Experimental and theoretical assessment of Fe-doped indium-oxide-based dilute magnetic semiconductors

Specimens of iron-doped indium oxide (In_1-xFe_x)₂O₃ with x?=?0.015, 0.03, 0.045 and 0.06, amalgamated through a traditional solid-state reaction method followed by H₂/air sintering, were characterised using an X-ray diffractometer (XRD), a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to investigate their structural, magnetic and morphological properties respectively. According to XRD plots, all the specimens exhibit cubic bixbyite structures along with ancillary phases. Magnetic assessment showed that In₂O₃ has a negative susceptibility, exhibiting diamagnetic behaviour at room temperature. The doping of Fe ions induces ferromagnetic (FM) ordering, which is enhanced with increasing doping content. The strength of the magnetisation increases when the specimens are exposed to H₂ but is reduced on further air sintering. A bound magnetic polaron (BMP) model is successfully fitted to the observed FM data involving localised carriers and magnetic cations. A multivariate assessment viz. a hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) was used to corroborate and strengthen the experimental determined magnetic properties. A homogeneous particle distribution was observed in all SEM micrographs and is validated through MATLAB-based simulation by applying a watershed segmentation algorithm. Surface plots also confirm the change in magnetic properties with increase in doping concentration.     

Oxygen-sensitive 19F NMR imaging of the vascular system in vivo

The fluorine nuclear magnetic resonance spin-lattice relaxation rate (1/T1) of the perfluorochemical blood substitute perfluorotripropylamine (FTPA) is very sensitive to oxygen tension. This presents the possibility of measuring blood oxygen tension by 19F MR imaging. We obtained oxygen-sensitive 19F NMR images of the circulatory system of rats infused with emulsified FTPA. Blood oxygenation was assessed under conditions of both air- and 100% O2-breathing. T1 relaxation times were derived from MR images using a partial saturation pulse sequence. The T1 times were compared with a phantom calibration curve to calculate average blood pO2 values in the lung, liver, and spleen. The results showed marked, organ-specific increases in blood oxygen tension when the rat breathed 100% O2 instead of air.     

A self-consistent variation-perturbation theory for open shell atomic systems: Calculation of polarizabilities and shielding factors

In this paper a fully coupled variation-perturbation theory has been introduced for handling open-shell atomic systems in the presence of static perturbations. The static dipolar and quadrupolar polarizabilities and shielding factors for Li, Be⁺, B²⁺, B, C⁺, Na and Al have been calculated and compared with available results. Important sources of discrepancies in previous calculations of shielding factors have been noticed and critically examined. The dipolar shielding factors calculated in this paper show satisfactory agreement with the theoretical N/Z ratio. In the absence of any theoretical test for the quadrupolar shielding factor, the accuracy of the calculations of γ_∞, should be judged in the light of the accuracy of the corresponding β∞ values.     

Chelate formation of ammonium aurintricarboxy-late with bivalent copper : Physico-chemical investigation of the composition,structure and stability

The formation of a coloured chelate, having λmax at 540 mμ, between cupric ions and ammonium aurintricarboxylate has been reported. It has been concluded that only one complex having metal : reagent ratio of 1:2 is formed in solution. The method adopted for investigation has been the continuous variation method, using spectrophotometric and electrical conductance measurements. It has been observed that there is an increase in acidity on mixing the reactants, which shows that hydrogen ions are liberated as a result of chelation It has been suggested that chelation occurs between the phenolic oxygen and the adjacent carboxylic oxygen.A method has been presented for the calculation of formation constant from spectrophotometric data and the value of K in the case of the chelate investigated has been calculated to be 6.45.10⁸. The free energy of formation works out to be —14.6 kcal at 25°C.     

A new analytic approximation method for the non-zero angular momentum states of the Hulthén potential

We propose a new approximation scheme to obtain analytic expressions for the bond-state energies and eigenfunctions for any arbitrary bound nl-state of the Hulthén potential. The predicted energies E_nl are in excellent agreement with the perturbative results of Lai and Lin. The scope for an extension of the method to the continuum states is also discussed.     

Operational variables of size exclusion columns with semirigid and rigid packings

Systematic studies on operation variables affecting GPC separations using the semirigid Microstyragel (Waters Associates) and the rigid silica packings (DuPont) of about equivalent porosity are reported. The dependence of (a) flow rate, (b) injection volume, and (c) concentration on elution volume and theoretical plates are examined.