Influence of K<Subscript>2</Subscript>Ti<Subscript>6</Subscript>O<Subscript>13</Subscript> on dielectric and barrier properties of polymer

Polymer composite comprising polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and potassium hexatitante (K₂Ti₆O₁₃) was synthesized by solution casting. The effect of K₂Ti₆O₁₃ on surface, thermal, and electrical properties of polymer composite were investigated. The addition of K₂Ti₆O₁₃ with polymer leads to thermal degradation and transition of polymer composite from semi-crystalline to amorphous phase. The optimum results of contact angle for different loading wt% of K₂Ti₆O₁₃ were directly correlated with the surface morphology. Our experimental results confirmed the incorporation of K₂Ti₆O₁₃ in polymer by SEM micrographs. The evaluated dielectric properties (ε' = 424; tan δ = 2.14 at 130 °C and 100 Hz frequency for 20 wt% loading of K₂Ti₆O₁₃) for polymer composite are higher in compared to pure polymer. The enhancement in dielectric constant and changing the surface properties of polymer composite can be used for the development of electrochemical storage device applications.     

Effect of finite energy of intravalley acoustic phonons on the temperature of non-equilibrium electrons in a quantum surface

The effect of finite energy of intravalley acoustic phonons on the electric field dependence of the temperature of the non-equilibrium carriers in a quantum surface has been studied here. The calculations have been made, for a rather pure material, at low lattice temperature. Numerical results are obtained for GaAs and Si. The results are interesting being significantly different from what one obtains by neglecting the phonon energy.     

A total synthesis of the methyl glycoside of ganglioside GM(1)

The total synthesis of the methyl glycoside of GM(1) (1b) has been accomplished. The key step in the synthesis involves the sulfonamidoglycosidation reaction, which is used to create a beta-linkage leading to a GalNAc residue joined to the C4 hydroxyl group of a galactose unit of a C3 sialylated lactosyl moiety. The "proximal hydroxyl" directing effect, which has been postulated before, manifests in this context as well leading to the preponderant formation of the beta-glycoside. Together with asialo GM(1) and other substructures, the GM(1) methyl glycoside has been submitted for biological assays as potential ligands for bacterial and viral infection sites.     

On a Theorem of Dubins and Freedman

Under a notion of splitting the existence of a unique invariant probability, and a geometric rate of convergence to it in an appropriate metric, are established for Markov processes on a general state space S generated by iterations of i.i.d. maps on S. As corollaries we derive extensions of earlier results of Dubins and Freedman;⁽¹⁷⁾ Yahav;⁽³⁰⁾ and Bhattacharya and Lee⁽⁶⁾ for monotone maps. The general theorem applies in other contexts as well. It is also shown that the Dubins–Freedman result on the necessity of splitting in the case of increasing maps does not hold for decreasing maps, although the sufficiency part holds for both. In addition, the asymptotic stationarity of the process generated by i.i.d. nondecreasing maps is established without the requirement of continuity. Finally, the theory is applied to the random iteration of two (nonmonotone) quadratic maps each with two repelling fixed points and an attractive period-two orbit.     

Preparation and analysis of zirconia doped ceria nanocrystal dispersions

Crystalline and highly dispersible solid solutions with the general formula Ce_1−xZr_xO_2−δ, where δ represents any possible oxygen vacancies, and in the ceria rich region were prepared using an inorganic sol-gel technique. The particle size distributions of the transparent sols were measured using photon correlation spectroscopy and found to be les than 25 nm with narrow distributions. Compositional analysis using EDAX confirmed the correct zirconia doping. Lattice parameters, structural and crystallite size data for the dried sols and heated powders using X-ray diffraction confirmed a cubic structure stable to at least 1000°C with crystallite sizes varying from 34 Å to 55 nm, depending on calcination temperature and composition. Dispersions of the nanocrystals on silica were studied using high resolution TEM/EDAX, the structure and compositions of individual nanocrystals closely matching those of the bulk agglomerated powders, showing exceptional homogeneity.     

A Variational Principle for Thermodynamical Waves

When the dissipative processes are dominant in the system, the assumption of local equilibrium holds good and the space time evolution of irreversible system can be described by the variational principle of GYARMATI. However when imposed changes in the state variables are fast, the system can not be in a state of local equilibrium and to define the nonequilibrium state of the system it is necessary to extend the formalism of classical irreversible thermodynamics. The wave approach of Onsagerian thermodynamics is one such pursuit and is a direct generalization of the original Onsager-Machlup proposition. An important consequence of this theory is that it leads to transport equations with finite propagation velocities, which are referred to as thermodynamical waves. In this note we endeavour to write the appropriate form of GYARMATI'S variational principle for thermodynamical waves.     

Effect of structural misalignments on the temperature variation of basal plane electrical conductivity of graphite

The amount and extent of structural misaligments in natural graphite crystals have been determined, and the temperature variation of the basal plane electrical conductivity (σ_⊥) of naturally occurring graphite has also been studied from 300 to 90 K. The conductivity (σ_⊥) has been found to obey a law σ_⊥α($\text{1}\text{T}$) down to a certain temperature θ (θ varying from sample to sample), below which the variation deviates from linearity towards lower values of σ_⊥. This behaviour, which was earlier thought to be a characteristic of graphite and whose origin could not be traced, has been shown to be an effect of the structural misalignments usually present in natural samples of graphite.