Effect of heat treatment on the magnetic and magnetoelastic properties of cobalt ferrite

The influence of different heat treatments on the magnetic and magnetoelastic properties of highly magnetostrictive CoFe₂O₄ has been investigated. The first order cubic anisotropy coefficient, coercive field, magnetostriction and high strain sensitivity were observed to decrease as the heat treatment temperature increased. The saturation magnetization of the samples on the other hand increased with increase in heat treatment temperature. These changes were not accompanied by any observable changes in crystal structure or composition and are indicative of migration of Co²⁺ from the octahedral sites (B-sites) to the tetrahedral sites (A-sites) and Fe³⁺ from the A-sites to the B-sites of the spinel structure. Different distributions of the cations at the two distinct lattice sites can strongly affect the magnetic and magnetoelastic properties of these materials.     

DESIGN,CALIBRATION, AND INITIAL RESULTS ON A COLOR/TEMPERATURE-MAPPING GOLD-FILM HEATER

The goal of this article is to present a new heater design which combines a thin-film resistometry technique with a double-incident liquid-crystal film in the form of a coated (printed) sheet to provide both a spatial mean surface temperature and a color/ temperature map. The heater is demonstrated to yield spatial temperature results consistent with those of other boiling studies in the literature while providing the additional functionality of a mean temperature measurement. The heater design and calibration are outlined and four boiling tests are presented to show the applicability of such a neater for fundamental boiling research, including some information in the conduction and convection regimes, electric-field-enhanced boiling research, and microgravity boiling research.     

Initial applications of the molecular model to compute defect vibrations of oxygen in silicon

Abstract

We have employed the molecular model introduced first by Jaswal to compute the vibrational spectra of oxygen bearing defects in a silicon crystal. This was done in the context of a silicon molecular cluster with outer valencies terminated by hydrogen. We employ the MINDO/3 semi-empirical electronic structure method to compute the total energy of the molecular cluster. We examine the conditions in applications of the molecular model required for accurate predictions of oxygen local-mode vibrational frequencies. We find that the oxygen atom and its nearest neighbor silicon atoms must be allowed to vibrate. The nearest-neighbor and next nearest-neighbor shells of silicon atoms must be allowed to relax from their lattice positions. The outermost relaxed shell of silicon atoms should be bonded to silicon atoms in their lattice positions. We apply the molecular model to three defects of crystalline silicon; interstitial oxygen, oxygen in a vacancy (the A-center), and two oxygen atoms in a vacancy. Comparison of our computed local-mode oxygen vibration frequencies with experiment shows the computed oxygen local-mode frequencies to be almost uniformly 10% greater than those observed. Isotope shifts fit experiment equally well. We conclude that the molecular model represents an accurate and efficient approach for the computation of defect local mode vibrational frequencies for oxygen and other defects in crystalline silicon.     

Confidence Interval for the Risk-Score Index

Risk-score indices are a simple, applicable, and easy-to-calculate tool for regression models, which can be used when computers are not available. The risk-score index is a partial summation of the rounded model coefficients that maintains essential properties of the model coefficients, such as their weight in the model and the correlation matrix. In a certain sense, the risk score can be viewed as a transformation into a pre-selected scale. The risk score is generally represented as a point estimate. Thus, the risk-score index is a categorical variable that relates each and every category uniquely to risk. The main argument of this paper is that the risk score, which is calculated as a partial summation of rounded beta coefficients, is a statistic, and, therefore, it has its own variance. This variance is divided into three factors—the original β-coefficients variances, the rounding-error variance, and the variance from the relations between these two factors. Since the variance of the score is typically not negligible, it is preferable to consider the confidence interval centered at the point estimate and not just the point estimate itself. By using the confidence interval for the risk score, one can quantify the accuracy of the score and also compare different scores, which otherwise is not always possible.     

Effect of Two‐Dimensional Crystal Orbitals on Fermi Surfaces and Electron Transport in Three‐Dimensional Perovskite Oxides

Perovskite oxides are candidate materials in catalysis, fuel cells, thermoelectrics, and electronics, where electronic transport is vital to their use. While the fundamental transport properties of these materials have been heavily studied, there are still key features that are not well understood, including the temperature‐squared behavior of their resistivities. Standard transport models fail to account for this atypical property because Fermi surfaces of many perovskite oxides are low‐dimensional and distinct from traditional semiconductors. In this work, the low‐dimensional Fermi surfaces of perovskite oxides are chemically interpreted in terms of two‐dimensional crystal orbitals that form the conduction bands. Using SrTiO₃ as a case study, the d/p‐hybridization that creates these low‐dimensional electronic structures is reviewed and connected to its fundamentally different electronic properties. A low‐dimensional band model explains several experimental transport properties, including the temperature and carrier‐density dependence of the effective mass, the carrier‐density dependence of scattering, and the temperature dependence of resistivity. This work highlights how chemical bonding influences semiconductor transport.     

Library synthesis using 5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-1,6-naphthyridines as scaffolds

The chemistry of 5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-1,6-naphthyridine scaffolds, synthesized by intramolecular cobalt-catalyzed [2 + 2 + 2] cyclizations, has been exploited for library synthesis. Urea, amide, and sulfonamide formations were used in the synthesis of a 101-membered library. Screening of the library for antituberculosis activity revealed three lead compounds.     

Analysis of formaldehyde formation in wastewater using on-fiber derivatization-solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

A method has been developed for the quantification of the formation of formaldehyde during the advanced oxidation treatment (AOT) of wastewater destined for reuse. This method uses solid-phase microextraction (SPME) with on-fiber derivatization followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. Based on calculated method detection limits (MDL) and ambient background levels, the method reporting (MRL) limit for formaldehyde was set at 10 microg/L. Precision for formaldehyde using this technique resulted in 23% relative standard deviation (RSD), while the internal standard, acetone-d(6), was only 6%. This method was used to evaluate the formation of formaldehyde in bench scale UV-AOT experiments using natural organic matter (NOM) fortified reagent water and tertiary treated wastewater effluent. Results suggest that the formation of formaldehyde increases in both the reagent water and wastewater matrices with increasing UV exposure and hydrogen peroxide concentrations, with overall higher concentrations of formaldehyde in the wastewater samples. No appreciable amount of formaldehyde formation was observed when UV was applied in the absence of hydrogen peroxide in both matrices tested.     

Solvent Selectivity in Normal-Phase TLC

JPC – Journal of Planar Chromatography – Modern TLC - The role of the mobile phase in controlling selectivity for adsorption chromatography–with either thin-layer plates or...     

Patterned growth of vertically aligned ZnO nanowire arrays on inorganic substrates at low temperature without catalyst

We report an approach for growing aligned ZnO nanowire arrays with a high degree control over size, orientation, dimensionality, uniformity, and possibly shape. Our method combines e-beam lithography and a low temperature hydrothermal method to achieve patterned and aligned growth of ZnO NWs at <100degreesC on general inorganic substrates, such as Si and GaN, without using catalyst. This approach opens up the possibility of applying ZnO nanowires as sensor arrays, piezoelectric antenna arrays, two-dimensional photonic crystals, IC interconnects, and nanogenerators.