High temperature enthalpy increment and thermodynamic functions of U2Ti

This study investigated thermodynamic properties of uranium–titanium alloy to determine its suitability for storage of hydrogen isotopes. The enthalpy increments of U₂Ti were measured using a high temperature inverse drop calorimeter in the temperature range of 299–1,169 K. Temperature dependence of the molar enthalpy increment and molar heat capacity is expressed in the form $ H^\circ_{\text{m}} (T) - H^\circ_{\text{m}} (298.15\,{\text{K}})({\text{J }}\,{\text{mol}}^{ - 1} ) = 23.236(T/{\text{K}}) + 53.292 \times 10^{ - 3} (T/{\text{K}})^{2} - 21.294 \times 10^{5} ({\text{K}}/T) - 4523 $ and $ C^\circ_{\text{p,m}} ({\text{J}}\,{\text{K}}^{ - 1} \,{\text{g}}^{ - 1} ) = 23.236 + 10.6584 \times 10^{ - 2} (T/{\text{K}}) + 21.294 \times 10^{5} ({\text{K}}/T)^{2} (300 \le T/{\text{K}} \le 900) $ , respectively. A set of self consistent thermodynamic functions such as entropy, Gibbs energy function, heat capacity, and Gibbs energy and enthalpy values for U₂Ti have been computed using data obtained in this study and required data from the literature.     

Regiospecific Functionalization of Cyclic Allenes with Catecholeorane

Reaction of diborane¹ and disiamylborane² with cyclic allenes, resulted in the formation of a mixture of products resulting from the addition of boron at the central carbon as well as terminal carbon. Fish has reported that addition of 4, 4, 6-trimethyl-1, 3, 2-dioxaborinane to 1, 3-disubstituted allenes takes place at the central carbon atom preferentially when the hydroboration was done at 130° for 35–50 h in a sealed tube.³ The reactivity and stability of catecholborane at high temperatures which is known to provide greater stearic     

DIFFUSION MEASUREMENTS IN MICROEMULSIONS

We have carried out diffusion coefficient measurements in both aqueous micelles and microemulsions using the techniques of palaeography and quasielastic light scattering (QLS) The former method involves the determination of the diffusion coefficient of an electroactive oil soluble probe at a polarizable microelectrode. For high water content microemulsions, both methods yield the same diffusion coefficients, which can be identified as the self diffusion coefficient For cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) micelles, both methods yield the same result at the salt (NaBr) concentration at which the QLS measurements are independent of CTAB concentration. In more concentrated microemulsions, QLS data gave diffusion coefficients in agreement with polarography only for a sodium cetyl sulfate (SCS) system at 65-75 wt % water. For the SCS microemulsions at 60% water, and CTAB microemulsion at 60-75% water, the QLS data yielded rapid, nonexponential decays. However, consistent polarographic diffusion coefficients could still be obtained, By using probes of varying chain length (oil solubility), it has been demonstrated that these CTAB and SCS microemulsions containing butanol and pentanol cosurfactants respectively, are not cosolubilized systems but do contain distinct hydrophilic and hydropobic regions.     

Study on the Correlation between the Protein Profile of Lupin Milk and Its Cheese Production Compared with Cow’s Milk

Australian sweet lupin, the largest legume crop grown in Western Australia, is receiving global attention from the producers of new foods. To understand the effect of protein on cheese yield, lupin milk proteins were separated from the first, second, and third filtrations by cheesecloths. However, proteins from the first and second were analyzed using two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis; then, the isolated proteins associated with cheese production were identified. The research also focused on identifying the optimal method of cheese production based on the coagulation process, temperature, yield, and sensory evaluation. Lupin curds from the two cultivars, Mandelup and PBA Jurien, were produced using vinegar, lemon juice, starter culture, vegetable rennet enzyme as coagulant, as well as curd generated using starter culture and vegetable rennet enzyme. Cow’s milk was used as a control. The results indicated that first-time filtration produced better extraction and higher yield of lupin proteins and cheese than the second filtration. A sensory analysis indicated that lupin cheese produced from PBA Jurien lupin milk using vinegar, 7.80% expressed as acetic acid, and ground in 45 °C water, was the most acceptable. The cheeses were examined for their protein, carbohydrates, fat, ash, and moisture contents. The concentration of protein was approximately 27.3% and 20.6%, respectively, in the cheese from PBA Jurien and Mandelup. These results suggest that lupin milk can adequately supply the proteins needed in human diets and, thus, could be used in the production of many existing products that require animal milk as an input.     

