Dynamic mechanical behavior of acrylonitrile butadiene rubber/poly(ethylene‐co‐vinyl acetate) blends

The dynamic mechanical behavior of uncrosslinked (thermoplastic) and crosslinked (thermosetting) acrylonitrile butadiene rubber/poly(ethylene‐co‐vinyl acetate) (NBR/EVA) blends was studied with reference to the effect of blend ratio, crosslinking systems, frequency, and temperature. Different crosslinked systems were prepared using peroxide (DCP), sulfur, and mixed crosslink systems. The glass‐transition behavior of the blends was affected by the blend ratio, the nature of crosslinking, and frequency. sThe damping properties of the blends increased with NBR content. The variations in tan δ_max were in accordance with morphology changes in the blends. From tan δ values of peroxide‐cured NBR, EVA, and blends the crosslinking effect of DCP was more predominant in NBR. The morphology of the uncrosslinked blends was examined using scanning electron and optical microscopes. Cocontinuous morphology was observed between 40 and 60 wt % of NBR. The particle size distribution curve of the blends was also drawn. The Arrhenius relationship was used to calculate the activation energy for the glass transition of the blends, and it decreased with an increase in the NBR content. Various theoretical models were used to predict the modulus of the blends. From wide‐angle X‐ray scattering studies, the degree of crystallinity of the blends decreased with an increasing NBR content. The thermal behavior of the uncrosslinked and crosslinked systems of NBR/EVA blends was analyzed using a differential scanning calorimeter. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 40: 1556–1570, 2002     

On a generalised Connes-Hochschild-Kostant-Rosenberg theorem

The central result of this paper is an explicit computation of the Hochschild and cyclic homologies of a natural smooth subalgebra of stable continuous trace algebras having smooth manifolds X as their spectrum. More precisely, the Hochschild homology is identified with the space of differential forms on X, and the periodic cyclic homology with the twisted de Rham cohomology of X, thereby generalising some fundamental results of Connes and Hochschild-Kostant-Rosenberg. The Connes-Chern character is also identified here with the twisted Chern character.     

Inequalities for the Novikov-Shubin invariants

In this paper, we prove that the Novikov-Shubin invariants satisfy a sequence of inequalities and deduce some useful consequences of this result.

     

Anodic growth of highly ordered TiO2 nanotube arrays to 134 microm in length

Described is the fabrication of self-aligned highly ordered TiO(2) nanotube arrays by potentiostatic anodization of Ti foil having lengths up to 134 mum, representing well over an order of magnitude increase in length thus far reported. We have achieved the very long nanotube arrays in fluoride ion containing baths in combination with a variety of nonaqueous organic polar electrolytes including dimethyl sulfoxide, formamide, ethylene glycol, and N-methylformamide. Depending on the anodization voltage, pore diameters of the resulting nanotube arrays range from 20 to 150 nm. Our longest nanotube arrays yield a roughness factor of 4750 and length-to-width (outer diameter) aspect ratio of approximately 835. The as-prepared nanotubes are amorphous but crystallize with annealing at elevated temperatures. In initial measurements, 45 mum long nanotube-array samples, 550 degrees C annealed, under UV illumination show a remarkable water photoelectrolysis photoconversion efficiency of 16.25%.     

Size-dependent pressure-induced amorphization in nanoscale TiO2

We investigated the size-dependent high-pressure phase transition behavior of nanocrystalline anatase TiO2 with synchrotron x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy to 45 GPa at ambient temperature. Pressure-induced amorphization results in a high-density amorphous (HDA) form when the starting crystallite size is < 10 mm. The HDA-TiO2 transforms to a low-density amorphous form at lower pressures. Harnessing the nanometer length scale thus provides a new window for experimental investigation of amorphization in poor glass formers and a synthesis route for new amorphous materials.     

FT-IR, FT-Raman and SERS spectra of Vitamin C

FT-IR and FT-Raman spectra of Vitamin c have been recorded and analysed. SERS spectrum was recorded is silver colloid. The molecule is thought to adsorb with the lactone ring in a tilted side on orientation with respect to the silver surface.     

Representations of groups with CAT(0) fixed point property

We show that certain representations over fields with positive characteristic of groups having CAT\((0)\) fixed point property \(\mathrm{F}\mathcal {B}_{\widetilde{A}_n}\) have finite image. In particular, we obtain rigidity results for representations of the following groups: the special linear group over \({\mathbb {Z}}\), \({\mathrm{SL}}_k({\mathbb {Z}})\), the special automorphism group of a free group, \(\mathrm{SAut}(F_k)\), the mapping class group of a closed orientable surface, \(\mathrm{Mod}(\Sigma _g)\), and many other groups. In the case of characteristic zero, we show that low dimensional complex representations of groups having CAT\((0)\) fixed point property \(\mathrm{F}\mathcal {B}_{\widetilde{A}_n}\) have finite image if they always have compact closure.     

Twisted analytic torsion

We review the Reidemeister, Ray-Singer’s analytic torsion and the Cheeger-Mller theorem. We describe the analytic torsion of the de Rham complex twisted by a flux form introduced by the current authors and recall its properties. We define a new twisted analytic torsion for the complex of invariant differential forms on the total space of a principal circle bundle twisted by an invariant flux form. We show that when the dimension is even, such a torsion is invariant under certain deformation of the metric and the flux form. Under T-duality which exchanges the topology of the bundle and the flux form and the radius of the circular fiber with its inverse, the twisted torsion of invariant forms are inverse to each other for any dimension.