Mild Homogeneous Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles through the Epoxide Route: Kinetics,Mechanisms, and Related One-Pot Composites

A new one-pot homogeneous methodology at room temperature to obtain Au nanoparticles (AuNP) on the basis of the epoxide route is presented. The proposed method takes advantage of the homogenous generation of OH⁻ moieties driven by epoxide ring-opening, mediated by chloride nucleophilic attack. Once reached alkaline conditions, the reducing medium allows the quantitative formation of AuNP under well-defined kinetic control. A stabilizing agent, such as polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) or cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC), is required to maintain the AuNP stable. Meanwhile their presence dramatically affects the reduction kinetics and pathway, as demonstrated by the evolution of the UV/Vis spectra, small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) patterns, and pH value along the reaction. In the presence of PVP nanogold spheroids are obtained following a similar reduction mechanism as that observed for control experiments in the absence of PVP. However, if CTAC is employed a stable complex with Au^III is formed, leading to a different reaction pathway and resulting in ellipsoidal-like shaped AuNP. Moreover, the proposed methodology allows stabilize the growing AuNP, by coupling their formation with nonalkoxidic sol–gel reactions, leading to nanocomposite gels with embedded metallic nanoparticles. The epoxide route thus offers a versatile scenario for the one-pot preparation of new metal nanoparticles–inorganic/hybrid matrices nanocomposites with valuable optical properties.     

Physicochemical characteristic of neodymium oxide-based catalyst for in-situ CO2/H2 methanation reaction

Carbon dioxide emission to the atmosphere is worsened as all the industries emit greenhouse gases (GHGs) to the atmosphere, particularly from refinery industries. The catalytic chemical conversion through methanation reaction is the most promising technology to convert this harmful CO₂ gas to wealth CH₄ gas for the combustion. Thus, supported neodymium oxide based catalyst doped with manganese and ruthenium was prepared via wet impregnation route. The screening was initiated with a series of Nd/Al₂O₃ catalysts calcined at 400?°C followed by optimization with respect to calcination temperatures, based ratios loading and various Ru loading. The Ru/Mn/Nd (5:20:75)/Al₂O₃ calcined at 1000?°C was the potential catalyst, attaining a complete CO₂ conversion and forming 40% of CH₄ at 400?°C reaction temperature. XRD results revealed an amorphous phase with the occurrence of active species of RuO₂, MnO_2, and Nd₂O₃, and the mass ratio of Mn was the highest among other active species as confirmed by EDX. The ESR resulted in the paramagnetic of Nd³⁺ at the g value of 2.348. Meanwhile nitrogen adsorption (NA) analysis showed the Type IV isotherm which exhibited the mesoporous structure with H3 hysteresis of slit shape pores.     

Systematic microstructural development with thermal diffusivity behaviour from nanometric to micronic grains of strontium titanate

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - Strontium titanate is a promising candidate for applications in thermoelectric, thermal management applications, and modern electronic devices because...     

Synthesis and characterization of a new conducting polymer composite

Organic conductive composite films have been synthesized by electropolymerization of pyrrole in the presence of chitosan and p-toluene sulfonic acid sodium salt. The obtained conductive polymer composite films have been characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy, dynamic mechanical analysis, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and conductivity measurements. The prepared polymer composite films had the amorphous structure and exhibited the enhanced conductivity and mechanical properties due to the presence of chitosan in the composite films.     

Physiological, biochemical and molecular characteristics of cryopreserved Hypericum perforatum L. shoot tips

Hypericum perforatum L. in vitro cultured shoot tips were characterised at the physiological, biochemical and molecular levels following recovery from cryogenic treatment using the plant vitrification solutions PVS2 and PVS3. This comparative study revealed an increase in recovery and regrowth of explants cryoprotected with PVS3. Among the physiological markers only lipid peroxidation in the regenerants treated with PVS2 significantly increased indicating membrane damage. Genotype-specific interactions were found in most characteristics studied, with some variation detected within control and cryopreserved samples. Analyses of metabolite biosynthesis and genetic stability showed no significant differences in hypericin content, RAPD and minisatellite amplification profiles between PVS2- and PVS3-treated explants. This study demonstrates and discusses the criteria selective for PVS3 to improve the cryopreservation of H. perforatum L.     

