Enhancement of the electrical properties of carbon nanotubes with Ar–N2 plasma treatment

Optical emission spectroscopy and Langmuir probe are used to investigate the low pressure inductively coupled Ar–N₂ plasmas as function of rf power, filling pressure and Ar content in N₂ discharge. It is observed that the active species generation, dissociation fraction and electron temperature significantly depends on discharge parameters and may be used to optimize the plasma reactor. Mixture of SWCNTs and MWCNTs are treated for different treatment time (0–120 min) at optimum discharge conditions. Changes induced in the elemental composition, surface morphology, crystallographic structure, and structural disorder in the plasma irradiated CNTs are analyzed by EDX, FTIR, SEM, XRD and Raman spectroscopy, respectively. Ar–N₂ mixture plasma treatment of CNTs lead to a significant increase in the electrical conductivity, modify the microstructure and induce structural disorder and cause a transition of crystalline phase from well crystalline to an amorphous structure.     

Adiabatic small polaron-hopping conduction in Ln0.85Ca0.15MnO3 (Ln=Nd, Pr and Sm) perovskites

Polycrystalline bulk ferromagnetic insulating (FMI) Ln_0.85Ca_0.15MnO₃ (Ln=Nd, Pr and Sm) samples are prepared by standard solid-state reaction route and characterized. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) data of the manganites show single-phase character. Existing theoretical models predict that the high temperature (T>θ_D/2, θ_D being the Debye temperature) dc conductivity (σ_dc) of these samples is due to adiabatic small polaron-hopping conduction. Greaves’ and Mott's variable range hopping (VRH) conduction mechanisms are not suitable to explain the σ_dc data at low temperature (T<θ_D/2).     

Jeans' gravitational instability of a thermally conducting plasma

The gravitational instability of an infinitely extending homogenous plasma endowed with several physical mechanisms, namely Hall currents, finite conductivity, ion viscosity and thermal conductivity is considered. The main result is that the various parameters play different physical roles in the perturbed problem. Jeans' criterion is analyzed in the framework of Tsallis' statistics for possible modifications due to the presence of nonextensive effects. A simple generalization of the Jeans' criterion is obtained and the standard values are obtained in the limiting case q=1, q being the nonextensive parameter.     

Mobility–diffusivity relationship for heavily doped organic semiconductors

The relationship between the diffusivity D _n and the mobility μ _n of chemically doped organic n-type semiconductors exhibiting a disordered band structure is presented. These semiconductors have a Gaussian-type density of states. So, calculations have been performed to elucidate the dependence of D _n /μ _n on the various parameters of this Gaussian density of states. Y. Roichman and N. Tessler (Appl. Phys. Lett. 80:1948, 2002), and subsequently Peng et al. (Appl. Phys. A 86:225, 2007), conducted numerical simulations to study this diffusivity–mobility relationship in organic semiconductors. However, almost all other previous studies of the diffusivity–mobility relationship for inorganic semiconductors are based on Fermi–Dirac integrals. An analytical formulation has therefore been developed for the diffusivity/mobility relationship for organic semiconductors based on Fermi–Dirac integrals. The D _n /μ _n relationship is general enough to be applicable to both non-degenerate and degenerate organic semiconductors. It may be an important tool to study electrical transport in these semiconductors.     

Thiourea Derivatives,Simple in Structure but Efficient Enzyme Inhibitors and Mercury Sensors

In this study six unsymmetrical thiourea derivatives, 1-isobutyl-3-cyclohexylthiourea (1), 1-tert-butyl-3-cyclohexylthiourea (2), 1-(3-chlorophenyl)-3-cyclohexylthiourea (3), 1-(1,1-dibutyl)-3-phenylthiourea (4), 1-(2-chlorophenyl)-3-phenylthiourea (5) and 1-(4-chlorophenyl)-3-phenylthiourea (6) were obtained in the laboratory under aerobic conditions. Compounds 3 and 4 are crystalline and their structure was determined for their single crystal. Compounds 3 is monoclinic system with space group P2₁/n while compound 4 is trigonal, space group R³:H. Compounds (1–6) were tested for their anti-cholinesterase activity against acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase (hereafter abbreviated as, AChE and BChE, respectively). Potentials (all compounds) as sensing probes for determination of deadly toxic metal (mercury) using spectrofluorimetric technique were also investigated. Compound 3 exhibited better enzyme inhibition IC₅₀ values of 50, and 60 µg/mL against AChE and BChE with docking score of −10.01, and −8.04 kJ/mol, respectively. The compound also showed moderate sensitivity during fluorescence studies.     

