Topotaxy in the oxidation of valentinite,Sb2O3, to cervantite,Sb2O4

The oxidation of orthorhombic Sb₂O₃, valentinite, to orthorhombic Sb₂O₄, cervantite, has been shown by single crystal x-ray diffraction techniques to be a topotactic reaction. The orientation relationships between the two lattices have been determined by making use of a hybrid crystal. It has been found that the individual axes in the two oxides are parallel. The two crystal structures have been compared in the appropriate orientation and their close similarity has been established. The shifts of the individual atoms in valentinite during the process of oxidation have been calculated to be not more than 0·6 Å. It has been established that the reduction of cervantite to valentinite also takes place topotactically.     

CFD–DEM study of effect of bed thickness for bubbling fluidized beds

The effect of bed thickness in rectangular fluidized beds is investigated through the CFD–DEM simulations of small-scale systems. Numerical results are compared for bubbling fluidized beds of various bed thicknesses with respect to particle packing, bed expansion, bubble behavior, solids velocities, and particle kinetic energy. Good two-dimensional (2D) flow behavior is observed in the bed having a thickness of up to 20 particle diameters. However, a strong three-dimensional (3D) flow behavior is observed in beds with a thickness of 40 particle diameters, indicating the transition from 2D flow to 3D flow within the range of 20–40 particle diameters. Comparison of velocity profiles near the walls and at the center of the bed shows significant impact of the front and back walls on the flow hydrodynamics of pseudo-2D fluidized beds. Hence, for quantitative comparison with experiments in pseudo-2D columns, the effect of walls has to be accounted for in numerical simulations.     

Magnetization and structural studies of Mn doped ZnO nanoparticles: Prepared by reverse micelle method

Single phase Mn (2.5 at%) doped ZnO nanocrystalline samples were synthesized by reverse micelle method as characterized by Rietveld refinement analysis of X-ray diffraction data, high resolution transmission electron microscopy and selected area electron diffraction analyses. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) studies indicated that manganese exist as Mn²⁺ in ZnO lattice. DC magnetization measurements as a function of field and temperature, of 2.5 at% Mn doped ZnO nanoparticles annealed at 675 K, showed room temperature ferromagnetism (RTF). This observation is further confirmed by the EPR spectrum of the sample, which shows a distinct ferromagnetic resonance signal at room temperature. These results indicate that the observed RTF in Mn-doped ZnO may be attributed to the substitutional incorporation of Mn at Zn sites.     

Application of combined Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics method to simulation of dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine lipid bilayer

We describe a new equilibration procedure for the atomic level simulation of a hydrated lipid bilayer. The procedure consists of alternating molecular dynamics trajectory calculations in a constant surface tension and temperature ensemble with configurational bias Monte Carlo moves to different regions of the configuration space of the bilayer, in a constant volume and temperature ensemble. The procedure is described in detail and is applied to a bilayer of 100 molecules of dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and 3205 water molecules. We find that the hybrid simulation procedure enhances the equilibration of the bilayer as measured by the convergence of the area per molecule and the segmental order parameters, as compared with a simulation using only molecular dynamics (MD). Progress toward equilibration is almost three times as fast in CPU time, compared with a purely MD simulation. Equilibration is complete, as judged by the lack of energy drift in three separate 200-ps runs of continuous MD started from different initial states. Results of the simulation are presented and compared with experimental data and with other recent simulations of DPPC. ©1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 20: 1153–1164, 1999     

Synthesis and characterization of 4,4′‐dihydroxy‐α‐methylstilbene crystal

4,4′‐dihydroxy‐α‐methylstilbene (DHAMS) was synthesized by condensation reaction with chloroacetone and phenol in the presence of concentrated sulfuric acid, and has been successfully grown by solution growth technique. This is the first report in the literature on the crystallization of DHAMS and exhibited the birefringent melt (liquid crystal property) of the optical properties. FTIR and FTNMR studies are in accordance with the structure. Good quality crystals were grown by slow evaporation technique by acetone as solvent. A transmission spectrum of the crystal was obtained in the region of 285 nm. The structural and optical properties were studied. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Fast Quantum-Dot Cellular Automata Adder/Subtractor Using Novel Fault Tolerant Exclusive-or Gate and Full Adder

Quantum-dot Cellular automata is a promising area to implement digital systems at nano scale level. Adders and subtractors are widely used in almost every digital information processing system. This work targets to design an efficient 8-bit adder/subtractor that can perform addition as well as subtraction by using a novel control signal distribution scheme. To perform controlled inversion of inputs a novel exclusive-or gate with fewer cells is proposed. During Quantum-dot Cellular automata circuit fabrication, missing cell defects have the potential to affect the performance of a circuit. The proposed designs have higher fault resistance to missing cell defects compared to the existing state-of-the-art designs. Results demonstrate that the proposed design has (N-2) less clock phases compared to the existing state-of-the-art designs. The proposed design can be extended to implement any N-bit adder/subtractor. All the designs are designed and verified using coherence vector simulation engine in QCADesigner.

     

Spin-electron-phonon excitation in Re-based half-metallic double perovskites

A remarkable hardening (~30 cm(-1)) of the normal mode of vibration associated with the symmetric stretching of the oxygen octahedra for the Ba(2)FeReO(6) and Sr(2)CrReO(6) double perovskites is observed below the corresponding magnetic ordering temperatures. The very large magnitude of this effect and its absence for the antisymmetric stretching mode provide evidence against a conventional spin-phonon coupling mechanism. Our observations are consistent with a collective excitation formed by the combination of the vibrational mode with oscillations of Fe or Cr 3d and Re 5d occupations and spin magnitudes.     

