Concavities on the zonal slowness section of a transversely isotropic elastic material

The section of the slowness surface of a transversely isotropic elastic material in a zonal plane consists of an ellipse and a quartic curve with two nested branches, the inner of which is convex. Concavities can therefore occur only on the outer branch S and five possibilities arise: (I) S is convex; (II) S has two axial concavities (centred on the points of intersection of S with the axis of transverse isotropy); (III) S has two basal concavities (centred on the points of intersection of S with the basal plane); (IV) S has two axial and two basal concavities; (V) S has four oblique concavities, neither axial nor basal. The first and last of these are commonly realized in actual materials, the others only rarely. A unified treatment of stationary points and concavities on S is given in the course of which some previous results are simplified and their relationship clarified.     

Distinguishing nanocrystalline solids from fine-particle ensembles using Mössbauer spectroscopy

Nanocrystalline solids, formed by compacting fine powders, have been proclaimed to possess a new structure. Specific characteristics have been reported from Mössbauer studies, and these appear to confirm and reinforce a model of crystalline cores isolated by disordered, low-density grain boundaries. In measurements of three compacted samples, we were unable to reproduce the characteristics expected. Reasons are suggested as to why the results differ between similarly-prepared samples. It is pertinent to enquire whether any of the previously reported Mössbauer characteristics of fine-particle compacts require a new structural model, or whether all the results can be simply understood in terms of particle agglomerates. Reference to the literature reveals that there is no distinction.     

Synthesis of ordered mesoporous NiO with crystalline walls and a bimodal pore size distribution

A mesoporous solid with crystalline walls and an ordered pore structure exhibiting a bimodal pore size distribution (3.3 and 11 nm diameter pores) has been synthesized. Previous attempts to synthesize solids with large ordered mesopores by hard templating focused on the preparation of templates with thick walls (the thick walls become the pores in the target materials), something that has proved difficult to achieve. Here the large pores (11 nm) do not depend on the synthesis of a template with thick walls but instead on controlling the microporous bridging between the two sets of mesopores in the KIT-6 template. Such control determines the relative proportion of the two pore sizes. The wall thickness of the 3D cubic NiO mesopore has also been varied. Preliminary magnetic characterization indicates the freezing of uncompensated moments or blocking of superparamagnetism.     

Structural characterisation of the silica and alumina Zener pinning phases in nanocrystalline CeO2 by 29Si and 27Al nuclear magnetic resonance

Nanocrystalline CeO₂ samples have been manufactured using sol-gel techniques, containing either 15 % silica or 10 % alumina by weight to restrict growth of the ceria nanocrystals during annealing by Zener pinning. ²⁹Si and ²⁷Al MAS NMR have been used to investigate the structure of these pinning phases over a range of annealing temperatures up to 1000 °C, and their effect on the CeO₂ morphology has been studied using electron microscopy. The silica pinning phase resulted in CeO₂ nanocrystals of average diameter 19 nm after annealing at 1000 °C, whereas the alumina pinned nanocrystals grew to 88 nm at the same temperature. The silica pinning phase was found to contain a significant amount of inherent disorder indicated by the presence of lower n Qⁿ species even after annealing at 1000 °C. The alumina phase was less successful at restricting the growth of the ceria nanocrystals, and tended to separate into larger agglomerations of amorphous alumina, which crystallised to a transition alumina phase at higher temperatures.