Structural,magnetic and Mössbauer spectral studies of nanosize aluminum substituted nickel zinc ferrites

Nanosize aluminum substituted nickel zinc ferrites were prepared through aerosol route and characterized using TEM, XRD, magnetic measurements and Mössbauer spectroscopy. The particle size of as obtained samples was found to be ∼10 nm which increases up to ∼85 nm upon annealing at 1200 °C. The unit cell parameter ‘a’ decreases linearly with concentration of aluminum due to the small ionic radius of aluminum. The saturation magnetization for all the samples after annealing at 1200 °C lies in the range 12.9–72.6 emu/g and decreases linearly with concentration of aluminum. Room temperature Mössbauer spectra of all as obtained samples of ferrite compositions exhibited a broad doublet suggesting super paramagnetic nature. This doublet is further resolved into two doublets and assigned to the surface region and internal region atoms of the particles. The samples annealed at 1200 °C show broad sextets, which were fitted with five sextets, indicating different local environment of both tetrahedrally and octahedrally coordinated Fe cation.     

Spin crossover studies in tris(N,N′-dialkyldithiocarbamato)iron(III) complexes

A series of fifteen complexes of the type [Fe(RRNCS₂)₃] with symmetric (R=R=n- C₆H₁₃, n-C₈H₁₇, CH₂–CH=;CH₂, C₆H₅, C₆H₁₁ and C₆H₅CH₂), unsymmetric (R = CH₃; R = n-C₄H₉, C₆H₁₁, C₆H₅ and R = C₂H₅; R = n-C₄H₉, C₆H₁₁, C₆H₅ and i-C₃H₇) and ring substituents (RNR=pyrrolidyl and piperidyl) have been synthesized and their magnetic moments and Mössbauer spectra recorded from room temperature (RT) to liquid nitrogen temperature (LNT). Room temperature Mössbauer spectra of all the complexes exhibit an asymmetric doublet, which could be resolved into two doublets, each corresponding to low and high spin states in equilibrium. The crystal structure of tris(N, N-diallyldithiocarbamato)iron(III) shows it to be monoclinic with trigonally distorted octahedral geometry and space group C2/c. Fe–S stretching vibrations in the far i.r. region also show equilibria, HS LS. Depending on the nature of the alkyl group substituent, variable temperature magnetic moment and Mössbauer spectral studies, all the complexes may be divided into three groups; high spin complexes exhibiting spin-crossover (⁶A_1g ²T_2g), high spin complexes exhibiting spin transition (⁶A_1g ⁴T_1g) and intermediate spin complexes showing spin transition (⁴A_1g ²T_2g). On the basis of areas of the two doublets corresponding to high and low spin states, their percent contributions were calculated. Furthermore, magnetic moments of the equilibrium mixture calculated on the basis of respective areas compare well with the experimentally determined _eff values. E_Q values for both high and low spin states show linear decrease with increasing temperature.     

Preparation and characterization of nanosize nickel-substituted cobalt ferrites (Co1−xNixFe2O4)

Nanosize nickel-substituted cobalt ferrites were prepared using aerosol route and characterized by TEM, XRD, magnetic and Mössbauer spectroscopy. The particle size of as obtained samples was found to be ∼10 nm which increases upto ∼80 nm on annealing at 1200 °C. The unit cell parameter ‘a’ decreases linearly with the nickel concentration due to smaller ionic radius of nickel. The saturation magnetization for all the samples after annealing at 1200 °C lies in the range 47.6-84.5 emu/g. Room temperature Mössbauer spectra of as obtained samples exhibit a broad doublet, suggesting super paramagnetic nature of the sample. The broad doublet is further resolved into two doublets corresponding to the iron atoms residing at the surface and internal regions of the particle. The samples annealed at 1200 °C showed broad sextet, which is resolved into two sextets, corresponding to tetrahedrally and octahedrally coordinated Fe cations. Cation distribution calculated using XRD and Mössbauer data indicates a decrease in Fe³⁺(oct.)/Fe³⁺(tet.) ratio with increasing nickel concentration.     

Trash GGBFS-based geopolymer as a novel sunlight-responsive photocatalyst for dye discolouration

In this study, we report a waste material-ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) as a low cost geopolymer, hybridised with ZnO to form a novel and efficient photocatalyst capable of discolouring textile wastewater. GGBFS is a waste material in an iron industry. Methylene blue was used as the probe dye and natural sunlight was used for activation of the photocatalyst. It was observed that under the experimental conditions, ZnGP-40 exhibited twice the discoloration efficiency than conventionally used ZnO or TiO₂. This enhanced performance is majorly attributed to increased surface area of ZnO when strewn in the GGBFS matrix. The photocatalysts were characterized by SEM, TEM, PSA, TGA, BET and UV–Vis/NIR. The effect of photocatalyst loading, speed of agitation and solar insolation has also been studied. Since this study has been performed in direct sunlight, it exhibits a realizable application of solar energy in the treatment of wastewater.     