Hetarylpyrazoles. II. Reactions of pyrazol-l'-ylpyridines

Pyrazol-l'-ylpyridines undergo electrophilic substitution reactions (bromination, chlorination, and nitration) preferentially in the pyrazole ring. There is some evidence of the mutual influence of the pyrazole and the pyridine ring on the reactivity of the system. Some modifications of the substituents were also carried out. A dihydro derivative of a new ring system, pyrazolo[1′,2′-a]pyrido[2,1-c][l,2,4]triazine was also obtained.     

Evolution of subsequent yield surfaces and elastic constants with finite plastic deformation. Part-I: A very low work hardening aluminum alloy (Al6061-T6511)

In the present study, the initial and subsequent yield surfaces in Al 6061-T6511, based on 10 με deviation from linearity definition of yield, are presented. The subsequent yield surfaces are determined during tension, free end torsion, and combined tension–torsion proportional loading paths after reaching different levels of strains. The yield surfaces are also obtained after linear, bi-linear and non-linear unloading paths after finite plastic deformation. The initial yield surface is very close to the von-Mises yield surface and the subsequent yield surfaces undergo translation and distortion. In the case of this low work hardening material, the size of the yield surfaces is smaller and negative cross-effect is observed with finite plastic deformation. The subsequent yield have a usual “nose” in the loading direction and flattened shape in the reverse loading direction; the observed nose is more dominant in the case of tension and combined tension–torsion loading than in torsional loading. The size of the yield surfaces after unloading is smaller than the initial yield surface but larger than subsequent yield surfaces obtained during prior loading, show much smaller cross-effect, and the shape of these yield surfaces depends strongly on the loading and unloading paths. Elastic constants (Young’s and shear moduli) are also measured within each subsequent yield surfaces. Evolution of these constants with finite deformation is also presented. The decrease of the two moduli is found to be much smaller than reported earlier in tension by Cleveland and Ghosh [Cleveland, R.M., Ghosh, A.K., 2002. Inelastic effects on springback in metals. Int. J. Plast. 18, 769–785]. Part-II and III [(Khan et al., 2009a) and (Khan et al., 2009b)] of the papers will include experimental results on annealed 1100 Al (a very high work hardening material) and on both Al alloys (Al6061-T6511 and annealed 1100 Al) in tension- tension stress space, respectively. The results for both cases are quite different than the ones that are presented in this paper.     

Axial Couette flow of an Oldroyd-B fluid in an annulus

This paper establishes the velocity field and the adequate shear stress corresponding to the motion of an Oldroyd-B fluid between two infinite coaxial circular cylinders by means of finite Hankel transforms. The flow of the fluid is produced by the inner cylinder which applies a time-dependent longitudinal shear stress to the fluid. The exact analytical solutions, presented in series form in terms of Bessel functions, satisfy all imposed initial and boundary conditions. The general solutions can be easily specialized to give similar solutions for Maxwell, second grade and Newtonian fluids performing the same motion. Finally, some characteristics of the motion as well as the influence of the material parameters on the behavior of the fluid motion are graphically illustrated.     

Chemically reactive and radiative von Kármán swirling flow due to a rotating disk

A new mathematical model is presented to study the heat and mass transfer characteristics of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) Maxwell fluid flow over a convectively heated stretchable rotating disk. To regulate the fluid temperature at the surface, a simple isothermal model of homogeneous-heterogeneous reactions is employed. The impact of nonlinear thermal radiative heat flux on thermal transport features is studied. The transformed nonlinear system of ordinary differential equations is solved numerically with an efficient method, namely, the Runge-Kutta-Felberg fourth-order and fifth-order (RKF45) integration scheme using the MAPLE software. Achieved results are validated with previous studies in an excellent way. Major outcomes reveal that the magnetic flux reduces the velocity components in the radial, angular, and axial directions, and enhances the fluid temperature. Also, the presence of radiative heat flux is to raise the temperature of fluid. Further, the strength of homogeneous–heterogeneous reactions is useful to diminish the concentration of reaction.