Rapid breakdown anodization technique for the synthesis of high aspect ratio and high surface area anatase TiO2 nanotube powders

Clusters of high aspect ratio, high surface area anatase-TiO₂ nanotubes with a typical nanotube outer diameter of about 18 nm, wall thickness of approximately 5 nm and length of 5-10 μm were synthesized, in powder form, by breakdown anodization of Ti foils in 0.1 M perchloric acid, at 10 V (299 K) and 20 V (∼275 and 299 K). The surface area, morphology, structure and band gap were determined from Brunauer Emmet Teller method, field emmission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman, photoluminescence and diffuse reflectance spectroscopic studies. The tubular morphology and anatase phase were found to be stable up to 773 K and above 773 K anatase phase gradually transformed to rutile phase with disintegration of tubular morphology. At 973 K, complete transformation to rutile phase and disintegration of tubular morphology were observed. The band gap of the as prepared and the annealed samples varied from 3.07 to 2.95 eV with increase in annealing temperature as inferred from photoluminescence and diffuse reflectance studies.     

Processing optimization: A way to improve the ionic conductivity and dielectric loss of electroactive polymers

Electro‐active polymers (EAPs) such as P(VDF‐TrFE‐CTFE) are greatly promising in the field of flexible sensors and actuators, but their low dielectric strength driven by ionic conductivity is a main concern for achieving high electrostrictive performance. It is well known that there is a quadratic dependence of the strain response and mechanical energy density on the applied electric field. This dependence highlights the importance of improving the electrical breakdown EAPs while reducing the dielectric losses. This article demonstrates that it is possible to dramatically increase the electrical breakdown and decrease the dielectric losses by controlling processing parameters of the polymer synthesis and fabrication procedure. As a result, an enhancement of around 70% is achieved in both the strain and blocking force. The effects on the dielectric losses of the polymer crystallinity, molecular weight, solvent purity, and crystallization temperature are also investigated. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2018 , 56, 1164–1173     

Production lot sizing with process deterioration and machine breakdown

The paper presents a generalized economic manufacturing quantity model for an unreliable production system in which the production facility may shift from an ‘in-control’ state to an ‘out-of-control’ state at any random time (when it starts producing defective items) and may ultimately break down afterwards. If a machine breakdown occurs during a production run, then corrective repair is done; otherwise, preventive repair is performed at the end of the production run to enhance the system reliability. The proposed model is formulated assuming that the time to machine breakdown, corrective and preventive repair times follow arbitrary probability distributions. However, the criteria for the existence and uniqueness of the optimal production time are derived under general breakdown and uniform repair time (corrective and preventive) distributions. The optimal production run time is determined numerically and the joint effect of process deterioration, machine breakdowns and repairs (corrective and preventive) on the optimal decisions is investigated for a numerical example.     

Exact potential minimization for a supergravity model

The low energy effective scalar potential arising from the supergravity model proposed by Nilles, Srednicki and Wyler is minimized exactly. Bounds are derived for the parameters of the theory from the requirement that SU(2) × U(1) be broken at the tree level. These results support earlier approximate results.     

Classification of recyclables using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for waste management

With the ever-increasing amount of generated waste governments around the world are looking for, and implementing, ways to minimize waste output and maximize waste recovery. The main difficulties are sorting waste items, identifying the different types of plastics, and the time taken to sort them manually. Bioplastics such as polylactic acid and Novatein thermoplastic protein can be incorporated into the recycling stream to minimize waste. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy spectra analyzed by k-nearest neighbor and soft independent modeling by class analogy were investigated as methods that can rapidly identify recyclables. Raw, peak normalized, and total intensity normalized spectra were used to identify which would improve classification. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy spectra were generated by single laser shots to different locations on nine samples, glass (brown, green, and clear), tin, aluminum, polylactic acid, Novatein, polyethylene terephthalate, and high-density polyethylene. To prove that the system has the potential to be used on a waste sorting stream an autofocus unit was developed to move the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy beam into focus on the different sample geometries. Two classification methods were investigated, soft independent modeling by class analogy and the k-nearest neighbors algorithm. k-Nearest neighbors on raw spectra produced the best results. Discrimination between bioplastics and plastics were 100%. Glass samples could not be reliably distinguished from each other. Surface contamination produced three misclassifications from 450 spectra. Similar results were obtained when the spectral range was reduced from 182.26–908.07?nm to 313.20–495.12?nm.     

强激光对铜反射镜的热破坏效应

本文给出了一个激光对光学材料表面热破坏效应的简化物理模型及数值研究结果。所得到的铜反射镜热破坏阈值与激光脉宽的关系与实验和理论符合很好。提出了反射镜后表面外冷却临界厚度的概念,并得到一个关于多脉冲积累效应的幂定标关系。     

Intermittency at critical transitions and aging dynamics at the onset of chaos

We recall that at both the intermittency transitions and the Feigenbaum attractor, in unimodal maps of non-linearity of order ζ > 1, the dynamics rigorously obeys the Tsallis statistics. We account for theq-indices and the generalized Lyapunov coefficients λ^q that characterize the universality classes of the pitchfork and tangent bifurcations. We identify the Mori singularities in the Lyapunov spectrum at the onset of chaos with the appearance of a special value for the entropic indexq. The physical area of the Tsallis statistics is further probed by considering the dynamics near criticality and glass formation in thermal systems. In both cases a close connection is made with states in unimodal maps with vanishing Lyapunov coefficients.     

Tree-level breaking of SU(2)×U(1) in general SUGRA theories

It is shown that SU(2)×U(1) can be broken at the tree level, without the occurrence of global potential minima that break U(1)_e.m., in supergravity models that are more general than those proposed by Nilles, Srednicki and Wyler. The study comprises an analysis of models with a general soft supersymmetry-breaking structure as well as those of the Hall-Lykken-Weinberg type.     

Laser-induced modification of composite Cu-C nanosized particles synthesized using a pulsed electrical discharge in a liquid

Composite copper-containing carbon nanosized structures were synthesized in the plasma of a pulsed electrical discharge, initiated between two graphite electrodes in an aqueous copper chloride solution. We studied the effect of laser radiation on the morphology of the nanoparticles formed, whose properties we studied by optical absorption spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. We discuss the mechanisms for nanoparticle formation in a discharge submerged in a liquid, and the possibilities for laser-induced modification of the nanoparticles. We estimated the temperature of the nanoparticles when exposed to laser radiation pulses. __________ Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 75, No. 3, pp. 372–378, May–June, 2008.     

脉冲激光在液体中激发的声波特性研究

理论上分析了脉冲激光在液体中产生的声波波阵面随光声源形状的变化,以及不同激发机制下光声脉冲波形的差别,并从实验中得出了脉冲CO2激光光声脉冲频谱特性.结果表明光声波波阵面为球面或柱面,热弹机制激发双极性的光声脉冲,汽化机制激发单极性的光声脉冲,CO2脉冲激光在水中激发的声波频谱峰值主要在100 kHz以下.通过选择光声源的形状和激发机制可以获得所需的光声信号.