Microwave synthesis of magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles used as a precursor of nanocomposites and ferrofluids

Methods to synthesize magnetic Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles and to modify the surface of particles are presented in the present investigation. Fe₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles were prepared by the co-precipitation of Fe³⁺ and Fe²⁺, NH₃·H₂O was used as the precipitating agent to adjust the pH value, and the aging of Fe₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles was accelerated by microwave (MW) irradiation. The obtained Fe₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The average size of Fe₃O₄ crystallites was found to be around 8–9 nm. Thereafter, the surface of Fe₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles was modified by stearic acid. The resultant sample was characterized by FT-IR, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), XRD, lipophilic degree (LD) and sedimentation test. The FT-IR results indicated that a covalent bond was formed by chemical reaction between the hydroxyl groups on the surface of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles and carboxyl groups of stearic acid, which changed the polarity of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles. The dispersion of Fe₃O₄ in organic solvent was greatly improved. Effects of reaction time, reaction temperature and concentration of stearic acid on particle surface modification were investigated. In addition, Fe₃O₄/polystyrene (PS) nanocomposite was synthesized by adding surface modified Fe₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles into styrene monomer, followed by the radical polymerization. The obtained nanocomposite was tested by thermogravimetry (TG), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and XRD. Results revealed that the thermal stability of PS was not significantly changed after adding Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles. The Fe₃O₄ magnetic fluid was characterized using UV–vis spectrophotometer, Gouy magnetic balance and laser particle-size analyzer. The testing results showed that the magnetic fluid had excellent stability, and had susceptibility of 4.46×10⁻⁸ and saturated magnetization of 6.56 emu/g. In addition, the mean size d (0.99) of magnetic Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles in the fluid was 36.19 nm.     

Analysis of cardiac tissue by gold cluster ion bombardment

Specific molecules in cardiac tissue of spontaneously hypertensive rats are studied by using time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS). The investigation determines phospholipids, cholesterol, fatty acids and their fragments in the cardiac tissue, with special focus on cardiolipin. Cardiolipin is a unique phospholipid typical for cardiomyocyte mitochondrial membrane and its decrease is involved in pathologic conditions. In the positive polarity, the fragments of phosphatydilcholine are observed in the mass region of 700-850 u. Peaks over mass 1400 u correspond to intact and cationized molecules of cardiolipin. In animal tissue, cardiolipin contains of almost exclusively 18 carbon fatty acids, mostly linoleic acid. Linoleic acid at 279 u, other fatty acids, and phosphatidylglycerol fragments, as precursors of cardiolipin synthesis, are identified in the negative polarity. These data demonstrate that SIMS technique along with Au₃⁺ cluster primary ion beam is a good tool for detection of higher mass biomolecules providing approximately 10 times higher yield in comparison with Au⁺.     

Association Behavior of 4-Acylpyrazolone Derivative and Tertiary Amine of High Molecular Weight in Antagonistic Synergistic Extraction of Palladium

To find an effective extraction and removal method for palladium(II), which is one of the main fission products from an acidic nuclear spent fuel solution, the extraction behavior of palladium(II) from a nitric acid medium by an acidic chelating extractant, 1-phenyl-3-methyl-4-trifluoroacetylpyrazolone-5-one (HPMTP) and a tertiary amine of high molecular weight, tri-n-octylamine (TOA), has been studied by spectrophotometry. A noticeable antagonistic extraction effect was observed in the extraction system under the given conditions. To understand this phenomenon, a preliminary investigation was performed to explain the mechanism of this reaction. According to the theory of corresponding solutions (TCS), the association reaction between HPMTP and TOA is proposed in the organic phase. An associated species, HPMTP·TOA, formed through hydrogen bonding in a chloroform medium might be the main reason why an antagonistic extraction effect occurred. The association constant between HPMTP and TOA was calculated to be 2.86±0.05.     

Cube factorizations of complete graphs

A cube factorization of the complete graph on n vertices, K_n, is a 3‐factorization of K_n in which the components of each factor are cubes. We show that there exists a cube factorization of K_n if and only if n ≡ 16 (mod 24), thus providing a new family of uniform 3‐factorizations as well as a partial solution to an open problem posed by Kotzig in 1979. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Fourier transform spectroscopy of CH3OH: rotation-torsion-vibration structure for the CH3-rocking and OH-bending modes

