM-mode Gaussian objects, avoiding the need to commit to particular realizations in terms of fundamental gates. This allows us to “mod out” all the different gate-level implementations of the same circuit, which now can be chosen after the optimization has completed. This can be especially useful when looking to answer general questions, such as bounding the value of a property over a class of states or transformations, or when one would like to worry about hardware constraints separately from the circuit optimization step. Finally, we make our framework extendable to non-Gaussian objects that can be written as linear combinations of Gaussian ones, by explicitly computing the change in global phase when states undergo Gaussian transformations. We implemented all of these methods in the freely available open-source library MrMustard, which we use in three examples to optimize the 216-mode interferometer in Borealis, and 2- and 3-modes circuits (with Fock measurements) to produce cat states and cubic phase states.

Comparison of estimation limits for quantum two-parameter estimation

Measurement estimation bounds for local quantum multiparameter estimation, which provide lower bounds on possible measurement uncertainties, have so far been formulated in two ways: by extending the classical Cramér-Rao bound (e.g., the quantum Cramér-Rao bound and the Nagaoka Cramér-Rao bound) and by incorporating the parameter estimation framework with the uncertainty principle, as in the Lu-Wang uncertainty relation. In this work, we present a general framework that allows a direct comparison between these different types of estimation limits. Specifically, we compare the attainability of the Nagaoka Cramér-Rao bound and the Lu-Wang uncertainty relation, using analytical and numerical techniques. We show that these two limits can provide different information about the physically attainable precision. We present an example where both limits provide the same attainable precision and an example where the Lu-Wang uncertainty relation is not attainable even for pure states. We further demonstrate that the unattainability in the latter case arises because the figure of merit underpinning the Lu-Wang uncertainty relation (the difference between the quantum and classical Fisher information matrices) does not necessarily agree with the conventionally used figure of merit (mean-squared error). The results offer insights into the general attainability and applicability of the Lu-Wang uncertainty relation. Furthermore, our proposed framework for comparing bounds of different types may prove useful in other settings. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Projected state ensemble of a generic model of many-body quantum chaos

Abstract The projected ensemble is based on the study of the quantum state of a subsystem A conditioned on projective measurements in its complement. Recent studies have observed that a more refined measure of the thermalization of a chaotic quantum system can be defined on the basis of convergence of the projected ensemble to a quantum state design, i.e. a system thermalizes when it becomes indistinguishable, up to the kth moment, from a Haar ensemble of uniformly distributed pure states. Here we consider a random unitary circuit with the brick-wall geometry and analyze its convergence to the Haar ensemble through the frame potential and its mapping to a statistical mechanical problem. This approach allows us to highlight a geometric interpretation of the frame potential based on the existence of a fluctuating membrane, similar to those appearing in the study of entanglement entropies. At large local Hilbert space dimension q, we find that all moments converge simultaneously with a time scaling linearly in the size of region A, a feature previously observed in dual unitary models. However, based on the geometric interpretation, we argue that the scaling at finite q on the basis of rare membrane fluctuations, finding the logarithmic scaling of design times t k = O ( log ⁡ k ) . Our results are supported with numerical simulations performed at q = 2.

Pyridine Derivatives as Insecticides: Part 6. Design, Synthesis, Molecular Docking, and Insecticidal Activity of 3-(Substituted)methylthio-5,6,7,8-tetrahydroisoquinoline-4-carbonitriles Toward Aphis gossypii (Glover, 1887).

Three new series of 3-(substituted)methylthio-4-cyano-5,6,7,8-tetrahydroisoquinolines were designed and synthesized starting from readily available materials, 7-acetyl-4-cyano-1,6-dimethyl-6-hydroxy-8-(4-pyridyl, 3-pyridyl, phenyl, 4-methoxyphenyl, or 4-chlorophenyl)-5,6,7,8-tetrahydrosoquinoline-3(2H)-thiones 2a-e in high yields and very pure states. Thus, compounds 2a-e were reacted with some chloro reagents, namely, N-aryl-2-chloroacetamides 3a-f and N-(naphthalen-2-yl)-2-chloroacetamide (3g) under mild basic conditions to give the first two series of the target compounds, 3-(N-aryl)carbamoylmethylthio-5,6,7,8-tetrahydroisoquinoline-4-carbonitriles 4a-l and 5a-e, respectively. Reaction of compounds 2d,e with ethyl chloroacetate under the same conditions gave the other series, 3-ethoxycarbonyl-methylthio-5,6,7,8-tetrahydroisoquinoline-4-carbonitriles 6d,e. Structural formulas of all of the new compounds were elucidated and confirmed by elemental and spectral analyses. The insecticidal activity of all synthesized 5,6,7,8-tetrahydrosoquinolines toward the nymphs and adults of Aphis gossypii were screened. The results revealed the promising insecticidal activity of some tested compounds. Moreover, the structure-activity relationships as well as molecular docking of some representative compounds were evaluated.

