Enantioselective Zinc‐Catalyzed Hydrosilylation of Ketones using Pybox or Pybim Ligands

The combination of ZnEt₂ and chiral pyridinebisoxazoline (pybox) or pyridinebisimidazoline (pybim) ligands catalyzed the asymmetric hydrosilylation of aryl, alkyl, cyclic, heterocyclic, and aliphatic ketones. Under mild conditions, high yields and good enantioselectivities were achieved. ESI measurements allowed for the characterization of the active catalyst.     

Dynamic Data-Driven Genetic Algorithm for forest fire spread prediction

This work represents the first step towards a Dynamic Data-Driven Application System (DDDAS) for wildland fire prediction. Our main efforts are focused on taking advantage of the computing power provided by High Performance Computing systems and to propose computational data-driven steering strategies to overcome input data uncertainty. In doing so, prediction quality can be enhanced significantly. On the other hand, these proposals reduce the execution time of the overall prediction process in order to be of use during real-time crisis. In particular, this work describes a Dynamic Data-Driven Genetic Algorithm (DDDGA) used as steering strategy to automatically adjust highly dynamic input data values of forest fire simulators taking into account the underlying propagation model and real fire behaviour.     

Alkali sulfation during combustion of coal in a pilot scale facility using additives to alter the global sulfur to potassium and chlorine to potassium ratios

Due to the urgent needs to reduce anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions there is an increasing interest in the use of alternative fuels. For this reason, there is a need for new knowledge on how to design and adapt existing heat and power plants to biogenic and waste-derived fuels. This work relates to co-firing of biomass and coal and the sulfation of alkali chlorides in coal-fired flames doped with chemical additives. We aim to examine the global time scales of alkali sulfation and chlorination based on combustion experiments that were conducted in a 30-kW coal flame. Temperature, gas and particle composition measurements were conducted. Both experiments and modelling support that the apparent alkali sulfation kinetics are fast in a coal-fired flame and that it is dominated entirely by the presence of SO₂. The availability of oxygen and carbon monoxide, or hydrocarbons, is also critical to sustain the sulfation reaction cycle; low concentrations are sufficient. For industrial boilers this implies that sulfur addition, in combination with reburning, should constitute an efficient strategy to mitigate alkali-chlorination and the related high temperature corrosion.     

Resonant Ionization Laser Ion Source Project at TRIUMF

Resonant laser excitation and ionisation is one of the most successful tools for the selective production of radioactive ion beams (RIB) at on-line mass separator facilities. TRIUMF plans to augment the current ion sources with a resonant ionisation laser ion source (RILIS), to use the high production yields from the target, as shown by the delivery of 3*10⁴/s ¹¹Li ions from a standard target ion source with surface ionisation. The development and installation of TRIUMF's RILIS (TRILIS) is necessary to provide beams of short lived isotopes that conventional ion sources could not produce in sufficient intensity and purity for nuclear-, and nuclear astrophysics- experiments. A laser system consisting of three tunable titanium–sapphire (TiSa) lasers with frequency doubling and tripling was employed to demonstrate first off-line resonance ionisation of Ga, and is being installed for first on-line test and a run on ⁶²Ga in December 2004.     

Ultratrace analysis of calcium with high isotopic selectivity by diodelaser resonance ionisation mass spectrometry

A resonance ionisation mass spectrometer for the ultratrace determination of calcium isotopes is presented. It achieves high overall efficiency, ultra-high isotopic abundance sensitivity of more than 10¹⁰ and complete suppression of isobars. The system can be used for isotope ratio studies on stable and long-lived trace isotopes with the final goal of radiodating via ⁴¹Ca-determination. For the different applications optical one-, two- or three-step resonance excitation and subsequent ionisation is applied using simple and inexpensive diodelasers. Additional mass analysis is accomplished in a commercial quadrupole mass spectrometer. The experimental set-up and first results on synthetical and meteorite samples are described.     

Hyperfine structure and isotope shift of the neutron-rich barium isotopes139–146Ba and148Ba

The hyperfme structure and isotope shift in the 6s ² S _1/2?6p ²P_3/2 line of Ba II (455.4 nm) have been measured by collinear fast-beam laser spectroscopy for the neutron-rich isotopes^139–146Ba and¹⁴⁸Ba. Nuclear moments and mean square charge radii of these isotopes have been recalculated. The isotope shift of the isotope¹⁴⁸Ba (T_1/2=0.64 s) could be studied for the first time, yieldingδ〈r²〉^138,148=1.245(3) fm².     

Lifetime measurements of highly excited Rydberg states of strontium I

Lifetimes of Rydberg states of the triplet-series 5s ns ³ S ₁ withn = 19–23, 35 and 5s nd ³ D ₃ withn = 18–20, 23–28 in the spectrum of neutral strontium have been determined. Observation of the exponential decay after excitation by a pulsed laser in a fast atomic beam and subsequent state-selective field ionization was employed. The lifetimes of the states of the³ S ₁-series show the expectedn*³ dependence on the effective principal quantum number, while the³ D ₃-series is disturbed by configuration mixing. Furthermore, state re-populations induced by black-body radiation have been observed.     

Total oxidation of chlorinated hydrocarbons on LaMnO3 perovskite type catalyst

The total oxidation of CH₃Cl, CH₂Cl₂ and ClH₂C-CH₂Cl has been investigated on a LaMnO₃ perovskite type catalyst. Depending on the reaction temperature, a reversible deactivation of the catalyst was observed. Small amounts of by-products were formed at low reaction temperatures.