Synthesis and characterization of nanostructured iron compounds prepared from the decomposition of iron pentacarbonyl dispersed into carbon materials with varying porosities

This work describes the production and characterization of carbon-iron nanocomposites obtained from the decomposition of iron pentacarbonyl (Fe(CO)₅) mixed with different carbon materials: a high surface area activated carbon (AC), powdered graphite (G), milled graphite (MG), and carbon black (CB). The nanocomposites were prepared either under argon or in ambient atmosphere, with a fixed ratio of Fe(CO)₅ (4.0 mL) to carbon precursor (2.0 g). The images of scanning electron microscopy and the analysis of textural properties indicated the presence of nanostructured Fe compounds homogeneously dispersed into the different classes of pores of the carbon matrices. The elemental Fe content was always larger for samples prepared in ambient atmosphere, reaching values in the range of 20–32 wt%. On the other hand, samples prepared under argon showed reduced Fe content, with values in the range 5–10 wt% for samples prepared from precursors with low surface area (G, MG, and CB) and a much higher value (~19 wt%) for samples prepared from the precursor of high surface area (AC). Mössbauer spectroscopy and X-ray diffractometry showed that the nanoparticles were mostly composed of iron oxides in the case of the samples prepared in oxygen-rich ambient atmosphere and also for the AC-derived nanocomposite prepared under argon, which is consistent with the large oxygen content of this precursor. For the other precursors, with reduced or no oxygen content, metallic iron and iron carbides were found to be the dominant phases in samples prepared under oxygen-free atmosphere. The samples prepared in ambient atmosphere and the AC-derived sample prepared under argon exhibited superparamagnetic behavior at room temperature, as revealed by temperature-dependent magnetization curves and Mössbauer spectroscopy.     

Automated determination of size and morphology information from soot transmission electron microscope (TEM)-generated images

The thermophoretic sampling of particulates from hot media, coupled with transmission electron microscope (TEM) imaging, is a combined approach that is widely used to derive morphological information. The identification and the measurement of the particulates, however, can be complex when the TEM images are of low contrast, noisy, and have non-uniform background signal level. The image processing method can also be challenging and time consuming, when the samples collected have large variability in shape and size, or have some degree of overlapping. In this work, a three-stage image processing sequence is presented to facilitate time-efficient automated identification and measurement of particulates from the TEM grids. The proposed processing sequence is first applied to soot samples that were thermophoretically sampled from a laminar non-premixed ethylene-air flame. The parameter values that are required to be set to facilitate the automated process are identified, and sensitivity of the results to these parameters is assessed. The same analysis process is also applied to soot samples that were acquired from an externally irradiated laminar non-premixed ethylene-air flame, which have different geometrical characteristics, to assess the morphological dependence of the proposed image processing sequence. Using the optimized parameter values, statistical assessments of the automated results reveal that the largest discrepancies that are associated with the estimated values of primary particle diameter, fractal dimension, and prefactor values of the aggregates for the tested cases, are approximately 3, 1, and 10 %, respectively, when compared with the manual measurements.     

Characterization of electrical charge separation at the interface of two aqueous solutions in the presence of concentration gradients and cation/anion mobility ratio asymmetry

Physical consequences of ionic diffusion processes play a major role on the outcome of electrophysiology experiments due to both their contribution to the ionic transmembrane transport and phenomena taking place at the measuring instruments interface. As most of the time heterogenities in biological media with respect to ionic diffusion constants are disregarded, we intended to look upon the general case of ionic diffusion at the interface of two liquids on which gradients of these diffusion constants no longer can be neglected. We developed a theoretical model for the diffusion potential which emerges at an aqueous interface under gradients of concentration and diffusion constants. The experimental validation of our model was achieved through potential difference measurements of the diffusion potential between two solutions containing sodium chloride (NaCl) and glycerine solutions of various concentrations. Within the studied domain of the electrical charge mobility ratio, we noticed that experimental results are in agreement with the theoretically inferred diffusion potential values. This demonstrates that the resulting relationship for the diffusion potential inferred from our model could be applied for other cases, as well. When the ionic solutions contains an indefinite quantity of glycerine or an unknown substance able to modify diffusion constants of sodium and chloride, it was shown that through measurements of the diffusion potential one can infer the unknown concentration of glycerine and the modified ionic mobility ratio. This, in turn, builds up the foundation for a novel yet simple and efficient analitycal sensing device for quantitative determination in the field.     

