Visible Light Photocatalytic Functional TiO2/PVDF Nanofibers for Dye Pollutant Degradation

The photodegradation of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)/titanium oxide (TiO₂) nanofibers under visible light is described, something that has not been previously reported in the literature. Visible light photocatalytic electrospun PVDF/TiO₂ nanofiber webs with anatase TiO₂ concentration varying from 0% to 20% (0%, 1%, 3%, 5%, 10%, and 20%) are produced, and their ability to degrade a toxic pollutant, Rhodamine B (RhB), is studied. Photodegradation study using UV–vis spectroscopy on PVDF/TiO₂ nanofiber webs (with TiO₂ concentration of 20%) shows that 80% of RhB is degraded within 6 h at the wavelength of 546 nm, which clearly falls within the visible spectra. The color of RhB solvent catalyzed by PVDF/TiO₂ nanofiber webs gradually changes from red to orange, then to yellow, further to light yellow till colorless, which suggests the complete photodegradation of RhB under visible light. To estimate the rate of photodegradation, the reaction constant k is calculated. Based on the k value, PVDF/TiO₂ nanofiber webs with 20% TiO₂ concentration show the highest degradation rate compared to other PVDF/TiO₂ nanofiber webs and pure TiO₂ nanoparticles. This study proves the viability of TiO₂‐based nanofibers to have catalytic capabilities under low‐energy visible light.     

Temperature dependence of ferromagnetic resonance in permalloy/NiO exchange-biased films

The temperature dependencies of the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) linewidth and the resonance field-shift have been investigated for NiO/NiFe exchange-biased bilayers from 78 K to 450 K. A broad maximum in the linewidth of 500 Oe, solely due to the exchange-bias, is observed at ≈150 K when the magnetic field is applied along the film plane. When the magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the film plane, the maximum in the linewidth is less pronounced and amounts to 100 Oe at the same temperature. Such a behavior of the FMR linewidth is accompanied with a monotonic increase in the negative resonance field-shift with decreasing temperature. Our results are compared with the previous experimental FMR and Brillouin light scattering data for various ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic (FM/AF) structures, and suggest that spin dynamics (spin-wave damping and anomalous resonance field-shift) in the FM/AF structures can be described in a consistent way by a single mechanism of the so-called slow-relaxation.     

Some Critical Almost Hermitian Structures

Let M be an even dimensional compact smooth manifold admitting an almost complex structure. Let ${{(\lambda, \mu)} \in \mathbb{R}^2 - (0,0)}$ . We discuss the critical points of the functional ${\mathcal {F}_{\lambda, \mu} (J, g) = \int_M (\lambda \tau + \mu \tau^* ) dv_g}$ on the space of all almost Hermitian structures ${\mathcal{AH}(M)}$ on M and its subspace ${{\mathcal{AH}_{c}(M)}}$ with a certain positive constant c, where τ and τ ^* are the scalar curvature and the *-scalar curvature of (J, g), respectively. Further, we provide some examples illustrating our arguments.     

Structural, optical, and electrical properties of p-type NiO films and composite TiO2/NiO electrodes for solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells

p-Type nickel oxide thin films were prepared by sol-gel method, and their structural, optical and electrical properties were investigated. The Ni(OH)₂ sol was formed from nickel (II) acetate tetrahydrate, Ni(CH₃COO)₂·4H₂O, in a mixture of alcohol solution and poly(ethylene glycol), and deposited on an ITO substrate by spin coating followed by different heat treatments in air (50-800 °C). The formation and composition of NiO thin film was justified by EDX analysis. It is found that the thickness of the NiO film calcined at 450 °C for 1 h is about 120 nm with average particle size of 22 nm, and high UV transparency (∼75%) in the visible region is also observed. However, the transmittance is negligible for thin films calcined at 800 °C and below 200 °C due to larger particle size and the amorphous characteristics, respectively. Moreover, the composite electrode comprising n-type TiO₂ and p-type NiO is fabricated. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the composite TiO₂/NiO electrode demonstrate significant p-type behavior by the shape of the rectifying curve in dark. The effect of calcination temperature on the rectification behavior is also discussed.     

