Effects of strontium and calcium simultaneous substitution on electrical and structural properties of Pb1?x?yCaxSryTiO3 thin films

Ferroelectric Pb_1−x−y Ca _x Sr _y TiO₃ thin films (denoted by PCST90, PCST70, and PCST30) were deposited on the Pt/Ti/SiO₂/Si substrates by a chemical solution deposition method. Their properties were investigated from the viewpoint of crystal structure, microstructure, dielectric, and ferroelectric properties. X-ray diffraction patterns revealed the formation of PCST90, PCST70, and PCST30 thin films without any secondary phases. Infrared and Raman spectroscopy results show that a gradual phase transition from tetragonal to pseudocubic or cubic perovskite structure may occur in PCST thin films with the simultaneous increase of Ca²⁺ and Sr²⁺ contents. Both substitution of isovalent Ca²⁺ and Sr²⁺ at Pb²⁺-site enhanced the dielectric constant and reduced the remnant polarization. In addition, ferroelectric test analyses show that the PCST thin films undergo a ferroelectric-to-paraelectric phase transformation with an amount of Pb²⁺, Ca²⁺, and Sr²⁺ at 30%, 35%, and 35% mol, respectively. Hence, the absence of ferroelectric property may be attributed to a decreasing of the octahedron distortion in the perovskite structure accompanied by a weakening of long-range ferroelectric order.     

High temperature Mars atmosphere. Part I: transport cross sections

In the perspective of higher approximations of the Chapman-Enskog theory for transport property calculations, existing transport cross sections databases for interactions involving Earth atmosphere species have been updated and extended to Mars atmosphere components, proposing a phenomenological approach for the derivation of the relevant elastic collision integrals in neutral-neutral and neutral-ion interactions. Inelastic collision integrals terms, due to resonant charge exchange channels, have been considered and the asymptotic approach extended to the estimation of charge transfer cross section of multiple resonant processes. Electronic supplementary material  Supplementary Online Material     

A Monte Carlo model for seeded atomic flows in the transition regime

A simple model for the numerical determination of separation effects in seeded atomic gas flows is presented. The model is based on the known possibility to provide a statistically convergent estimate of the exact solution for a linear transport equation using the test particle Monte Carlo method. Accordingly, the flow field of the main gas is preliminary calculated and as a second step the linear transport equations obtained by fixing the target distribution in the collision term of the Boltzmann equation for both main and minority components are solved. Both solutions are based on appropriately devised test particle Monte Carlo methods. The second step, the critical one in evaluating the separation effects, is exact and thereby completely free of numerical diffusion. The model is described in details and illustrated by 2D test cases of atomic separation in shock fronts.     

Preparation of CeO2 by a simple microwave–hydrothermal method

Cerium carbonate hydroxide (orthorhombic Ce(OH)CO₃) hexagonal-shaped microplates were synthesized by a simple and fast microwave–hydrothermal method at 150 °C for 30 min. Cerium nitrate, urea and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide were used as precursors. Ceria (cubic CeO₂) rhombus-shape was obtained by a thermal decomposition oxidation process at 500 °C for 1 h using as- synthesized Ce(OH)CO₃. The products were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy. The use of microwave–hydrothermal method allowed to obtain cerium compounds at low temperature and shorter time compared to other synthesis methods.     

Effect of TiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> surface modification in Rhodamine B photodegradation

Commercial TiO₂ nanoparticles were superficially modified through polymeric resins obtained from polymerization of citrate complexes of Y³⁺ and Al³⁺ with ethylenglycol. The materials were treated at 450 °C for 4 h to obtain modified nanoparticles, which were characterized by HR-TEM, Zeta potential and surface area through N₂ fisisorption. Rhodamine B photodegradation by visible light irradiation and in presence of those modified nanoparticles was compared with the same process in presence of unmodified commercial TiO₂ nanoparticles. It was observed, by UV–visible spectroscopy, that the catalytic photoactivity in presence of modified nanoparticles was smaller than that observed with commercial TiO₂ nanoparticles. However, the surface modifier played an important role in the photodegradation kinetic process, showing a non-linear relation between modifier amount and photodegradation rate, presenting a maximum value at 0.8% (w/w).     

