Microstructure-controlled enhancement of magnetoimpedance in nanocrystalline FeSiNbBCu alloys

Rapidly solidified amorphous Fe_68.5Si_18.5Nb₃B₉Cu₁ ribbon has been subjected to heat treatment at a temperature of 550 °C for different time periods. All the annealed ribbons show the precipitation of nanocrystalline Fe₃Si phase from the amorphous phase. The estimated crystallite size from X-ray diffraction peak analysis was in the range of 15-25 nm. While the surface studies confirm the presence of a distribution of spherical nanostructures in amorphous matrix. Both magnetoimpedance and longitudinal permeability ratios are found to increase with annealing time, and attain a maximum value for 60 min annealed ribbon and decrease on further increase in the annealing time. The enhanced magnetic properties and magnetoimpedance on suitable heat treatment is attributed to the change of magnetic parameters such as anisotropy and magnetostriction, due to change in microstructure. Analysis of permeability and impedance data taken under similar conditions suggests a strong correlation between them.     

Effects of partial slip on axisymmetric flow of an electrically conducting viscoelastic fluid past a stretching sheet

The entrained flow of an electrically conducting non-Newtonian, viscoelastic second grade fluid due to an axisymmetric stretching surface with partial slip is considered. The partial slip is controlled by a dimensionless slip factor, which varies between zero (total adhesion) and infinity (full slip). Suitable similarity transformations are used to reduce the resulting highly nonlinear partial differential equation into an ordinary differential equation. The issue of paucity of boundary conditions is addressed, and an effective numerical scheme has been adopted to solve the obtained differential equation even without augmenting the boundary conditions. The important findings in this communication are the combined effects of the partial slip, magnetic interaction parameter and the second grade fluid parameter on the velocity and skin friction coefficient. It is observed that in presence of slip, the velocity decreases with an increase in the magnetic parameter. That is, the Lorentz force which opposes the flow leads to enhanced deceleration of the flow. Moreover, it is interesting to find that as slip increases in magnitude, permitting more fluid to slip past the sheet, the skin friction coefficient decreases in magnitude and approaches zero for higher values of the slip parameter, i.e., the fluid behaves as though it were inviscid.     

Synthesis and photo physical properties of Au @ Ag (core @ shell) nanoparticles disperse in poly vinyl alcohol matrix

Synthesis of core @ shell (Au @ Ag) nanoparticle with varying silver composition has been carried out in aqueous poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) matrix. Core gold nanoparticle (~15 nm) has been synthesized through seed-mediated growth process. Synthesis of silver shell with increasing thickness (~1–5 nm) has been done by reducing Ag⁺ over the gold sol in the presence of mild reducing ascorbic acid. Characterization of Au @ Ag nanoparticles has been done by UV–Vis, High resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopic study. The blue shift of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band with increasing mole fraction of silver has been interpreted due to dampening of core, i.e. Au SPR by Ag. The dependence of nonlinear optical response of spherical core @ shell nanoparticles has been investigated as a function of relative composition of each metal. Simulation of SPR extinction spectra based on quasi-static theory is done. A comparison of our experimental and the simulated extinction spectra using quasi-static theory of nanoshell suggests that our synthesized bimetallic particles have core @ shell structure rather than bimetallic alloy particles.     

Electric field induced non-linear multisubband electron mobility in V-shaped asymmetric double quantum well structure

ABSTRACT

We study the effect of the external electric field F_ext on the low-temperature electron mobility μ in an asymmetrically doped Al_xGa_1-xAs based V-shaped double quantum well (VDQW) structure. We show that nonlinearity of µ occurs under double subband occupancy on account of intersubband effects. The field F_ext alters the VDQW potential leading to transfer of subband wave functions between the wells, which affects the scattering potentials and hence μ. In the VDQW structure, due to the alloy channel layer, the alloy disorder (Al-) scattering happens to be significant along with the ionised impurity (Imp-) scattering. The non-linear behaviour of μ is because of μ^Imp, while the overall magnitude of μ is mostly due to μ^Al. The increase of difference in the doping concentrations of the outer barriers increases the nonlinearity of μ. The oscillatory character of μ is amended by varying the width of the well and barrier and also the height of the VDQW. Our results can be used to study VDQW based nanoscale field effect transistor structures.     

Energy conditions of the f(T,B) gravity dark energy model with the validity of thermodynamics

In this article, the analysis of Tsallis holographic dark energy(which turns into holographic dark energy for a particular choice of positive non-additivity parameter δ) in modified f(T, B) gravity with the validity of thermodynamics and energy conditions for a homogeneous and isotropic FLRW Universe has been studied. The enlightenment of the field equation towards f(T,B)=αT~m+βB~n, made possible by the fact that the model is purely accelerating,corresponds to q=-0.54(Mamon and Das 2017 Eur. Phys.J.C 77 49). The generalized second law of thermodynamics is valid not only for the same temperature inside the horizon, but also for the apparent horizon for a change in temperature. The essential inspiration driving this article is to exhibit the applicability that the holographic dark energy achieved from standard Tsallis holographic dark energy and the components acquired from f(T, B) gravity are identical for the specific bounty of constants. The analysis of energy conditions confirms that the weak energy condition and the null energy condition are fulfilled throughout the expansion, while violation of the strong energy condition validates the accelerated expansion of the Universe.With the expansion, the model becomes a quintessence dominated model. The dominant energy condition is not observed initially when the model is filled with genuine baryonic matter,whereas it appears when the model is in the quintessence dominated era.     

