Spectroscopic study on the zinc-contaminated soils for the determination of zinc speciation

The purpose of this paper reported the zinc species in the highly contaminated soils from metallurgical area around Erh-Jen River in the southern of Taiwan. FTIR and XPS were used to investigate the zinc species in the contaminated soils. Through a FTIR analysis, appreciable of zinc bound by organic matter was found and their bonding structure consisted of antisymmetric and symmetric stretchings, Zn-HSsym and Zn-HSasym. With XPS analysis, the Angstrom scale depth scan was surveyed for investigation the zinc speciation. No signal of zinc was detected in the depth of 900A for the larger particle contaminated soils whereas the detectable signal of zinc was determined in the XPS experiment. With further regression and fitting results, the major zinc species presented in the surface of larger and fine particle contaminated soils consisted of reductive and oxidative zinc species. In the deeper depth of contaminated soils, an inverse spinel zinc ferrite was found in the case of larger particle soil. No inverse spinel zinc ferrite was detected in the case of fine particle soil and could be attributed to the relatively small particle size.     

An atomic force microscope study of thermal behavior of phospholipid monolayers on mica

We observed by using atomic force microscope (AFM) phospholipid (1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine) monolayers on mica being annealed and cooled to a selection of temperatures through steps of 2-4 degrees C/min. The annealed phospholipid monolayers started to disappear at 45-50 degrees C and disappeared completely above 60-63 degrees C under AFM observation. The phospholipid monolayers reformed when the samples were cooled below 60 degrees C and developed from fractal into compact monolayer films with decreasing temperatures. Simultaneously the height of the reformed phospholipid films also increased with decreasing temperatures from 0.4 nm to the value before annealing. The observed thermal features are attributed to a phase-transition process that upon heating to above 45-50 degrees C, the lipids condensed in the monolayers transform into a low-density expanded phase in which the lipids are invisible to AFM, and the transformation continues and completes at 60-63 degrees C. The lipid densities of the expanded phase inferred from the dissociated area of the condensed phase are observed to be a function of the temperature. The behavior contrasts with a conventional first-order phase transition commonly seen in the Langmuir films. The temperature-dependent height and shape of the reformed phospholipid films during cooling are argued to arise from the adjustment of the packing and molecular tilting (with respect to the mica surface) of the phospholipids in order to accommodate more condensed phospholipids.     

A weighted residual method for elastic-plastic analysis near a crack tip and the calculation of the plastic stress intensity factors

In this paper,a weighted residual method for the elastic-plastic analysis near a crack tip is systematically given by taking the model of power-law hardening under plane strain condition as a sample.The elastic-plastic solutions of the crack tip field and an approach based on the superposition of the nonlinear finite element method on the complete solution in the whole crack body field,to calculate the plastic stress intensity factors,are also developed.Therefore,a complete analysis based on the calculation both for the crack tip field and for the whole crack body field is provided.     

On the problems of sandwich shells having the form of a surface of revolution and face layers of non-equal thicknesses

Fundamental equations which govern the behavior of an elasticsandwich shell having the form of a surface of revolution andface layers of non-equal thicknesses are derived,with the so-lution of Refs.[3]and[4]as special examples.The problems of the shell under the action of symmetricalloads are reduced to the solution of a displacement-function4～,where4αsatisfies a differential equation of sixth order.     

Numerical simulation of complex fluid drying in a Hele-Shaw cell

A 2D model is currently under development to describe the flow and concentration fields inside a Hele-Shaw cell with evaporation for a receding meniscus (dip-coating-like configuration). An original approach is proposed to address the difficult problem of the boundary conditions close to the contact line. The model is used to study the deposit thickness as a function of some process parameters.     

Densification and magnetic properties of low-fire NiCuZn ferrites

The mixing of (Ni_0.38Cu_0.12Zn_0.50)Fe₂O₄ powders with Bi₂O₃ was performed using the solid-state mixing as well as wet chemical coating processes such as ammonia precipitation coating, urea precipitation coating, and solution coating. Ferrites prepared from the wet chemical coating processes could be densified at a lower sintering temperature without significant impact on the microstructural evolution compared with that prepared by solid-state mixing. In addition, samples prepared from the wet chemical coating process have a higher B_r and B_s and a lower H_c compared with that from solid-state mixing. Considering both the effects of sintering temperature and sintered density (>95% T.D.), ferrites with 1.5 wt% Bi₂O₃ addition by ammonia precipitation coating sintered at 900°C can provide the best permeability and quality factor (191 and 68.2, respectively) among all the cases studied.