Effect of Low-Temperature Heating on the Properties of Graphene Oxide Aerogel

The paper describes the effect of low-temperature annealing in air on the composition and structure of graphene oxide aerogel. It has been found that the concentration of carbon in the aerogel sharply increases, i.e., its carbonization occurs, already at a temperature of 175°C. At the same time, both the outer shape of the aerogel granules and the internal porous structure are preserved.     

Graphene-Based Aerogels Possessing Superhydrophilic and Superhydrophobic Properties and Their Application for Electroreduction of Molecular Oxygen

Colloid Journal - A composite aerogel with superhydrophobic external surface has been synthesized from reduced graphene oxide and polytetrafluoroethylene taken in a weight ratio of 1 : 1. The...     

Changes in the composition and properties of graphene oxide films under monochromatic vacuum UV radiation

The photolysis of a graphene oxide film by monochromatic vacuum UV radiation with a wavelength of 123.6 nm has been studied. It has been shown that photoreduction as a result of the detachment of the C?O polar groups is also accompanied by an increase in the conductivity, wettability, and surface energy of the graphene oxide film.     

Self-assembling effects and mechanisms of interchromophore interactions in porphyrin pentads

The directional self-assembly of nanosized, structurally organized pentads that include five tetrapyrrole macrocycles and are based on the two-point coordination interaction of two covalently bound dimers of Zn porphyrins (homo-and heterodimers) with molecules of either the free base or the Cu complex of tetrametapyridyl-substituted porphyrin extra ligand is implemented in methylcyclohexane at 295 K. Using the method of the density functional theory (DFT) in the B3LYP/6-31g(d) approximation, the geometry of the pentad is fully optimized and the main factors that determine its redox properties are determined. The energies of the lowest excited states of the pentad are calculated by the ZINDO/S method, and it is shown that the occurrence of identical molecules in the system facilitates the formation of excitonic states with different contributions from the charge-transfer component. The directional energy transfer and the photoinduced electron transfer, which leads to the formation of a low-lying charge-transfer state (CT state), are studied and the rate constants of these two processes are determined (k _ET ∼ 10¹¹ s⁻¹ and k _PET ≈ (1.8−6.0) × 10⁹ s⁻¹, respectively). The strong effect of the temperature of the solvent on the efficiency of relaxation processes in pentad complexes under study is revealed and studied. Roles played by the low-lying CT state and d-π exchange effects (the Cu-contained pentad) in fluorescence quenching of pentad complexes are determined.     

High Doping Density Schottky Diodes in the 3MM Wavelength Cryogenic Heterodyne Receiver

The paper describes a 3mm cryogenic mixer receiver using high doping density (“room-temperature”) Schottky diodes. The measured equivalent noise temperature T_eq of the diodes is 109 K at 20 K, which is much higher than the T_eq of the low doping density (“cryogenic”) diodes. In spite of this, the double-sideband (DSB) noise temperature of the cryogenic receiver developed is 55 K at 110 GHz, owing to the low conversion loss of the mixer and ultra-low noise of the PHEMT IF amplifier. This is the lowest noise temperature ever reported for a Schottky diode mixer receiver. The results obtained are useful for the development of submm receivers in which high doping density Schottky diodes are used.     

Influence of disorder on superconductivity in non-magnetic rare-earth nickel borocarbides

The effect of substitutional disorder on the superconducting properties of YNi₂B₂C was studied by partially replacing yttrium and nickel by Lu and Pt, respectively. For the two series of (Y, Lu)Ni₂B₂C and Y(Ni, Pt)₂B₂C compounds, the upper critical field H _c2(T) and the specific heat c _p(T, H) in the superconducting mixed state have been investigated. Disorder is found to reduce several relevant quantities such as T _c, the upper critical field H _c2(0) at T=0 and a characteristic positive curvature of H _c2(T) observed for these compounds near T _c. The H _c2(T) data point to the clean limit for (Y, Lu) substitutions and to a transition to the quasi-dirty limit for (Ni, Pt) substitutions. The electronic specific heat contribution γ(H) exhibits significant deviations from the usual linear γ(H) law. These deviations reduce with growing substitutional disorder but remain even in the quasidirty limit which is reached in the Y(Ni_1−x , Pt _x )₂B₂C samples for x=0.1.     

High quality resonances for terahertz radiation diffraction at periodically corrugated semiconductor interfaces

It is shown that the resonance features analogous to the well known optic Wood-type anomalies can be observed in the THz region for diffraction at periodically profiled semiconductor surfaces. The analytical theory of such resonance processes caused by excitation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) is developed. It is shown that strong resonance effects such as total suppression of the specular reflection (TSSR) can be achieved for rather small inclinations of harmonic gratings. The analytical theory predictions are confirmed by strict numerical simulations. The analytical approach presented allows one to find parameters of the gratings so that the resonance diffraction results in specific redistributions of the reflected energy between different diffraction channels. As an example we demonstrate parameters of the InSb biharmonic grating responsible for the TSSR accompanied by 50% reflection in the minus first diffraction order when the SPP is excited in the plus first diffraction order.     

A comparative analysis of graphene oxide films as proton conductors

The electrical conductivity of graphene oxide (GO) films in vapors of water and acid solutions is found to be close to the conductivity of a film formed after drying the solution of phenol-2,4-disulfonic acid in polyvinyl alcohol, which is known to be a proton conductor. We found that the conductivity of a GO film in vapors of the H₂O–H₂SO₄ electrolyte possesses a sharp maximum at ~1 % by weight of sulfuric acid. The highest conductivity of GO films can be expected when placing the films over acid vapors where the acid concentration is essentially lower than in the acid solutions at their maximum conductivity. Since the conductivity of the H₂O–H₂SO₄ electrolyte itself has a maximum at ~30 % by weight of sulfuric acid, the use of intermediate concentrations of H₂SO₄ is recommended in practical applications. The GO films permeated with water or acid solution in water are expected to possess the proton-exchange properties similar to those of other proton-exchanging membranes.     

Observation of a collective mode of an array of transmon qubits

Arrays of transmon qubits coupled to a λ/2 superconducting coplanar waveguide resonator have been studied by microwave spectroscopy. The emergence of a collective mode has been discovered for a cluster of N > 5 qubits, whose coupling constant to the electromagnetic field in the resonator is √N times greater compared to a single qubit. In addition, the emergence of collective multiphoton transitions exciting higher levels of a qubit cluster has been demonstrated and the interaction of an individual qubit with such a cluster has been investigated.