Detecting small flaws near the interface in pulse-echo

Flaw detection near the interface surface is a common problem in many pulse-echo NDT applications due to interference with the interface echo, orders of magnitude above the flaw echoes. Several digital signal processing techniques like deconvolution, Hilbert transform and cepstrum analysis have been proposed to improve axial resolution. However, they require strict linearity, which takes a large portion of the system dynamic range just to fit the interface echo, thus reducing the dynamic range available for flaw detection. This work presents a new alternative based on the time-domain phase analysis of the received signals. Differently from conventional approaches, it works quite well with saturated signals resulting when a high gain is applied to detect small flaws. These can be detected in a range of a fraction of one wavelength from the interface surface, even using narrow-band transducers, as it has been experimentally verified. The method can be easily hardware implemented for real-time processing.     

Rapid crack growth in a thermoelastic solid under mixed-mode thermomechanical loading

A two-dimensional steady-sate analysis of semi-infinite brittlecrack growth at a constant subcritical rate in an unboundedfully-coupled thermoelastic solid under mixed-mode thermomechanicalloading is made. The loading consists of normal and shear tractionsand heat fluxes applied as point sources (line loads in theout-of-plane direction). A related problem is solved exactly in an integral transformspace, and robust asymptotic forms used to reduce the originalproblem to a set of integral equations. The equations are partiallycoupled and exhibit operators of both Cauchy and Abel types,yet can be solved analytically. The temperature change field at a distance from the moving crackedge is then constructed, and its dominant term is found tobe controlled by the imposed heat fluxes. The role of this termis, indeed, enhanced if the heat fluxes serve to render thecrack as a net heat source/sink for the solid, as opposed tobeing a transmitter of heat across its plane. More generally,the influence of the thermoelastic coupling on this field, aswell as other functions, is found to increase with crack speed.     

Luminescence polarization spectroscopy study of functionalized carbon nanotubes in a polymeric matrix

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) were well-functionalized for a study of their defect-derived luminescence properties. The soluble nanotube sample was homogeneously dispersed in poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) films via solution-phase mixing and then wet-casting. The PVA films embedded with the functionalized SWNTs were strongly luminescent according to spectroscopic and confocal microscopic results. The luminescence from the films was highly polarized, with the observed anisotropy value approaching the limit for collinear absorption and emission dipole moments. The films were mechanically stretched to align the embedded nanotubes, and results from luminescence measurements of the stretched films suggested that the excitation was strongly in favor of the direction along the nanotube axis. Mechanistic implications of the polarization spectroscopy results for the luminescent functionalized nanotubes in the polymeric matrix with and without the mechanic alignment are discussed.     

Quantum-sized carbon dots for bright and colorful photoluminescence

We report that nanoscale carbon particles (carbon dots) upon simple surface passivation are strongly photoluminescent in both solution and the solid state. The luminescence emission of the carbon dots is stable against photobleaching, and there is no blinking effect. These strongly emissive carbon dots may find applications similar to or beyond those of their widely pursued silicon counterparts.     

Efficient quenching of photoluminescence from functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes by nitroaromatic molecules

The photoluminescence from functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes was found to be highly sensitive to the presence of nitroaromatic compounds such as nitrobenzene, 4-nitrotoluene, and 2,4-dinitrotoluene. The strong luminescence quenching in solution was at the upper limit of diffusion-control and also showed significant static quenching contributions. Mechanistic implication of the results and potential applications are discussed.     

Synthetic magnetic opals

We present studies of novel nanocomposites of BiNi impregnated into the structure of opals as well as inverse opals. Atomic force microscopy and high resolution elemental analyses show a highly ordered structure and uniform distribution of the BiNi filler in the matrix. These BiNi-based nanocomposites are found to exhibit distinct ferromagnetic-like ordering with transition temperature of about 675 K. As far as we know there exists no report in literature on any BiNi compound which is magnetic.     

Memory effect in carbon quantum DOT–PEG1500N composites

Electrical measurements performed on films of bare carbon quantum dots (CQDs) as well as of CQD functionalized with PEG_1500N deposited on interdigitated electrodes reveal a significant resistance hysteresis. At room temperature, both systems present a stable memory effect after a large number of cycles, fact associated with the removal of shallow trapping states after the thermal treatment of bare and passivated CQDs films. Temperature analysis of transport properties shows that CQDs functionalized with PEG_1500N present a stable hysteresis as the temperature increases, in contrast to the hysteresis of bare CQD films, which disappears at high temperatures. Several transport mechanisms responsible for the electrical behavior of these systems were analyzed and the role of PEG_1500N as a passivation shell was discussed.     

Preparation, Characterization, and Evaluation of Immuno Carbon Nanotubes

Single-walled and multiple-walled carbon nanotubes were functionalized with bovine serum albumin protein to attain aqueous solubility and biocompatibility. These aqueous soluble carbon nanotube-protein conjugates were further conjugated with pathogen-specific antibody to form immuno carbon nanotubes. The experimental details on the conjugation and results from the characterization of the conjugates are presented. The potential of these immuno carbon nanotubes in the detection of pathogenic Escherichia coli O157:H7 was evaluated, and the evaluation results are discussed.     

Metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes for conductive nanocomposites

This article reports an unambiguous demonstration that bulk-separated metallic single-walled carbon nanotubes offer superior performance (consistently and substantially better than the as-produced nanotube sample) in conductive composites with poly(3-hexylthiophene) and also in transparent conductive coatings based on PEDOT:PSS. The results serve as a validation on the widely held view that the carbon nanotubes are competitive in various technologies currently dominated by conductive inorganic materials (such as indium tin oxide).