Microleakage and antibacterial properties of ZnO and ZnO:Ag nanopowders prepared via a sol–gel method for endodontic sealer application

A novel method, recently proved useful for the synthesis of nanoparticles, has been now used for the preparation of very stable silver iodide–trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium chloride ionanofluids. Only the ionic liquid and the AgI bulk powder were needed. Synthesized nanofluids are much more stable than those obtained by simple dispersion of the nanoparticles in the base fluid. The ionanofluids were synthesized at different concentrations (up to 50 % w/w) and characterized in terms of physical, electrical, and thermal properties (density, viscosity, refractive index, electric conductivity, and specific heat capacity). A very high increase in the electric conductivity of the base ionic liquid was expected due to the high concentration of nanoparticles achieved. Nonetheless, it was not found, probably due to the reduction of ions mobility caused by the increase of the viscosity in ionanofluids with concentrations over 20 % w/w. An appropriate characterization of nanoparticles composing the nanofluids was carried out (UV–Vis absorbance, shape and size distribution). The diameter of the particles was measured and calculated by different techniques and approximations, obtaining a value of 2–4 nm. They were spherical, well-defined, and not agglomerated, with a narrow size distribution. The X-ray powder diffraction confirmed that no structural change took place in the transformation of the bulk solid to nanoparticles.     

Use of the Bell–Evans–Polanyi Principle to predict regioselectivity of nucleophilic aromatic photosubstitution reactions

Regioselectivity of nucleophilic aromatic photosubstitution has been shown experimentally to depend upon activation energies of the competing transition states. Computational means of determining relative activation energies were sought, therefore, in order to predict regioselectivity. Optimization of the three triplet transition states of 2-chloro-4-nitroanisole with hydroxide ion gave energies of insufficient accuracy to predict regioselectivity. Computed enthalpy changes from the first triplet transition state to the triplet σ-complexes correlated precisely with the experimental activation energies. This exemplifies the Bell–Evans–Polanyi Principle, and it provides an accurate means of assessing regioselectivity.     

Matrix Isolation Spectroscopic and Relativistic Quantum Chemical Study of Molecular Platinum Fluorides PtFn (n=1–6) Reveals Magnetic Bistability of PtF4

Molecular platinum fluorides PtF_n, n=1–6, are prepared by two different routes, photo-initiated fluorine elimination from PtF₆ embedded in solid noble-gas matrices, and the reaction of elemental fluorine with laser-ablated platinum atoms. IR spectra of the reaction products isolated in rare-gas matrices under cryogenic conditions provide, for the first time, experimental vibrational frequencies of molecular PtF₃, PtF₄ and PtF₅. Photolysis of PtF₆ enabled a highly efficient and almost quantitative formation of molecular PtF₄, whereas both PtF₅ and PtF₃ were formed simultaneously by subsequent UV irradiation of PtF₄. The vibrational spectra of these molecular platinum fluorides were assigned with the help of one- and two-component quasirelativistic DFT computation to account for scalar relativistic and spin–orbit coupling effects. Competing Jahn-Teller and spin–orbit coupling effects result in a magnetic bistability of PtF₄, for which a spin-triplet (³B_2g, D_2h) coexists with an electronic singlet state (¹A_1g, D_4h) in solid neon matrices.     

Approximating dominant singular triplets of large sparse matrices via modified moments

A procedure for determining a few of the largest singular values and corresponding singular vectors of large sparse matrices is presented. Equivalent eigensystems are solved using a technique originally proposed by Golub and Kent based on the computation of modified moments. The asynchronicity in the computations of moments and eigenvalues makes this method attractive for parallel implementations on a network of workstations. Although no obvious relationship between modified moments and the corresponding eigenvectors is known to exist, a scheme to approximate both eigenvalues and eigenvectors (and subsequently singular values and singular vectors) has been produced. This scheme exploits both modified moments in conjunction with the Chebyshev semi-iterative method and deflation techniques to produce approximate eigenpairs of the equivalent sparse eigensystems. The performance of an ANSI-C implementation of this scheme on a network of UNIX workstations and a 256-processor Cray T3D is presented.This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grant numbers NSF-ASC-92-03004 and NSF-ASC-94-11394.     

Bounds for the round-off errors in the richardson second order method

The application of the Richardson second order iterative method to positive definite, symmetric linear equations is investigated. Absolute and statistical bounds for the round-off error are derived. The statistical theory agrees well with numerical experiments, until the accumulated round-off error becomes of the order of magnitude of the error in the computed solution. After this point the statistical dependence between the local round-off errors makes the observed variances larger than the theoretical variances.This paper (and the Appendix) describe research carried out while both authors were employed by Space Technology Laboratories, Inc., Los Angeles, California.Presented at the IFIP Congress, 1962, under a National Science Foundation travel grant.     

Non-linear inplane vibrations of wrinkling films

This paper presents analytical investigations of non-linear effects caused by wrinkling of films in the course of contraction and shearing. As shown, such non-linearities are important even for very small amplitudes of vibrations. Approximate analytical solutions for inplane vibrations are derived.