High-resolution Fourier transform spectra of CH₃OH have been investigated in the infrared region from 930 to 1450 cm⁻¹ in order to map the torsion-rotation energy manifolds associated with the ν₇ in-plane CH₃ rock, the ν₁₁ out-of-plane CH₃ rock, and the ν₆ OH bend. Upper-state term values have been determined from the assigned spectral subbands, and have been fitted to power-series expansions to obtain substate origins and effective B-values for the three modes. The substate origins have been grouped into related families according to systematic trends observed in the torsion-vibration energy map, but there are substantial differences from the traditional torsional patterns. There appears to be significant torsion-mediated spectral mixing, and a variety of “forbidden” torsional combination subbands with |Δυ_t|>1 have been observed, where υ_t denotes the torsional quantum number (equivalent to υ₁₂). For example, coupling of the (υ₆,υ_t)=(1,0) OH bend to nearby torsionally excited (υ₇,υ_t)=(1,1) CH₃-rock and (υ₈,υ_t)=(1,1) CO-stretch states introduces (υ₆,υ_t)=(1,0)←(0,1) subbands into the spectrum and makes the ν₇+ν₁₂−ν₁₂ torsional hot band stronger than the ν₇ fundamental. The results suggest a picture of strong coupling among the OH-bending, CH₃-rocking, and CO-stretching modes that significantly modifies the traditional energy structure and raises interesting and provocative questions about the torsion-vibration identity of a number of the observed states.     

Dirac Fields in 3D de Sitter Spacetime

We show that the Dirac equation is separable in the circularly symmetric metric in three dimensions and when the background spacetime is de Sitter we find exact solutions to the radial equations. Using these results we show that the de Sitter horizon has a cross section equal to zero for the massless Dirac field, as in the case of the scalar field. Also, using the improved brick wall model we calculate the fermionic entropy associated with the de Sitter horizon and we compare it with some results previously published.     

Unusual current‐voltage characteristics of single crystalline and bicrystalline La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 films

The current‐voltage characteristics of single crystalline and bicrystalline La_0.7Ca_0.3MnO₃ films were measured and analyzed. Several epitaxial films, as well as 45° [001]‐tilt grain boundaries, display current‐voltage characteristics which are asymmetric with respect to polarity reversal of the bias current. One epitaxial film has a polarity dependent resistance of ～340kΩ and of ～670kΩ in forward and in reverse direction, respectively.     

Nonvolatile photorefractive holographic recording in Sc:Ce:Cu:LiNbO3

In this paper experimental studies of nonvolatile photorefractive holographic recording in Ce:Cu:LiNbO₃ crystals doped with Sc(0,1,2,3 mol%) were carried out. The Sc:Ce:Cu:LiNbO₃ crystals were grown by the Czochralski method and oxidized in Nb₂O₅ powders. The nonvolatile holographic recording in Sc:Ce:Cu:LiNbO₃ crystals was realized by the two-photon fixed method. We found that the recording time of Sc:Ce:Cu:LiNbO₃ crystal became shorter with the increase of Sc doping concentration, especially doping with Sc(3 mol%), which exceeds the so-called threshold, and there was little loss of nonvolatile diffraction efficiencies between Sc(3 mol%):Ce:Cu:LiNbO₃ and Ce:Cu:LiNbO₃ crystals.     

2‐connected 7‐coverings of 3‐connected graphs on surfaces

An m‐covering of a graph G is a spanning subgraph of G with maximum degree at most m. In this paper, we shall show that every 3‐connected graph on a surface with Euler genus k ≥ 2 with sufficiently large representativity has a 2‐connected 7‐covering with at most 6k ? 12 vertices of degree 7. We also construct, for every surface F² with Euler genus k ≥ 2, a 3‐connected graph G on F² with arbitrarily large representativity each of whose 2‐connected 7‐coverings contains at least 6k ? 12 vertices of degree 7. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 43: 26–36, 2003     

Electrochemical characterization of poly(vinylidenefluoride)-zinc triflate gel polymer electrolyte and its application in solid-state zinc batteries

Gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) films comprising of poly(vinylidenefluoride), propylene carbonate, ethylene carbonate and zinc trifluoromethane sulfonate are prepared and characterized. The composition of GPE is optimized to contain minimum liquid components with a maximum specific conductivity of 3.94×10⁻³ S cm⁻¹ at (25±1) °C. A detailed investigation on the properties such as ionic conductivity, transport number, electrochemical stability window, reversibility of Zn/Zn²⁺ couple and Zn/gel electrolyte interfacial stability have been carried out. The ionic conductivity follows a VTF behaviour with an activation energy of about 0.0014 eV. Cationic transport number varies from 0.51 at 25 °C to 0.18 at 70 °C. Several cells have been assembled with GPE as the electrolyte, zinc as the anode, γ-MnO₂ as the cathode and their charge–discharge behaviour followed. Capacity values of 105, 82, 64 and 37 mAh/g of MnO₂ have been achieved at 10, 50, 100 and 200 μA/cm² discharge current densities, respectively. The discharge capacity values are almost constant for about 55 cycles for all values of current densities. Cyclic voltammetric study of MnO₂ electrode in Zn/GPE/MnO₂ cell clearly shows intercalation/deintercalation of Zn²⁺.