α-Distonic ions as transient species in the reactions of metastable alkyl benzoate radical cations

The key intermediates to the fragmentation of metastable methyl and ethyl benzoate radical cations are α- and β-distonic isomers of the molecular ions. The α-distocic isomers are also formed by fragmentation of longer chain alkyl benzoates, but may not be long-lived, stable species. Rearrangement of the α-distonic ions prior to fragmentation can take place, but (re)formation of the benzoate molecular ions does not occur.     

Effect of particle size on carburization of Fe-Co alloy catalysts

Bimetallic Fe-Co alloy catalysts supported on silica have been studied by use of combined Mössbauer absorption and emisson spectroscopy. Effects of carburization on samples with different particle size are discussed.     

Minimal webs in Riemannian manifolds

For a given combinatorial graph G a geometrization (G, g) of the graph is obtained by considering each edge of the graph as a 1-dimensional manifold with an associated metric g. In this paper we are concerned with minimal isometric immersions of geometrized graphs (G, g) into Riemannian manifolds (N ⁿ , h). Such immersions we call minimal webs. They admit a natural ‘geometric’ extension of the intrinsic combinatorial discrete Laplacian. The geometric Laplacian on minimal webs enjoys standard properties such as the maximum principle and the divergence theorems, which are of instrumental importance for the applications. We apply these properties to show that minimal webs in ambient Riemannian spaces share several analytic and geometric properties with their smooth (minimal submanifold) counterparts in such spaces. In particular we use appropriate versions of the divergence theorems together with the comparison techniques for distance functions in Riemannian geometry and obtain bounds for the first Dirichlet eigenvalues, the exit times and the capacities as well as isoperimetric type inequalities for so-called extrinsic R-webs of minimal webs in ambient Riemannian manifolds with bounded curvature.      

Mössbauer spectroscopy and the iron on Mars

Both the USSR and US have plans of performing rover missions and sample return missions to the planet Mars in the coming decade. There may be possibilities of performingin situ Mössbauer spectroscopy on Mars or on fresh samples returned to a space station.     

Enhanced Catalytic Activity of Cobalt Porphyrin in CO2 Electroreduction upon Immobilization on Carbon Materials

In a comparative study of the electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction, cobalt meso-tetraphenylporphyrin (CoTPP) is used as a model molecular catalyst under both homogeneous and heterogeneous conditions. In the former case, employing N,N-dimethylformamide as solvent, CoTPP performs poorly as an electrocatalyst giving low product selectivity in a slow reaction at a high overpotential. However, upon straightforward immobilization of CoTPP onto carbon nanotubes, a remarkable enhancement of the electrocatalytic abilities is seen with CO₂ becoming selectively reduced to CO (>90 %) at a low overpotential in aqueous medium. This effect is ascribed to the particular environment created by the aqueous medium at the catalytic site of the immobilized catalyst that facilitates the adsorption and further reaction of CO₂. This work highlights the significance of assessing an immobilized molecular catalyst from more than homogeneous measurements alone.     

Resonant vibration control of rotating beams

Rotating structures, like e.g. wind turbine blades, may be prone to vibrations associated with particular modes of vibration. It is demonstrated, how this type of vibrations can be reduced by using a collocated sensor-actuator system, governed by a resonant controller. The theory is here demonstrated by an active strut, connecting two cross-sections of a rotating beam. The structure is modeled by beam elements in a rotating frame of reference following the beam. The geometric stiffness is derived in a compact form from an initial stress formulation in terms of section forces and moments. The stiffness, and thereby the natural frequencies, of the beam depend on the rotation speed and the controller is tuned to current rotation speed to match the resonance frequency of the selected mode. It is demonstrated that resonant control leads to introduction of the intended level of damping in the selected mode and, with good modal connectivity, only very limited modal spill-over is generated. The controller acts by resonance and therefore has only a moderate energy consumption, and successfully reduces modal vibrations at the resonance frequency.     

Slow conductance relaxation in insulating granular Al: evidence for screening effects

It is shown that the conductance relaxations observed in electrical field effect measurements on granular Al films are the sum of two contributions. One is sensitive to gate voltage changes and gives the already reported anomalous electrical field effect. The other one is independent of the gate voltage history and starts when the films are cooled down to low temperature. Their relative amplitude is strongly thickness-dependent which demonstrates the existence of a finite screening length in our insulating films and allows its quantitative estimate (about 10 nm at 4 K). This metalliclike screening should be taken into account in the electron glass models of disordered insulators.