Cluster Assembled Sb Films: Studies On Structure,Surface And Optical Properties

A low energy cluster beam deposition (LECBD) technique has been used to prepare the Sb cluster films on different substrates and are characterized using a variety of probes. Proton induced X-ray emission (PIXE) analysis shows the absence of any foreign trace elemental impurity even at ppm level. Glancing angle X-ray diffraction (GXRD) and transmission electron diffraction (TED) studies reveal the presence of single crystalline feature of Sb with hexagonal symmetry along with Sb-oxides. The transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of the cluster films of thickness 20 Å and 100 Å show size distribution which is more for the 100 Å film compared to that of the 20 Å one. The photoluminescence (PL) studies at 300 K show red shifted peaks along with the one possibly due to HOMO-LUMO transition around 2.4 eV. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) of Sb cluster films show shoulders to the core level peaks of the Sb corresponding to 3d 3/2 and 3d 5/2 which are shifted by 1.0 to 2.0 eV suggesting the formation of Sb-oxide. Raman scattering studies show the shift of A 1g and E g vibrational modes from their bulk value.     

High pressure behavior and structural properties of transition metal carbides

A pressure induced structural phase transition from NaCl-type (B₁) to CsCl-type (B₂) structure has been predicted in transition metal carbides, namely TiC, ZrC, NbC, HfC, and TaC by using an interionic potential theory with modified ionic charge (Z_m ), which includes Coulomb screening effect due to d-electron. The phase transition pressure (P_T ) relies on large volume discontinuity in pressure–volume relationship, and identifies the structural phase transition from B₁ phase to B₂ phase. The variation of second-order elastic constants with pressure follows a systematic trend identical to that observed in other compounds of NaCl-type structure. The Born criterion for stability is found to be valid in transition metal carbides.     

Synthesis and Mesomorphic Characterisation of Chiral Homologues

Abstract

Chiral liquid crystals have attracted considerable interest as they exhibit a good variety of modulated phases. We have synthesised a homologous series viz., 4-(4^!-n-alkoxy benzoyloxy) benzylidene-4^!!?1-(s)-methyl propoxy anilines, incorporating a terminal chiral centre, inorder to obtain better understanding of the relationship between molecular structure and appearance of SmC* phase in the molecules. It is observed that, in the present series the lower members upto butyl are pure nematogens, while pentyl to hexadecyl derivatives exhibit classical smectic as well as nematic mesophases. An additional smectic C* phase is observed in the middle octyl to dodecyl homologues. The homologues have been characterised by IR, NMR and DSC. Their mesomorphic properties have been compared with structurally related homologous series.     

Anion Complexation and Transport by Isophthalamide and Dipicolinamide Derivatives: DNA Plasmid Transformation in E. coli

Tris-arenes based on either isophthalic acid or 2,6-dipicolinic acid have been known for more than a decade to bind anions. Recent studies have also demonstrated their ability to transport various ions through membranes. In this report, we demonstrate two important properties of these simple diamides. First, they transport plasmid DNA into Escherichia coli about 2-fold over controls, where the ampicillin resistance gene is expressed in the bacteria. These studies were done with plasmid DNA (～2.6 kilobase (kb)) in JM109 E. coli cells. Second, known methods do not typically transport large plasmids (>15 kb). We demonstrate here that transformation of large pVIB plasmids (i.e., >20 kb) were enhanced over water controls by ～10-fold. These results are in striking contrast to the normal decrease in transformation with increasing plasmid size.     

It takes more than an imine: the role of the central atom on the electron-accepting ability of benzotriazole and benzothiadiazole oligomers

