The dilution of silica in a NiZnCo spinel ferrite matrix

Silica may dissolve up to about 0.05 wt% in an iron excess NiZnCo spinel matrix, affecting noticeably the magnetic properties at low and high values of the applied field. The initial permeability is reduced by about 50% with the addition of only 0.1 % SiO₂, while the coercivity almost triples, without noticeable changes in porosity or grain distribution. The vacancy and Fe²⁺ content of the sintered material also show a considerable change. The energy associated to the transformation Fe³⁺ Fe²⁺ for the samples without SiO₂ was found to be 0.41–0.42 eV, while for the samples with SiO₂ additions it decreased to 0.26 eV. The changes in magnetic properties are thought to be caused, more than because of the mentioned changes in ion distribution, by the stresses and defects created in the lattice due to the very small size of the Si⁴⁺ ion, which substitutes Fe³⁺ ions in tetrahedral sites. The transition Fe³⁺ Fe²⁺ seems to take place exclusively in the octahedral sites.     

Some existence results for quasilinear elliptic equations in a finite cylinder

We study the existence of solutionsu in the finite cylinderS _a=(?a, a)×ω of the quasilinear elliptic equation $$\sum\limits_{i,j = 1}^n {a_{i,j} (x)\partial _{i,j} u + f(x,u,\nabla u) = 0} $$ with Dirichlet boundary condition on flat parts of σS _a and Neumann condition on the curved parts. In this paper, we focus on the technicality caused by the “corners” ofS _a. We prove the existence of such solutions provided that suitable sub and super solutions are known and under the condition that the coefficientsa _1,i,i#1 vanish on the corners. We also prove a more general result in ?².     

Preparation and characterization of bolaform surfactant vesicles

Vesicular formulations (liposomes and niosomes) play an increasingly important role since they can be used as drug delivery and targeting systems. We described the formation of two niosomal systems based on synthetic bolaform surfactants (4,7,10,13-pentaoxa-16-aza-cyclooctadecane)-hexadecanedioc acid diamide (BD-16) and alpha,omega-(4,7,10,13-pentaoxa-16-aza-cyclooctadecane)-hexadecane (BC-16). Systems containing BD-16 or BC-16 and different amount of cholesterol (CH) were prepared by aqueous dispersion of films, followed by examination of methylene blue (MB) entrapment, particle size and morphology. Indeed, we also studied the hydration in the distilled water and physiological solution, in order to investigate the complexing ability on vesicle formation. The results obtained in this study show a high encapsulation capacity and this ability and the size depends on cholesterol content.     

Fluoride-induced coupling of perfluoroketene dithioacetals with silyl alkynes: A way towards new polyfunctionalized trifluoromethyl building blocks

Under fluoride activation, the vinyl fluorine of perfluoroketene dithioacetal may be substituted by silylated nucleophiles. Using silyl alkynes, a formal transition metal free sila-Sonogashira cross-coupling reaction occurred. The resulting enynes were hydrolyzed giving new polyfunctional trifluoromethyl building blocks.     

Cyclopentathiadiazines, new heterocyclic materials from cyclic enaminonitriles

Indene and cyclopentene enaminonitriles were reacted with SCl2, iBu3N and NCS to give the first cyclopenta[1,2,6]thiadiazines that showed unusual characteristics, one as a NIR dye and another as a liquid crystal.     

An NMR study of merocyanine-type dyes derived from barbituric acid

The 13C NMR of two solvatochromic dyes derived from a barbituric acid acceptor and dimethylaminophenyl donor fragments, compound 1 and the related merocyanine 2, were recorded in various solvents. The observed chemical-shift variations were used to interpret their structural differences and solvatochromic behavior in solution.     

In situ infrared study of SBA-15 functionalized with carboxylic groups incorporated by a co-condensation route

Two samples of SBA-15 mesoporous silica with a different content of carboxylic groups (-COOH) were prepared by a co-condensation route, using 4-(triethoxysilil)butyronitrile as the organosilane agent, then treating the samples with sulfuric acid, which removes the template and simultaneously hydrolyses the -CN to -COOH groups, as shown by IR spectroscopy. Both incorporation of organosilane agents and subsequent acid treatment do not affect the ordered SBA-15 structure. The proton-donor ability of carboxylic groups, as well their accessibility to reactants, has been studied in the IR by dosing ammonia, which forms reversibly COO- groups and NH4+ ions. The related equilibrium constants have been determined by elaboration of IR data. Outgassing the samples at progressively increasing temperatures destabilizes to an increasing extent the ammonium/carboxylate ion pair, because of the decrease in surface polarity brought about by dehydration: this decreases the related equilibrium constants. The amount of carboxylic groups undergoing reaction appears instead to be constant with dehydration, and to coincide with the whole population of COOH groups. Titration with alkali solutions yielded surface concentrations for the two samples of ca. 1.0 and 0.45 COOH/nm2. Proportionality between the surface concentrations and the intensities of the C=O IR band is observed: this suggests that COOH groups are noninteracting with each other and allows the computation of the related extinction molar coefficient.     

Thermal requirements to obtain calcined and frits of ulexite

Ulexite has a substantial amount of hydration water, which allows using calcination methods to increase the B₂O₃ content from 42.97 to 66.69%, due to the loss of 35.54% of its weight, corresponding to its hydration water.In this study, determinations of changes in the heat content at each temperature were made using an isoperibol calorimeter. The mean specific heat was calculated from these values. The reaction enthalpy was also determined by DTA methods.The sample used in the experiments contains 39.04% B₂O₃. The temperature was between 80 and 1000 °C. Curves of weight loss and enthalpy changes are presented and analysed.The results have industrial application in order to determine the thermal requirements for calcining ulexite at different temperatures, as well as its complete dehydration.     

Autonomous intelligent agents for accelerated materials discovery

We present an end-to-end computational system for autonomous materials discovery. The system aims for cost-effective optimization in large, high-dimensional search spaces of materials by adopting a sequential, agent-based approach to deciding which experiments to carry out. In choosing next experiments, agents can make use of past knowledge, surrogate models, logic, thermodynamic or other physical constructs, heuristic rules, and different exploration–exploitation strategies. We show a series of examples for (i) how the discovery campaigns for finding materials satisfying a relative stability objective can be simulated to design new agents, and (ii) how those agents can be deployed in real discovery campaigns to control experiments run externally, such as the cloud-based density functional theory simulations in this work. In a sample set of 16 campaigns covering a range of binary and ternary chemistries including metal oxides, phosphides, sulfides and alloys, this autonomous platform found 383 new stable or nearly stable materials with no intervention by the researchers.

We present an end-to-end computational system for autonomous materials discovery.