Carbon dioxide detection by boron nitride nanotubes

The effect of gas molecule adsorption is investigated on the density of states of (9,0) zigzag boron nitride nanotube within a random tight-binding Hamiltonian model. The Green function approach and coherent potential approximation have been implemented. The results show that the adsorption of carbon dioxide gas molecules by boron atoms only leads to a donor type semiconductor while the adsorption by nitrogen atoms only leads to an acceptor. Since the gas molecules are adsorbed by both boron and nitrogen atoms, a reduction of the band gap is found. In all cases, increasing the gas concentration causes an increase in the height of the peaks in the band gap. This is due to an increasing charge carrier concentration induced by adsorbed gas molecules.     

Effects of synthesis methods of vanadium oxide nanotubes on the inter layer distances

Vanadium oxide nanotubes were synthesized via two methods: (1) Adding a template to vanadium oxide gels, (2) Grinding mixture of a template and vanadium oxide by using a ball mill. Influence of preparation method on structure of vanadium oxide nanotubes has been investigated. Vanadium oxide nanotubes has been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques.     

A locally linear neuro-fuzzy model for supplier selection in cosmetics industry

Supplier selection and evaluation is a complicated and disputed issue in supply chain network management, by virtue of the variety of intellectual property of the suppliers, the several variables involved in supply demand relationship, the complex interactions and the inadequate information of suppliers. The recent literature confirms that neural networks achieve better performance than conventional methods in this area. Hence, in this paper, an effective artificial intelligence (AI) approach is presented to improve the decision making for a supply chain which is successfully utilized for long-term prediction of the performance data in cosmetics industry. A computationally efficient model known as locally linear neuro-fuzzy (LLNF) is introduced to predict the performance rating of suppliers. The proposed model is trained by a locally linear model tree (LOLIMOT) learning algorithm. To demonstrate the performance of the proposed model, three intelligent techniques, multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural network, radial basis function (RBF) neural network and least square-support vector machine (LS-SVM) are considered. Their results are compared by using an available dataset in cosmetics industry. The computational results show that the presented model performs better than three foregoing techniques.     

On-Line Solid Phase Extraction and Simultaneous Determination of Hafnium and Zirconium by ICP–Atomic Emission Spectroscopy

A new simple flow injection analysis (FIA) system is described for on-line preconcentration by solid phase extraction and simultaneous determination of Hf and Zr in different samples using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy with a charge coupling detector (CCD). Quinalizarin (QA) was loaded on an octadecyl silica-polyethylene mini-column for the retention of Hf and Zr ions in complexed form. A 0.3 M ammonium acetate was used as buffer for providing suitable conditions for complexation and increasing reproducibility. Retained ions on the solid phase were then eluted by a solution containing 3.0 M HCl and 0.5 M HNO₃. In this work, for reducing bandwidths of eluted ions, elution of minicolumn was carried out from opposite direction. The same solution was used as both carrier and eluent, in order to increase the reproducibility. The eluted ions were introduced into the conventional nebulizer of ICP–AES instrument. Effects of different parameters, including instrumental parameters of ICP and FIA were optimized. An enrichment factor of 330 for each analyte ion was obtained at a concentration level of 80 ppb. The detection limits of the proposed method for Hf and Zr were 0.16 ng mL⁻¹ and 0.04 ng mL⁻¹ respectively. The ability of the method for the recovery of Hf and Zr ions was tested in the presence of several diverse metal ions in a synthetic mixture and some real matrices. It was also applied to the determination of Zr and Hf ions in a standard soil and in a standard alloy as real samples.     

Glycine-rich proteins

Glycine-rich proteins (GRPs) containing more than 60% glycine have been found in different tissues from many eukaryotic species. Despite the availability of literature on different groups of GRPs, there are few reports in which they are all considered and compared together. Some of these proteins are components of the cell walls of many higher plants. In most cases, it has been shown that they are accumulated in the vascular tissues and that their synthesis is part of the plant’s defense mechanism. Other distinct types of GRPs are characterized by having structures and functions similar to animal cytokeratins or by a domain with typical RNA-binding motifs. The availability of cloned GRP genes facilitates the study of the function of this diverse class of proteins, which is expected to enhance the understanding of cell physiology.     