We report on the comparison of the electronic and photophysical properties of a series of related donor-acceptor-donor oligomers incorporating the previously known 2H-benzo[d][1,2,3]triazole (BTz) moiety as the acceptor and the recently reported BTzTD acceptor, a hybrid of BTz and 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (BTD). Although often implied in the polymer literature that BTz has good acceptor character, we show that this moiety is best described as a weak acceptor. We present electrochemical, computational, and photophysical evidence supporting our assertion that BTzTD is a strong electron acceptor while maintaining the alkylation ability of the BTz moiety. Our results show that the identity of the central atom (N or S) in the benzo-fused heterocyclic ring plays an important role in both the electron-accepting and the electron-donating ability of acceptor moieties with sulfur imparting a greater electron-accepting ability and nitrogen affording greater electron-donating character. We report on the X-ray crystal structure of a BTzTD trimer, which exhibits greater local aromatic character in the region of the triazole ring and contains an electron-deficient sulfur that imparts strong electron-accepting ability. Additionally, we examine the transient absorption spectra of BTzTD and BTz oligomers and report that the BTz core promotes efficient intersystem crossing to the triplet state, while the presence of the thiadiazole moiety in BTzTD leads to a negligible triplet yield. Additionally, while BTz does not function as a good acceptor, oligomers containing this moiety do function as excellent sensitizers for the generation of singlet oxygen.     

Giant monopole resonance in even-A Cd isotopes,the asymmetry term in nuclear incompressibility,and the “softness” of Sn and Cd nuclei

The isoscalar giant monopole resonance (ISGMR) in even-A Cd isotopes has been studied by inelastic α  -scattering at 100 MeV/u and at extremely forward angles, including 0°. The asymmetry term in the nuclear incompressibility extracted from the ISGMR in Cd isotopes is found to be _Kτ=−555±75 MeV$K_{\tau }=-555\pm 75\text{MeV}$, confirming the value previously obtained from the Sn isotopes. ISGMR strength has been computed in relativistic RPA using NL3 and FSUGold effective interactions. Both models significantly overestimate the centroids of the ISGMR strength in the Cd isotopes. Combined with other recent theoretical effort, the question of the “softness” of the open-shell nuclei in the tin region remains open still.     

The effect of 2-aminoquinoline-6-carboxylic acid on the corrosion behavior of mild steel in hydrochloric acid

The inhibitive effect of 2-aminoquinoline-6-carboxylic acid (AQC) against mild steel corrosion in 1?M HCl solutions was investigated using conventional weight loss, potentiodynamic polarization, linear polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy methods. The weight loss results showed that AQC is an excellent corrosion inhibitor since its efficiency increased with the concentration to attain 91.8?% at 500?mg?l^?1. Electrochemical polarization measurements revealed that AQC acted as a mixed-type inhibitor and the results of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy have shown that the change in the impedance parameters, charge transfer resistance and double layer capacitance, with the change in concentration of the inhibitor is due to the adsorption of the molecule leading to the formation of a protective layer on the surface of mild steel. The adsorption was assumed to occur on the steel surface through the active centers of the molecule. The inhibition action of AQC was discussed in view of Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Density functional theory calculations of quantum parameters were used to explain efficiency in relation with molecular structure.     

High pressure behavior of alkaline earth tellurides

We have predicted high pressure structural behavior and elastic properties of alkaline earth tellurides (AETe; AE = Ca, Sr, Ba) by using two body interionic potential approach with modified ionic charge (Z _m e). This method has been found quite satisfactory in case of the rare earth compounds. The equation of state curve, structural phase transition pressure from NaCl (B1) to CsCl (B2) phase and associated volume collapse at transition pressure of alkaline earth tellurides (AETe) obtained from this approach, so have been compared with experimentally measured data reveal good agreement. We have also investigated bulk modulus, second and third order elastic constants and pressure derivatives of second order elastic constants at ambient pressure which shows predominantly ionic nature of these compounds. First time, we have calculated the Poisson ratio, Young and Shear modulus of these compounds.      

Evaluation of spectral phase in spectrally resolved white-light interferometry: Comparative study of single-frame techniques

Spectral phase in a white-light interferogram contains information about the absolute optical path difference (OPD) in the interferometer. Evaluation of spectral phase is therefore important in applications such as profilometry with white light. In spectrally resolved white-light interferometry (SRWLI) the white-light interferogram is spectrally decomposed by a spectrometer in order to determine this phase. Several single-frame techniques in SRWLI have been proposed for the evaluation of the phase including Fourier transform, Hilbert transform, spatial phase shifting, windowed Fourier transform and wavelet transform. In this paper we present a comparative study of these techniques in this application in relation to the temporal phase-shifting technique which is a multi- frame method. Further, we also propose a modified method to remove the influence of source spectrum modulation in Hilbert transform procedure.