On exchange rings with primitive factor rings artinian

Abstract

In this paper we introduce generalized ideal-stable regular rings. It is shown that if a regular ring R is a generalized I-stable ring, then every square matrix over I is the product of an idempotent matrix and an generalized invertible matrix and admits a diagonal reduction by some generalized invertible matrices.     

On the regularity of weak solutions to the stationary motion of the degenerate power-law fluids

We consider stationary motion of degenerate power-law fluids in three dimension. We obtain a local regularity estimates of weak solutions, restricting ourselves to the shear-thickening case.     

Pressure-tunable guided-mode resonance sensor for single-wavelength characterization

A method of tuning a one-dimensional guided-mode resonance grating through the use of an air-pressure-responsive membrane is demonstrated here using finite-element method simulation. The device consists of a titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) grating structure embedded in a flexible polydimethylsiloxane membrane. This grating has a resonant response to TM-polarized light at a wavelength dependent upon the refractive index of the surrounding medium. By varying the pressure by 5500 Pa, lateral strain may be applied to the grating; this allows resonances to be produced for medium refractive indices ranging from 1.33 to 1.50 for a fixed-wavelength 850 nm light source.     

Enhancement of H2 adsorption on a boron-doped carbon system for hydrogen storage

We study the adsorption of the molecular hydrogen on boron-doped polypyrrole ((–C₄BH₃)_n) using first-principles density functional calculations. We find that the binding energy of H₂ molecules is slightly reduced to 0.39 eV/H₂ from 0.51 eV/H₂ as the number of adsorbed H₂ molecules increases. This is in sharp contrast to the case of boron-doped fullerenes where the binding energy is drastically reduced as the number of adsorbed H₂ molecules increases. We find that the enhancement of H₂ adsorption is due to a local charge transfer by H₂ adsorption in the B-doped polypyrrole as opposed to a delocalized charge transfer in the B-doped fullerenes. Our finding shows that B-doped carbon systems could be utilized for room temperature hydrogen storage.     

Spectra of Random Hermitian Matrices with a Small-Rank External Source: The Critical and Near-Critical Regimes

Random Hermitian matrices are used to model complex systems without time-reversal invariance. Adding an external source to the model can have the effect of shifting some of the matrix eigenvalues, which corresponds to shifting some of the energy levels of the physical system. We consider the case when the n×n external source matrix has two distinct real eigenvalues: a with multiplicity r and zero with multiplicity n−r. For a Gaussian potential, it was shown by Péché (Probab. Theory Relat. Fields 134:127–173, 2006) that when r is fixed or grows sufficiently slowly with n (a small-rank source), r eigenvalues are expected to exit the main bulk for |a| large enough. Furthermore, at the critical value of a when the outliers are at the edge of a band, the eigenvalues at the edge are described by the r-Airy kernel. We establish the universality of the r-Airy kernel for a general class of analytic potentials for r=O(n^g)r=\mathcal{O}(n^{\gamma}) for 0≤γ<1/12.     

Intraday volatility and network topological properties in the Korean stock market

We examine whether the relationship between market volatility and network properties in the low-frequency level can be applied to the high-frequency level. For the analysis, we use the minimum spanning tree (MST) method constructed from intraday Korean stock market data. The results show that the higher the market volatility is, the denser the MST of stocks becomes. The normalized tree length shows a strong negative relationship with market volatility, indicating that the distances between nodes are shorter when the market volatility is high. The mean occupation layer shows the tendency of having a smaller value in a higher volatility market. The maximum number of links becomes larger when the market volatility increases. All these network properties support the network being dense and shrinking in high market volatility conditions; that is, the degree of co-movement in financial market is reinforced in the intraday high-frequency level.