Enhanced stability of a Prussian blue/sol-gel composite for electrochemical determination of hydrogen peroxide

We have prepared a sol–gel that incorporates Prussian Blue (PB) as a redox mediator. It is shown that the PB in the pores of the sol–gel retains its electrochemical activity and is protected from degradation at acidic and neutral pH values. TEM and EDX studies revealed the PB nanoparticles to possess a cubic crystal structure and to be well entrapped and uniformly dispersed in the pores of the matrix. The electrocatalytic activity of the materials toward hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) was studied by cyclic voltammetry and amperometry. The modified electrode displays good sensitivity for the electrocatalytic reduction of H₂O₂ both in acidic (pH 1.4) and neutral media. The sensor has a dynamic range from 3 to 210 μM of H₂O₂, and the detection limit is 0.6 μM (at an SNR of 3).

Micropatterned ZnO rod arrays prepared by Au‐catalyzed electroless deposition

Micropatterned ZnO was synthesized by an electroless deposition process using Au stripes as catalytic surfaces. The Au‐patterned electrodes were prepared on SiO₂/Si wafers using photolithography. The site‐selective deposition of patterned ZnO hexagonal rod arrays is confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. The ZnO micropatterned surface revealed a conversion of wettability from hydrophilic to superhydrophobic depending on the deposition reaction param‐ eters. The electrical measurements carried out at room temperature before and after exposure to ammonia vapors of the patterned ZnO arrays show a resistance variation with exposure time. Highly reproducible, easy scalable and low‐cost, photolithography and electroless deposition techniques could provide a facile approach to fabricate functionalized micropatterns, for a wide range of applications. (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Membership functions,some mathematical programming models and production scheduling

The authors have studied in [5] alternative real variable models based on the function $\text{d(x) =}\text{x}\text{(α + x)}\text{, α >0}$, for certain integer or mixed-interger programming problems. Mainly, we have shown that there exists a vector α > 0 such that the solution to the problem min $\text{σ}{}_1\text{(x, α) = Σ}{}_{\mathrm{i=1}}{}^{\mathrm{n}}\text{x}{}_{\mathrm{i}}\text{(ga}{}_{\mathrm{i}}\text{+x}{}_{\mathrm{i}}\text{)}\text{, Ax = b, x ? 0}$, is a solution to the problem min σxσ⁺, Ax = b, x ? 0, where σxσ⁺ denotes the cardinal of x, i.e. the number of strictly positive components of x, thus obtaining a new model for solving in real numbers a Generalized Lattice Point Problem (Cabot, [3]).The function d(x) has been introduced by use as a general tool for solving integer or mixed-integer problems due to its property of having almost everywhere almost discrete values. In the meantime we noticed that this function may represent a membership function of a fuzzy set.In this paper, we study in detail the features of this membership function and show that Cabot's results [3] may be derived in this more general setting using the complementary function $\text{s(x) =}\text{1 ? x}\text{(α + x)}\text{=}\text{α}\text{(α+x)}$.At the same time, in the paper there are some production scheduling models within the framework of fuzzy-sets theory. To this end, a nonconvex production model is presented and it is shown that the value of the objective function $\text{μ}{}_2\text{=}\text{1 ? σ}{}_1\text{n}$ for a production programming model whose deman and/or resource vector components are parametrized, may be considered as a grade of membership of the solution of the parametrized model to the feasible set of the nonparametrized production programming model.Consequently, we get a nonconvex production programming model whose convex envelope is linear with coefficients which are in an inverse proportior to the magnitude of the nonparametrized demand or resource vector components. This result agrees with the intuitive idea that a high level of demand or resource allows a greater interval of variation in the production process than a lower level of demand or resource.     