Synthesis of Thermally Stable Energetic 1,2,3‐Triazole Derivatives

Various thermally stable energetic polynitro‐aryl‐1,2,3‐triazoles have been synthesized through Cu‐catalyzed [3+2] cycloaddition reactions between their corresponding azides and alkynes, followed by nitration. These compounds were characterized by analytical and spectroscopic methods and the solid‐state structures of most of these compounds have been determined by using X‐ray diffraction techniques. Most of the polynitro‐bearing triazole derivatives decomposed within the range 142–319 °C and their heats of formation and crystal densities were determined from computational studies. By using the Kamlet–Jacobs empirical relation, their detonation velocities and pressures were calculated from their heats of formation and crystal densities. Most of these newly synthesized compounds exhibited high positive heats of formation, good thermal stabilities, reasonable densities, and acceptable detonation properties that were comparable to those of TNT.     

Mukaiyama–Michael Reactions with trans‐2,5‐Diarylpyrrolidine Catalysts: Enantioselectivity Arises from Attractive Noncovalent Interactions,Not from Steric Hindrance

The scope of the enantioselective Mukaiyama–Michael reactions catalyzed by trans‐2,5‐diphenylpyrrolidine has been expanded to include both α‐ and β‐substituted enals. However, the rationalization of the observed enantioselectivity is far from obvious since the catalyst is not very sterically hindered. DFT calculations were carried out to rationalize the observed stereoselectivities. Transition states of the C?C bond formation between iminium intermediates and silyloxyfurans were located and their relative energies were used to estimate the stereoselectivity data. We find excellent agreement between the predicted and observed stereoselectivities. The analysis of intermolecular forces reveals that the enantioselectivity is mostly due to stabilizing noncovalent interactions between the reacting partners, not due to steric hindrance. The role of attractive noncovalent interactions in enantioselective catalysis may be underappreciated.     

Controlling the optical and catalytic properties of artificial metalloenzyme photocatalysts using chemogenetic engineering

Visible light photocatalysis enables a broad range of organic transformations that proceed via single electron or energy transfer. Metal polypyridyl complexes are among the most commonly employed visible light photocatalysts. The photophysical properties of these complexes have been extensively studied and can be tuned by modifying the substituents on the pyridine ligands. On the other hand, ligand modifications that enable substrate binding to control reaction selectivity remain rare. Given the exquisite control that enzymes exert over electron and energy transfer processes in nature, we envisioned that artificial metalloenzymes (ArMs) created by incorporating Ru(ii) polypyridyl complexes into a suitable protein scaffold could provide a means to control photocatalyst properties. This study describes approaches to create covalent and non-covalent ArMs from a variety of Ru(ii) polypyridyl cofactors and a prolyl oligopeptidase scaffold. A panel of ArMs with enhanced photophysical properties were engineered, and the nature of the scaffold/cofactor interactions in these systems was investigated. These ArMs provided higher yields and rates than Ru(Bpy)₃²⁺ for the reductive cyclization of dienones and the [2 + 2] photocycloaddition between C-cinnamoyl imidazole and 4-methoxystyrene, suggesting that protein scaffolds could provide a means to improve the efficiency of visible light photocatalysts.

Artificial metalloenzyme visible light photocatalysts possess enhanced optical properties and are competent towards single electron and energy transfer organic transformations.     

Theory of nuclear quadrupole interactions in aluminum and copper metals in presence of muon

The electric field gradients at²⁷Al and⁶³Cu nuclei which are nearest neighbors to the muon in the face-centered cubic metals aluminum and copper, with muon at an octahedral interstitial site, are studied. The electron density fluctuations needed for the evaluation of the electronic, or valence, contributions to field gradients are taken from earlier investigations involving the spherical solid approximation. The enhancement factors a that have to be applied to the electric field-gradients obtained from these approximations, due to the departures of the electronic wave-functions from plane-wave character, and the incorporation of antishielding effects, have been obtained for both APW and OPW approaches to the conduction electron wave-functions and good agreement is found between the results by the two approaches. Size effects due to the lattice distortion associated with the presence of the muon are included through actual point ion summations using available calculated displacements of the ions surrounding the muon. The valence contributions are the dominant ones but the size effect contributions are also significant. The net field-gradient obtained for the²⁷Al site is significantly smaller than experiment while that for⁶³Cu is substantially larger than experiment. Possible sources that could lead to better agreement with experiment are discussed and it is concluded that major improvement is needed in the valence effect contributions in both metals.     

Excited State Intramolecular Proton Transfer in Methyl and Methoxy Substituted Salicylic Acid

The excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) processes in 3‐methylsalicyclic acid (3‐MeSA) and 3‐methoxysalicyclic acid (3‐MeOSA) have been investigated in cyclohexane medium by emission spectroscopic techniques. The ESIPT process was characterized in 3‐MeSA from the large Stokes fluorescent band (455 nm), but it was suppressed by 3‐MeOSA in cyclohexane. The ESIPT process was found to be accelerated both in 3‐MeSA and 3‐MeOSA in the presence of a hydrogen bond accepting agent, triethylamine (TEA). Further, theoretical calculations were carried out at the ground and excited states to complement the experimental evidences.