Single-molecule magnet behavior for an antiferromagnetically superexchange-coupled dinuclear dysprosium(III) complex

A family of five dinuclear lanthanide complexes has been synthesized with general formula [Ln(III)(2)(valdien)(2)(NO(3))(2)] where (H(2)valdien = N1,N3-bis(3-methoxysalicylidene)diethylenetriamine) and Ln(III) = Eu(III)1, Gd(III)2, Tb(III)3, Dy(III)4, and Ho(III)5. The magnetic investigations reveal that 4 exhibits single-molecule magnet (SMM) behavior with an anisotropic barrier U(eff) = 76 K. The step-like features in the hysteresis loops observed for 4 reveal an antiferromagnetic exchange coupling between the two dysprosium ions. Ab initio calculations confirm the weak antiferromagnetic interaction with an exchange constant J(Dy-Dy) = -0.21 cm(-1). The observed steps in the hysteresis loops correspond to a weakly coupled system similar to exchange-biased SMMs. The Dy(2) complex is an ideal candidate for the elucidation of slow relaxation of the magnetization mechanism seen in lanthanide systems.     

An unbreakable on-line approach towards sol-gel capillary microextraction

In this work a novel unbreakable sol-gel-based in-tube device for on-line solid phase microextraction (SPME) was developed. The inner surface of a copper tube, intended to be used as a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) loop, was electrodeposited by metallic Cu followed by the self assembled monolayers (SAM) of 3-(mercaptopropyl) trimethoxysilane (3MPTMOS). Then, poly (ethyleneglycol) (PEG) was chemically bonded to the -OH sites of the SAM already covering the inner surface of the copper loop using sol-gel technology. The homogeneity and the porous surface structure of the SAM and sol-gel coatings were examined using the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and adsorption/desorption porosimetry (BET). The prepared loop was used for online in-tube SPME (capillary microextraction) of some selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), as model compounds, from the aquatic media. After extraction, the HPLC mobile phase was used for on-line desorption and elution of the extracted analytes from the loop to the HPLC column. Major parameters affecting the extraction efficiency including the sample flow rate through the copper tube, loading time, desorption time and sample volume were optimized. For investigating the sorbent efficiency, four loops based on the copper tube itself, the copper tube after electrodeposition with Cu and the tubes with the SAMs and SAMs-sol-gel coating were made and compared. The SAMs-sol-gel coated loop clearly shows a prominently lead of at least 20-100 times of higher efficiency. The linearity for the analytes was in the range of 0.01-500 μg L(-1). Limit of detection (LOD) was in the range of 0.005-0.5 μg L(-1) and the RSD% values (n=5) were all below 8.3% at the 5 μg L(-1) level. The developed method was successfully applied to real water samples while the relative recovery percentages obtained for the spiked water samples were from 90 to 104%. The prepared loop exhibited long life time due to its remarkable solvent and mechanical stability. Different solvents such as methanol, acetonitrile and acetone were passed through the loop for many days and it was also used for more than 100 extractions/desorption of the selected analytes and no decrease in the peak areas was observed.     

Enhancement of Near-Cloaking. Part II: The Helmholtz Equation

The aim of this paper is to extend the method of Ammari et al. (Commun. Math. Phys., 2012) to scattering problems. We construct very effective near-cloaking structures for the scattering problem at a fixed frequency. These new structures are, before using the transformation optics, layered structures and are designed so that their first scattering coefficients vanish. Inside the cloaking region, any target has near-zero scattering cross section for a band of frequencies. We analytically show that our new construction significantly enhances the cloaking effect for the Helmholtz equation.     

Identification of small inhomogeneities: Asymptotic factorization

We consider the boundary value problem of calculating the electrostatic potential for a homogeneous conductor containing finitely many small insulating inclusions. We give a new proof of the asymptotic expansion of the electrostatic potential in terms of the background potential, the location of the inhomogeneities and their geometry, as the size of the inhomogeneities tends to zero. Such asymptotic expansions have already been used to design direct (i.e. noniterative) reconstruction algorithms for the determination of the location of the small inclusions from electrostatic measurements on the boundary, e.g. MUSIC-type methods. Our derivation of the asymptotic formulas is based on integral equation methods. It demonstrates the strong relation between factorization methods and MUSIC-type methods for the solution of this inverse problem.

     

Solid‐particle erosion in the tube end of the tube sheet of a shell‐and‐tube heat exchanger

Erosion is one of the major problems in many industrial processes, and in particular, in heat exchangers. The effects of flow velocity and sand particle size on the rate of erosion in a typical shell‐and‐tube heat exchanger were investigated numerically using the Lagrangian particle‐tracking method. Erosion and penetration rates were obtained for sand particles of diameters ranging from 10 to 500 µm and for inlet flow velocities ranging from 0.197 to 2.95 m/s. A flow visualization experiment was conducted with the objective of verifying the accuracy of the continuous phase calculation procedure. Comparison with available experimental data of penetration rates was also conducted. These comparisons resulted in a good agreement. The results show that the location and number of eroded tubes depend mainly on the particle size and velocity magnitude at the header inlet. The rate of erosion depends exponentially on the velocity. The particle size shows negligible effect on the erosion rate at high velocity values and the large‐size particles show less erosion rates compared to the small‐size particles at low values of inlet flow velocities. The results indicated that the erosion and penetration rates are insignificant at the lower end of the velocity range. However, these rates were found to increase continuously with the increase of the inlet flow velocity for all particle sizes. The particle size creating the highest erosion rate was found to depend on the flow velocity range. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical investigation of natural convection inside an inclined parallel‐walled channel

Steady two‐dimensional natural convection in an inclined parallel‐walled channel was investigated numerically. The full elliptic forms of conservation equations were solved together and the velocity vectors, temperature contours and local and average Nusselt number distribution were obtained. The comparisons of local and average Nusselt number with published experimental and numerical results indicate very good agreement. Results are presented for a single aspect ratio, L/b=24, over the range of Rayleigh number of 3–1000 and angle of inclination 0–90°. The results indicate that the overall channel average Nusselt number is reduced as the inclination angle is increased. Significant reductions in the overall Nusselt number are exhibited at high angle of channel inclination. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An asymptotic formula for the voltage potential in the case of a near-surface conductivity inclusion

We rigorously derive an asymptotic expansion of the steady-state voltage potentials in the presence of a conductivity inclusion of small volume that is close to a planar surface. This new formula is motivated by the practically important inverse problem of imaging a conductivity inclusion near a planar interface. Partly supported by ACI Jeunes Chercheurs (0693) from the Ministry of Education and Scientific Research, France. Partially supported by grant R02-2003-000-10012-0 from the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation. Received: December 2, 2003; revised: January 18, 2004