Thermal behaviour and slow molecular mobility in two isomers of biphenylmethanol

This research was aimed to investigate the role of clay on the combustion and kinetic behavior of crude oils in limestone matrix. For this purpose, simultaneous TG (thermogravimetry) and DTA (differential thermal analysis) experiments were performed at three different heating rates as 10–15 and 20°C min^–1, respectively. A uniform trend of decreasing activation energies was observed with the addition of clay. It was concluded that clays surface area affects the values of Arrhenius constant, while it is the catalytic properties of clay, which lower the activation energies of all the reactions, involved in the combustion process.     

Dielectric study of the slow motional processes in the polymorphic States of anhydrous caffeine

Molecular mobility in crystalline anhydrous caffeine was studied by the dielectric technique of thermally stimulated depolarization currents (TSDC). Two relaxational processes were found, one appearing at approximately -10 degrees C that is ascribed to a reorientational glass transition, and a higher temperature one that probably arises from local molecular motions that are precursors of diffusion and sublimation. The experimental results suggest that both crystalline phases II and I of caffeine, that have distinct crystal structures, are solid rotator phases. Furthermore, this dynamic reorientational disorder shows a reorientational glass transition at the same temperature in phase II and in metastable phase I.     

Babassu mesocarp (Orbignya phalerata Mart) nanoparticle-based biosensors for indirect sulfite detection in industrial juices

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - The present work proposes a new electrochemical sulfite biosensor based on babassu mesocarp nanoparticles (BMNPs) immobilized on the surface of a pyrolytic...     

Ferromagnetism in InMnAs layers at room temperature

The InMnAs layers with ferromagnetic properties at room temperature are prepared by laser ablation. This is confirmed by the results of investigating the anomalous Hall and magneto-optical Kerr effects and by magnetic-force microscopy. According to x-ray diffraction data, the InMnAs layers have a fairly high crystal quality but contain inclusions of the MnAs hexagonal phase. An analysis of the electrical properties of the InMnAs layers suggests that the ferromagnetism revealed at room temperature cannot be accounted for by the presence of the MnAs phase but is associated with the charge carrier transfer in the InMnAs matrix.     

Layered stable equilibria of a reaction-diffusion equation with nonlinear Neumann boundary condition

In this work we investigate the existence and asymptotic profile of a family of layered stable stationary solutions to the scalar equation ut=ε²Δu+f(u) in a smooth bounded domain Ω⊂R³ under the boundary condition εν_∂u=δεg(u). It is assumed that Ω has a cross-section which locally minimizes area and limε→0εlnδε=κ, with 0?κ<∞ and δε>1 when κ=0. The functions f and g are of bistable type and do not necessarily have the same zeros what makes the asymptotic geometric profile of the solutions on the boundary to be different from the one in the interior.     

Flow activation free energy in cholesteric lyotropic liquid crystals

The flow activation free energy ( ΔG *) is the minimum energy necessary to induce a flow in a system that is at rest. It can be calculated from the system viscosity using the Andrade--Eyring theory. In the present work the flow activation free energy of cholesteric lyotropic liquid crystals was studied as a function of D-(+)-mannose concentration added to a nematic mesophase. The results obtained showed that all the systems can be characterized as Newtonian, but a smooth time-dependent effect can be observed mainly in systems with a lower chiral inductor concentration. It has also been observed that an increase of cholestericity leads to a decrease of ΔH * values until a limit is reached at 1 mol % of inductor. From a positive ΔS * variation it was possible to verify the existence of a locally less organized transient state during the process of micellar diffusion. When the cholesterization process was considered, the increase of the inductor concentration leads to a decrease of ΔS * and consequently to a system, as a whole, more orderly, possibly as a result of the restriction of movement caused by the presence of chiral interactions.     

Time and temperature induced phase transformation in L‐isoleucine hydrochloride monohydrated crystal

Semi organic crystals have been intensively studied aiming applications in nonlinear optical (NLO). Such applicability requires crystals with both high quality and thermal stability, which make the full characterization of this material a topic issue. In this paper, single crystals of L‐isoleucine hydrochloride monohydrated (L‐Ile.H2O.HCl) was synthesized by slow evaporation technique and characterized by thermal analysis and X‐ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. XRD results at 298 K showed that the sample crystallize with the orthorhombic structure, and the lattice parameters obtained by Rietveld refinement were a = 5.873(3) Å, b = 24.814(4) Å, and c = 6.873(5) Å. Thermal analysis measurements shows four decomposition stages between 328 ‐480 K which were associated with loss of water by desolvation, loss crystallization water and decomposition of L‐Ile.HCl. XRD measurements as a function of temperature up to 428 K show an irreversible phase transformation. This transformation was obtained after 32 hours keeping the L‐Ile.HCl.H2O sample at 413 K. The analysis shows that phase transformation occurs due to water and chlorine losses without destroy the amino acid carbon chain and in the end of transformation only the precursor amino acid remains. L‐Ile.HCl.H2O present low thermal stability and the phase transformation is time and temperature dependent.     

Extended acoustic waves in diluted random systems

In this paper we study the propagation of acoustic waves in an one-dimensional diluted random media which is composed of two interpenetrating chains with pure and random elasticity. We considered a discrete one-dimensional version of the wave equation where the elasticity distribution appears as an effective spring constant. By using a matrix recursive reformulation we compute the localization length within the band of allowed frequencies. In addition, we apply a second-order finite difference method for both time and spatial variables, and study the nature of the waves that propagate in the chain. We numerically demonstrate that the diluted random elasticity distribution promotes extended acoustic modes at high-frequencies.     

Well-posedness for the nonlocal nonlinear Schrödinger equation

We establish local well-posedness for small initial data in the usual Sobolev spaces Hs(R), s?1, and global well-posedness in H¹(R), for the Cauchy problem associated to the nonlocal nonlinear Schrödinger equation

     

Fusion-fission of light nuclear systems

Considerable interest has been devoted to fusion reactions between light heavy ions specially between weakly bound ones, due to the anomalous decrease of the fusion cross sections when compared to the total reaction cross section in the energy region around the barrier [1–4]. While the exact nature of the process responsible for the fusion cross section limitation at barrier energies is still unclear, this study shows an inhibition of the yield as the system mass decreases, resulting from the progressive increase of the barrier height and decrease of the effective barrier radius [3]. Furthermore, extensive efforts have been made recently in the study of energy-damped binary yields from light heavy-ion collisions [2,4]. Based on the substantial amount of data accumulated so far, it is now generally accepted and supported by the transition state model [4], that the observed yields arise mostly from a fusion-fission process. Data on complete fusion, fusion-fission and ‘elastic fission’ for the ⁹Be, ^10,11B+^10,11B; ^16,17,18O + ^10,11B; ¹⁹F+¹²C; ^6,7Li+⁹Be, ¹²C reactions among others, are presented. For the loosely bound nuclei it was found that the severe fusion cross section limitation is due to a low survival probability of the weakly bound nuclei until the instant of the collision [1].