Electrochemical investigation of magnetite-carbon nanocomposite in situ grown on nickel foam as a high-performance binderless pseudocapacitor

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - Magnetite-carbon nanocomposite was grown in situ on nickel foam by a novel auto-combustion method, and it was investigated for application as a...     

Comparison of drag reduction, rheology, microstructure and stress-induced precipitation of dilute cationic surfactant solutions with odd and even alkyl chains

Cationic surfactant systems of different alkyl chain lengths with counterion, C_nTAC(5 mmol/l)/3-Cl-Benzoate(12.5 mmol/l) (n=15, 16, 17, 18), were investigated for drag reduction, rheological behaviors, microstructure, and stress-induced precipitation. These are the first measurements of these characteristics for odd chain length (C₁₅ and C₁₇) quaternary ammonium surfactants. The lower and upper effective drag reduction temperature limits, viscoelasticity, and stress-induced precipitation temperature increased with alkyl chain length. Krafft temperature, critical turbidity temperature, and lower drag reduction effectiveness temperature limit showed a zigzag odd-even effect, while the stress-induced precipitation temperature did not. Light microscopy and cryo-TEM showed that cooling the C₁₅ solution below 20 °C produced crystals, while above that temperature threadlike micelles were present. The same was true for the solutions of C₁₈ that had threadlike micellar network microstructures when clear and crystals formed upon cooling. Micellar solutions can remain in a homogenous metastable state at a temperature below the Krafft temperature and above the critical turbidity temperature for days without external disturbance. Imposition of flow stress causes the systems to overcome the energy barrier and precipitate.     

Viscoelasticity of a surfactant and its drag-reducing ability

There is considerable interest in the use of viscoelastic cationic surfactant-counterion mixtures in district heating and cooling systems to reduce pressure losses. A recent field test in a secondary system near Prague showed a 30+% reduction in pumping energy requirements.We have studied a number of commercial surfactants and we report here results of rheological, drag reduction and turbulence measurements on Arquad 18–50 (octadecyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (AR 18)) with an excess of sodium salicylate (NA). The concentration studied was 1.6 mM AR 18 and 4.0 mM NA which is about one third the concentration for excellent drag reduction in this surfactant's effective temperature range 30–90°C.Viscosity, , vs. shear rate,D, first normal stress difference,N ₁, vs. shear rate, drag reduction (as pressure drop,i=P/1) vs. average velocity,U _ave, in a 39.4 mm tube for AR 18, and turbulence intensity data for three drag reducing surfactants are reported.Of particular interest are the generally low turbulence intensities in all three directions which correspond to reduced heat, mass and momentum transfer rates compared to water, and the existence of large normal stress differences at 20°C for AR 18, a temperature at which no drag reduction occurs with this surfactant, indicating that normal stress effects do not correlate directly with drag reduction.The effect of time of pumping on increasing drag reduction demonstrates that this factor overwhelms the expected increase in drag reduction as temperature is raised from 18–19°C to 40.5°C.     

Semileptonic (Λ b → Λcev) decay in a field theoretic quark model

The semileptonic decay width of heavy baryons such as (Λ _b → Λcev) has been estimated in the framework of a nonrelativistic field theoretic quark model where four component quark field operators along with a harmonic oscillator wave function are used to describe translationally invariant hadronic states. The present estimation does not make an explicit use of heavy quark symmetry and has a reasonable agreement with the experimentally measured decay width, polarisation ratio and form factors with the harmonic oscillator radii and quark momentum distribution inside the hadron as free parameters.     

Gel growth of α and γ glycine and their characterization

The microbial free single crystals of α and γ glycine were grown from gel at room temperature in a new chemical route. These crystals showed a superior quality than the solution grown crystals. The metastable α-form and the stable γ-form of glycine were crystallized in silica gel by solubility reduction method. The form of crystallization is confirmed by single crystal and powder X-ray diffraction analyses. The crystals of α and γ glycine were found to crystallize in monoclinic and hexagonal crystal systems, respectively. For analyzing the functional group and thermal stability of α and γ glycine crystals, spectroscopic and thermal analyses have been carried out. The dielectric studies were performed to find the dielectric constant of the grown crystals and the results are discussed. Second harmonic generation efficiency of the crystal was measured by Kurtz’s powder method using Nd:YAG laser and it was found to be 2.68 times that of potassium dihydrogen phosphate crystals.     

Raman and resonance-Raman spectra of CsI/I−3

Raman and resonance-Raman spectra of the I^?₃ ion isolated within CsI crystals have been studied using 647 nm and 488 nm exciting radiation. Sample temperatures between 300 and 20 K have been used. Eleven overtones of the symmetric stretching mode (nν₁) have been observed in the resonance-Raman spectrum excited by the 488 nm Ar⁺ laser line. Bands centred at 153, 170, 264 and 304 cm^?1 have been assigned as ν₃, 2ν₂, ν₁+ν₃ and 2ν₃(Σ⁺) respectively. The remaining structure between the nν₁ lines has been assigned as due to combinations of these lines with the lattice vibrations of the CsI crystal.     

Spectral Properties of the Cauchy Operator and Its Product with Bergman's Projection on a Bounded Domain

In this paper exact asymptotic formulae are found for singularvalues of the Cauchy operator and the logarithmic potentialtype operator (on a bounded domain), as well as their productswith Bergman's projection. It is shown that these spectral characteristicsdetect geometric properties of a domain (area and the lengthof the boundary). The hypothesis "can we hear the shape of adrum", from a paper by J.M. Anderson, D. Khavinson, and V. Lomonosov[‘Spectral properties of some integral operators arisingin potential theory’, Quart. J. Math. Oxford (2) 43 (1992)387-407], is correct in the above sense. 1991 Mathematics SubjectClassification: 47B10.     

Far downstream analysis for the Blasius boundary-layer stability problem

In this paper, we examine the large Reynolds number (Re) asymptoticstructure of the wave number in the Orr–Sommerfeld regionfor the Blasius boundary layer on a semi-infinite flat plategiven by Goldstein (1983, J. Fluid Mech., 127, 59–81).We show that the inclusion of the term which contains the leading-ordernon-parallel effects, at O(Re^{– 1/2}), leads to a non-uniformexpansion. By considering the far downstream form of each termin the asymptotic expansion, we derive a length scale at whichthe non-uniformity appears, and compare this position with theposition seen in plots of the wave number.     

Synthesis of aminimides derived from oleic acid: a new family of drag-reducing surfactants

Large-scale syntheses of aminimide surfactants that serve as low temperature drag-reducing agents in ethylene glycol-water mixtures are described. Preliminary drag reduction results are presented and the susceptibility of the surfactants to methanolysis is discussed.