Partially reduced graphite oxide as an electrode material for electrochemical double-layer capacitors

Partially reduced graphite oxide was prepared from graphite oxide by using synthetic graphite as precursor. The reduction of graphite oxide with a layer distance of 0.57?nm resulted in a reduction of the layer distance depending on the degree of reduction. Simultaneously the amount of oxygen functionalities in the graphite oxide was reduced, which was corroborated by elemental analysis and EDX. The electrochemical activation of the partially reduced graphite oxide was investigated for tetraethylammonium tetrafluoroborate in acetonitrile and in propylene carbonate. The activation potential depends significantly on the degree of reduction, that is, on the graphene-layer distance and on the solvent used. The activation potential decreased with increasing layer distance for both positive and negative activation. The resulting capacitance after activation was found to be affected by the layer distance, the oxygen functionalities and the used electrolyte. For a layer distance of 0.43?nm and with acetonitrile as the solvent, a differential capacitance of 220?Fg(-1) was achieved for the discharge of the positive electrode near the open-circuit potential and 195?Fg(-1) in a symmetric full-cell assembly.     

Interfacially active particles in droplet/matrix blends of model immiscible homopolymers: Particles can increase or decrease drop size

Particles have been shown to adsorb at the interface between immiscible homopolymer melts and to affect the morphology of blends of those homopolymers. We examined the effect of such interfacially active particles on the morphology of droplet/matrix blends of model immiscible homopolymers. Experiments were conducted on blends of polydimethylsiloxane and 1,4-polyisoprene blended in either a 20:80 or 80:20 weight ratio. The effects of three different particle types, fluoropolymer particles, iron particles, and iron oxyhydroxide particles, all at a loading of 0.5 vol.%, were examined by rheology and by direct flow visualization. Particles were found to significantly affect the strain recovery behavior of polymer blends, increasing or decreasing the ultimate recovery, slowing down or accelerating the recovery kinetics, and changing the dependence of these parameters on the applied stress prior to cessation of shear. These rheological observations were found to correlate reasonably well with particle-induced changes in drop size. The particles can both increase as well as decrease the drop size, depending on the particle type, as well as on which phase is continuous. The cases in which particles cause a decrease in drop size are analogous to the particle stabilization of “Pickering emulsions” well-known from the literature on oil/water systems. We hypothesize that cases in which particles increase drop size are analogous to the “bridging–dewetting” mechanism known in the aqueous foam literature.     

Pesin’s Formula for Random Dynamical Systems on \mathbf {R}^d

Pesin’s formula relates the entropy of a dynamical system with its positive Lyapunov exponents. It is well known, that this formula holds true for random dynamical systems on a compact Riemannian manifold with invariant probability measure which is absolutely continuous with respect to the Lebesgue measure. We will show that this formula remains true for random dynamical systems on $\mathbf {R}^d$ which have an invariant probability measure absolutely continuous to the Lebesgue measure on $\mathbf {R}^d$ . Finally we will show that a broad class of stochastic flows on $\mathbf {R}^{d}$ of a Kunita type satisfies Pesin’s formula.     

The Development of Comprehension of Chance Language: Evaluation and Interpretation

Comprehension of chance language, such as is found in newspapers, is a fundamental aspect of statistical literacy. In this study, students' understandings of chance language were explored through responses to two items in surveys administered to 2,726 students from grades 5 to 11. One item involved evaluating the chance expressed in phrases from newspaper headlines using a number line, and responses were described in four levels of chance language evaluation. The other item involved interpreting, in context, an expression of percent chance, and responses were described in four levels of chance language interpretation. Students in higher grades were more likely to demonstrate higher levels of both evaluation and interpretation. The association between levels of evaluation and interpretation was further explored generally and in relation to one of the headlines involving percent. Implications for mathematics educators in relation to chance language in the curriculum across the years of schooling are discussed.     

Multiple right-hand side techniques for the numerical simulation of quasistatic electric and magnetic fields

The simulation of slowly varying transient electric high-voltage fields and magnetic fields requires the repeated and successive solution of high-dimensional linear algebraic systems of equations with identical or near-identical system matrices and different right-hand side vectors. For these solution processes which are required within implicit time integration schemes and nonlinear (quasi-)Newton–Raphson methods an iterative multiple right-hand side (mrhs) scheme is used which recycles vector subspaces resulting from previous preconditioned conjugate gradient iteration runs. The combination of this scheme with a subspace projection extrapolation start value generation scheme is discussed. Numerical results for three-dimensional electric and magnetic field simulations are presented and the efficiency of the new schemes re-using eigenvector information from previous iteration processes with different tolerance criteria are compared to those of standard conjugate gradient iterations.