Improving the efficiency of an exhaust thermoelectric generator based on changes in the baffle distribution of the heat exchanger

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - A significant amount of the heat is lost in the vehicle exhaust and simply transferred to the environment. Using a thermoelectric generator (TEG), it...     

Thermal analysis of a binary base fluid in pool boiling system of glycol–water alumina nano-suspension

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - The main aim of the present research is to measure the nucleate boiling heat transfer coefficient (BHTC) of aqueous glycol nano-suspension as a coolant...     

Aggregation behavior and intermicellar interactions of cationic Gemini surfactants: Effects of alkyl chain,spacer lengths and temperature

The aggregation behavior of the cationic Gemini surfactants C_mH_2m+1N(CH₃)₂(CH₂)_S (CH₃)₂ N C_mH_2m+1,2Br^? with m = 12, 14 and s = 2, 4 were studied by performing surface tension, electrical conductivity, pulsed field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance (PFG-NMR), and cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements over the temperature range 298 K to 323 K. The critical micelle concentration (CMC), surface excess (Г_max), mean molecular surface area (A_min), degree of counter ion dissociation (α), and the thermodynamic parameters of micellization were determined from the surface tension and conductance data. An enthalpy–entropy compensation effect was observed and all the plots of enthalpy–entropy compensation exhibit excellent linearity. The micellar self-diffusion coefficients (D_m) and intermicellar interaction parameters (k_d) were obtained from the PFG-NMR and CV measurements. These results are discussed in terms of the intermicellar interactions, the effects of the chain and spacer lengths on the micellar surface charge density, and the phase transition between spherical and rod geometries. The intermicellar interaction parameters were found to decrease slightly with increasing temperature for 14–4–14, which suggests that the micellar surface charge density decreases with increasing temperature. The mean values of the hydrodynamic radius, R_h, and the aggregation number, N_agg, of the Gemini surfactants’ m–4–m micelles were calculated from the micellar self-diffusion coefficient. Moreover, the N_agg values were calculated theoretically. The experimental values of N_agg increase with increases in the chain length and are in good agreement with both previous results and our theoretical results.     

Interactions of glutathione tripeptide with gold cluster: influence of intramolecular hydrogen bond on complexation behavior

Understanding the nature of the interaction between metal nanoparticles and biomolecules has been important in the development and design of sensors. In this paper, structural, electronic, and bonding properties of the neutral and anionic forms of glutathione tripeptide (GSH) complexes with a Au(3) cluster were studied using the DFT-B3LYP with 6-31+G**-LANL2DZ mixed basis set. Binding of glutathione with the gold cluster is governed by two different kinds of interactions: Au-X (X = N, O, and S) anchoring bond and Au···H-X nonconventional hydrogen bonding. The influence of the intramolecular hydrogen bonding of glutathione on the interaction of this peptide with the gold cluster has been investigated. To gain insight on the role of intramolecular hydrogen bonding on Au-GSH interaction, we compared interaction energies of Au-GSH complexes with those of cystein and glycine components. Our results demonstrated that, in spite of the ability of cystein to form highly stable metal-sulfide interaction, complexation behavior of glutathione is governed by its intramolecular backbone hydrogen bonding. The quantum theory of atom in molecule (QTAIM) and natural bond orbital analysis (NBO) have also been applied to interpret the nature of interactions in Au-GSH complexes. Finally, conformational flexibility of glutathione during complexation with the Au(3) cluster was investigated by means of monitoring Ramachandran angles.     

The application of ETAAS to the determination of Cr,Pb and Cd in samples taken during different stages of the winemaking process

Chromium, cadmium and lead were determined in different fractions of the winemaking process such as in grape, pressed pomace, must deposit, deposit of lees, must and wine. Grape, pressed pomace, must deposit and deposit of lees were digested by a high-pressure microwave-assisted digestion system with a mixture of nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide, while for must and wine no special treatment was required. The temperature programs of the graphite furnace were optimised and different matrix modifiers were applied: Mg(NO3)2, NaVO3 for Cr and NH4H2PO4, Pd(NO3)2 for Pb and Cd determinations. Mg(NO3)2 and NaVO3 thermally stabilized Cr and enabled the increase of pyrolysis temperatures up to 1500 degrees C. NH4H2PO4 and Pd(NO3)2 are suitable modifiers for Pb and allowed pyrolysis temperatures up to 800 degrees C in grape, pressed pomace and wine samples, 1100 degrees C in must samples and 1200 degrees C in deposit of lees. The non-specific background absorption of NH4H2PO4 was 1.5-2 orders of magnitude higher than that of the Pd(NO3)2.     

Matrix effects during phosphorus determination with quadrupole inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

A quadrupole inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer was evaluated for use in the detection of phosphorus. The influences of nitric acid and methanol (simulating the composition of a sample solution after nitric acid digestion) on phosphorus determination were studied using two different measuring methods at different plasma conditions: detection of phosphorus ions at m/z 31 and detection of phosphorus oxide ions at m/z 47. The existence of polyatomic interferences at m/z 31 and 47 was explored. Nitric acid and methanol are shown to be the sources of polyatomic ions and therefore cause poorer detection limits. Better detection limits were achieved in such matrices when phosphorus was detected as ³¹P⁺. The presence of methanol improves the system sensitivity towards phosphorus sevenfold; however, this positive effect is hindered by the high background signal due to carbon-based polyatomic ions. For samples with an organic matrix an appropriate mineralization procedure should be applied (high excess of nitric acid and high temperature) to quantitatively oxidize organic compounds to carbon dioxide, which is easily removed from the sample, in order to achieve correct results.     

Public-key encryption with chaos

We propose public-key encryption algorithms based on chaotic maps, which are generalization of well-known and commercially used algorithms: Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA), ElGamal, and Rabin. For the case of generalized RSA algorithm we discuss in detail its software implementation and properties. We show that our algorithm is as secure as RSA algorithm.