Voltammetric determination of hydroxylamine in water samples using a 1-benzyl-4-ferrocenyl-1H-[1,2,3]-triazole/carbon nanotube-modified glassy carbon electrode

A modified glassy carbon electrode has been constructed using a 1-benzyl-4-ferrocenyl-1H-[1,2,3]-triazole along with multiwalled carbon nanotubes. The electrochemical behaviour of modified electrode has been investigated by cyclic voltammetry. Electrocatalytic activity of the modified electrode was investigated for the oxidation of hydroxylamine in 0.1 M phosphate-buffered solution of pH 8. The modified electrode showed electrocatalytic response to the oxidation of hydroxylamine at the potential of 330 mV. The linear range and detection limit for the detection of hydroxylamine in the optimum condition were found to be 4.0?×?10^?7 to 6.75?×?10^?4 M and 28.0?±?1.0 nM, respectively. Finally, the method was employed for the determination of hydroxylamine in water samples.     

Temperature tunable random laser using superconducting materials

We propose that spectral intensity of superconductor based random lasers can be made tunable by changing temperature. The two fluid model and wavelength dependent dispersion formula have been employed to describe the optical response of the superconducting materials. Random laser characteristics have been calculated using the one dimensional FDTD method. Our simulation results reveal that the emission spectrum can be manipulated through the ambient temperature of the system. It is observed that transition from metal phase to pure superconducting phase leads to the enhancement of the laser emission. Furthermore, spatial distribution of the fields in one dimensional disordered media is very sensitive to the system temperature.     

The effect of 2.1 T static magnetic field on astrocyte viability and morphology

The viability and a number of morphological properties of in situ astrocytes of rat spinal cord cultures including changes in surface area and migration of both cell body and nucleus were investigated at magnetic field intensities comparable to those currently used for magnetic resonance imaging. Viability of rat spinal astrocytes was studied after up to 72 hours of 2.1T static magnetic field exposure. Surface areas and two-dimensional centroids of both soma and nucleus after 2 hours of magnetic field exposure were determined and compared with those of the same cells before magnetic field exposure. Cell membrane ruffling was quantified using fractal analysis.     

Molecular dynamics simulation of gas adsorption on defected graphene

Gas sensing is one of the most promising applications for graphene. Using molecular dynamics simulation method, adsorption isotherm of xenon (Xe) gas on defected and perfect graphene is studied in order to investigate sensing properties of graphene for Xe gas. In this method, first generation of Brenner many-body potential is used to simulate the interaction of carbon–carbon (C) atoms in graphene, and Lennard–Jones two-body potential is used to simulate interaction of Xe–Xe and Xe–C atoms. In the simulated systems, adsorption coverage, radial distribution function, heat of adsorption, binding energy and specific heat capacity at constant volume are calculated for several temperatures between 90 K and 130 K, and various pressures. It was found that both of the defected and perfect graphene could be introduced as very good candidates for adsorption of Xe gas.     

Density functional investigations on structural and electronic properties of anionic and neutral sodium clusters Na(N) (N = 40-147): comparison with the experimental photoelectron spectra

Density functional calculations have been carried out to obtain low energy equilibrium geometries of anionic and neutral sodium clusters over a wide range of sizes 40 ≤ N ≤ 147, where N is the number of atoms. An exhaustive search for the low energy equilibrium geometries has been carried out. The density of states of the lowest energy geometries are compared with the experimental photoelectron spectra (Huber et al 2009 Phys. Rev. B 80 235425; Kostko et al 2007 Phys. Rev. Lett.98 043401) for N > 41. The agreement between theory and experiment is good for almost all the clusters and the changes in the spectrum with size correlate very well with the changes in the shapes as observed in the evolutionary trend of the ground state geometries.     

The importance of electron correlation in graphene and hydrogenated graphene

Local density approximation (LDA) and Green function effective Coulomb (GW) calculations are performed to investigate the effect of electronic correlations on the electronic properties of both graphene and graphane. The size of band gap in graphane increases from 3.7 eV in LDA to 4.9 eV in GW approximation. By calculating maximally localized Wannier wave functions, we evaluate the necessary integrals to get the Hubbard U and the exchange J interaction from first principles for both graphene and graphane. Our ab-initio estimates indicate that in the case of graphene, in addition to the hopping amplitude t ～ 2.8 eV giving rise to the Dirac nature of low lying excitations, the Hubbard U value of ～8.7 eV gives rise to a super-exchange strength of J _AFM ～ 3.5 eV. This value dominates over the direct (ferromagnetic) exchange value of J _FM ～ 1.6 eV. This brings substantial Mott-Heisenberg aspects into the problem of graphene. Moreover, similarly large values of the Hubbard and super-exchange strength in graphane suggests that the nature of gap in graphane has substantial Mott character.     

Interaction of longitudinal phonons with discrete breather in strained graphene

We numerically analyze the interaction of small-amplitude phonon waves with standing gap discrete breather (DB) in strained graphene. To make the system support gap DB, strain is applied to create a gap in the phonon spectrum. We only focus on the in-plane phonons and DB, so the issue is investigated under a quasi-one-dimensional setup. It is found that, for the longitudinal sound waves having frequencies below 6 THz, DB is transparent and thus no radiation of energy from DB takes place; whereas for those sound waves with higher frequencies within the acoustic (optical) phonon band, phonon is mainly transmitted (reflected) by DB, and concomitantly, DB radiates its energy when interacting with phonons. The latter case is supported by the fact that, the sum of the transmitted and reflected phonon energy densities is noticeably higher than that of the incident wave. Our results here may provide insight into energy transport in graphene when the spatially localized nonlinear vibration modes are presented.