Impedance spectroscopy and investigation of conduction mechanism in BaMnO3 nanorods

BaMnO₃ nanorods were synthesized at 200 °C and atmospheric pressure using the composite-hydroxide mediated method. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy were used to investigate the structure, size, morphology, phase purity and elemental composition of BaMnO₃ nanorods. Electrical characterization of BaMnO₃ pellet was performed at 300-400 K and in the frequency range 200 Hz-2 MHz. Temperature dependence of AC conductivity suggests that the BaMnO₃ pellet behaves as a semiconducting material and conduction across the pellet can be explained by the correlated barrier hopping model. Impedance analysis was performed using the equivalent circuit model (R₁Q₁C₁)(R₂C₂) and it suggests a single relaxation process in the BaMnO₃ pellet at a particular temperature. The analysis reveals that the BaMnO₃ pellet behaves like an n-type semiconductor material due to the presence of oxygen vacancies and some disorder. Modulus spectroscopy also supports the impedance results.     

Electrogravitational stability of oscillating streaming fluid cylinder

The electrogravitational instability of on oscillating streaming fluid cylinder under the action of the selfgravitating, capillary and electrodynamic forces has been discussed. The model is governed by the Mathieu second order integro-differential equation. Some limiting cases are recovering from the present general one. The capillary force is destabilizing in a small axisymmetric domain 0<x<1 and stabilizing otherwise. In the absence of electric fields, we found that the model is unstable in a small domain while it is selfgravitating stable in all other domains. The presence of the electric field led to the presence of a great number of stable waves. The electric field has a strong stabilizing influence on the selfgravitating instability of the model. The capillary force has a strong destabilizing influence on the selfgravitating instability of the model.Generally, the uniform stream supports the unstable waves, while the oscillating streaming has stability tendency.     

The hall effect in some liquid alloys

The Hall coefficient has been measured for (a) liquid CuTe, AgTe and AuTe₂ and (b) liquid Cu-Sn alloy. The results are discussed in terms of the possible semiconducting nature of liquids comprising group (a) and in terms of bound state formation around the Sn atoms for those in group (b).     

Role of the n+1 amino acid residue on the deamidation of asparagine in pentapeptides

Deamidation plays an important role in biochemical phenomena such as aging. The role of the n + 1 residue on the deamidation of asparagine (asparagine being the nth residue) in three pentapeptide chains (GGNGG, GGNMG and GGNIG) has been analysed with hybrid computational tools. Potentials of mean force at 300 K were calculated from the MD/replica exchange simulations using weighted histogram analysis (WHAM) in explicit water. The snapshots were clustered taking into account the requirements of the plausible deamidation mechanisms, as such the tautomerisation of the asparagine side chain as initial step has been confirmed, based on the proximity of water to the deamidation site. The ultimate goal being to gain an insight on the peptide backbone N-H acidity, quantum mechanical calculations have been carried out. For this purpose, the distribution of Φ/Ψ, Φ₂/Ψ and end-to-end distances deduced from the WHAM diagrams have been considered and a total of 110 structures have been sampled. These neutral pentapeptides as well as their corresponding anions have been optimised (B3LYP/6-31++G(d,p)) in implicit water in order to gain an insight on the peptide backbone N-H acidity. In this study, we have shown that the open conformations of the neutrals and the anions, which display a β sheet like structure are well populated and their pK_as rank in the same order as the deamidating half-lives, that is the peptides that deaminate fastest can more readily access conformations that are more acidic.     

Analytical computation of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors in DT-MRI

In this paper a noniterative algorithm to be used for the analytical determination of the sorted eigenvalues and corresponding orthonormalized eigenvectors obtained by diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI) is described. The algorithm uses the three invariants of the raw water spin self-diffusion tensor represented by a 3 x 3 positive definite matrix and certain math functions that do not require iteration. The implementation requires a positive definite mask to preserve the physical meaning of the eigenvalues. This algorithm can increase the speed of eigenvalue/eigenvector calculations by a factor of 5-40 over standard iterative Jacobi or singular-value decomposition techniques. This approach may accelerate the computation of eigenvalues, eigenvalue-dependent metrics, and eigenvectors especially when having high-resolution measurements with large numbers of slices and large fields of view.     

