Influence of sintering temperature and aging on properties of cermet Ni/8YSZ materials obtained by citric method

The anode supported cell for solid oxide fuel cell, as a modification of the traditional Ni-YSZ anode supported on electrolyte, is examined in this work. The materials obtained on the base of citric method are presented and investigated in this work. The materials consisted of 40 wt.% Ni/YSZ, 50 wt.% Ni/YSZ and 60 wt.% Ni/YSZ were obtained. The base Ni/YSZ materials are tested on the two ways: (a) aging tests and (b) sintering tests. All the materials after aging and sintering are tested by the impedance spectroscopy. The results of electrical conductivity for samples before and after aging show that only in the case of 40 wt.% Ni/YSZ, sample loses of metallic conductivity after 500 h of heating. The other samples reveal metallic conductivity even after long period of aging. The tests of sintering temperature show that this process does not affect significantly on electrical conductivity of the materials.     

Plasmonic enhancement of blue emission from ZnO nanorods grown on the anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template

Luminescent properties of ZnO nanorods covered with Ag nanoparticles are examined. Nanorods were synthesized on AAO templates using Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) technique. Two types of the samples were prepared with different arrangement of ZnO nanorods and doping conditions. Nanorods of the second type were codoped with Al, to stimulate defect-related emissions. The ZnO material fills heterogeneously the interior of the AAO nanopores and has hexagonal, wurtzite structure. Both types of structures exhibit a broad defect-related emission at about 440 nm, most probably related to recombination at zinc interstitial (Zn_i) defects. This emission in samples with a random distribution of ZnO:Al nanorods and finer Ag nanoparticles is enhanced by factor of ～2.5 upon Ag deposition. The so-obtained material is interesting from the point of view of its application in blue range emitting diodes.     

Copolymerization with the feeding of one of the comonomers: Cationic activated monomer copolymerization of ε‐caprolactone with ethylene oxide

The cationic copolymerization of ε‐caprolactone with ethylene oxide (EO) under the conditions of activated monomer polymerization, that is, with a low‐molecular‐weight diol as an initiator and BF₃ etherate as a catalyst, was studied. To ensure the uniform composition of the resulting copolymers (telechelic oligodiols), the copolymerization was conducted with incremental feeding of the EO comonomer, which was more reactive in the cationic process. ¹H NMR analysis of samples isolated at different stages of the copolymerization indicated that the average composition of the copolymer was indeed nearly constant over the course of the copolymerization. Matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization time‐of‐flight spectra of the products revealed, however, that for the same degree of polymerization, macromolecules containing different numbers of EO units were present. The observed distribution was compared with the distribution simulated under the assumption that the probability of incorporating a given unit depended only on the feed composition (nearly constant during the copolymerization). With this assumption, a good agreement between the observed and simulated spectra was obtained. This indicated that, even when the optimum conditions for the formation of a uniform copolymer were created, the individual macromolecules differed in composition because of the statistical character of the copolymerization. The results of differential scanning calorimetry analysis were compatible with such a conclusion; two melting peaks appeared on differential scanning calorimetry curves when a sample was heated immediately after fast cooling, and this may indicate the presence of different types of crystallites. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 43: 3788–3796, 2005     

Analysis of a time-dependent scheduling problem by signatures of deterioration rate sequences

In the paper a single machine time-dependent scheduling problem is considered. The processing time p_j of each job is described by a function of the starting time t of the job, p_j=1+α_jt, where the job deterioration rate α_j?0 for j=0,1,…,n and t?0. Jobs are nonpreemptable and independent, there are no ready times and no deadlines. The criterion of optimality of a schedule is the total completion time.First, the notion of a signature for a given sequence of job deterioration rates is introduced, two types of the signature are defined and their properties are shown. Next, on the basis of these properties a greedy polynomial-time approximation algorithm for the problem is formulated. This algorithm, starting from an initial sequence, iteratively constructs a new sequence concatenating the previous sequence with new elements, according to the sign of one of the signatures of this sequence.Finally, these results are applied to the problem with job deterioration rates which are consecutive natural numbers, α_j=j for j=0,1,…,n. Arguments supporting the conjecture that in this case the greedy algorithm is optimal are presented.     

Nearest interval approximation of a fuzzy number

The problem of the interval approximation of fuzzy numbers is discussed. A new interval approximation operator, which is the best one with respect to a certain measure of distance between fuzzy numbers, is suggested.     

MCSCF calculation of response properties of Argon

Summary Analytic equations of the multiconfigurational SCF (MCSCF) response theory are combined with the finite-field (FF) approach to compute static and frequency dependent electric and magnetic properties of the Argon atom. A complete active space (CAS SCF) function including the 3s, 3p, 3d, 4s and 4p orbitals in the active space and a large (17s 13p 7d 5f 3g) basis set are employed. This permits an accurate determination of various linear and non-linear response properties such as e.g. electric dipole polarisability and second hyperpolarisability, Verdet constant, magnetisability and second hyperpolarisability. The results, both for the static values and for the frequency dependence of these properties, compare well with other most recent experimental and theoretical data.Dedicated to Jan Linderberg on the occasion of his 60th birthday     

Towards Martins minimum

We show that it is consistent with MA + ?CH that the Forcing Axiom fails for all forcing notions in the class of ω^ω–bounding forcing notions with norms of [17]. Received: 28 April 1999 / Published online: 12 December 2001     

Highly conducting solid electrolytes based on poly (ethylene oxide-co-propylene oxide)

The conducting properties of solid electrolytes comprising random poly(ethylene oxide-co-propylene oxide) (of 84 : 16 monomer units mole ratio) and lithium, sodium, potassium, cesium, and rubidium salts have been studied. The systems containing some lithium or sodium salts achieved conductivity levels as high as 10^?5–10^?4 S/cm at ambient temperature and greater than 10^?3 S/cm at 100°C. However, the systems with rubidium and cesium salts exhibit conductivities a few orders of magnitude smaller. DSC studies show that the electrolytes studied are characterized by a high content of an amorphous phase (95–100%). It is suggested that the copolymer exhibits lower complexing abilities than that of poly(ethylene oxide), which results in a higher flexibility of electrolytes containing small cations and poor dissociation of the salts having large cations. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Exotic smoothness,noncommutative geometry,and particle physics

We investigate how exotic differential structures may reveal themselves in particle physics. The analysis is based on A. Connes' construction of the standard model. It is shown that, if one of the copies of the spacetime manifold is equipped with an exotic differential structure, a compact object of geometric origin may exist even if the spacetime is topologically trivial. Possible implications are discussed. AnSU(3) ⊗SU(2) ⊗U(1) gauge model is constructed. This model may not be realistic, but it shows what kind of physical phenomena might be expected due to the existence of exotic differential structures on the spacetime manifold.