Microtopographical Characterization of Vapour-grown SnS2 Single Crystals

Thin flakes of tin disulphide single crystals grown using direct vapour transport have been subjected to characterization to unfold their growth mechanism. Two types of spirals. viz. those having opposite orientation present on the same face and those present on the opposite finished faces are significantly discussed.     

Surface topographic studies of MoSe2 single crystals

Single crystals of MoSe₂ of fairly large size have been grown by the sublimation method. A careful study of microstructures on the as-grown faces has revealed a variety of surface patterns. All these features have been critically studied and the implications have been discussed.     

Statistical Optimization for Succinic Acid Production from E. Coli in a Cost-Effective Medium

Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed for optimization of medium components and cultural parameters in cost effective cane molasses based medium for attaining high yield of succinic acid. The important factors obtained by “one-variable-at-a-time-approach” (cane molasses, corn steep liquor, sodium carbonate, and inoculum density) were further optimized by RSM. The optimum values of the parameters obtained through RSM (cane molasses 12.5%, corn steep liquor 7.5%, and sodium carbonate 25 mM) led to almost double yield of succinic acid (15.2 g/l in 36 h) as against “one-variable-at-a-time-approach” (7.1 g/l in 36 h) in 500-ml anaerobic bottles containing 300-ml cane molasses based medium. Subsequently, in 10-l bioreactor succinic acid production from Escherichia coli was further improved to 26.2 g/l in 30 h under conditions optimized through RSM. This fermentation-derived succinic acid will definitely help in replacing existing environmentally hazardous and cost-intensive chemical methods for the production of succinic acid.     

Loss of collectivity in 79Rb

High-spin states in ⁷⁹Rb were populated in the reaction at E(beam) = 60 MeV. The lifetimes of the excited states of the positive-parity yrast band and of the negative-parity band in ⁷⁹Rb were measured by the Doppler Shift Attenuation Method. The deduced transition quadrupole moments Q_t are found to have a decreasing trend with rotational frequency for both the bands, consistent with those found experimentally in neighbouring nuclei. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Experimental thermal performance study of natural graphite as sensible heat storage material using different heat transfer fluids

In this paper thermal performance of graphite-based sensible heat storage system with embedded helical coil in rectangular shell was studied. Plain water at four flow rates (0.25 LPM–1.0 LPM) and four inlet temperatures (60°C–90°C) was passed through the graphite bed and charging time was measured. Expanded graphite/water suspension and Al₂O₃/water nanofluid were also used to study charging behavior of graphite. Results showed that charging time of packed bed was reduced with increase in flow rate and inlet temperature of heat transfer fluid. Charging time using expanded graphite/water solution and nanofluid was 14.2% and 21.2% lesser than water.

Abbreviations: h_i: internal heat transfer coefficient (W m^?2 K^?1); HTF: Heat transfer fluid; h_o: External heat transfer coefficient (W m^?2 K^?1); LPM: liter per minute; k: thermal conductivity (W m^?1 K^?1); TSU: Thermal storage unit     

Anisotropic vacuum-induced interference in decay channels

We demonstrate how the anisotropy of the vacuum of the electromagnetic field can lead to quantum interferences among the decay channels of close lying states. Our key result is that interferences are given by the scalar formed from the antinormally ordered electric field correlation tensor for the anisotropic vacuum and the dipole matrix elements for the two transitions. We present results for emission between two conducting plates as well as for a two photon process involving fluorescence produced under coherent cw excitation.