Thermoelectric effects in organic conductors in a strong magnetic field

The linear response of the electron system of a layered conductor to the temperature gradient in this system in a strong magnetic field is investigated theoretically. Thermoelectric emf is studied as a function of the magnitude and orientation of a strong external magnetic field; the experimental investigation of this function, combined with the study of the electric and thermal resistance, allows one to completely determine the structure of the energy spectrum of charge carriers.     

A selective sensor for nanolevel detection of lead (II) in hazardous wastes using ionic-liquid/Schiff base/MWCNTs/nanosilica as a highly sensitive composite

An effective potentiometric sensor had been fabricated for the rapid determination of Pb²⁺ based on carbon paste electrode consisting of room temperature ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate (BMIM-PF₆), multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), nanosilica, synthesized Schiff base, as an ionophore, and graphite powder. The constructed nanocomposite electrode showed better sensitivity, selectivity, response time, response stability, and lifetime in comparison with typical Pb²⁺ carbon paste electrode for the successfully determination of Pb²⁺ ions in water and in waste water samples. The best response for nanocomposite electrode was obtained with electrode composition of 18% ionophore, 20% BMIM-PF₆, 49% graphite powder, 10% MWCNT, and 3% nanosilica. The new electrode exhibited a Nernstian response (29.76?±?0.10 mV decade^?1) toward Pb²⁺ ions in the range of 5?×?10^?9?C1.0?×?10^?1 mol L^?1 with a detection limit of 2.51?×?10^?9 mol L^?1. The potentiometric response of prepared sensor is independent of the pH of test solution in the pH range of 4.5?C8.0. It has quick response with response time of about 6 s. The proposed electrode show fairly good selectivity over some alkali, alkaline earth, transition, and heavy metal ions.     

Spectrophotometric and spectrofluorimetric investigation of different equilibria of a recently synthesized Schiff base with the aid of chemometric methods

In this study ground and excited states acidic dissociation constants of a recently synthesized Schiff base was obtained in a DMF:water mixture of 30:70 (v/v) using absorption and fluorescent spectra of the Schiff base in different pH values with the aid of chemometric methods. In addition, the fluorescent of the two kinds of tautomers of this Schiff base was investigated and the rate of tautomerization was obtained using rank annihilation factor analysis (RAFA). The effect of different kinds of surfactants such as sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and Triton X-100 on fluorescence spectrum of the Schiff base in a DMF:water mixture of 2:98 (v/v) was investigated. CTAB increased the fluorescence intensity of the Schiff base while SDS and Triton X-100 had no significant effect on it. β-Cyclodextrin increased the fluorescence intensity of the Schiff base. Also the sensing behavior of this Schiff base toward metal ions was studied in DMF and ethanol by fluorescence spectroscopy. The Schiff base showed prominent fluorescent signal in the presence of Zn²⁺, whereas other metal ions failed to induce response and ground-state dissociation constant of the complex was determined by direct fluorimetric titration as a function of Zn²⁺ concentration.     

Optical characterization of the silicon photodiodes for the establishment of national radiometric standards

Optical properties of the silicon photodiodes are investigated in the visible spectral regime. Non-linearity measurement standard was established by using Hamamatsu S1337-11 type windowless silicon photodiode whose non-linearity value was found to be better than 6×10⁻⁵ at photocurrent level of 10⁻⁹ to 10⁻⁴ A. Temperature effects on the spectral responsivity for S1337-11, S1337-1010BQ and S1227-1010BQ type photodiodes were analyzed between 20°C and 40°C at 488.1, 514.7 and 632.8 nm vacuum wavelengths. The spatial uniformities of the responsivity for three type photodiodes are performed with a laser beam having 1 mm diameter by using home made two-axis micro translation system. Results of the reflectance measurements for three elements of reflection-based trap detectors were compared with the predicted values obtained from Fresnel equations.