Kaolin-catalysed one-pot synthesis of thiophene containing aminonaphthols under solvent-free condition and their in vitro anticancer and antioxidant activity

Research on Chemical Intermediates - An efficient and eco-friendly synthetic protocol via a one-pot three-component reaction to yield thiophene containing aminonaphthols (Betti bases) is reported....     

Cyclodehydration of 1,4-butanediol catalyzed by metal(IV) phosphates

Metal(IV) phosphates of tin, zirconium and titanium in different morphological forms, viz. amorphous, calcined and crystalline, have been used as catalysts for selective cyclodehydration of 1,4-butanediol to tetrahydrofuran. A comparative study of the three catalysts for the above reaction has been carried out to understand the effect of their composition and morphology on the catalytic activity.     

Quantum effects in a homogeneous dust cloud collapse

The status of a classical space-time singularity, when quantum effects are taken into account, has remained a matter of intense interest ever since the epochmaking paper of DeWitt [1] on quantum gravity. We examine here the evolution of quantum fluctuations in the vicinity of the singularity arising out of the classical collapse of a homogeneous dust cloud. As opposed to the pathintegral method used to quantize the conformal degree of freedom (see, e.g., [3] or [4]), we use here the traditional operator approach to the quantum theory which is much more direct and appealing while achieving an additional generalization that the wave function of the system is assumed to have a completely general form. It is shown that the quantum uncertainty diverges in the limit of approach to the classically singular epoch and that nonsingular, nonclassical states can occur with finite probability.     

Critical and phase-equilibrium properties of an ab initio based potential model of methanol and 1-propanol using two-phase molecular dynamics simulations

Two-phase molecular dynamics simulations employing a Monte Carlo volume sampling method were performed using an ab initio based force field model parameterized to reproduce quantum-mechanical dimer energies for methanol and 1-propanol at temperatures approaching the critical temperature. The intermolecular potential models were used to obtain the binodal vapor-liquid phase dome at temperatures to within about 10 K of the critical temperature. The efficacy of two all-atom, site-site pair potential models, developed solely from the energy landscape obtained from high-level ab initio pair interactions, was tested for the first time. The first model was regressed from the ab initio landscape without point charges using a modified Morse potential to model the complete interactions; the second model included point charges to separate Coulombic and dispersion interactions. Both models produced equivalent phase domes and critical loci. The model results for the critical temperature, density, and pressure, in addition to the sub-critical equilibrium vapor and liquid densities and vapor pressures, are compared to experimental data. The model's critical temperature for methanol is 77 K too high while that for 1-propanol is 80 K too low, but the critical densities are in good agreement. These differences are likely attributable to the lack of multi-body interactions in the true pair potential models used here.     

Rapid classification of protein structure models using unassigned backbone RDCs and probability density profile analysis (PDPA)

A method of identifying the best structural model for a protein of unknown structure from a list of structural candidates using unassigned 15N1H residual dipolar coupling (RDC) data and probability density profile analysis (PDPA) is described. Ten candidate structures have been obtained for the structural genomics target protein PF2048.1 using ROBETTA. 15N1H residual dipolar couplings have been measured from NMR spectra of the protein in two alignment media and these data have been analyzed using PDPA to rank the models in terms of their ability to represent the actual structure. A number of advantages in using this method to characterize a protein structure become apparent. RDCs can easily and rapidly be acquired, and without the need for assignment, the cost and duration of data acquisition is greatly reduced. The approach is quite robust with respect to imprecise and missing data. In the case of PF2048.1, a 79 residue protein, only 58 and 55 of the total RDC data were observed. The method can accelerate structure determination at higher resolution using traditional NMR spectroscopy by providing a starting point for the addition of NOEs and other NMR structural data.     

Specific Molecular Interactions of Dihydropyridine Moiety in Polar and Non-Polar Solvents at Various Concentrations and Temperatures 303–318 K on Ultrasonic Data

Russian Journal of Physical Chemistry A - Ultrasonic studies of compounds of dihydropyridine series in polar and non-polar solvents at various concentrations and temperatures 303–318 K....