Determination of Mn, Fe, and Cu in chemically-treated wood pulps by the XRF addition method

A rapid X-ray fluorescence addition method has been developed for quantification of the technically most important metals in wood pulp matrix (Mn, Fe, and Cu). Pretreatment consisted of just two steps: first, acid was added to the sample to achieve homogeneous distribution of the metals; the pulp was then pressed lightly on to Mylar film. Total analysis time was less than 10 min. The concentration range investigated was up to 15 mg kg^–1 for Mn and up to 5 mg kg^–1 for Fe and Cu. Metal concentrations in Scandinavian pulps are not expected to exceed these amounts. The quantification limit was 2 mg kg^–1 for all three metals. The reproducibilities and repeatabilities were concentration-dependent and varied between 3 and 19% and between 1 and 17%, respectively. The squares of the linear correlation coefficients between measured intensity and added metal concentration were 0.994, 0.950, and 0.932 for Mn, Fe, and Cu, respectively.     

AC losses in high-temperature superconductors: revisiting the fundamentals of the loss modelling

The fundamentals of the electromagnetic modelling of high-temperature superconductors are discussed. Special attention is paid to intrinsic features of high-temperature superconductors different to those of low-temperature superconductors. Examples of those features are strong thermal fluctuations, which results in enhanced flux creep and slanted E(J)-characteristics, anisotropy of critical current density and material resistivity, and the granularity of the material. Having established the fundamental principles for the loss modelling, the influence of thermal fluctuations, anisotropy and granularity on the AC losses are considered.     

13C NMR spectroscopy of four tertiary methyl norbornenols and norbornanols

Carbon chemical shifts and direct ¹³C? ¹H coupling constants of 2-endo-methyl-5-norbornen-2-exo-ol, 2-exo-methyl-5-norbornen-2-endo-ol, 2-endo-methylnorbornan-2-exo-ol and 2-exo-methylnorbornan-2-endo-ol have been measured from single samples using a dual probe pulse Fourier transform method.     

Re-evaluation of the Activity Coefficients of Aqueous Hydrochloric Acid Solutions up to a Molality of 16.0 mol·kg<Superscript>−1</Superscript> Using the Hückel and Pitzer Equations at Temperatures from 0 to 50 °C

The simple three-parameter Pitzer and extended Hückel equations were used for calculation of activity coefficients of aqueous hydrochloric acid at various temperatures from 0 to 50 °C up to a molality of 5.0 mol·kg^?1. A more complex Hückel equation was also used at these temperatures up to a HCl molality of 16 mol·kg^?1. The literature data measured by Harned and Ehlers J. Am. Chem. Soc. 54, 1350–1357 (1932) and 55, 2179–2193 (1933) and by Åkerlöf and Teare [J. Am. Chem. Soc. 59, 1855–1868 (1937)] on galvanic cells without a liquid junction were used in the parameter estimations for these equations. The latter data consist of sets of measurements in the temperature range 0 to 50 °C at intervals of 10 °C, and data at these temperatures were used in all of these estimations. It was observed that the estimated parameters follow very simple equations with respect to temperature. They are either constant or depend linearly on the temperature. The values for the activity coefficient parameters calculated by using these simple equations are recommended here. The suggested new parameter values were tested with all reliable cell potential and vapor pressure data available in literature for concentrated HCl solutions. New Harned cell data at 5, 15, 25, 35, and 45 °C up to a molality of 6.5 mol·kg^?1 are reported and were also used in the tests. The activity coefficients obtained from the new equations were compared to those calculated by using the Pitzer equations of Holmes et al. [J. Chem. Thermodyn. 19, 863–890 (1987)] and of Saluja et al. [Can. J. Chem. 64, 1328–1335 (1986)] at various temperatures, and by using the extended Hückel equation of Hamer and Wu [J. Phys. Chem. Ref. Data 1, 1047–1099 (1972)] at 25 °C.     

Re-evaluation of Activity Coefficients in Dilute Aqueous Hydrobromic and Hydriodic Acid Solutions at Temperatures from 0 to 60 °C

Simple two-parameter Hückel equations can be used for the calculation of the activity coefficients in aqueous hydrobromic and hydriodic acid solutions at temperatures from 0 to 60 °C and from 0 to 50 °C, respectively, at least up to a molality of 0.5 mol·kg^?1. The data measured by Macaskill and Bates (J. Solution Chem. 12:607–619, 1983) at 25 °C and those measured by Hetzer et al. (J. Phys. Chem. 68:1929–1933, 1964) at various temperatures on galvanic cells without a liquid junction were used in the parameter estimations for the hydrogen bromide (HBr) and hydrogen iodide (HI) solutions, respectively. The latter data consist of sets from 0 to 50 °C at intervals of 5 °C. The parameter values for HBr solutions were also tested using the numerous galvanic cell points from the other three data sets existing in the literature for hydrobromic acid solutions and covering wide range of temperatures from 0 to 60 °C. It was observed in the parameter estimations and tests that all of the estimated parameters are independent of the temperature. The recommended parameter values were additionally tested using the isopiestic data of Macaskill and Bates (see the citation above) and those of Harned and Robinson (Trans. Faraday Soc. 37:302–307, 1941) for dilute HBr and HI solutions at 25 °C, respectively. In more concentrated solutions up to a HBr molality of 4.5 mol·kg^?1 and up to a HI molality of 3.0 mol·kg^?1, an extended Hückel equation was used, which contains an additional quadratic term with respect to the molality. The parameters for the extended Hückel equations were determined from these isopiestic data and tested using these data and the existing galvanic cell data. The activity and osmotic coefficients calculated from the resulting equations are recommended in the present study for the more concentrated solutions. The recommended values are compared to the activity values reported in several previous tabulations.     

Solving the problem of concomitant gradients in ultra-low-field MRI

In ultra-low-field magnetic resonance imaging (ULF MRI), spin precession is detected typically in magnetic fields of the order of 10-100 μT. As in conventional high-field MRI, the spatial origin of the signals can be encoded by superposing gradient fields on a homogeneous main field. However, because the main field is weak, gradient field amplitudes become comparable to it. In this case, the concomitant gradients forced by Maxwell's equations cause the assumption of linearly varying field gradients to fail. Thus, image reconstruction with Fourier transformation would produce severe image artifacts. We propose a direct linear inversion (DLI) method to reconstruct images without limiting assumptions about the gradient fields. We compare the quality of the images obtained using the proposed reconstruction method and the Fourier reconstruction. With simulations, we show how the reconstruction errors of the methods depend on the strengths of the concomitant gradients. The proposed approach produces nearly distortion-free images even when the main field reaches zero.     

In-situ Monitoring of Photocontrollable Wrinkle Erasure in Azobenzene-based Supramolecular Systems

In this contribution, dynamic photoinduced wrinkle erasure enabled by photomechanical changes in supramolecular polymer-azo complexes was characterized via confocal microscopy. Different photoactive molecules, disperse yellow 7 (DY7) and 4,4′-dihydroxyazobenzene (DHAB), were compared to 4-hydroxy-4′-dimethylaminoazobenzene (OH-azo-DMA). The characteristic erasure times of wrinkles were quickly assessed by using an image processing algorithm. The results confirm that the photoinduced movement on the topmost layer can be successfully transferred to the substrate. Furthermore, the chosen supramolecular strategy allows decoupling the effect of molecular weight of the polymer and photochemistry of the chromophore, allowing quantitative comparison of wrinkling erasure efficiency of different materials and providing a facile way to optimize the system for specific applications.