Chemical characterization of soda-lime glass samples by in situ current normalised PIGE and conventional INAA methods for forensic applications

Nuclear analytical methods namely in situ current normalised Particle Induced Gamma Ray Emission (PIGE) and conventional Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) were utilized for determining major, minor and trace concentrations of eighteen elements in five soda-lime (automobile) glass samples. Concentration of four major elements (Si, Na, Mg and Al) by PIGE and fourteen elements including ten trace elements by INAA were determined. For forensic application, major elements were used for confirming the class of glass samples, whereas concentration results of trace elements like transition and rare earth elements were utilized for finding similarity or differences among the glass samples.

     

Studies on testing and evaluation of platinum plated titanium electrode for production of uranous nitrate

Partitioning of plutonium from uranium is an important step in the reprocessing of spent fuel by PUREX process of solvent extraction using 30% TBP-dodecane. This is achieved by selectively reducing the Pu in solution to least extractable trivalent state by uranous nitrate as the reductant. The latter is conventionally produced by electrolytic reduction of uranyl ion in presence of hydrazine nitrate as uranous nitrate stabilizer using Pt-coated titanium as the anode. The anode plating wears out after period of operation thus affecting the process efficiency and hence the quality control testing of platinum plated electrode becomes important. This article describes the use of Beta backscattering method with strontium-90 radioisotope as non-destructive testing tool for measuring the coating thickness of the sample Ti electrode. The surface characteristics and coating morphology were also examined by scanning electron microscope and the micrographs are presented.     

Synthesis of cyclic α-hydrazino acids

Synthesis of five-, six-, seven-, eight-, and nine-membered cyclic α-hydrazino acids from a common starting material ‘diethylmalonate’ with 26, 16, 34, 13.5, and 13.33% overall yields is described. Sequential allylation or homoallylation and electrophilic amination followed by cyclization gave the desired rings. The methyl esters of eight- and nine-membered rings were synthesized by RCM and the corresponding free acids were generated after hydrolysis in the presence of 1 M BBr₃ solution in DCM.     

Chromium complexes of an isomeric N-donor ligand, 2-[(N-arylamino)phenylazo]pyridine: amination reactions,X-ray structure,and redox properties

The chromium chemistry of two positional isomers of the ligand 2-[(N-arylamino)phenylazo]pyridine (HL(1)and HL(2)) are described. While the ligand HL(1) coordinates as a bischelating tridentate N,N,N-donor, [L(1)](-), with deprotonation of the amine nitrogen, its isomer HL(2) coordinates as a neutral bidentate N,N-donor. The amine nitrogen in this case remains protonated. Thus the reaction of CrCl(3).nH(2)O with HL(1) produced the brown cationic complex, [Cr(L(1))(2)](+), [1](+). The representative X-ray structure of [1a](ClO(4)) is reported. The two azo nitrogens of the anioinc tridentate ligand approach the metal center closest with Cr(1)-N(azo) av 1.862(6) A. There is a significant degree of ligand backbone conjugation in the coordinated ligands, which resulted in shortening of the C-N distances and also in lengthening of the diazo (N=N) distances. Two synthetic approaches for the synthesis of chromium complexes of HL(2) are investigated. The first approach is based on the substitution reaction, wherein all the coordinated CO ligands of Cr(CO)(6) were completely substituted by the three bidentate HL(2) ligands to produce a violet complex [Cr(HL(2))(3)]. The second approach is based on para-amination reaction of coordinated 2-(phenylazo)pyridine (pap). Thus the reaction of an inert complex, [CrCl(2)(pap)(2)], with ArNH(2) yields a mixed ligand complex, [CrCl(2)(pap)(HL(2))], 3. In this reaction one of the two coordinated pap ligands in [CrCl(2)(pap)(2)] undergoes amination at the para carbon (with respect to the diazo function) to yield HL(2) in situ. This metal-promoted transformation is authenticated by the X-ray structure determination of a representative complex, [CrCl(2)(pap)(HL(2a))], 3a. Notable differences in bond distances along the ligand backbones of the two coordinated ligands in 3a indicate different levels of metal-ligand overlap in this complex. All the chromium complexes of HL(2) are characterized by their intense blue-violet color. The frequencies of the visible range transitions in these complexes linearly correlate with the Hammett's substitution constant. Intraligand charge-transfer transitions in the visible region are believed to be responsible for the intense color. Redox properties of all these complexes are reported.     

Laser phase modulation approaches towards ensemble quantum computing

Selective control of decoherence is demonstrated for a multilevel system by generalizing the instantaneous phase of any chirped pulse as individual terms of a Taylor series expansion. In the case of a simple two-level system, all odd terms in the series lead to population inversion, while the even terms lead to self-induced transparency. These results also hold for multiphoton transitions that do not have any lower-order photon resonance or any intermediate virtual state dynamics within the laser pulse width. Such results form the basis of a robustly implementable CNOT gate.     

Black hole mass threshold from nonsingular quantum gravitational collapse

Quantum gravity is expected to remove the classical singularity that arises as the end state of gravitational collapse. To investigate this, we work with a toy model of a collapsing homogeneous scalar field. We show that nonperturbative semiclassical effects of loop quantum gravity cause a bounce and remove the black hole singularity. Furthermore, we find a critical threshold scale below which no horizon forms: quantum gravity may exclude very small astrophysical black holes.