Volumetric and infrared measurements on amorphous ice structure

We have simultaneously used adsorption isotherm volumetry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in order to take the investigations on amorphous ice structure a step further, especially concerning porosity and annealing-induced modifications. We have studied surface reorganization during annealing and found that the number of surface sites decreases before crystallization, their relative ratios being different for amorphous and crystalline ice. We also present results confirming that ice can have a large specific surface area and nevertheless be non-microporous.     

A method to collect an infrared spectrum in solution.

Herein we report a new method to collect a qualified infrared spectrum of a solute in solution by two solvent cells with different thickness during background single-beam spectrum scanning. By collecting the background spectrum with two cells (two stages), we successfully achieved accurate solvent compensation between a sample and a reference, namely, the solvent amounts in the sample and background measurements could become congruent. Therefore, the solvent bands were thoroughly suppressed in the infrared spectrum and a qualified spectrum of the solute was obtained.     

Mono-dispersed cross-linked polystyrene micro-spheres prepared by seed swelling polymerization method

A two-step swelling procedure was adopted to synthesize mono-dispersed and highly cross-linked poly (St-divinylbenzene) particles with PSt micro-spheres (1.80 μm in diameter). The PSt micro-spheres were prepared by a dispersion polymerization method and used as seeds. The effects of monomer concentration, ratio of ethanol to water, swelling reagents, crosslinking reagents, swelling temperature and agitation speed on particle size were investigated in detail. The morphologies and size distributions of these micro-spheres were examined by SEM and particle size analysis (PSA). The T _g of the micro-spheres was measured by DSC. The results indicate that the particles (6.20 μm in diameter) exhibit excellent mono dispersed property and high crosslinking degree when the concentration of the swelling reagent was 25%, the concentration of the crosslinking reagents was 23%, the swelling temperature was 30°C and the stirring speed was 150 r/min. __________ Translated from Chinese Journal of Applied Chemistry, 2007, 24(11): 1289–1294     

An analysis of migration paths of Li+ cations in ternary oxygen-containing compounds Li p X q O r

A new method was developed for studying voids and channels in crystal structures based on the Voronoi-Dirichlet partition of crystal space, and 822 structurally characterized ternary compounds Li ^p X ^q O ^r were analyzed for the first time. For these compounds, the dimensionality was determined and the migration patterns of channel systems capable of providing lithium-ion transport were constructed. The calculated coordinates of lithium atoms in the centers of the voids are consistent (within 0.4 ?) with the known structural data. Among these compounds, 113 compounds have infinite channel systems, 60 compounds (18 structural types, STs) have been described earlier in the literature as solid electrolytes, and 53 compounds (23 STs) can be considered as potential one-, two-, or three-dimensional ionic conductors (13, 3, and 7 STs, respectively). Original Russian Text ? N.A. Anurova, V.A. Blatov, G.D. Ilyushin, O.A. Blatova, A.K. Ivanov-Shitz, L.N. Dem’yanets, 2008, published in Kristallografiya, 2008, Vol. 53, No. 6, pp. 987–993.     

Structural hierarchy of rock masses and the mechanisms of its formation

The formation mechanisms for the structural hierarchy in geological media are discussed. It is shown that the formation of such a hierarchy is caused by certain external and internal circumstances. The first ones consist in the fact that, because of external actions, the Earth’s poles continuously execute the translational and rotational motions responsible for a regular structure of rock fracture and for the appearance of the scale factor √2. The second ones consist in the fact that, under the action of many random factors and because of external actions, during the formation of geological media there appear dissipative structures and, hence, some self-similar fractal structures are formed.     

Miscibility and phase structure of binary blends of polylactide and poly(methyl methacrylate)

Blends of amorphous poly(DL‐lactide) (DL‐PLA) and crystalline poly(L‐lactide) (PLLA) with poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) were prepared by both solution/precipitation and solution‐casting film methods. The miscibility, crystallization behavior, and component interaction of these blends were examined by differential scanning calorimetry. Only one glass‐transition temperature (T_g) was found in the DL‐PLA/PMMA solution/precipitation blends, indicating miscibility in this system. Two isolated T_g's appeared in the DL‐PLA/PMMA solution‐casting film blends, suggesting two segregated phases in the blend system, but evidence showed that two components were partially miscible. In the PLLA/PMMA blend, the crystallization of PLLA was greatly restricted by amorphous PMMA. Once the thermal history of the blend was destroyed, PLLA and PMMA were miscible. The T_g composition relationship for both DL‐PLA/PMMA and PLLA/PMMA miscible systems obeyed the Gordon–Taylor equation. Experiment results indicated that there is no more favorable trend of DL‐PLA to form miscible blends with PMMA than PLLA when PLLA is in the amorphous state. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 23–30, 2003     

Temperature dependence of the exafs spectrum in YBa2Cu3O7−δ compounds

The temperature dependence of the extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) is studied in the high T_c superconductors, YBa₂Cu₃O_7−δ. The measurements were done at the Cu K-edge for samples of two orthorhombic phases (T_c≈90 K and ≈58 K, respectively) and a nonsuperconducting tetragonal phase. Interatomic distances and mean square relative displacements σ² for Cu-O bonds are determined by the least squares refinement. The results indicate that values of σ² increase near T_c for both the orthorhombic samples. It is concluded that this anomalous behavior related to T_c is caused by an anomalous vibration of oxygen atoms in the Ba-O layer. Changes in the Cu-O distances from 300 to 20 K are not found.     

D. Liu and X. Zhu,Erratum to: “Fractional chromatic number and circular chromatic number for distance graphs with large clique size”. Journal of Graph Theory47(2) 2004, 129–146

The original article to which this Erratum refers was published in Journal of Graph Theory 47:129–146,2004 .     

Fractional Derivatives Applied to Phase-Space Reconstructions

The concept and application of phase-space reconstructions are reviewed. Fractional derivatives are then proposed for the purpose of reconstructing dynamics from a single observed time history. A procedure is presented in which the fractional derivatives of time series data are obtained in the frequency domain. The method is applied to the Lorenz system. The ability of the method to unfold the data is assessed by the method of global false nearest neighbors. The reconstructed data is used to compute recurrences and correlation dimensions. The reconstruction is compared to the commonly used method of delays in order to assess the choice of reconstruction parameters, and also the quality of results.