Doubly‐Charged Xe Ions Evidenced by Time Resolved RPA Measurement in the Far Field Plume of a Low‐Power HET

A low power Hall Effect Thruster (HET), based on a permanent magnet circuit, was investigated in the GREMI laboratory facility. The thruster operated in the working range between 50 and 300 W and the previously measured thrust is between 4 and 16 mN for an anodic efficiency respectively between 15% and 27%. The pulsed character of the thruster current is an important feature of this HET. The ion current's bursts are recorded at 30 and 70 cm from the exit plane in the thruster plume and are time‐resolved, which lead to a preliminary analysis of the time of flight (TOF) phenomena. This paper presents a detailed study of these bursts of ion current in the plume. The total ion current is shown to be a superposition of 2 distinct contributions of charged species. In complement, a controlled single current interruption in stable anodic current condition leads to exactly the same features than in oscillating mode. This crucial verification garantees the validity of the time of flight origine of the two distinct contributions. Then, the slower one is the more intense and is proportional to the ion Xe+ current whereas the faster one could be attributed either to doubly‐charged Xe⁺⁺ or to superfast Xe⁺. The work presents a way to determine unambiguously the nature of the fast contribution by recording the Retardated Potential Analyser (RPA) signals at various repelling grid potentials with respect to time. The energy distribution of the 2 wellseparated contributions are reconstructed and confirms the contribution of doubly‐charged xenon ions (Xe⁺⁺) in the plume. This way of RPA collecting data and interpretation presents the main advantage tobe an easy way for the identification of the nature of the charged species in the plume. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

High resolution analysis of the rotational levels of the (0 0 0), (0 1 0), (1 0 0), (0 0 1), (0 2 0), (1 1 0) and (0 1 1) vibrational states of SO2

A high resolution (0.0018 cm⁻¹) Fourier transform instrument has been used to record the spectrum of an enriched ³⁴S (95.3%) sample of sulfur dioxide. A thorough analysis of the ν₂, 2ν₂ − ν₂, ν₁, ν₁ + ν₂ − ν₂, ν₃, ν₂ + ν₃ − ν₂, ν₁ + ν₂ and ν₂ + ν₃ bands has been carried out leading to a large set of assigned lines. From these lines ground state combination differences were obtained and fit together with the existing microwave, millimeter, and terahertz rotational lines. An improved set of ground state rotational constants were obtained. Next, the upper state rotational levels were fit. For the (0 1 0), (1 1 0) and (0 1 1) states, a simple Watson-type Hamiltonian sufficed. However, it was necessary to include explicitly interacting terms in the Hamiltonian matrix in order to fit the rotational levels of the (0 2 0), (1 0 0) and (1 0 1) states to within their experimental accuracy. More explicitly, it was necessary to use a ΔK = 2 term to model the Fermi interaction between the (0 2 0) and (1 0 0) levels and a ΔK = 3 term to model the Coriolis interaction between the (1 0 0) and (0 0 1) levels. Precise Hamiltonian constants were derived for the (0 0 0), (0 1 0), (1 0 0), (0 0 1), (0 2 0), (1 1 0) and (0 1 1) vibrational states.     

Laser surface modification of Al–4Cu–1Mg alloy for enhanced thermal conductivity

The feasibility of enhancing thermal conductivity of Al–4Cu–1Mg alloy by depositing 80Cu–20Mo coating using high-power lasers has been examined. Coatings of 667±2.5 μm thickness were formed with metallurgically sound interface. Results showed an 86% increase in the thermal conductivity of Al–4Cu–1Mg alloy due to laser-deposited 80Cu–20Mo alloy coating. This coating approach can potentially be used on low coefficient of thermal expansion metal matrix composites to enhance their thermal conductivity in electronic devices.     

Relative molar responses of some compounds containing oxygen and nitrogen in GC–MS

Relative molar responses (RMRs) of some straight-chain aliphatic alkanes, ketones, aldehydes, alcohols, carboxylic acids, primary amines, aniline, and nitrobenzene derivatives were investigated related to naphthalene. Most of the respective compounds have not been investigated yet due to their high polarity or high boiling point. The earlier cross section data for oxygenated compounds were changed to RMRs which are more utilizable from an analytical aspect. A linear correlation was found between the RMRs and the carbon atom numbers in primary amines. In the cases of aniline and nitrobenzene derivatives the RMRs were also determined; however, no functional relationship was found. The measurement conditions, i.e., the type of column affect the apparent RMRs of aliphatic primary amines. A midpolar column having a higher maximum operating temperature provides a more sensitive apparent RMR (Rtx-1701) than the basic polar column having a lower maximum temperature (Stabilwax-DB), because a high temperature allows setting a higher injector temperature and a higher amount of compound can reach the ion source. Knowing correlations the quantitative analysis passes into easier and fewer reference materials are needed to investigate a sample having many components, because the sensitivities can be determined from the correlations studied in this paper. This is also valid for aromatic compounds, even though no functional relationship exists.     

