Structural,compositional and hardness properties of hydrogenated amorphous carbon nitride thin films synthesized by dense plasma focus device

The hydrogenated amorphous carbon nitride (a‐CN_x:H) thin films were synthesized on the SS‐304 substrates using a dense plasma focus device. The a‐CN_x:H thin films were synthesized using CH₄/N₂ admixture gas and 20 focus deposition shots on substrates placed at different distances from the anode top. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman analysis confirmed different C–N bonding in the a‐CN_x:H thin films. A decrease in the N/C ratio as well as the sp³/sp² ratio with an increase in the substrate distance has been observed. The higher amount of C–N formation for the film synthesized at 10 cm is observed which decreases with increasing distance. The X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman analysis affirmed the C ≡ N presence in all the thin films synthesized at different distances. The morphology of the synthesized a‐CN_x:H thin films showed nanoparticles and nanoparticle clusters formation at the surface. The hardness results showed comparatively lower hardness of the a‐CN_x:H thin films due to the presence of C ≡ N. The C–N formation with lower amount of C ≡ N and a higher N/C ratio as well as a higher sp³/sp² ratio for the films synthesized at 10 cm show reasonably higher hardness. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Super face d-antimagic labeling for disjoint union of toroidal fullerenes

The discovery of the fullerene molecules and related forms of carbon such as nanotubes has generated an explosion of activity in chemistry, physics, and materials science. Classical fullerene is an all-carbon molecule in which the atoms are arranged on a pseudospherical framework made up entirely of pentagons and hexagons. A toroidal fullerene (toroidal polyhex) is a cubic bipartite graph embedded on the torus such that each face is a hexagon. In this paper we examine the existence of entire labeling, where face-weights of all 6-sided faces of disjoint union of toroidal fullerenes form an arithmetic progression with common difference \(\hbox {d}\in \{1,2,3\}\).     

Transient flows of a second grade fluid

Exact analytical solutions for a class of unsteady unidirectional flows of an incompressible second-order fluid are constructed. The flows are generated impulsively from rest by motion of a plate or two plates or by sudden application of a pressure gradient. Expressions for velocity, flux and skin friction are obtained for both large and small times. It is found that large and small times solutions are dependent on the coefficient of viscoelasticity. The solutions corresponding to Newtonian fluids can be easily obtained from those for fluids of second order by letting the viscoelastic parameter to be zero.     

Peristaltic motion of a third-order fluid in a planar channel

In order to determine the characteristics of the peristaltic transport of shear thinning non-Newtonian materials, the motion of a third-order fluid in a planar channel having walls that are transversely displaced by an infinite, harmonic traveling wave of large wavelength and negligibly small Reynolds number was analyzed using a perturbation expansion in terms of a variant of the Deborah number. Within the range of validity of this analysis, we found the pumping rate of a shear-thinning fluid is less than that for a Newtonian fluid having a shear viscosity the same as the lower-limiting viscosity of the nonNewtonian material. Also, the space of variables for which trapping of a bolus of fluid occurs is reduced for the shear-thinning fluid investigated here.     

Synthesis and characterization of novel poly(1-naphthylamine)/zinc oxide nanocomposites: Application in catalytic degradation of methylene blue dye

The organic–inorganic poly(1-naphthylamine)/ZnO (PNA/ZnO) nanocomposites were synthesized by in situ chemical oxidative polymerization of 1-naphthylamine monomer and ZnO nanomaterials for the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye under visible light. The surface properties of PNA molecules were altered by adding the ZnO nanomaterials. The crystalline and the optical properties of PNA/ZnO nanocomposites were improved with the increased contents of ZnO nanomaterials in PNA molecules due to the effective interaction of PNA to the surface of ZnO nanomaterials. The prepared PNA/ZnO nanocomposites presented moderate photocatalytic MB dye degradation of ~22% under visible light. The occurrence of dye degradation under visible light might attribute to high-charge separation of ē-h⁺ pairs at the interfaces of PNA and ZnO nanomaterials in its excited state under light irradiation.     

