Lattice vibrations of armchair carbon nanotubes: phonons,soliton deformations and lattice discreteness effects

Small and large-amplitude elastic deformations of the armchair structure of single-walled carbon nanotubes are investigated with emphasis on the cylindrical geometry. As starting model, we consider a discrete one-dimensional lattice of atoms interacting via a Lennard-Jones type two-body potential. In an expansion scheme using cylindrical coordinates where radial displacements are assumed negligible compared to the angular motions, a sine-lattice Hamiltonian is derived. In the limit of small-amplitude angular displacements, the dispersion spectrum of acoustic phonons is derived and the associate characteristic frequency is given as a function of parameters of the model. In the large-amplitude regime, lattice vibrations give rise to kink-type deformations which move undergoing lattice dispersion and lattice discreteness effects. The dispersion law of the kink motion is obtained and shown to lower the effect of lattice discreteness, giving rise to a vanishing Peierls stress for kink sizes of the order of a few lattice spacings. Implications of the coupling of two armchair structures on the stability of vibrational modes of an individual armchair nanotube are also discussed. A gap of forbidden modes is predicted in the phonon spectrum while the energy needed to create a kink deformation in individual nanotubes is shifted in the presence of a wall-to-wall interaction.Received: 2 August 2004, Published online: 14 December 2004PACS: 81.07.De Nanotubes - 62.30. + d Mechanical and elastic waves-vibrations - 63.22. + m Phonons in low-dimensional nanoscale materials - 63.20.Ry Anharmonic lattices modes     

Extraction-ability and -selectivity of tetra-aza-crown ethers for transition metal cations

In order to investigate the relative effects of the differences between the structures and lipophilicities of 1, 10-dioxa-4, 7, 13, 16-tetra-azacyclo-octadecane (TA-18-crown-6) and the tetrabenzyl derivative of 1,10-dioxa-4, 7, 13, 16-tetra-azacyclo-octadecane (TBTA-18-crown-6) on their extraction-abilities and -selectivities for transition metal cations, constants of the overall extraction (logK _ex) of 1:1 (M:L) complexes, the distribution (K _D) for two diluents (CH₂Cl₂ and CHCl₃) with different dielectric constants have been determined at 25 ± 0.1 °C. The magnitude of logK _ex is largely determined by that of K _D. The equilibrium constants of TA-18-crown-6 have been compared with those of TBTA-18-crown-6. It is found that:(i) logK _ex sequences of TA-18-crown-6 and TBTA-18-crown-6 for transition metals in CH₂Cl₂ lie in order: Fe³⁺ > Cu²⁺ > Mn²⁺ > Co²⁺ > Cd²⁺ > Ni²⁺ > Zn²⁺ and Fe³⁺ > Cu²⁺ > Co²⁺ > Mn²⁺ > Ni²⁺ > Cd²⁺ > Zn²⁺ respectively; (ii) the stability sequences of two types of tetra-aza-crown ethers with the transition metal cations in CHCl₃ are the same as follows: Fe³⁺ > Ni²⁺ > Cu²⁺ > Co²⁺ > Zn²⁺ > Cd²⁺ > Mn²⁺, and (iii) unusual selectivities are observed for transition metal-tetra-aza-crowns, e.g. the high Fe³⁺/M ⁿ⁺ selectivity factors (S_f) of TA-18-crown-6, except for the competitive-extractions for the special case in CHCl₃ of TBTA-18-crown-6, it was found that the Mn²⁺/M ⁿ⁺ values were relatively higher according to the other transition metal cations. A systematic sequence in these two types of solvents is not found for a given transition metal cation in terms of the variation of selectivity with the tetra-aza-crown ethers. The results provide alternatives for the rational design of other specific ligands on the transition metal cations.     

Unavoidable Traces Of Set Systems

Sauer, Shelah, Vapnik and Chervonenkis proved that if a set system on n vertices contains many sets, then the set system has full trace on a large set. Although the restriction on the size of the groundset cannot be lifted, Frankl and Pach found a trace structure that is guaranteed to occur in uniform set systems even if we do not bound the size of the groundset. In this note we shall give three sequences of structures such that every set system consisting of sufficiently many sets contains at least one of these structures with many sets.     

