Catalytic properties of vanadium bronzes, I. Decomposition of isopropanol

Decomposition of isopropanol on V₂O₅ and the bonzes Li_0.02V₂O₅, Na_0.02V₂O₅, Na_0.06V₂O₅, Li_0.33V₂O₅, and Na_0.33V₂O₅ has been studied in the temperature range 168–300°C. The main reaction was found to be dehydration to propene with negligible dehydrogenation to acetone on the first four catalysts. Dehydration on these catalysts increased with the alkali metal content, but the energy of activation remained unchanged. On the last two catalysts, dehydration and dehydrogenation proceeded at comparable rates. A tentative mechanism for the dehydration of isopropanol is proposed, based on the effect of the product on the initial rate, the electric conductivity of the catalysts and their ESR spectra.

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V₂O₅ : Li_0,02V₂O₅, Na_0,02V₂O₅, Na_0,06V₂O₅, Li_0,33V₂O₅ Na_0,33V₂O₅ 186–300°C. . , . . , , .

     

Solid state properties and catalytic behavior of the α- and β-vanadium bronzes

Decomposition of isopropanol (IPA) on V₂O₅, Li_0.02V₂O₅, Na_0.02V₂O₅, Na_0.06V₂O₅, Li_0.33V₂O₅, and Na_0.33V₂O₅ has been studied in the temperature range 186–300°C. The first four catalysts (α-phase) show predominately dehydration, whereas the last two (β-phase) have comparable dehydration and dehydrogenation activity. Dehydration activity increases with alkali metal concentration within the α-phase, but falls sharply on the β-phase catalysts. This difference is attributed to the different rate determining steps for the reaction on the α- and β-phase catalysts. X-ray and ir spectral data show that the β-phase catalysts are much more stable than the α-phase. A mechanism for the dehydration of IPA based on the electrical resistivity, ESR spectra, and kinetic data has been proposed.     

Studies on catalytic decomposition of CO over transition metal ion (TMI) doped alumina-boria catalyst systems

ESCA and ESR studies on TMI incorporating alumina-boria catalyst systems for CO conversion show the presence of carbidic phase and no valence change of the incorporated copper in the spent catalyst.     

AC conductivity in amorphous germanium

The ac conductivity in evaporated amorphous germanium films has been measured as a function of annealing and has been found to obey the ω^0.8 law, in accordance with the hopping model. The dc conductivity measurements on the same samples show a $\text{T}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>1</mtext><mtext>4</mtext>}}$ law behaviour. The densities of localized states near the Fermi level g(E_F), obtained from both experiments are in reasonable agreement with each other. Both the measurements show a reduction by about a factor of 2 in g(E_F) when a freshly prepared film is fully annealed. High-temperature substrate films also show the ω^0.8 behaviour. This suggests that the frequency dependence of the ac conductivity is not caused by voids alone. Other possible explanations of our results are also discussed.     

Contiguity relations for linearisable systems of Gambier type

We introduce the Schlesinger transformations for the Gambier, linearisable, equation and by combining the former construct the contiguity relations of the solutions of the latter. We extend the approach to the discrete domain obtaining thus the Schlesinger transformations and the contiguity relations of the solutions of the Gambier mapping. In all cases the resulting contiguity relation is a linearisable equation, involving free functions, and which can be related to the generic Gambier mapping.     

Parametric Excitation of the Electron-Acoustic Wave in a Multiply Ionized Plasma

Parametric excitation of the electron-acoustic wave (EAW) has been analysed using a hydrodynamical model. The plasma has been assumed to consist of multiply charged ions. The ratio (α) of the hotter ion concentration to that of the electrons is a sensitive parameter. The condition for the occurrence of the EAW is well satisfied for the smaller values of α. The growth rate of the instability gets enhanced by increasing α and the charge state of the hotter ions. The values of α can be varied within short range only.     

Solar eclipse effects of 22 July, 2009 on the propagation of radio signals

The results of investigation of the variation of radio signal strengths during the solar eclipse on July 22, 2009 are reported in this paper. Observations of the radio signals transmitted from different radio stations at different frequencies and received at a particular observing site indicate a distinct change in signal strength around the time the eclipse umbra passes the propagation paths. The three types of variations in the eclipse day and particularly during its peak period are different from propagation under normal condition. The phenomena of signal variations, the noted “Inverted U-shape“ at one of the frequencies before the occurrence of the eclipse and 13 to 15 minutes time difference between the enhancement of the signal strength and the onset of eclipse are some interesting characteristics. The results are interpreted by ionospheric D-layer behavior at such times.     

Advantage of Quantum Theory over Nonclassical Models of Communication

Quantum correlations provide dramatic advantage over the corresponding classical resources in several communication tasks. However, a broad class of probabilistic theories exists that attributes greater success than quantum theory in many of these tasks by allowing supra-quantum correlations in “space-like” and/or “time-like” paradigms. In this letter, a communication task involving three spatially separated parties is proposed where one party (verifier) aims to verify whether the bit strings possessed by the other two parties (terminals) are equal or not. This task is called authentication with limited communication, the restrictions on communication being: i) the terminals cannot communicate with each other, but (ii) each of them can communicate with the verifier through single use of channels with limited capacity. Manifestly, classical resources are not sufficient for perfect success of this task. Moreover, it is also not possible to perform this task with certainty in several nonclassical theories although they might possess stronger “space-like” and/or “time-like” correlations. Surprisingly, quantum resources can achieve the perfect winning strategy. The proposed task thus stands apart from all previously known communication tasks as it exhibits quantum advantage over other nonclassical strategies.     

Singular Lagrangian, Hamiltonization and Jacobi last multiplier for certain biological systems

We study the construction of singular Lagrangians using Jacobi’s last multiplier (JLM). We also demonstrate the significance of the last multiplier in Hamiltonian theory by explicitly constructing the Hamiltonian of the Host-Parasite model and a Lotka-Volterra mutualistic system, both of which are well known first-order systems of differential equations arising in biology.