Modelling and measuring the thermal conductivity of multi-metallic Zn/Cu nanofluid

A metallic nanofluid is a suspension of metallic nanoparticles in a base fluid. Multi-metallic nanoparticles are a combination of two or more types of metallic particles. Such multi-metallic nanoparticles were suspended in water using an ultrasonic vibrator for different total volume fractions and different ratios of metallic/metallic nanoparticles. A transient hot wire setup was built to measure the thermal conductivity of the nanofluid at different temperatures. The experimental results were in good agreement with the results in the literature. Then, the experimental results were used as input data for an adaptive neural fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) to predict the thermal conductivity of the multi-metallic nanofluid. The maximum deviation between the ANFIS results and experimental measurements was 1 %. The predicted results and the experimental data were compared with other models. The ANFIS model was found to have good ability to predict the thermal conductivity of the multi-metallic nanofluid over the range of the experimental results.     

Preparation and property assessment of neat lignocellulose nanofibrils (LCNF) and their composite films

Lignocellulose nanofibrils (LCNF) were produced from thermo-mechanical pulp (TMP) using a micro-grinder and were characterized with respect to fiber diameter and thermal stability. The initial water content in the TMP affected the defibrillation process and longer grinding time was necessary for the air-dried TMP, resulting in LCNF with higher fibril diameter. As compared to the reference cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) produced through a refining process, LCNF was less thermally stable and started to degrade at a temperature that was 30 °C lower than that of CNF. LCNF obtained from the never-dried TMP was combined with various additives (10 wt%) to produce composite films. The neat LCNF and composite films did not reach the mechanical properties of the neat CNF film that was evaluated as reference. However, the addition of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) at 10 wt% on a dry basis did cause a 46 and 25% increase in tensile strength and elastic modulus, respectively. Other additives including cellulose nanocrystals, bentonite and CNF were also found to increase to some extent the Young’s modulus and ductility of the LCNF composite films whereas the addition of talc did not improve the film performance. Water absorption of neat LCNF films was lower than the reference CNF and was negatively affected by the addition of PVA.     

Experimental investigations and thermodynamic description of the PbO−Bi2O3 system

In the present work, the experimental characterization of the pseudo-binary PbO–Bi₂O₃ cut has been performed by differential thermal analysis (DTA), isothermal annealing, powder X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). A thermodynamic assessment according to the Calphad method was also performed based on the present results as well as previous experimental data using the ThermoCalc software.     

Structural and optical properties of nano-structured tungsten-doped ZnO thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition

Novel highly c-oriented tungsten-doped zinc oxide (WZO) thin films with 1 wt% were grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique on corning 1737F glass substrate. The effects of laser energy on the structural, morphological as well as optical transmission properties of the films were studied. The films were highly transparent with average transmittance exceeding 87% in the wavelength region lying between 400 and 2500 nm. X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) results indicated that the WZO films had c-axis preferred orientation with wurtzite structure. Film thickness and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the (0 0 2) peaks of the films were found to be dependent on laser fluence. The composition determined through Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) appeared to be independent of the laser fluence. By assuming a direct band gap transition, the band gap values of 3.36, 3.34 and 3.31 eV were obtained for corresponding laser fluence of 1, 1.7 and 2.7 J cm⁻², respectively. Compared with the reported undoped ZnO band gap value of 3.37 eV, it is conjectured that the observed low band gap values obtained in this study may be attributable to tungsten incorporation in the films as well as the increase in laser fluence. The high transparency makes the films useful as optical windows while the high band gap values support the idea that the films could be good candidates for optoelectronic applications.     

Rational synthesis of chiral layered magnets by functionalization of metal simple hydroxides with chiral and non-chiral Ni(II) Schiff base complexes

Synthesis of new heterometallic layered magnets with controlled chirality have been achieved by insertion of chiral and non-chiral salen-type Ni(II) complexes into copper and cobalt layered simple hydroxides.