Resonantly enhanced off-specular X-ray scattering from polymer/polymer interfaces<Superscript>⋆</Superscript>

We have used measurements of the absolute intensity of diffuse X-ray scattering to extract the interfacial tension of a buried polymer/polymer interface. Diffuse scattering was excited by an X-ray standing wave whose phase was adjusted to have a high intensity at the polymer/polymer interface and simultaneously a node at the polymer/air interface. This method permits the capillary-wave-induced roughness of the interface, and hence the interfacial tension, to be measured independently of the polymer/polymer interdiffusion.     

The real solution to scalar field equation in 5D black string space

After the nontrivial quantum parameters Ω _n and quantum potentials V _n obtained in our previous research, the circumstance of a real scalar wave in the bulk is studied with the similar method of Brevik and Simonsen (Gen. Rel. Grav. 33:1839, 2001). The equation of a massless scalar field is solved numerically under the boundary conditions near the inner horizon r _e and the outer horizon r _c . Unlike the usual wave function Ψ_ωl in 4D, quantum number n introduces a new functions Ψ_{ωl n} , whose potentials are higher and wider with bigger n. Using the tangent approximation, a full boundary value problem about the Schrödinger-like equation is solved. With a convenient replacement of the 5D continuous potential by square barrier, the reflection and transmission coefficients are obtained. If extra dimension does exist and is visible at the neighborhood of black holes, the unique wave function Ψ_{ωl n} may say something to it.     

Langmuir-Blodgett self-assembly and electrochemical catalytic property of FePt magnetic nano-monolayer

Dispersed-well FePt nanoparticles with particle size ~5 nm have been prepared by hydrazine hydrate reduction of H₂PtCl₆·6H₂O and FeCl₂·4H₂O in ethanol–water system. By employing as-synthesized FePt nanoparticles, the monolayer can be formed by LB Technique. The structural, magnetic properties and electrochemical properties of FePt monolayer were respectively studied by XRD, TEM, VSM and CHI 820 electrochemical workstation. The as-synthesized particle has a chemically disordered fcc structure and can be transformed into chemically ordered fct structure after annealing treatment above 400°C. The coercivity of ordered fct FePt phase can be up to 2515Oe. CVs of 0.5 M H₂SO₄/0.5M CH₃OH on GCE modified with FePt nanoparticles monolayer films illustrate that the as-synthesized FePt is a kind of active electrochemical catalyst.     

Initial-state parton shower kinematics for NLO event generators

We are developing a consistent method to combine tree-level event generators for hadron collision interactions with those including one additional QCD radiation from the initial-state partons, based on the limited leading-log (LLL) subtraction method, aiming at an application to NLO event generators. In this method, a boundary between non-radiative and radiative processes necessarily appears at the factorization scale (μ_F). The radiation effects are simulated using a parton shower (PS) in non-radiative processes. It is therefore crucial in our method to apply a PS which well reproduces the radiation activities evaluated from the matrix-element (ME) calculations for radiative processes. The PS activity depends on the applied kinematics model. In this paper we introduce two models for our simple initial-state leading-log PS: a model similar to the ’old’ PYTHIA-PS and a p_T-prefixed model motivated by ME calculations. PS simulations employing these models are tested using W-boson production at LHC as an example. Both simulations show a smooth matching to the LLL subtracted W+1 jet simulation in the p_T distribution of W bosons, and the summed p_T spectra are stable against a variation of μ_F, despite that the p_T-prefixed PS results in an apparently harder p_T spectrum.