Interpolating Between Rényi Entanglement Entropies for Arbitrary Bipartitions via Operator Geometric Means

AbstractThe asymptotic restriction problem for tensors can be reduced to finding all parameters that are normalized, monotone under restrictions, additive under direct sums and multiplicative under tensor products, the simplest of which are the flattening ranks. Over the complex numbers, a refinement of this problem, originating in the theory of quantum entanglement, is to find the optimal rate of entanglement transformations as a function of the error exponent. This trade-off can also be characterized in terms of the set of normalized, additive, multiplicative functionals that are monotone in a suitable sense, which includes the restriction-monotones as well. For example, the flattening ranks generalize to the (exponentiated) Rényi entanglement entropies of order $$\alpha \in [0,1]$$ α ∈ [ 0 , 1 ] . More complicated parameters of this type are known, which interpolate between the flattening ranks or Rényi entropies for special bipartitions, with one of the parts being a single tensor factor. We introduce a new construction of subadditive and submultiplicative monotones in terms of a regularized Rényi divergence between many copies of the pure state represented by the tensor and a suitable sequence of positive operators. We give explicit families of operators that correspond to the flattening-based functionals, and show that they can be combined in a nontrivial way using weighted operator geometric means. This leads to a new characterization of the previously known additive and multiplicative monotones, and gives new submultiplicative and subadditive monotones that interpolate between the Rényi entropies for all bipartitions. We show that for each such monotone there exist pointwise smaller multiplicative and additive ones as well. In addition, we find lower bounds on the new functionals that are superadditive and supermultiplicative.

Magnetic braneworlds: cosmology and wormholes

We construct 4D flat Big Bang-Big Crunch cosmologies and Anti-de Sitter (AdS) planar eternally traversable wormholes using braneworlds embedded in asymptotically AdS5 spacetimes. The background geometries are the AdS5 magnetic black brane and the magnetically charged AdS5 soliton, respectively. The two setups arise from different analytic continuations of the same saddle of the gravitational Euclidean path integral, in which the braneworld takes the form of a Maldacena-Maoz Euclidean wormhole. We show the existence of a holographic dual description of this setup in terms of a microscopic Euclidean boundary conformal field theory (BCFT) on a strip. By analyzing the BCFT Euclidean path integral, we show that the braneworld cosmology is encoded in a pure excited state of a CFT dual to a black brane microstate, whereas the braneworld wormhole is encoded in the ground state of the BCFT. The latter confines in the IR, and we study its confining properties using holography. We also comment on the properties of bulk reconstruction in the two Lorentzian pictures and their relationship via double analytic continuation. This work can be interpreted as an explicit, doubly-holographic realization of the relationship between cosmology, traversable wormholes, and confinement in holography, first proposed in arXiv:2102.05057, arXiv:2203.11220.

Entropic uncertainty relations and entanglement detection from quantum designs

Abstract Uncertainty relations and quantum entanglement are pivotal concepts in quantum theory. Beyond their fundamental significance in shaping our understanding of the quantum world, they also underpin crucial applications in quantum information theory. In this article, we investigate entropic uncertainty relations and entanglement detection with an emphasis on quantum measurements with design structures. On the one hand, we derive improved Rényi entropic uncertainty relations for design-structured measurements, exploiting the property that the sum of powered (e.g., squared) probabilities of obtaining different measurement outcomes is now invariant under unitary transformations of the measured system and can be easily computed. On the other hand, the above property essentially imposes a state-independent upper bound, which is achieved at all pure states, on one’s ability to predict local outcomes when performing a set of design-structured measurements on quantum systems. Realizing this, we also obtain criteria for detecting multi-partite entanglement with design-structured measurements.

Polarization purity and dispersion characteristics of nested antiresonant nodeless hollow-core optical fiber at near- and short-wave-IR wavelengths for quantum communications

Advancements in quantum communication and sensing require improved optical transmission that ensures excellent state purity and reduced losses. While free-space optical communication is often preferred, its use becomes challenging over long distances due to beam divergence, atmospheric absorption, scattering, and turbulence, among other factors. In the case of polarization encoding, traditional silica-core optical fibers, though commonly used, struggle with maintaining state purity due to stress-induced birefringence. Hollow core fibers, and in particular nested antiresonant nodeless fibers (NANF), have recently been shown to possess unparalleled polarization purity with minimal birefringence in the telecom wavelength range using continuous-wave (CW) laser light. Here, we investigate a 1-km NANF designed for wavelengths up to the 2-μm waveband. Our results show a polarization extinction ratio between ~−30 dB and ~−70 dB across the 1520 to 1620 nm range in CW operation, peaking at ~−60 dB at the 2-μm design wavelength. Our study also includes the pulsed regime, providing insights beyond previous CW studies, e.g., on the propagation of broadband quantum states of light in NANF at 2 μm, and corresponding extinction-ratio-limited quantum bit error rates (QBER) for prepare-measure and entanglement-based quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols. Our findings highlight the potential of these fibers in emerging applications such as QKD, pointing towards a new standard in optical quantum technologies.

