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Hydrothermal synthesis of metal oxide (AlOOH/Al 2 O 3 , CuO, Fe 2 O 3 , NiO, ZrO 2 ) nanoparticles from metal nitrate aqueous solution was carried out at 673 K and pressures ranging from 25 MPa to 37.5 MPa with a flow-through supercritical water method. Size, phase and crystallinity of the obtained particles were characterized by TEM, XRD and TG, respectively. Effect of the difference of the metals in starting materials, pressures and concentrations on particle size and crystallinity was analyzed on the basis of supersaturation, which was evaluated by estimated metal oxide solubility. The result suggests that supersaturation should be set to higher than around 10 4 in this method to obtain particles under 10 nm in diameter. Further, crystallinity of the obtained particles was evaluated as weight loss through TG analysis. It was found that higher supersaturation decreased the crystallinity. This result can be explained that high supersaturation led to the inclusion of water molecules during the formation of particles.

Styrene oligomers (SOs), of styrene (styrene monomer, SM), 1,3-diphenylpropane (styrene dimer, SD1), 2,4-diphenyl-1-butene (styrene dimer, SD2) and 2,4,6-triphenyl-1-hexene (styrene trimer, ST), had been detected in the natural environments far from industrial area. To confirm SOs formation through thermal decomposition of polystyrene (PS) wastes in the nature, purified polystyrene (SO-free PS) has been shown to decompose at 30 to 150 °C. The SO ratio of SM:SD:ST was about 1:1:5 with ST as the main product. Mass spectrometry with selected ion monitoring was used for the quantitative analysis of the trace amounts of SOs. The rate of PS decomposition was obtained as k ( year − 1 ) = 5.177   e x p ( − 5029 / T ( K ) ) based on the amount of ST. Decomposition kinetics indicated that not only does drifting lump PS break up into micro/nano pieces in the ocean, but that it also subsequently undergoes degradation into basic structure units SO. According to the simulation at 30 °C, the amounts of SOs in the ocean will be over 400 MT in 2050.