Utilization of phosphinoamide ligands in homobimetallic fe and mn complexes: the effect of disparate coordination environments on metal-metal interactions and magnetic and redox properties

A series of homobimetallic phosphinoamide-bridged diiron and dimanganese complexes in which the two metals maintain different coordination environments have been synthesized. Systematic variation of the steric and electronic properties of the phosphinoamide phosphorus and nitrogen substituents leads to structurally different complexes. Reaction of [(i)PrNKPPh(2)] (1) with MCl(2) (M = Mn, Fe) affords the phosphinoamide-bridged bimetallic complexes [Mn((i)PrNPPh(2))(3)Mn((i)PrNPPh(2))] (3) and [Fe((i)PrNPPh(2))(3)Fe((i)PrNPPh(2))] (4). Complexes 3 and 4 are iso-structural, with one metal center preferentially binding to the three amide ligands in a trigonal planar arrangement while the second metal center is ligated by three phosphine donors. A fourth phosphinoamide ligand caps the tetrahedral coordination sphere of the phosphine-ligated metal center. M?ssbauer spectroscopy of complex 4 suggests that the metals in these complexes are best described as Fe(II) centers. In contrast, treatment of MnCl(2) or FeI(2) with [MesNKP(i)Pr(2)] (2) leads to the formation of the halide-bridged species [(THF)Mn(μ-Cl)(MesNP(i)Pr(2))(2)Mn(MesNP(i)Pr(2))] (5) and [(THF)Fe(μ-I)(MesNP(i)Pr(2))(2)FeI (7), respectively. Utilization of FeCl(2) in place of FeI(2), however, leads exclusively to the C(3)-symmetric complex [Fe(MesNP(i)Pr(2))(3)FeCl] (6), structurally similar to 4 but with a halide bound to the phosphine-ligated Fe center. The M?ssbauer spectrum of 6 is also consistent with high spin Fe(II) centers. Thus, in the case of the [(i)PrNPPh(2)](-) and [MesNP(i)Pr(2)](-) ligands, zwitterionic complexes with the two metals in disparate coordination environments are preferentially formed. In the case of the more electron-rich ligand [(i)PrNP(i)Pr(2)](-), complexes with a 2:1 mixed donor ligand arrangement, in which one of the ligand arms has reversed orientation relative to the previous examples, are formed exclusively when [(i)PrNLiP(i)Pr(2)] (generated in situ) is treated with MCl(2) (M = Mn, Fe): (THF)(3)LiCl[Mn(N(i)PrP(i)Pr(2))(2)(P(i)Pr(2)N(i)Pr)MnCl] (8) and [Fe(N(i)PrP(i)Pr(2))(2)(P(i)Pr(2)N(i)Pr)FeCl] (9). Bimetallic complexes 3-9 have been structurally characterized using X-ray crystallography, revealing Fe-Fe interatomic distances indicative of metal-metal bonding in complexes 6 and 9 (and perhaps 4, to a lesser extent). All of the complexes appear to adopt high spin electron configurations, and magnetic measurements indicate significant antiferromagnetic interactions in Mn(2) complexes 5 and 8 and no discernible magnetic superexchange in Fe(2) complex 4. The redox behavior of complexes 3-9 has also been investigated using cyclic voltammetry, and theoretical investigations (DFT) were performed to gain insight into the metal-metal interactions in these unique asymmetric complexes.     

Nanoparticle collisions in the gas phase in the presence of singular contact potentials

Collisional growth and ionization is commonplace for gas phase nanoparticles (i.e., in aerosols). Nanoparticle collisions in atmospheric pressure environments occur in the mass transfer transition regime, and further attractive singular contact potentials (which arise when modeling nanoparticles as condensed matter and for which the potential energy approaches -∞ when two entities contact) often have a non-negligible influence on collision processes. For these reasons collision rate calculations for nanoparticles in the gas phase are not straightforward. We use mean first passage time calculations to develop a simple relationship to determine the collision rate in the gas phase, accounting for the influences of both the transition regime and singular contact potentials (specifically the non-retarded van der Waals and image potentials). In the presented analysis, methods to determine the degree of enhancement in collision rate due to attractive singular potentials in the continuum (diffusive) regime, η(C), and the degree of enhancement in the free molecular (ballistic) regime, η(FM), are first reviewed. Accounting for these enhancement factors, with mean first passage time calculations it is found that the collision rate for gas phase nanoparticles with other gas phase entities can be determined from a relationship between the dimensionless collision rate coefficient, H, and the diffusive Knudsen number, Kn(D), i.e., the ratio of the mean collision persistence distance to the collision length scale. This coincides with the H(Kn(D)) relationship found to appropriately describe collisions between entities interacting via a hard-sphere potential, but with η(C) and η(FM) incorporated into the definitions of both H and Kn(D), respectively. The H(Kn(D)) relationship is compared to the predictions of flux matching theory, used prevalently in prior work for collision rate calculation, and through this comparison it is found that at high potential energy to thermal energy ratios, flux matching theory predictions underestimate the true collision rate. Finally, a series of experimental measurements of nanoparticle-nanoparticle collision rates are compared to the determined H(Kn(D)) expression, considering that nanoparticles interact via non-retarded van der Waals potentials. Very good agreement is found with collision rates inferred from experiments, with almost all measured values from four separate studies within 25% of model predictions.