Quantum state estimation based on deep learning

Abstract We used deep learning techniques to construct various models for reconstructing quantum states from a given set of coincidence measurements. Through simulations, we demonstrated that our approach generates functionally equivalent reconstructed states for a wide range of pure and mixed input states. Compared to traditional methods, our system offers the advantage of faster speed. Additionally, by training our system with measurement results containing simulated noise sources, we could show a significant improvement in average fidelity compared to typical reconstruction methods. We also found that constraining the variational manifold to physical states, i.e., positive semi-definite density matrices, greatly enhances the quality of the reconstructed states in the presence of experimental imperfections and noise. Finally, we validated the correctness and superiority of our model by using data generated on IBMQ, a real quantum computer.

Exploration of micellization and phase separation nature of surfactants in metformin hydrochloride + additives media: An experimental and DFT study

The study explores the aggregation and phase separation of a newly synthesized cationic surfactant − octadecyltriethylammonium bromide (OTEAB) and triton X-100 (TX-100) respectively with/without metformin hydrochloride (MMH) drug in absence/presence of NaCl. The conductivity measurements were performed to investigate the aggregation of cationic OTEAB at temperatures between 298.15 and 323.15 K with a 5 K gap. The micelle development of OTEAB in pure state and with MMH drug has been assessed by determining the critical micelle concentration (CMC). The reduction of CMC of OTEAB has been detected owing to the introduction of the MMH drug. The CMC was further decreased in attendance of NaCl. The CMC values also demonstrate the dependency on the change of temperature in all situations investigated. The decrease of CP values of triton X-100 and MMH mixture in aqueous NaCl was attained with the augmentation of the concentration of NaCl. The negative and positive values of free energy of micellization (ΔGm0) and clouding (ΔGc0) indicate the spontaneous and nonspontaneous nature of the respective processes. The enthalpy (ΔHm0) and entropy(ΔSm0) changes of the micellization were negative (exothermic) and positive, respectively. The enthalpy (ΔHc0) and entropy(ΔSc0) changes of the clouding were negative (exothermic) and positive, respectively, at lesser and higher concentrations of NaCl. The values of ΔHm0/ΔHc0 and ΔSm0/ΔSc0 designated that both hydrophobic and electrostatic interaction are present as important forces among the components under investigation. The thermodynamics of transfer and the enthalpy-entropy compensation parameters for the two processes were also computed and explained appropriately. Herein, we have also performed the computational analysis to find out the optimized structures, HOMO-LUMO orbitals, and the band gaps of OTEAB, MMH, and OTEAB+MMH mixture.

Fractional conformal map, qubit dynamics and the Leggett–Garg inequality

Abstract A pure state of a qubit can be geometrically represented as a point on the extended complex plane through stereographic projection. By employing successive conformal maps on the extended complex plane, we can generate an effective discrete-time evolution of the pure states of the qubit. This work focuses on a subset of analytic maps known as fractional linear conformal maps. We show that these maps serve as a unifying framework for a diverse range of quantum-inspired conceivable dynamics, including (i) unitary dynamics,(ii) non-unitary but linear dynamics and (iii) \ non-unitary and non-linear dynamics where linearity (non-linearity) refers to the action of the discrete time evolution operator on the Hilbert space. We provide a characterization of these maps in terms of Leggett-Garg Inequality complemented with No-signaling in Time (NSIT) and Arrow of Time (AoT) conditions.

Perfect quantum protractors

In this paper we introduce and investigate the concept of a perfect quantum protractor, a pure quantum state |ψ⟩∈H that generates three different orthogonal bases of H under rotations around each of the three perpendicular axes. Such states can be understood as pure states of maximal uncertainty with regards to the three components of the angular momentum operator, as we prove that they maximise various entropic and variance-based measures of such uncertainty. We argue that perfect quantum protractors can only exist for systems with a well-defined total angular momentum j, and we prove that they do not exist for j∈{1/2,2,5/2}, but they do exist for j∈{1,3/2,3} (with numerical evidence for their existence when j=7/2). We also explain that perfect quantum protractors form an optimal resource for a metrological task of estimating the angle of rotation around (or the strength of magnetic field along) one of the three perpendicular axes, when the axis is not a priori known. Finally, we demonstrate this metrological utility by performing an experiment with warm atomic vapours of rubidium-87, where we prepare a perfect quantum protractor for a spin-1 system, let it precess around x, y or z axis, and then employ it to optimally estimate the rotation angle.

