Superconductivity in the intermetallic compound YRhAl

The intermetallic compound, YRhAl, has been prepared and is found to be isomorphic with RRhAl (R=Pr, Nd, Gd, Ho and Tm) compounds crystallizing in the orthorhombic TiNiSi-type structure (space group Pnma). Heat capacity and electrical resistivity measurements in the He-3 temperature range reveal that this compound is superconducting with a transition temperature, T_c, of 0.9 K. The electronic specific heat coefficient, γ, and the Debye temperature are found to be 6.1 mJ/mol K and 197 K, respectively. The specific heat jump at the superconducting transition is found to be consistent with the BCS weak-coupling limit. This combined with the earlier observation of superconductivity in LaRhAl (T_c=2.4 K) having a different structure than that of YRhAl, suggests that the underlying structure is not very crucial for the occurrence of superconductivity in RRhAl series of compounds.     

Differentiation of species of the Baccharis genus by HPLC and chemometric methods.

Phytochemical investigation of the aerial parts of three Baccharis species (Asteraceae family) was performed using HPLC and chemometric methods, with the objective of distinguishing between three morphologically very similar species: Baccharis genistelloides Persoon var. trimera (Less.) DC, B. milleflora (Less.) DC and B. articulata (Lam.) Persoon. With the help of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and variance weights, it was possible to characterize the chromatographic profiles of the alcoholic extracts of the three species. Application of Soft Independent Modeling of Class Analogy (SIMCA) and K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) methods on a training set of 74 extracts resulted in models that correctly classified all eight samples in an independent test set.     

Graphitic nanofillers in PMMA nanocomposites—An investigation of particle size and dispersion and their influence on nanocomposite properties

Mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties of graphite/PMMA composites have been evaluated as functions of particle size and dispersion of the graphitic nanofiller components via the use of three different graphitic nanofillers: “as received graphite” (ARG), “expanded graphite,” (EG) and “graphite nanoplatelets” (GNPs) EG, a graphitic materials with much lower density than ARG, was prepared from ARG flakes via an acid intercalation and thermal expansion. Subsequent sonication of EG in a liquid yielded GNPs as thin stacks of graphitic platelets with thicknesses of ～10 nm. Solution‐based processing was used to prepare PMMA composites with these three fillers. Dynamic mechanical analysis, thermal analysis, and electrical impedance measurements were carried out on the resulting composites, demonstrating that reduced particle size, high surface area, and increased surface roughness can significantly alter the graphite/polymer interface and enhance the mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties of the polymer matrix. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 45: 2097–2112, 2007     

The infrared spectra of the halogen isocyanate and thiocyanate vapor molecules

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy has been used to investigate the IR spectra of the XNCO (X = Cl, Br, I, CN), the XSCN (X = Cl, Br, I) and the NCNCS vapor molecules from 4800 to 400 cm⁻¹. Vibrational frequencies have been determined for each normal mode of vibration in each molecule in this region.     

Stagnation flow on a cylinder with partial slip--an exact solution of the Navier-Stokes equations

The stagnation slip flow on an axially moving cylinder is studied.The Navier–Stokes and energy equations reduce to nonlinearordinary differential equations under a similarity transform.For large slip, the flow field decays exponentially into potentialflow. The heat transfer can be expressed as an incomplete gammafunction. In general, the heat transfer increases with slip,Prandtl number and Reynolds number.     

A note on the Lyapunov equation for discrete linear systems in Hilbert space

It is given a simple and unified new proof for the following well-known stability condition: an infinite-dimensional time-invariant discrete linear system is uniformly asymptotically stable if and only if the associate Lyapunov equation has a unique strictly positive solution. The proof is partially based on an application of Rota's model construction technique.     

Viscometric properties of dilute polystyrene/dioctyl phthalate solutions

We report viscometric data collected in a Couette rheometry on dilute, single‐solvent polystyrene (PS)/dioctyl phthalate (DOP) solutions over a variety of polymer molecular weights (5.5 × 10⁵ ≤ M_w ≤ 3.0 × 10⁶ Da) and system temperatures (288 K ≤ T ≤ 318 K). In view of the essential viscometric features, the current data may be classified into three categories: The first concerns all the investigated solutions at low shear rates, where the solution properties are found to agree excellently with the Zimm model predictions. The second includes all sample solutions, except for high‐molecular‐weight PS samples (M_w ≥ 2.0 × 10⁶ Da), where excellent time–temperature superposition is observed for the steady‐state polymer viscosity at constant polymer molecular weights. No similar superposition applies at a constant temperature but varied polymer molecular weights, however. The third appears to be characteristic of dilute high‐molecular‐weight polymer solutions, for which the effects of temperature on the viscosity curve are further complicated at high shear rates. The implications concerning the relative importance of hydrodynamic interactions, segmental interactions, and chain extensibility with increasing polymer molecular weight, system temperature, and shear rate are discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 787–794, 2006