Application of biosynthesized palladium nanoparticles (Pd NPs) on Rosa canina fruit extract‐modified graphene oxide as heterogeneous nanocatalyst for cyanation of aryl halides

A green palladium (Pd)‐based catalyst supported on Rosa canina fruit extract‐modified graphene oxide [Pd nanoparticles (NPs)/reduced graphene oxide (RGO)‐Rosa canina] hybrid materials has been used as a recoverable and heterogeneous nanocatalyst for cyanating aryl halides using K₄[Fe (CN)₆] as the resource of cyanide. The nitriles were achieved in good to high yield, and the catalyst can be recovered and reused for up to seven cycles with no remarkable decrease in its catalytic activity.     

Computation of V-notch shape factors in four-point bend specimen for fracture tests on brittle materials

Four-point bend (FPB) specimen is an important test sample in mixed mode fracture study of notched components made from brittle materials like rocks, brittle polymers, ceramics, etc. On the other hand, the notch stress intensity factors (NSIFs) are vital parameters in brittle fracture assessment of V-notched structures. Therefore, computation of NSIFs in FPB specimens is of practical interest to engineers and researchers. Since the available methods for calculating the NSIFs are often cumbersome and need complicated calculations, it is preferred to show them as a set of dimensionless parameters for the FPB specimen. In this research, the finite element method coupled with a recently developed algorithm called FEOD is employed to calculate the NSIFs of a FPB specimen for several V-shape notches and for different combinations of mode I and mode II. The obtained NSIFs are then converted to dimensionless parameters called notch shape factors and are illustrated in a number of figures. It is shown that depending on the notch depth and the location of loading points, full mode mixity from pure mode I to pure mode II can be provided in the FPB specimen. The numerical results obtained in this research are verified by using very limited results reported earlier in literature.     

Implementation of dynamic programming for chaos control in discrete systems

In this paper the control of discrete chaotic systems by designing linear feedback controllers is presented. The linear feedback control problem for nonlinear systems has been formulated under the viewpoint of dynamic programming. For suppressing chaos with minimum control effort, the system is stabilized on its first order unstable fixed point (UFP). The presented method also could be employed to make any desired nth order fixed point of the system, stable. Two different methods for higher order UFPs stabilization are suggested. Afterwards, these methods are applied to two well-known chaotic discrete systems: the Logistic and the Henon Maps. For each of them, the first and second UFPs in their chaotic regions are stabilized and simulation results are provided for the demonstration of performance.     

Improved migration models of biogeography-based optimization for sonar dataset classification by using neural network

Classification of experimental datasets such as target and clutter in sonar applications is a complex and challenging problem. One of the most useful instrument to classify sonar datasets is Multi-Layer Perceptron Neural Network (MLP NN). In this paper, due to the optimally updating the weights and biases vector of the MLP NN, Biogeography-Based Optimization (BBO) is used to train the network. BBO has a fair ability to solve high-dimensional real-world problems (such as sonar dataset classification) by maintaining a suitable balance between exploration and exploitation phases. The performance of BBO is sensitive to the migration model, especially for high-dimensional problems. To improve the exploitation ability of BBO and to record the better results for classifying sonar dataset, we propose novel migration models such as exponential-logarithmic, and some improved migration models having different emigration and immigration mathematical functions. To validate the performance of the proposed classifiers, this network will classify three datasets with various sizes and complexities. The simulation results indicate that our newly proposed classifiers perform better than the other benchmark algorithms in addition to original BBO in terms of avoiding gets stuck in local minima, classification accuracy, and convergence speed.     

Chaos control in lateral oscillations of spinning disks via nonlinear feedback

In this paper the problem of chaos control in single mode lateral oscillations of spinning disks is studied. At first, using the harmonic balance method, one of the periodic orbits of system is evaluated. Then proposing a nonlinear feedback strategy a control law is presented for chaos elimination by tracking the mentioned periodic solution. It is shown that although the system is not input-state feedback linearizable, by defining an output signal and using the input–output linearization method, the objective of complete periodic orbit tracking is achieved. The sufficient condition for this purpose is presented, and the performance of proposed method is examined by numerical simulation.     