Measurement of elastin hydrolysis by reverse-phase HPLC with on-line post-colum derivatization

Summary Excessive breakdown of elastin, a structural protein, may be related to aortic disease and emphysema. Since L-valyl-L-proline occurs in high concentrations in elastin, a rapid and sensitive method using HPLC with post-column on-line derivatization was used to measure the dipeptide from swine aortic tissue, and the amount of elastin present was determined. Elastin was extracted by alkaline hydrolysis. After neutralization and filtration, the sample was injected onto a ODS-2 gel column, and the dipeptide was eluted by a linear gradient of 0 to 10% of 1-propanol in 50 mM heptafluorobutyrate, pH 3, at a flow rate of 1 ml/min. The eluent was reacted with fluorescamine at pH 8.6, and fluorescence was detected at an excitation wavelength of 395 nm and a 455 nm cutoff emission filter.Presented at the 17th International Symposium on Chromatography, September 25–30, 1988, Vienna, Austria.     

Tensile behaviour of corroded and hydrogen embrittled 2024 T351 aluminum alloy specimen

The synergetic effect of corrosion and corrosion induced hydrogen embrittlement damage processes which occur at local scale has been found to result in a dramatic macroscopic tensile ductility loss of the 2024 aluminum alloy. In the present work, the tensile behaviour of corroded 2024 T351 specimens has been estimated on the basis of FE analysis by taking into account the local material properties in the damaged areas. A parametric study is involved to account for the effect of thickness in the results. Calculated tensile properties obtained with the analysis agree well with experimental data.     

On the non existence of monotone linear schema for some linear parabolic equations

In this Note, we present a result concerning the non existence of linear monotone schema with fixed stencil on regular meshes for some linear parabolic equation in two dimensions. The parabolic equations of interest arise from non isotropic diffusion modelling. A corollary is that no linear monotone 9 points-schemes can be designed for the one-dimensional heat equation emerged in the plane with an arbitrary direction of diffusion. Some applications of this result are provided: for the Fokker–Planck–Lorentz model for electrons in the context of plasma physics; all linear monotone scheme for the one-dimensional hyperbolic heat equation treated as a two-dimensional problem are not consistent in the diffusion limit for an arbitrary direction of propagation. We also examine the case of the Landau equation. To cite this article: C. Buet, S. Cordier, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 340 (2005).     

Propriétés statistiques des entiers friables

Let Ψ(x,y) (resp. Ψ_m(x,y)) denote the number of integers not exceeding x that are y-friable, i.e. have no prime factor exceeding y (resp. and are coprime to m). Evaluating the ratio Ψ_m(x/d,y)/Ψ(x,y) for 1≤slantd≤slantx, m≥slant 1, x≥slant y≥slant 2, turns out to be a crucial step for estimating arithmetic sums over friable integers. Here, it is crucial to obtain formulae with a very wide range of validity. In this paper, several uniform estimates are provided for the aforementioned ratio, which supersede all previously known results. Applications are given to averages of various arithmetic functions over friable integers which in turn improve corresponding results from the literature. The technique employed rests mainly on the saddle-point method, which is an efficient and specific tool for the required design.2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary—11N25; Secondary—11K65, 11N37     

Can a Metal-Insulator Transition Induce s-Wave Superconductivity?

A recent paper of Capone et al. has studied an extended Hubbard model, in which local orbital degrees of freedom allow an even integer occupation at each site. A strong local repulsion U triggers a metal-insulator transition. Within a DMFT numerical analysis they show that when the ground state is a singlet a pocket of s-wave superconductivity appears in the vicinity of the Mott transition, with a strongly enhanced superconducting gap. A qualitative understanding of their result is proposed, and suggestions are made of possible systems in which this beautiful effect might be searched.     

Un principe d'invariance relatif à un processus généralisant le mouvement brownien N-dimensionnel

We prove that the generalized random walks associated to a root system R in $\text{R}{}^{\mathrm{N}}$ and a nonnegative multiplicity function k defined on R, converge in distribution (if suitably normalized) to a Markov process with càdlàg trajectories and infinitesimal generator a differential-difference operator on $\text{R}{}^{\mathrm{N}}$ which generalizes the usual Laplacian. To cite this article: L. Gallardo, L. Godefroy, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 338 (2004).