Inelastic scattering on 12Be and disappearance of the N = 8 magic number

Experimental studies on in-beam γ-ray spectroscopy using a ¹²Be radioactive beam are presented. Inelastic scattering of the neutron-rich ¹²Be nucleus on ²⁰⁸Pb, ¹²C, and (CH₂)_n targets has been studied by measuring de-excitation γ-rays in coincidence with scattered particles. The level schemes and transition probabilities are determined for low-lying excited states in ¹²Be. The present paper presents a brief review of the spectroscopic results, which may be associated with the N = 8 shell quenching near the drip line. Received: 1 May 2001 / Accepted: 4 December 2001     

Solvent-induced morphological change of microporous hollow fiber membranes

Microporous polyethylene hollow fiber membranes (EHF-1 and EHF-2) were subjected to solvent treatment, and the effects of this treatment on membrane morphology and permeating properties were studied. Membranes treated with various organic solvents exhibited enhanced permeability, enlarged pore size, and increased shrinkage in the longitudinal direction. These phenomena were found to depend on the surface tension of the solvent: the higher the surface tension of the solvent, the larger the change in morphology and permeation of the membrane. A mechanism to account for the effects of solvent treatment on the morphology of the membrane is proposed taking into consideration the influence of the type of solvent used for treatment. The enhanced morphological and permeation changes are ascribed to the formation of liquid bridges between two microfibrils of the membrane during drying followed by the deformation and adhesion of the adjacent microfibrils based on the surface tension of the solvent.     

Transformation of resonant Raman scattering into luminescence in CdxZn1−xTe mixed crystals: Time-resolved spectroscopy

We report an experimental study of time characteristics of secondary emission in Cd_xZn_1-xTe mixed crystals (x = 0.32) under resonant excitation with a picosecond dye laser. When the incident laser frequency is tuned on to the luminescence maximum of localized excitons, the decay curve of the intensity of “Raman-like” lines exhibits a single exponential decay. Off resonance, however, a short-lived component corresponding to Raman scattering appears in addition to the long-lived component. The intensity of the Raman component relative to that of the luminescence component increases with increase of the off-resonance frequency. From these temporal behaviors, we have found, for the first time, the transformation of resonant Raman scattering into luminescence in mixed crystals as a function of incident frequencies.     

An exact zooming method

This paper presents an efficient and exact formulation for finding stress concentration factors using a zooming analysis. A favorable characteristics of this method is its ability to perform a zooming analysis with computations taking place only in the zooming area under consideration with no need to treat the region outside the zooming area. At the final zooming step, the flexibility of a limited zooming area is determined for all nodes, including the new nodes created in the zooming processes as well as those of the original system before zooming.     

Synthetic studies on β-lactam antibiotics. VII. Mild removal of the benzyl ester protecting group with aluminum trichloride

The benzyl ester protecting group in β-lactam derivatives can be cleanly removed by treatment with aluminum trichloride under mild conditions, preferably in the presence of anisole, to give the corresponding free acids in high yields.     

Titanosilicate molecular sieve for size-screening photocatalytic conversion

Titanosilicate molecular sieves, when activated by ultraviolet light irradiation in water in the presence of molecular oxygen, catalyze a conversion of molecules having a size close to the pore of the catalysts but are inactive for molecules having much larger or smaller size. This unprecedented size-screening photocatalytic activity is triggered by a combination of H2O-induced shortened lifetime of active species (charge-transfer excited state of tetrahedrally coordinated titanium oxide) and restricted diffusion of a molecule inside the pore. This catalytic property demonstrates a potential utility of the catalyst for selective transformation of molecules that is associated with a size reduction of molecules, so-labeled "molecular shave" transformation.