Preparation, characterization and photocatalytic activity of polycrystalline Bi2O3/SrTiO3 composite powders

Bi₂O₃/SrTiO₃ composite powders have been prepared and their photocatalytic activities were investigated by photooxidation of methanol. These powders were characterized by UV-Visible diffuse reflectance spectra, SEM and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results revealed that all the Bi₂O₃/SrTiO₃ composite powders exhibited higher photocatalytic activity than pure SrTiO₃, Bi₂O₃ and TiO₂ (P25) under visible light irradiation (λ>440 nm). The effects of the Bi₂O₃ contents on the photocatalytic activities of the composite powders were examined, the photocatalytic activities increased with the content of Bi₂O₃ increasing to a maximum of 83% and then decreased under visible light irradiation. The effects of the calcination temperatures on the photocatalytic activities of the composite powders were also investigated.     

Effect of nonlinear wave-current interaction on flow fields and hydrodynamic forces

A fifth-order theory for solving the problem of interaction between Stokes waves and exponential profile currents is proposed. The calculated flow fields are compared with measurements. Then the errors caused by the linear superposition method and approximate theory are discussed. It is found that the total wavccurrent field consists of pure wave, pure current and interaction components. The shear current not only directly changes the flow field, but also indirectly does so by changing the wave parameters due to wave-current interaction. The present theory can predict the wave kinematics on shear currents satisfactorily. The linear superposition method may give rise to more than 40% loading error in extreme conditions. When the apparent wave period is used and the Wheeler stretching method is adopted to extrapolate the current, application of the approximate theory is the best. Project supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.     

分形维数与城市规模分布评析

本在分形概念的基础上，指出城市规模分布是基于统计意义上的一种分形分布，并计算了安徽省1978～1998年城市规模分布的分维值，评析了安徽省城市规模分布变化的特征。     

Use of zwitterionic buffer additives to improve the separation of proteins in capillary zone electrophoresis

In CZE, the adsorption of the proteins on the capillary wall is a common problem. This paper describes the simple method of utilizing zwitterionic buffer additives to improve the separation of proteins in untreated fused silica capillaries at neutral pH. Three kinds of zwitterion are evaluated in the separation of acidic, neutral, and basic proteins, including their effect on protein efficiency, mobility, separation, and resolution; the difference between the effects of the different additives are also highlighted. The method has proved to be a possible means of reducing protein adsorption, especially for basic proteins.     

Synthesis and characterization of novel thermoresponsive‐co‐biodegradable hydrogels composed of N‐isopropylacrylamide,poly(L‐lactic acid), and dextran

A series of novel multifunctional hydrogels that combined the merits of both thermoresponsive and biodegradable polymeric materials were designed, synthesized, and characterized. The hydrogels were copolymeric networks composed of N‐isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAM) as a thermoresponsive component, poly(L‐lactic acid) (PLLA) as a hydrolytically degradable and hydrophobic component, and dextran as an enzymatically degradable and hydrophilic component. The chemical structures of the hydrogels were characterized by an attenuated total reflection–Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR–FTIR) technique. The hydrogels were thermoresponsive, showing a lower critical solution temperature (LCST) at approximately 32 °C, and their swelling properties strongly depended on temperature changes, the balance of the hydrophilic/hydrophobic components, and the degradation of the PLLA component. The degradation of the hydrogels caused by hydrolytic cleavage of ester bonds in the PLLA component was faster at 25 °C below the LCST than at 37 °C above the LCST, determined by the ATR–FTIR technique. Due to their multifunctional properties, the designed hydrogels show great potential for biomedical applications, including drug delivery and tissue engineering. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 5054–5066, 2004     

The best uniform convergence rate of linear empirical bayes estimators

In this paper the thought on the uniform convergence of an empirical Bayes estimator or linear empirical Bayes (l.e.B.) estimator is advanced. Under two different models the l.e.B. estimators of the parameter are constructed respectively. It is proved that the convergence rates and uniform convergence rates of these l.e.B. estimators are all one with respect to the corresponding prior families. It is shown that the uniform convergence rate one is the best, under mild assumptions imposed on the conditional density of the sample.     

One convenient synthesis route to boron nitride nanotube

We describe one convenient synthesis route to boron nitride (BN) nanotube by the reaction of boron powder, iron oxide, and ammonium chloride at 600 °C for 12 h. Characterized by XRD, FTIR, XPS, TEM and SAED, the composition and morphology of the products are confirmed. The possible reaction mechanism is also discussed.     

Formation of β‐iPP in isotactic polypropylene/ethylene–propylene rubber blends: Effects of preparation method,composition, and thermal condition

The effects of preparation method, composition, and thermal condition on formation of β‐iPP in isotactic polypropylene/ethylene–propylene rubber (iPP/EPR) blends were studied using modulated differential scanning calorimeter (MDSC), wide angle X‐ray diffraction (WAXD), and phase contrast microscopy (PCM). It was found that the α‐iPP and β‐iPP can simultaneity form in the melt‐blended samples, whereas only α‐iPP exists in the solution‐blended samples. The results show that the formation of β‐iPP in the melt‐blended samples is related to the crystallization temperature and the β‐iPP generally diminishes and finally vanishes when the crystallization temperature moves far from 125 °C. The phenomena that the lower critical temperature of β‐iPP in iPP/EPR obviously increases to 114 °C and the upper critical temperature decreases to 134 °C indicate the narrowing of temperature interval, facilitating the formation of β‐iPP in iPP/EPR. Furthermore, it was found that the amount of β‐iPP in melt‐blended iPP/EPR samples is dependent on the composition and the maximum amount of β‐iPP formed when the composition of iPP/EPR blends is 85:15 in weight. The results through examining the effect of annealing for iPP/EPR samples at melt state indicate that this annealing may eliminate the susceptibility to β‐crystallization of iPP. However, only α‐iPP can be observed in solution‐blended samples subjected to annealing for different time. The PCM images demonstrate that an obvious phase‐separation happens in both melt‐blended and solution‐blended iPP/EPR samples, implying that compared with the disperse degree of EPR in iPP, the preparation method plays a dominant role in formation of β‐iPP. It is suggested that the origin of formation of β‐iPP results from the thermomechanical history of the EPR component in iPP/EPR. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 45: 1704–1712, 2007     

水动力学问题的弱可压缩模型求解方法研究

从弱可压缩水动力学方程出发，采用坐标变换的方法处理自由表面，建立了能够模拟有自由表面流动问题的定常、非定常的三维水动力学模型和对流扩散模型，模型采用浮湍流模型进行封闭，并对模型求解的数值方法进行了研究。