Optimization of Mass Transfer Processes in the Zone of the Air Electrode of a Fuel Cell with a Solid Polymer Electrolyte

A two-dimensional mathematical model for the transport of reactants in a fuel cell with a solid polymer electrolyte is developed. The model is used for analyzing spatial distributions of the concentration of reactants and current density over the cell. The effect of the catalytic-layer activity, reactant speed, bipolar-plate geometry, thickness and porosity of current collector and/or gas-diffusion sublayer, and the reaction mixture composition on the fuel cell efficiency is estimated theoretically and experimentally.     

Complexity of factorization and GCD computation for linear ordinary differential operators

This paper presents an algorithm of polynomial complexity for finding greatest common (right) divisors of families of linear ordinary differential operators. An algorithm is presented for factorization of operators into the product of irreducible operators with complexity significantly better than that of previously known algorithms. Estimates are given for the coefficients of the expansion of the fundamental solution of the corresponding linear differential equation.Translated from Zapiski Nauchnykh Seminarov Leningradskogo Otdeleniya Matematicheskogo Instituta im. V. A. Steklova Akademii Nauk SSSR, Vol. 176, pp. 68–103, 1989.     

Specific Features of Determining the Electrophysical Parameters of Variband CMT Structures Grown by Molecular-Beam Epitaxy

The effects of wide- and narrow- variband layers on the charge-carrier concentration and mobility in the MBE-grown epitaxial CMT structures measured by the Hall-effect method are studied by numerical simulation. The dependence of the relative difference between the experimentally obtained effective values of electrophysical parameters and those of an epitaxial coating on the variband-layer characteristics is discussed. An analysis of this dependence shows that the manner in which the broad-band and narrow-band layers affect the resulting parameters is inequivalent. The calculations suggest that the effect of the wide-band layer on the experimental electrophysical parameters can be neglected. In the case of the narrow variband layer, however, the difference between the electophysical parameters strongly depends on the variband-layer parameters and the concentrations of ionized donor and acceptor centers.     

Nitroxides with two pK values--useful spin probes for pH monitoring within a broad range

A series of 4-dialkylamino-2,5-dihydroimidazole nitroxides with pyridine-4-yl, 4-dimethylaminophenyl or 4-hydroxyphenyl groups in position 2 of the imidazole ring were prepared using the reaction of RMgBr with corresponding 5-dialkylamino-4,4-dimethyl-4H-imidazole 3-oxides. The EPR spectra of the nitroxides were shown to be pH-sensitive due to consecutive protonation of the amidino moiety and the basic group(s) at position 2 of the imidazole ring. The 5,5-dimethyl-4-(dimethylamino)-2-ethyl-2-pyridine-4-yl-2,5-dihydro-1H-imidazol-1-oxyl showed a monotonic increase in the isotropic nitrogen hyperfine (hfi) coupling constant alpha(N) of 1 .4 G over a pH range from 2 to 6.5. Such a broad range of pH-sensitivity could be useful for many biophysical and biomedical applications, including pH-monitoring in the stomach.     

Comparison of reactivities of 1- and 4-oxotetrahydrocarbazoles in reactions with nucleophilic and electrophilic reagents

The half-wave potentials of polarographic reduction of the carbonyl group in unsubstituted and N-methyl- and N-phenylsulfonyl-substituted 1- and 4-oxotetrahydrocarbazoles and their reactivities in reactions with nucleophilic (NaBH₄, malonodinitrile, and cyanoacetamide) and electrophilic (DMF dimethyl acetal) reagents were compared. 4-Oxotetrahydrocarbazoles are much less reactive than 1-oxotetrahydrocarbazoles. __________ Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 8, pp. 1832–1836, August, 2005.