Tuning the magnetic and electric behavior of lithium ferrite using an eco-friendly pectin sol-gel route

Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology - Lithium ferrite (LiFe5O8) in the cubic crystal system is a very important and versatile material for several technological applications as it possesses...     

Possible observation of Kondo screening cloud in Yb14MnSb11 *

ABSTRACT

Single crystals of the underscreened Kondo ferromagnet Yb₁₄MnSb₁₁ were investigated using polarised neutron diffraction and magnetisation measurements. The magnitude and direction of the magnetisation at each of the 9 distinct crystallographic sites was measured using polarised neutron diffraction. A large moment of close to 4.2?μ_B was found at the unique Mn site. A compensating antiferromagnetic moment of ≈?0.5?μ_B was found to be distributed uniformly among the remaining Yb and Sb sites, which was not expected from a previous theoretical calculation. The compensating magnetisation, however, is consistent both in size and magnitude with the expected Kondo screening cloud.     

Vacuum Polarization Tensor for QED in the Light Front Gauge

The use of light front coordinates in quantum field theories (QFT) always brought some problems and controversies. In this work we explore some aspects of its formalism with respect to the employment of dimensional regularization in the computation of the photon’s self-energy at the one-loop level and how the fermion propagator has an important role in the outcoming results.     

Preparation and characterization of 5,10,15,20‐tetraphenylporphyrin Langmuir films for gas chemsensor applications

In this work is reported the preparation and characterization of 5,10,15,20‐tetraphenylporphyrin (H₂TPP) films at the water‐air interfaces. The surface pressure‐area isotherms (π‐A) and UV‐Vis spectroscopy were used to investigate the effect of the spreading methods and parameters on the porphyrin monolayer formation. Also, Langmuir‐Blodgett (LB) and Langmuir‐Schaefer (LS) films were deposited onto glass substrates in order to study the conformation changes in porphyrin molecular packing. Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) was utilized as the active solid substrate for the development of the NO₂ gas sensor based on the H₂TPP molecular films. The results of π‐A curves have clearly shown the significant contribution of the preparation methods and processing parameters on the conformation of porphyrin molecular films. The UV‐Vis spectroscopy results using polarized absorption dichroism have indicated different molecular packing for porphyrin films deposited by LB and LS methods, with relative tilted angles of 50° ± 5° and 35° ± 5°, respectively. Moreover, the QCM response has given strong evidence that H₂TPP porphyrin molecular films have performed as NO₂ chemsensor. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparative study of the oxidative and thermal stability of vegetable oils to be used as lubricant bases

Demand for lubricating oils is increasing in the growing Brazilian economy. The use of vegetable bases in exchange of minerals can bring socio-economic and environmental benefits for Brazil. The purpose of this study is to compare the thermal and oxidative stability of vegetable oils related to the bases commonly used as lubricants. In this study, thermogravimetric analysis of castor oil, cotton oil, macauba’s almond oil, passion oil, paraffinic mineral oil, naphthenic oil (NH-140) and synthetic oil (Etro) was performed in inert and oxidative atmosphere to study the thermal and oxidative degradation of the vegetable oils related to the most common lubricants’ oils base. These oils’ oxidation stability were determined by standard procedures (ISO 6886). The use of mineral oil’s additives in these vegetable oils was tested to verify the viability of these additives to improve the oxidative stability of the vegetable oils. The castor oil and the cotton oil presented results of thermal analysis similar to the mineral and synthetic bases values. The castor oil was the only vegetable oil that showed a great oxidative stability. All other vegetable oils had their oxidative stability significantly increased by the additives.     

The effect of three-body interactions on thermal desorption spectra

Thermal desorption spectra are calculated for a one-dimensional chain and for a two-dimensional square lattice using the transfer-matrix technique and Monte Carlo simulations. Lateral interactions of adsorbed particles cause a splitting of spectra. The repulsive three-body interactions are shown to lead to an inequality of the integral intensities of the thermal desorption peaks.