Au2(SeO3)2(SeO4): synthesis and characterization of a new noncentrosymmetric selenite-selenate

The reaction of elemental gold and selenic acid in Teflon-lined steel autoclaves leads to orange-yellow single crystals of Au2(SeO3)2(SeO4) (orthorhombic, Z = 4, Cmc2(1) (No. 36), a = 1689.1(3) pm, b = 630.13(8) pm, c = 832.7(1) pm, V = 886.2(2) angstroms3, Rall = 0.0452). In the crystal structure, Au3+ is surrounded by four oxygen atoms of just as many monodentate SeO3(2-) ions in a square planar manner. The linkage of the polyhedra leads to double chains in the [001] direction which are connected to puckered layers by SeO4(2-) groups. The noncentrosymmetric space group could be proved by the observation of an SHG effect upon irridation at 1064 nm that shows an efficiency of about 43% compared to a KDP reference. Upon heating, Au2(SeO3)2(SeO4) decomposes at about 370 degrees C in one step yielding elemental gold. The presence of selenite and selenate groups in the compounds is also obvious from the IR and Raman spectra which show the characteristic bands of both species. Furthermore, solid-state NMR spectra reveal the different surroundings of the selenium atoms in the compound.     

A Boolean matrix iteration in timetable construction

The annoying experience in timetable construction is that usually a complete timetable cannot be found without violating or diminishing some preconditions, even if the problem is theoretically solvable. Neither the control of the Hall conditions by Gotlieb's process of reducing availabilities nor the application of elaborate exchange operations guarantees a solution. In this paper an iteration of elementary implications is described which is expected to improve this situation, if applied in the final period of construction. In the course of these investigations, some formulas on Boolean matrices are derived, and a Galois connection between sets of Boolean vectors and Boolean matrices is exhibited.     

ISOL beams of hafnium isotopes and isomers

The production of ISOL beams of hafnium is described. Radioactive Hf isotopes were produced at ISOLDE by 1.4 GeV proton-induced spallation in Ta and W foils. Chemical evaporation in form of HfF₄ and mass separation in the molecular sideband HfF₃⁺ after electron impact ionization provided intense and pure beams. Beams of ^158-185Hf and short-lived isomers down to 1.1 s ^177mHf were observed, but the method could be extended to reach even more exotic isotopes: down to about ¹⁵⁴Hf (N=82) on the neutron-deficient side and up to neutron-rich ¹⁸⁸Hf.     

A TEM Investigation of Columnar-Structured Thermal Barrier Coatings Deposited by Plasma Spray-Physical Vapor Deposition (PS-PVD)

The plasma spray-physical vapor deposition technique (PS-PVD) is used to deposit various types of ceramic coatings. Due to the low operating pressure and high enthalpy transfer to the feedstock, deposition from the vapor phase is very effective. The particular process conditions allow for the deposition of columnar microstructures when applying thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). These coatings show a high strain tolerance similar to those obtained by electron beam-physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD). But compared to EB-PVD, PS-PVD allows significantly reducing process time and costs. The application-related properties of PS-PVD TBCs have been investigated in earlier work, where the high potential of the process was described and where the good resistance to thermo-mechanical loading conditions was reported. But until now, the elementary mechanisms which govern the material deposition have not been fully understood and it is not clear, how the columnar structure is built up. Shadowing effects and diffusion processes are assumed to contribute to the formation of columnar microstructures in classical PVD processing routes. For such structures, crystallographic textures are characteristic. For PS-PVD, however, no crystallographic textures could initially be found using X-ray diffraction. In this work a more detailed TEM investigations and further XRD measurements of the columnar PS-PVD microstructure were performed. The smallest build units of the columnar TBC structure are referred to as sub-columns. The observed semi-single crystal structure of individual sub-columns was analyzed by means of diffraction experiments. The absence of texture in PS-PVD coatings is confirmed and elementary nucleation and growth mechanisms are discussed.     

Ann-dimensional Borg-Levinson theorem

We show that the potentialq is uniquely determined by the spectrum, and boundary values of the normal derivatives of the eigenfunctions of the Schrödinger operator –+q with Dirichlet boundary conditions on a bounded domain in ⁿ . This and related results can be viewed as a direct generalization of the theorem in the title, which states that the spectrum and the norming constants determine the potential in the one dimensional case.Supported by NSF grant DMS-8602033Supported by NSF grant DMS-8600797Supported by NSF grant DMS-8601118 and an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship     

Recovery of singularities for formally determined inverse problems

In this paper we considered several formally determined problems in two dimensions. There are no global identifiability results for these problems. However, we can recover an important feature of these functions, namely their singularities. More precisely, we prove that one can determine the location and strength of singularities of anL compactly supported potential by knowing the associated scattering amplitude at a fixed energy. Also we prove that one can determine the location and strength of the singularities of the sound speed of a medium by making measurements just on the boundary of the medium.Partially supported by NSF grant DMS-9123742Partially supported by NSF grant DMS-9100178     

Characterization of alkyl polyglycosides by both reversed-phase and normal-phase modes of high-performance liquid chromatography

Alkyl polyglycosides today represent the most important sugar surfactant. Nonionic sugar surfactants produced via different synthetic routes are mixtures of alkyl homologues, oligomers, anomers and isomers. Alkyl homologues and oligomers of alkyl mono- and diglucosides were separated by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with methanol-water as the mobile phase using a gradient elution. The gradient was optimized in respect to a simultaneous separation of alkyl glycosides according to their alkyl chain length and alkyl polyoxyethylene glucosides with regard to their length of the polyoxyethylene spacer. The separation of alkyl glycosides into alpha- and beta-anomers was carried out by normal-phase HPLC with isooctane-ethyl acetate (60:40, v/v)-2-propanol in the gradient mode. Light scattering detection was used. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectra of alkyl glucosides and dodecyl glucosides with oxyethylene spacer groups are presented.