X-ray microanalysis of 1.5-10 μm particles in metallurgical research

The importance of particle X-ray microanalysis for contemporary metallurgical research has been accentuated. Corrections in the formulae for the geometric modelling method and simplifications in the calculation procedure are introduced. Conditions for successful application of the peak to background ratio method were outlined. Besides these two methods related to isolated particles a new extrapolation method for matrix embedded particles is developed and comments to the particle weight fraction estimation method for the same kind of particles are given.     

Polyethylene/poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) sodium sulphonate membranes : Part 1. Synthesis and properties

Transport properties of cation-exchange membranes have been studied. The self-diffusion coefficients of sodium and chloride ions, the transport numbers of sodium ions and water, and the conductivities were measured in 0.1 M sodium chloride at 25°C. The concentration potentials were determined in the system 0.05/0.15 M sodium chloride.The membranes were prepared by sulphonation of oriented polyethylene (PE) film modified with 30 wt % of styrene—divinylbenzene copolymer (poly(St-co-DVB)). The copolymer was introduced by interpolymerization of the monomers within the film without its dissolution. A sequence of membranes having similar ion-exchange capacity but differing in water content was then obtained from sheets of normal PE/poly(St-co-DVB)SO₃Na membranes by expanding them by heating in water followed by a thermal treatment in air.The deviations of the measured transport properties from the behaviour of homogeneous membranes and the analysis of the Kedem—Katchalsky relationships for composite membranes have led to the conclusion that in PE/poly(St-co-DVB)SO₃Na membranes a structure prevails with a series arrangement of layers with different properties.     

Die einwirkung der struktur auf die kristallisationskinetik des glasigen selens

By means of a calorimetric method the rate of crystallization of vitreous selenium samples remelted at various temperatures t_U (225–3502C) was studied at a temperature of 90.0°C. To describe the kinetics the Avrami equation was used. The samples remelted at t_U < 260°C crystallized in one stage, A. For the samples remelted at t_U ? 260°C two stages, A and B, were observed. The rate constants k_Kr = z(L · c_Kr)$\text{1}\text{2}$ and the coefficients z were calculated from the Avrami equation. For the samples remelted at t_U = 225, 250 and 330°C, the activation energy e_kr was determined.The values of z, k_Kr and z · E_Kr were found to decrease as the temperature t_U increased. The kinetics of crystallization probably depend upon the structure of vitreous selenium (i.e. on the number of crystalline regions and on content of the small rings), which in turn is dependent on the temperature _U. This supposition was confirmed mathematically.     

Thermally stimulated currents as a measure of degradation of zinc oxide varistors

ZnO varistor degradation phenomena was studied using thermally stimulated current (TSC) method. It is believed that asymmetrical degradation of V-I characteristics caused by DC biasing is due to charge accumulation on the reverse biased side of ZnO grain barrier. The TSCs' measuring system and cryostat apparatus used in experiment were described. The thermally stimulated currents observed in this study for varistor samples doped with different amounts of Co, due to their recovery from asymmetrical electric stress, could not be controlled by movement of Zn interstitials with activation energy 0.55 v eV, as it is widely believed, for the TSC activation energy determined in this experiment was 0.39 v eV.     

Unusual behavior of Tb3+ in K3YF6 green-emitting phosphor

We report on photoluminescence studies of Tb3+ in a polycrystalline cryolite type K3YF6 host. The location of the Tb3+ in the center of inversion forbids the electric-dipole transitions of terbium ions in this material. As a consequence almost the entire luminescence intensity is related to the 5D4-(7)F5 magnetic-dipole transition, and it is contained in the extremely narrow spectral bandwidth amounting to 1.7 nm at 8K and to 18 nm at room temperature. The phosphor under study can be efficiently excited making use of intense f-d transitions of Tb3+ in the UV-vacuum-UV region and may be of interest for applications requiring high spectral purity of the emission.     

On the reaction of bis(phosphothioyl)disul‐fanes with hydroxamic acids,part I: Ionic versus radical reaction pathways

Among sodium N‐alkyl‐4‐chlorobenzo‐hydroxamates treated with bis(phosphothioyl)disul‐fanes >P(S)SSP(S)< (where >P(S) is phosphorothioyl, phosphonothioyl, and phosphinothioyl), only the N‐methyl one yields quantitatively the respective O‐phosphothioyl derivatives exhibiting complete inversion of configuration at phosphorus in a reaction whose products are inert toward dithiophosphate arising in the reaction. For branched N‐alkyl benzohydroxamates, products of a SET process predominated. The mechanism of the title reaction is discussed. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 19:271–282, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/hc.20423     

Polymerization of acrylonitrile by catalytic systems consisting of triphenylphosphine and a lewis acid

Polymerization of acrylonitrile in the presence of systems that consisted of triphenylphosphine (PPh₃) and a Lewis acid R_mMX_n (ZnCl₂, Me₃Al, Et₃Al, Et₂AlCl, EtAlCl₂, AlCl₃) was studied. The systems that contained Me₃Al and Et₃Al (i.e., Lewis acid of moderate acidity) were the most efficient catalysts. Conductometric measurements carried out in the polymerization systems showed the presence of ions. The presence of phosphonium cation in the polyacrylonitrile chain formed by the PPh₃–R_mMX_n catalytic systems was determined by IR, ¹H-NMR, and ³¹P-NMR spectroscopy. The average molecular weight measurements and kinetic chain lengths of polyacrylonitrile formed within the reaction time in the presence of PPh₃–Et₃Al showed that transfer reactions occur. According to the results obtained, the polymerization reaction of acrylonitrile by PPh₃–R_mMX_n involved a zwitterion formed by the attack of PPh₃ on acrylonitrile complexed by Lewis acid [Ph₃P^⊕? CH₂? C^?H? C?N → MR_mX_n] and the anion [CH₂?C^?? C?N] formed by the proton abstraction from the monomer.     

Absolute Borel sets and function spaces

An internal characterization of metric spaces which are absolute Borel sets of multiplicative classes is given. This characterization uses complete sequences of covers, a notion introduced by Frolík for characterizing Cech-complete spaces. We also show that the absolute Borel class of is determined by the uniform structure of the space of continuous functions ; however the case of absolute metric spaces is still open. More precisely, we prove that, for metrizable spaces and , if is a uniformly continuous surjection and is an absolute Borel set of multiplicative (resp., additive) class , , then is also an absolute Borel set of the same class. This result is new even if is a linear homeomorphism, and extends a result of Baars, de Groot, and Pelant which shows that the \v{C}ech-completeness of a metric space is determined by the linear structure of .

     

Ion flux through membrane channels--an enhanced algorithm for the Poisson-Nernst-Planck model

A novel algorithmic scheme for numerical solution of the 3D Poisson-Nernst-Planck model is proposed. The algorithmic improvements are universal and independent of the detailed physical model. They include three major steps: an adjustable gradient-based step value, an adjustable relaxation coefficient, and an optimized segmentation of the modeled space. The enhanced algorithm significantly accelerates the speed of computation and reduces the computational demands. The theoretical model was tested on a regular artificial channel and validated on a real protein channel-alpha-hemolysin, proving its efficiency.