Two New Disulfated Triterpenoids from Zygophyllum fabago

From the aerial parts of Zygophyllum fabago, two new monosodium salts of sulfated derivatives of ursolic acid, along with two known quinovic acid glycosides were isolated. The structures of the new compounds were determined as (3β,4α)‐3,23,30‐trihydroxyurs‐20‐en‐28‐al 3,23‐di(sulfate) sodium salt (1 : 1) ( 1 ) and of (3β,4α)‐3,23,28‐trihydroxyurs‐20‐en‐30‐yl β‐D ‐glucopyranoside 3,23‐di(sulfate) sodium salt (1 : 1) ( 2 ) with the molecular formula C₃₀H₄₇NaO₁₀S₂ and C₃₆H₅₉NaO₁₅S₂, respectively. The structures of the known compounds were 3‐O‐(2‐O‐sulfo‐β‐D ‐quinovopyranosyl)quinovic acid 28‐β‐D ‐glucopyranosyl ester ( 3 ) and 3‐O‐(β‐D ‐glucopyranosyl)quinovic acid 28‐β‐D ‐glucopyranosyl ester ( 4 ) (quinovic acid=(3β)‐3‐hydroxyurs‐12‐ene‐27,28‐dioic acid). The structures of all these compounds were determined by using 1D‐ and 2D‐NMR spectroscopic techniques.     

Thermal studies of DBSA-doped polyaniline/PVC blends by isothermal microcalorimetry

A series of blends of dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid (DBSA)-doped polyaniline (PANDR) and PVC were synthesized by solution blending technique and investigated by heatflow microcalorimetry (HFC) for thermal and oxidative stability and for PVC–PANDR compatibility. FTIR results provided evidence for strong dipole–dipole interactions between PANDR and PVC. The energy of the oxidation is independent of the composition. The interaction energy and thermal stability increased with the increase of PANDR content in the blend. The activation energies calculated by using Arrhenius relationship can be employed for accelerated ageing of the synthesized blends. It has been observed that the average degradation of PANDR component is higher than that of PVC.     

Catalytic role of gemini surfactant micelles in the ninhydrin-L-isoleucine reaction

Effect of dicationic gemini surfactants C₁₆H₃₃(CH₃)₂N⁺-(CH₂) _s -N⁺(CH₃)₂C₁₆H₃₃, 2Br⁻ (where s = 4, 5, 6) on the reaction of ninhydrin with L-isoleucine has been investigated spectrophotometrically as a function of [gemini], [L-isoleucine], [ninhydrin], and pH. The reaction follows first- and fractional-order kinetics, respectively, in [L-isoleucine] and [ninhydrin]. The gemini surfactant micellar media are found more effective for the reaction than their conventional monomeric counterpart CTAB. Furthermore, whereas typical rate constant (k _ψ) increase and leveling-off regions are observed with CTAB and geminis, the latter produce a third region of increasing k _ψ at concentrations ≥ 60 cmc’s. ¹H NMR studies reveal that this unusual third-region effect of the geminis is due to changes in their micellar morphologies. Quantitative kinetic analysis has been performed on the basis of modified pseudo-phase model.     

Improved electrical parameters of vacuum annealed Ni/4H-SiC (0 0 0 1) Schottky barrier diode

The reported work has been focused on the improvement of electrical parameters of Schottky diode using vacuum annealing at mild temperature in Ar gas ambient. Nickel Schottky barrier diodes were fabricated on 50 μm epitaxial layer of n-type 4H-SiC (0 0 0 1) substrate. The values of leakage current, Schottky barrier height (?_B), ideality factor (η) and density of interface states (N_SS) were obtained from experimentally measured current–voltage (I–V) and capacitance–voltage (C–V) characteristics before and after vacuum annealing treatment. The data revealed that ?_B, η and reverse leakage current for the as-processed diodes are 1.25 eV, 1.6 and 1.2 nA (at ?100 V), respectively, while for vacuum annealed diodes these parameters are 1.36 eV, 1.3 and 900 pA (at same reverse voltage). Improved characteristics have been resulted under the influence of vacuum annealing because of lesser number of minority carrier generation due to incessant reduction of number of available discrete energy levels in the bandgap of 4H-SiC substrate and lesser number of interface states density at Ni/4H-SiC (0 0 0 1) interface.     

Using conformationally locked nucleosides to calibrate the anomeric effect: Implications for glycosyl bond stability

Steric and electronic parameters, such as the anomeric effect (AE) and gauche effect play significant roles in steering the North⇆South equilibrium of nucleosides in solution.Two isomeric oxa-bicyclo[3.1.0]hexane nucleosides that are conformationally locked in either the North or the South conformation of the pseudorotational cycle were designed to study the consequences of having the AE operational or not, independent of other parameters. The rigidity of the system allowed the orientation of the orbitals involved to be set in ‘fixed’ relationships, either antiperiplanar where the AE is permanently ‘on’, or gauche where the AE is impaired. The consequences of these two alternatives were subjected to high-level calculations and measured experimentally by X-ray crystallography, hydrolytic stability of the glycosyl bond, and pK_a values.