Dynamics analysis of non-inertial observers under Ohmic-induced decoherence

We investigate the dynamics of quantum features in a two-qubit system subjected to acceleration in one or both subsystems while interacting with Ohmic or super-Ohmic noisy reservoirs. Metrics such as quantum discord, negativity, and entropic uncertainty are deployed to analyze the dynamical map of quantum states under various conditions. Our findings suggest that increasing the number of accelerated qubits negatively impacts quantum correlations. Furthermore, assigning non-uniform values of acceleration magnitude to the two qubits also leads to higher decay and uncertainty generation. Additionally, an increase in the bosonic reservoir frequency and ohmicity parameter exhibits opposite effects to those prevailed by the purity of states by promoting decay. Notably, discord proves to be sensitive to acceleration and non-uniformity, while negativity is strongly influenced by low purity values. The role of Ohmic noisy reservoirs is emphasized, as they display less decay compared to super-Ohmic reservoirs. Overall, the super-Ohmic noisy reservoir induced higher decoherence and uncertainty, causing larger quantum correlation decay compared to the Ohmic noise.

Search for dark mesons decaying to top and bottom quarks in proton-proton collisions at s\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\sqrt{\ extrm{s}} $$\\end{document} = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for dark mesons originating from strongly-coupled, SU(2) dark flavor symmetry conserving models and decaying gaugephobically to pure Standard Model final states containing top and bottom quarks is presented. The search targets fully hadronic final states and final states with exactly one electron or muon and multiple jets. The analyzed data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions collected at s\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\sqrt{s} $$\\end{document} = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. No significant excess over the Standard Model background expectation is observed and the results are used to set the first direct constraints on this type of model. The two-dimensional signal space of dark pion masses mπD\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {m}_{\\pi_D} $$\\end{document} and dark rho-meson masses mρD\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {m}_{\\rho_D} $$\\end{document} is scanned. For mπD/mρD\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {m}_{\\pi_D}/{m}_{\\rho_D} $$\\end{document} = 0.45, dark pions with masses mπD\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {m}_{\\pi_D} $$\\end{document}< 940 GeV are excluded at the 95% CL, while for mπD/mρD\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {m}_{\\pi_D}/{m}_{\\rho_D} $$\\end{document} = 0.25 masses mπD\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {m}_{\\pi_D} $$\\end{document}< 740 GeV are excluded.

Optimized higher-order photon state classification by machine learning

The classification of higher-order photon emission becomes important with more methods being developed for deterministic multiphoton generation. The widely used second-order correlation g(2) is not sufficient to determine the quantum purity of higher photon Fock states. Traditional characterization methods require a large amount of photon detection events, which leads to increased measurement and computation time. Here, we demonstrate a machine learning model based on a 2D Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) for rapid classification of multiphoton Fock states up to |3⟩ with an overall accuracy of 94%. By fitting the g(3) correlation with simulated photon detection events, the model exhibits an efficient performance particularly with sparse correlation data, with 800 co-detection events to achieve an accuracy of 90%. Using the proposed experimental setup, this CNN classifier opens up the possibility for quasi-real-time classification of higher photon states, which holds broad applications in quantum technologies.

HYDROGEN GAS RECOVERY THROUGH THE PERMEATION MEMBRANE BASED BIMETALLIC PALLADIUM ALLOY

Generally, the H2 gas produced from the industrial processes is not in a pure state but is mixed with other compounds. For example, the off-gas produced in the oil refinery process still contains CH4, H2, and other gases. Thus, the process of separating as well as recovering the valuable H2 gas from other gas compounds is of essential process. Currently, the H2 separation process is being developed with relatively low costs with good efficiency, namely using the permeation membranes separation process, in which the compounds with high permeability tends to be more easily separated. Here we report the hydrogen recovery process from the mixed H2/N2 off-gas contains 61 % hydrogen and 39% balancing nitrogen, by using the bimetallic Pd-Ag membrane, where the effect of the gas feed pressure (1 and 2 bar) and operating temperature (373.15, 423.15, 473.15, and 523.15, 573.15 K) on the resulting permeate flux is comprehensively studied. We found that the flux and permeability increased with the increase in the gas feed pressure and temperature. Under the same gas temperature of 373.15 K, the permeation flux at the 2 bar gas feed pressure was found to be 2.047 mol.s-1.m-2, which was 166% greater than that of 1 bar pressure, i.e. 1.204 mol.s-1.m-2. Meanwhile, under the same gas feed pressure of 2 bar, the permeation flux at the operating temperature of 573.15 K was found to be 2.103 mol.s-1.m-2, which is 104,9% greater than that of 373.15 K operating temperature, i.e. 2.047 mol.s-1.m-2. These findings suggest the breakthrough advantages of the Pd-Ag alloy membrane for its high hydrogen permeability at low pressure.