Enhancing corrosion resistance of zinc-filled protective coatings using conductive polymers

Organic coatings containing zinc are amply used for the protection of metals, particularly steel structures. Ways to reduce the zinc content in the coating materials are sought for environmental and financial reasons. Our previous work (Kohl, Prog Org Coat 77:512–517, 2014; Kohl and Kalendová, Mater Sci Forum 818: 171–174, 2015a) suggested that one of the options consists in the use of conductive polymers in the formulation of the zinc coatings. The benefits of conductive polymers include nontoxicity, high stability, electric conductivity and redox potential. Previously we focussed on the effect of conductive polymers added to the organic coatings so as to complete the zinc volume concentration to 67%. The anticorrosion efficiency of the organic coatings was found to improve with increasing polyaniline phosphate or polypyrrole concentrations. Zinc content reduction in the system, however, did not attain more than 5%. The present work focusses on systems where the organic coatings are prepared with zinc having a pigment volume concentration PVC = 50%. Zinc content reduction in the system attains up to 20%. This work examines the mechanical and anticorrosion properties of the organic coatings with reduced zinc contents. The present work was devoted to the feasibility of using of conductive polymers in the formulation of coatings with reduced zinc contents. The conductive polymers included polyaniline, polypyrrole and poly(phenylenediamine); these were synthesised and characterised using physico-chemical methods. Polyphenylenediamine as a potential corrosion inhibitor has not been paid adequate attention so far. Subsequently, organic coatings with reduced zinc contents and containing the pigments at 0.5, 1 and 3% volume concentrations were formulated. The coatings were subjected to mechanical tests and accelerated corrosion tests to assess their mechanical and corrosion resistance. The corrosion resistance of the organic coatings was also studied by linear polarisation. The results of the mechanical tests, accelerated corrosion tests and linear polarisation measurements indicate that the organic coating properties get affected by the conductive polymer type as well as by the pigment volume concentration. The important finding is that the use of conductive polymers in coatings with reduced zinc contents was beneficial in all cases.     

On the existence of bounded noncontinuable solutions

This paper presents necessary and sufficient conditions for an n ‐th order differential equation to have a non‐continuable solution with finite limits of its derivatives up to the order l at the right‐hand end point of the interval of its definition, l ≤ n – 2 (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Subtotally positive and Monge matrices

A real matrix is called k-subtotally positive if the determinants of all its submatrices of order at most k are positive. We show that for an m × n matrix, only mn inequalities determine such class for every k, 1 ? k ? min(m,n). Spectral properties of square k-subtotally positive matrices are studied. Finally, completion problems for 2-subtotally positive matrices and their additive counterpart, the anti-Monge matrices, are investigated. Since totally positive matrices are 2-subtotally positive as well, the presented necessary conditions for this completion problem are also necessary conditions for totally positive matrices.     

On bipartite graphs with small number of laplacian eigenvalues greater than two and three

All connected bipartite graphs with exactly two Laplacian eigenvalues greater than two are determined. Besides, all connected bipartite graphs with exactly one Laplacian eigenvalue greater than three are determined.     

Classes of Quasi-nearly Subharmonic Functions

It is well known and important that if u ≥ 0 is subharmonic on a domain Ω in ℝ ⁿ and p > 0, then there is a constant C(n,p) ≥ 1 such that for each open ball B(x,r) ⊂ Ω. The definition of a relatively new function class, quasi-nearly subharmonic functions, is based on such a generalized mean value inequality. It is pointed out that the obtained function class is natural. It has important and interesting properties and, at the same time, it is large: In addition to nonnegative subharmonic functions, it includes, among others, Hervé’s nearly subharmonic functions, functions satisfying certain natural growth conditions, especially certain eigenfunctions, polyharmonic functions and generalizations of convex functions. Further, some of the basic properties of quasi-nearly subharmonic functions are stated in a unified form. Moreover, a characterization of quasi-nearly subharmonic functions with the aid of the quasihyperbolic metric and two weighted boundary limit results are given.      

Extensions of nondissipative continuum mechanics toward complex fluids and complex solids

Nondissipative classical continuum mechanics, in both Eulerian and Lagrangian formulations, is extended to complex fluids and complex solids. The extensions involve extra fields characterizing microstructure, preserve the Hamiltonian structure of the classical theory, and are rigorously derived from Hamiltonian formulations of the particle mechanics and statistical mechanics.     

Vaaisible upconversion emission of Er3+-doped and Er3+/Yb3+-codoped LiInO2

Lithium-indium oxide is a high-density (5.9 g·cm⁻³), wide band-gap semiconductor with promising applications for scintillating detection of solar neutrinos as well as for efficient phosphorescence when doped with Er³⁺ or Sm³⁺ ions. In this report, we demonstrate visible upconversion emission of Er³⁺-doped LiInO₂ synthesized by a simple solid-state chemistry procedure and discuss mechanisms responsible for pumping the Er³⁺ ions to upper levels. Intense upconversion emission is observed in the green and red spectral regions under near-infrared excitation, and it is greatly enhanced by co-doping with Yb³⁺ ions. We also examined the upconversion intensity change as a function of temperature, and, consequently, possible applications of this material as a low-temperature sensor.     

Improving detector signal processing with pulse height analysis in Mössbauer spectrometers

A plenty of different programming techniques and instrument solutions are used in the development of Mössbauer spectrometers. Each of them should provide a faster spectrum accumulation process, increased productivity of measurements, decreased nonlinearity of the velocity scale, etc. The well known virtual instrumentation programming method has been used to design a computer-based Mössbauer spectrometer. Hardware solution was based on two commercially-available PCI modules produced by National Instruments Co. Virtual Mössbauer spectrometer is implemented by the graphical programming language LabVIEW 7 Express. This design environment allows to emulate the multichannel analyzer on the digital oscilloscope platform. This is a novel method based on Waveform Peak Detection function which allows detailed analysis of the acquired signal. The optimal treatment of the detector signal from various detector types is achieved by mathematical processing only. As a result, the possibility of an increase of signal/noise ratio is presented.     

The Bremsstrahlung Equation for the Spin Motion in?Electromagnetic?Field

The influence of the bremsstrahlung on the spin motion is expressed by the equation which is the analogue and generalization of the Bargmann-Michel-Telegdi equation. The new constant is involved in this equation. This constant can be immediately determined by the experimental measurement of the spin motion, or it follows from the classical limit of quantum electrodynamics with radiative corrections.