Thermal degradation of vinyl alcohol/vinyl acetate copolymers V. Study of the reaction products of statistical copolymers

By coupling the evolved gas detection method with various analysis methods, the thermal decomposition products of the statistical vinyl alcohol/vinyl acetate copolymers were analysed. The data are presented comparatively with those obtained for the corresponding block copolymers of the same composition. The differences in the nature and amounts of the reaction products are explained by the structural characteristics of the copolymers.     

Thermoxidative degradation of vinyl alcohol/vinyl acetate copolymers. IV. Statistical copolymers

The thermoxidative degradation of vinyl acetate/vinyl alcohol statistical copolymers was studied under dynamic thermal conditions and compared with that of block copolymers. The dependence of thermal characteristics or kinetic parameters on the content of ? OH groups of copolymers was established.     

Asymptotic behavior of solutions of semilinear elliptic equations near an isolated singularity

We consider the semilinear elliptic equation Δu=h(u) in Ω{0}, where Ω is an open subset of (N2) containing the origin and h is locally Lipschitz continuous on [0,∞), positive in (0,∞). We give a complete classification of isolated singularities of positive solutions when h varies regularly at infinity of index q(1,C_N) (that is, lim_u→∞h(λu)/h(u)=λ^q, for every λ>0), where C_N denotes either N/(N−2) if N3 or ∞ if N=2. Our result extends a well-known theorem of Véron for the case h(u)=u^q.     

Simultaneous Determination of 4‐Chlorophenol and Oxalic Acid Using an Expanded Graphite‐Epoxy Composite Electrode

An expanded graphite‐epoxy composite electrode (EG‐Epoxy) was employed for the simultaneous determination of 4‐chlorophenol (4‐CP) and oxalic acid (OA) by using cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronoamperometry (CA), and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). The results indicated that OA could be determined in the presence of the same concentrations of 4‐CP within the concentration range of 0.1 mM to 0.5 mM with a relative standard deviation (RSD) smaller than 5%. Electrode fouling occurred during CA for 4‐CP concentrations larger than 0.5 mM. The DPV method was used for the simultaneous determination of 4‐CP and OA before and after electrochemical oxidation by chronopotentiometry under galvanostatic conditions (j=0.04 mA cm^?2, t=2 h) of a tap water sample spiked with 0.19 mM 4‐CP and 0.1 M Na₂SO₄.     

Existence implies uniqueness for a class of singular anisotropic elliptic boundary value problems

We consider a singular anisotropic quasilinear problem with Dirichlet boundary condition and we establish two sufficient conditions for the uniqueness of the solution, provided such a solution exists. The proofs use elementary tools and they are based on a general comparison lemma combined with the generalized mean value theorem. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cellulose derivative/barium titanate composites with high refractive index,conductivity and energy density

Cellulose - This work deals with hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC)/barium titanate (BT) composites, having small levels of perovskite-like BT loading, i.e. 0.5–2% and being designed for electric...     

Superparamagnetic Composites Based on Ionic Resin Beads/CaCO3/Magnetite

The preparation of superparamagnetic composites obtained by CaCO₃ mineralization from supersaturate aqueous solutions is presented. The preparation was conducted in the presence of oleic acid stabilized magnetite nanoparticles as a water‐based magnetic fluid and insoluble templates as gel‐like cross‐linked polymeric beads. The presence of the magnetic particles in the composites provides a facile way for external manipulation using a permanent magnet, thus allowing the separation and extraction of magnetically modified materials. Two ion exchangers based on divinylbenzene/ethyl acrylate/acrylonitrile cross‐linked copolymer—a cation ion exchanger (CIE) and an amphoteric ion exchanger (AIE)—were used, as well as different addition orders of magnetite and CaCO₃ crystals growth precursors. The morphology of the composites was investigated by SEM, the polymorphs content by X‐ray diffraction, and the thermal stability by thermogravimetric analysis. Polymer, CaCO₃, and magnetite in the composite particles were shown to be present by energy dispersive X‐ray (EDX), XPS, and TEM. The sorption capacity for Cu^II ions was tested, as compared to samples prepared without magnetite.