Preparation and property assessment of neat lignocellulose nanofibrils (LCNF) and their composite films

Lignocellulose nanofibrils (LCNF) were produced from thermo-mechanical pulp (TMP) using a micro-grinder and were characterized with respect to fiber diameter and thermal stability. The initial water content in the TMP affected the defibrillation process and longer grinding time was necessary for the air-dried TMP, resulting in LCNF with higher fibril diameter. As compared to the reference cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) produced through a refining process, LCNF was less thermally stable and started to degrade at a temperature that was 30 °C lower than that of CNF. LCNF obtained from the never-dried TMP was combined with various additives (10 wt%) to produce composite films. The neat LCNF and composite films did not reach the mechanical properties of the neat CNF film that was evaluated as reference. However, the addition of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) at 10 wt% on a dry basis did cause a 46 and 25% increase in tensile strength and elastic modulus, respectively. Other additives including cellulose nanocrystals, bentonite and CNF were also found to increase to some extent the Young’s modulus and ductility of the LCNF composite films whereas the addition of talc did not improve the film performance. Water absorption of neat LCNF films was lower than the reference CNF and was negatively affected by the addition of PVA.     

Improved interface conditions for a non-overlapping domain decomposition of a non-convex polygonal domain

We propose a local improvement of domain decomposition methods which fits with the singularities occurring in the solutions of elliptic equations in polygonal domains. This short presentation focuses on a model elliptic problem with the decomposition of a non-convex polygonal domain into convex polygonal subdomains. After explaining the strategy and the theoretical design of adapted interface conditions at the corner, we present numerical experiments which show that these new interface conditions satisfy some optimality properties. To cite this article: C. Chniti et al., C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 342 (2006).     

Information rates in optical channels

Results of numerical computations of the information capacity in a photon communication channels are given and compared for various optical sources of different statistical properties.     

New formulations of linearized elasticity problems,based on extensions of Donati's theorem

The classical Donati theorem is used for characterizing smooth matrix fields as linearized strain tensor fields. In this Note, we give several generalizations of this theorem, notably to matrix fields whose components are only in $H^{\mathrm{?1}}$. We then show that our extensions of Donati's theorem allow to reformulate in a novel fashion linearized three-dimensional elasticity problems as quadratic minimization problems with the strains as the primary unknowns. To cite this article: C. Amrouche et al., C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 342 (2006).     

Weighted Dunkl transform inequalities and application on radial Besov spaces

In Dunkl theory on $\mathbb R ^d$ which generalizes classical Fourier analysis, we prove first weighted inequalities for certain Hardy-type averaging operators. In particular, we deduce for specific choices of the weights the $d$ -dimensional Hardy inequalities whose constants are sharp and independent of $d$ . Second, we use the weight characterization of the Hardy operator to prove weighted Dunkl transform inequalities. As consequence, we obtain Pitt’s inequality which gives an integrability theorem for this transform on radial Besov spaces.     

Phase structure and electrochemical characteristics of CaNi4.7Mn0.3 hydrogen storage alloy by mechanical alloying

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - In this paper, we study systematically the effect of ball/powder weight ratio on the morphological, structural, and electrochemical properties of...     

Computation of Greeks in LIBOR models driven by time–inhomogeneous Lévy processes

The aim of this article is to compute Greeks, i.e. price sensitivities in the framework of the Lévy LIBOR model. Two approaches are discussed. The first approach is based on the integration-by-parts formula, which lies at the core of the application of the Malliavin calculus to finance. The second approach consists of using Fourier-based methods for pricing derivatives. We illustrate the result by applying the formula to a caplet price where the jump part of the driving process of the underlying model is given by a time–inhomogeneous Gamma process and alternatively by a Variance Gamma process.     

Photomagnetic properties of an iron(II) low-spin complex with an unusually long-lived metastable LIESST state

A comprehensive study of the photomagnetic behavior of the [Fe(L222N5)(CN)2].H2O complex has been carried out. This complex is characterized by a low-spin (LS) iron(II)-metal center up to 400 K and exhibits at 10 K the well-known Light-Induced Excited Spin State Trapping (LIESST) effect. The critical LIESST temperature (T(LIESST)) has been measured to be 105 K. The kinetics of the transition from the metastable high-spin (HS) state to the low-spin state have been determined and used for reproducing the experimental T(LIESST) curve. This study represents a second example of a fully low-spin iron(II)-metal complex up to 400 K, which can be photoexcited at low temperature with an atypical long-lived metastable HS state. This underlines the preponderant role of the inner coordination sphere for stabilizing the lifetime of the photoinduced HS state.     

A local boundary condition coupled to a finite element method to compute guided modes of optical fibres under the weak guidance assumptions

An efficient method coupling a local boundary condition to a finite element technique is proposed to compute guided modes of optical fibres under the weak guidance assumptions. This method is designed to provide accurate solutions for optical fibres with no restriction on their shape as well as on their refractive index profile. Several numerical experiments are performed to demonstrate this point. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Desilylation procedure via a naphthalene-catalysed lithiation reaction

The reaction of silyl protected alcohols, amines and thiols with lithium powder and a catalytic amount of naphthalene, in THF, at 0 °C led, after hydrolysis, to the recovery of the free alcohols, amines and thiols in very good yields. At least a phenyl group was required in the silyl protecting group for the success of the reaction. Some polyfunctionalised starting materials have successfully been deprotected. The stereochemical outcome of the deprotection of a silylated chiral secondary alcohol has also been studied and no racemization was observed. The process has shown to be a good alternative to the acid-catalysed desilylation procedures, the latter being not useful for the deprotection of some silylated tertiary alcohols.