Dodecyl benzene sulfonate anion-selective electrode based on polyaniline-coated electrode

A new dodecyl benzene sulfonate (DBS⁻) ion-selective electrode based on polyaniline is reported. The films of polyaniline doped with DBS⁻ were prepared electrochemically on platinum electrodes in the solution containing 1.0×10⁻³ M aniline and 7.0×10⁻³ M DBS⁻. The optimum potentiometric response was obtained for prepared polymeric film by passing electricity of 7.5 C cm⁻². The electrode exhibits an excellent Nernstian slope of −59.1±0.3 mV per decade for DBS⁻ ion over a wide concentration range (5.0×10⁻⁶ to 4.1×10⁻³ M) with a low detection limit (1.0×10⁻⁶ M). The proposed electrode revealed good sensitivities for DBS⁻ ion over a wide variety of other anions and can be used in the wide pH range of 5-10. It shows good stability, good reproducibility, wide range of pH independency and fast response (<20 s) without using internal solution. This electrode could be used for the determination of DBS⁻ in the real samples.     

Comparative analysis of three metaheuristics for short-term open pit block sequencing

This paper presents the application of simulated annealing (SA), Tabu search (TS) and hybrid TS–SA to solve a real-world mining optimisation problem called open pit block sequencing (OPBS). The OPBS seeks the optimum extraction sequences under a variety of geological and technical constraints over short-term horizons. As industry-scale OPBS instances are intractable for standard mixed integer programming (MIP) solvers, SA, TS and hybrid TS–SA are developed to solve the OPBS problem. MIP exact solution is also combined with the proposed metaheuristics to polish solutions in feasible neighbourhood moves. Extensive sensitivity analysis is conducted to analyse the characteristics and determine the optimum sets of values of the proposed metaheuristics algorithms’ parameters. Computational experiments show that the proposed algorithms are satisfactory for solving the OPBS problem. Additionally, this comparative study shows that the hybrid TS–SA is superior to SA or TS in solving the OPBS problem in several aspects.     

Electron Transfer Behavior through Densely Packed Self‐Assembled Monolayers of a Novel Heteroaromatic Thiol Derivative onto the Gold Surface

This article is describing the electrical characteristics of the self‐assembled monolayers (SAMs) formed during spontaneous chemical adsorption of a recently synthesized heteroaromatic thiol 2‐(2‐mercaptophenylnitrilomethylidyne)‐phenol ( L ). Some surfactants were used to regulate the electron transfer through the resulting SAMs, as investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results revealed that the surface structure is approximately complete and fractional coverage is very close to unity. The use of surfactants clearly improved the electron transfer properties. Furthermore, complementary experiments were carried out to investigate the electron transfer from modified surface to cytochrome C (cyt‐C), as a biological iron containing protein, which exists in living cells with important life roles. It was found that cyt‐C is able to interact with the modified surface so that it can be used as a scaffold to study the electrochemical characteristics of sensitive biological compounds like proteins. The voltammetric behavior of the redox protein on the resulting SAMs was found to be highly reproducible, emphasizing the fact that the protein denaturation is greatly suppressed.     

A novel and reusable magnetic nanocatalyst developed based on graphene oxide incorporated strontium nanoparticles for the facial synthesis of β‐enamino ketones under solvent‐free conditions

A novel magnetic SrFeGO nanocatalyst (NC) was synthesized through a simple sol–gel technique by introducing strontium and iron oxide nanoparticles onto graphene. The synthesized NC was characterized using FT‐IR and FE‐SEM. Subsequently, the catalytic activity of SrFeGO was tested in a reaction between β‐dicarbonyl compounds and aniline derivatives to gain β‐enamino ketone derivatives under solvent‐free conditions. It was found that SrFeGO NC is a potential catalyst for the synthesis of β‐enamino ketones. The β‐enamino ketone produced by such reactions could be isolated in high purity without the need for chromatographic purifications. The newly prepared magnetic graphene oxide nanocomposite could be recovered and reused for numerous times with no significant decrease in efficiency. Moreover, the protocol has the advantages of excellent yielding (up to 98%) in short a reaction time, benefitting an easy workup procedure and being environmentally friendly.     

Investigation on Structural,Electronic, and Thermoelectric Properties of Half-Heusler Compounds TiXSb (X = Si,Ge) under Pressure Based on Density Functional Theory (DFT)

Physics of the Solid State - Based on density functional theory, structural, electronic, and thermoelectric properties of TiXSb (X = Si, Ge) at pressures of 0, 5, 10, and 15 GPa have been...