Butene concentration prediction in ethylene/propylene/1-butene terpolymers by FT-IR spectroscopy through multivariate statistical analysis and artificial neural networks

This paper reports the development of calibration models for quality control in the production of ethylene/propylene/1-butene terpolymers by the use of multivariate tools and FT-IR spectroscopy.1-Butene concentration prediction is achieved in terpolymers by coupling FT-IR spectroscopy to multivariate regression tools. A dataset of 26 terpolymers (14 coming from a constrained experimental design for mixtures, plus 12 terpolymers used for external validation) was analysed by FT-IR spectroscopy. An internal method of “Polimeri Europa” plant, based on ¹³C NMR spectroscopy is used to determine the percentage of 1-butene in the samples. Then, different multivariate tools are used for 1-butene concentration prediction based on the FT-IR spectra recorded. Different multivariate calibration methods were explored: principal component regression (PCR), partial least squares (PLS), stepwise OLS regression (SWR) and artificial neural networks (ANNs). The model obtained by back-propagation neural networks turned out to be the best one. The performances of the BP-ANN model were further improved by variable selection procedures based on the calculation of the first derivative of the network.The proposed approach allows the monitoring in real time of the polymer synthesis and the estimation of the characteristics of the product attainable from the concentration of 1-butene.     

Influence of the thermal treatment in the crystallization of NiWO4 and ZnWO4

NiWO₄ and ZnWO₄ were synthesized by the polymeric precursor method at low temperatures with zinc or nickel carbonate as secondary phase. The materials were characterized by thermal analysis (TG/DTA), infrared spectroscopy, UV–Vis spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. NiWO₄ was crystalline after calcination at 350 °C/12 h while ZnWO₄ only crystallized after calcination at 400 °C for 2 h. Thermal decomposition of the powder precursor of NiWO₄ heat treated for 12 h had one exothermic transition, while the precursor heat treated for 24 h had one more step between 600 and 800 °C with a small mass gain. Powder precursor of ZnWO₄ presented three exothermic transitions, with peak temperatures and mass losses higher than NiWO₄ has indicating that nickel made carbon elimination easier.     

Spectral Triples and the Super-Virasoro Algebra

We construct infinite dimensional spectral triples associated with representations of the super-Virasoro algebra. In particular the irreducible, unitary positive energy representation of the Ramond algebra with central charge c and minimal lowest weight h = c/24 is graded and gives rise to a net of even θ-summable spectral triples with non-zero Fredholm index. The irreducible unitary positive energy representations of the Neveu-Schwarz algebra give rise to nets of even θ-summable generalised spectral triples where there is no Dirac operator but only a superderivation.     

Experimental study on oscillating grid turbulence and free surface fluctuation

This paper analyses the interaction between the turbulence and free surface. The phenomenon takes place in many natural flows and industrial processes. In the present experiments, turbulence is generated by a vertically oscillating grid moving beneath the free surface. Fluid velocity has been measured through a hot-film anemometer, and the free surface elevation has been measured by an ultrasonic sensor. Integral length scales and several turbulence estimators have been computed. In order to detect the generation of turbulence near the free surface, the correlation between free surface elevation and the underneath flow velocity has been studied, as well as the time lag between turbulence and free surface. The free surface dynamics has been characterized by a velocity scale and a length scale. The kinetic energy associated with the free surface fluctuations increases with the Reynolds number at a rate depending on the frequency of the grid movement. For Reynolds number larger than ≈1000, however, the relationships collapse to a single curve characterized by a lower rate. The present experiments do not achieve the inertial sub-range in the vertical velocity fluctuations, and the estimated spectrum decays with an exponent smaller than ?3, which is the typical value for the two-dimensional turbulence in the inertial sub-range. The macro length scale, estimated by using the Taylor’s frozen turbulence hypothesis, experiences a decay away from the grid, which follows reasonably well the profile of Thompson and Turner (J Fluid Mechanics 67: 349–368, 1975). The micro length scale reduces immediately beneath the free surface, which can be interpreted by the increase of dissipation rate in the subsurface layer. The classification diagram by Brocchini and Peregrine (J Fluid Mech 449: 225–254, 2001) indicates that most tests fall in the weak turbulence domain, but some tests fall in the wavy domain. The vertical velocity fluctuations and the free surface level show a significant correlation with a negative phase lag, that is, the free surface fluctuations are ahead of the vertical velocity fluctuations.