Improved bounds on equilibria solutions in the network design game

In the network design game with n players, every player chooses a path in an edge-weighted graph to connect her pair of terminals, sharing costs of the edges on her path with all other players fairly. It has been shown that the price of stability of any network design game is at most \(H_n\), the n-th harmonic number. This bound is tight for directed graphs.For undirected graphs, it has only recently been shown that the price of stability is at most \(H_n \left( 1-\frac{1}{\Theta (n^4)} \right) \), while the worst-case known example has price of stability around 2.25. We improve the upper bound considerably by showing that the price of stability is at most \(H_{n/2} + \varepsilon \) for any \(\varepsilon \) starting from some suitable \(n \ge n(\varepsilon )\).We also study quality measures of different solution concepts for the multicast network design game on a ring topology. We recall from the literature a lower bound of \(\frac{4}{3}\) and prove a matching upper bound for the price of stability. Therefore, we answer an open question posed by Fanelli et al. (Theor Comput Sci 562:90–100, 2015). We prove an upper bound of 2 for the ratio of the costs of a potential optimizer and of an optimum, provide a construction of a lower bound, and give a computer-assisted argument that it reaches 2 for any precision. We then turn our attention to players arriving one by one and playing myopically their best response. We provide matching lower and upper bounds of 2 for the myopic sequential price of anarchy (achieved for a worst-case order of the arrival of the players). We then initiate the study of myopic sequential price of stability and for the multicast game on the ring we construct a lower bound of \(\frac{4}{3}\), and provide an upper bound of \(\frac{26}{19}\). To the end, we conjecture and argue that the right answer is \(\frac{4}{3}\).     

Hölder estimates for fractional parabolic equations with critical divergence free drifts

This work focuses on drift-diffusion equations with fractional dissipation ${(?\mathrm{\Delta })}^{\alpha }$ in the regime $\alpha \in (1/2,1)$. Our main result is an a priori Hölder estimate on smooth solutions to the Cauchy problem, starting from initial data with finite energy. We prove that for some $\beta \in (0,1)$, the $C^{\beta }$ norm of the solution depends only on the size of the drift in critical spaces of the form $L_t^q({\mathrm{BMO}}_x^{?\gamma })$ with $q>2$ and $\gamma \in (0,2\alpha ?1]$, along with the $L_x^2$ norm of the initial datum. The proof uses the Caffarelli/Vasseur variant of De Giorgi's method for non-local equations.     

Stability Analysis for Parameterized Variational Systems with Implicit Constraints

In the paper we provide new conditions ensuring the isolated calmness property and the Aubin property of parameterized variational systems with constraints depending, apart from the parameter, also on the solution itself. Such systems include, e.g., quasi-variational inequalities and implicit complementarity problems. Concerning the Aubin property, possible restrictions imposed on the parameter are also admitted. Throughout the paper, tools from the directional limiting generalized differential calculus are employed enabling us to impose only rather weak (non- restrictive) qualification conditions. Despite the very general problem setting, the resulting conditions are workable as documented by some academic examples.

     

Läuchli’s Completeness Theorem from a Topos-Theoretic Perspective

We prove a variant of Läuchli’s completeness theorem for intuitionistic predicate calculus. The formulation of the result relies on the observation (due to Lawvere) that Läuchli’s theorem is related to the logic of the canonical indexing of the atomic topos of \(\mathbb{Z}{\text{ - sets}}\). We show that the process that transforms Kripke-counter-models into Läuchli-counter-models is (essentially) the inverse image of a geometric morphism. Completeness follows because this geometric morphism is an open surjection.