A New Enhanced Oscillating Chemiluminescence System with Increased Chemiluminescence Intensity and Oscillation Time

Oscillating chemical reactions are complex systems, involving a large number of chemical species. In an oscillating chemical reaction, some species, usually a reaction intermediate, exhibit fluctuation in its concentration. In this report, oscillating chemiluminescence produced by the addition of thiosemicarbazide (TSC) to the oscillating system H₂O₂–KSCN–CuSO₄–NaOH was investigated using luminometry method. The effects of complexing agents, triethylenetetramine (TETA) and D-penicillamine, on the behavior of the oscillating system were investigated. Moreover, the influence of non-aqueous solvents, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), nitromethane and acetonitrile, was studied. In the presence of solvents with high protophility, the chemiluminescence (CL) intensity was increased (sevenfold), the light emitting and oscillating time was enhanced by threefold. In addition, the effect of presence of non-ionic, cationic, and anionic surfactants was investigated. Non-ionic surfactant increased the intensity of the oscillating CL reaction by 4.5-fold.     

Origin of delocalization in organic molecular conductors

The delocalization of electron states in one-dimensional metals, such as TTF-TCNQ, accounts for the observed itinerant motion of the electrons at temperatures above about 50 K. This delocalization is related to the extended nature of the molecules in organic metals, which causes the amplitude for forward scattering by the phonons to exceed the amplitude for backward scattering by an order of magnitude. The large forward scattering, which delocalizes the electrons, does not contribute to the resistivity in the delocalized state.     

Characterization and optical properties of mechanochemically synthesized molybdenum-doped rutile nanoparticles and their electronic structure studies by density functional theory

The optical and electronic properties of molybdenum (Mo) doped rutile TiO₂ prepared by the mechanochemical method were studied both experimentally and using density functional theory (DFT). The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by XRD, TEM, EDS-MAP, and XPS. The XRD results showed the successful incorporation of Mo in the rutile crystal lattice. High-resolution TEM images illustrated a decreasing trend in the (110) d-spacing for samples doped up to 3 at%. The shift toward higher binding energies in the XPS spectra was due to the higher oxidization tendencies of Mo⁵⁺ and Mo⁶⁺ substituted in Ti⁴⁺ sites. The optical behavior of samples was examined by UV–Vis and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The bandgap energy value of rutile was reduced from 3.0 eV to 2.4 eV by 2 at% Mo doping. The DFT calculations showed a reduction of bandgap energy value of rutile to 2.35 eV with 2 at% Mo, which is in harmony with the experimental results. The creation of energy states below the conduction band because of Mo doping was identified as the reason for reducing the bandgap energy and photoluminescence emission of rutile.     

Polystyrene and Silica Gel–Supported,AlCl3-Catalyzed Preparation of Diaryl Sulfoxides from Arenes and Thionyl Chloride

A simple, chemoselective, and efficient method has been developed for direct conversion of arenes to symmetrical diaryl sulfoxides using thionyl chloride in the presence of a catalytic amount of cross-linked polystyrene-supported aluminium chloride (Ps-AlCl₃) and silica gel–supported aluminium chloride (SiO₂-AlCl₃). These solid acid catalysts are stable and can be easily recovered and reused without appreciable change in their efficiency.     

Effect of Thermal and Non-Thermal Technologies on Kinetics and the Main Quality Parameters of Red Bell Pepper Dried with Convective and Microwave–Convective Methods

The drying process preserves the surplus of perishable food. However, to obtain a good-quality final product, different pretreatments are conducted before drying. Thus, the aim of the study was the evaluation of the effect of thermal (blanching treatments with hot water) and non-thermal technologies (pulsed electric field (PEF) and ultrasound (US)) on the kinetics of the drying process of red bell pepper. The convective and microwave–convective drying were compared based on quality parameters, such as physical (water activity, porosity, rehydration rate, and color) and chemical properties (total phenolic content, total carotenoids content, antioxidant activity, and total sugars content). The results showed that all of the investigated methods reduced drying time. However, the most effective was blanching, followed by PEF and US treatment, regardless of the drying technique. Non-thermal methods allowed for better preservation of bioactive compounds, such as vitamin C in the range of 8.2% to 22.5% or total carotenoid content in the range of 0.4% to 48%, in comparison to untreated dried material. Moreover, PEF-treated red bell peppers exhibited superior antioxidant activity (higher of about 15.2–30.8%) when compared to untreated dried samples, whereas sonication decreased the free radical scavenging potential by ca. 10%. In most cases, the pretreatment influenced the physical properties, such as porosity, color, or rehydration properties. Samples subjected to PEF and US treatment and dried by using a microwave-assisted method exhibited a significantly higher porosity of 2–4 folds in comparison to untreated material; this result was also confirmed by visual inspection of microtomography scans. Among tested methods, blanched samples had the most similar optical properties to untreated materials; however non-thermally treated bell peppers exhibited the highest saturation of the color.