A Convenient Dediazoniation of Arenediazonium Tetrafluoroborates: Triethylamine Effects on Competitive Ionic and Radical Dediazoniation

Triethylamine was very efficient in the dediazoniation of arenediazonium salt. The major product depended on the comparative molar ratio (r) of triethylamine to benzenediazonium salt. When r<0.5, anisole (ionic product) was a major, while benzene (radical product) was a major when r>1.     

Iodine- and Bromine-Based Dry Etching of LaCaMnO3

Two novel plasma chemistries, BI ₃ and BBr ₃ , have been employed for dry etching of LaCaMnO ₃ thin films. For both mixtures there is some chemical enhancement of etch rates at low halide compositions in the discharge, and the rates are a strong function of ion/neutral ratio. Maximum rates are obtained at ratios near 0.02. Etch yields are typically low (<0.3) under inductively-coupled plasma (CICP) conditions. Smooth _d surface morphologies are obtained over a wide range of conditions, with high-fidelity pattern transfer using SiO ₂ or SiN _x masks.     

Heat/Mass transfer in a two-pass rotating rectangular duct with and without 70°-angled ribs

The present study investigates convective heat/mass transfer and flow characteristics inside a cooling passage of rotating gas-turbine blades. The rotating duct with and without rib turbulators are used. The ribs of 70° attack angle are attached on leading and trailing surfaces in a staggered arrangement. A naphthalene sublimation technique is employed to determine detailed local heat transfer coefficients using the heat and mass transfer analogy. Additional numerical calculations are conducted to analyze the flow patterns in the cooling. The local heat/mass transfer and the flow pattern in the passage are changed significantly according to rib configurations, duct turning geometry and duct rotation speed. The results show that the duct rotation generates the heat transfer discrepancy between the leading and trailing walls due to the secondary flows induced by the Coriolis force. The heat/mass transfer on the ribbed duct shows 80% higher than the smooth duct because the ribs attached on the walls disturb the mainflow resulting in recirculation and secondary flows near the rib with the secondary flow generated by rotation. The overall heat transfer pattern on the leading and trailing walls for the first and second passes depend on the rotating speed and the turning geometry, but the local heat transfer trend is affected mainly by the rib arrangeements.     

Boundary Value Problems for Parabolic Operators in a Time-Varying Domain

We prove the existence of unique solutions to Dirichlet boundary value problems for linear second-order uniformly parabolic operators in either divergence or non-divergence form with boundary blowup low-order coefficients. The domain is possibly time varying, non-smooth, and satisfies an exterior measure condition.     

Macroeconomic labour productivity and its impact on firm's profitability

The construction industry is one of the largest sectors in the US economy, yet little is known about the key macroeconomic parameters that affect its industry’s structure and performance. The main objectives of this research are (1) to analyse the macroeconomic performance of construction industry as a whole and at 14 of its sub-sectors in terms of labour productivity, gross margin, and worker's wages; and (2) to develop a quantitative model that predicts a firm's profitability by analysing various levels of labour productivity. The results of a non-linear regression analysis based on the comprehensive US Economic Census data show that the construction industry’s sub-sectors with the highest productivity are the most profitable with regard to the gross margins that they are able to generate. This study and its model will help decision makers better assess macroeconomic performance and conduct trend analysis of the construction industry to serve as a basis for developing strategic roadmap for the future.     

Boundary Integrals and Approximations of Harmonic Functions

Steklov expansions for a harmonic function on a rectangle are derived and studied with a view to determining an analog of the mean value theorem for harmonic functions. It is found that the value of a harmonic function at the center of a rectangle is well approximated by the mean value of the function on the boundary plus a very small number (often 3 or fewer) of specific further boundary integrals. These integrals are coefficients in the Steklov representation of the function. Similar approximations are found for the central values of solutions of Robin and Neumann boundary value problems. The results follow from analyses of the explicit expressions for the Steklov eigenvalues and eigenfunctions.     

Layer-by-layer assembled multilayer TiO(x) for efficient electron acceptor in polymer hybrid solar cells

We demonstrate that TiO(x) nanocomposite films fabricated using electrostatic layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly improve the power conversion efficiency of photovoltaic cells compared to conventional TiO(x) films fabricated via the sol-gel process. For this study, titanium precursor/poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) multilayer films were first deposited onto indium tin oxide-coated glass to produce TiO(x) nanocomposites (TiO(x)NC). The specific effect of the LbL processed TiO(x) on photovoltaic performance was investigated using the planar bilayer TiO(x)NC and highly regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) solar cells, and the P3HT/LbL TiO(x)NC solar cells showed a dramatic increase in power efficiency, particularly in terms of the short current density and fill factor. The improved efficiency of this device is mainly due to the difference in the chemical composition of the LbL TiO(x)NC films, including the much higher Ti(3+)/Ti(4+) ratio and the highly reactive facets of crystals as demonstrated by XPS and XRD measurement, thus enhancing the electron transfer between electron donors and acceptors. In addition, the grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) study revealed the presence of more highly oriented P3HT stacks parallel to the substrate on the LbL TiO(x)NC film compared to those on the sol-gel TiO(x) films, possibly influencing the hole mobility of P3HT and the energy transfer near and at the interface between the P3HT and TiO(x) layers. The results of this study demonstrate that this approach is a promising one for the design of hybrid solar cells with improved efficiency.     

International comparison of the determination of the mass fraction of cadmium, chromium, mercury and lead in polypropylene: the Comité Consultatif pour la Quantité de Matière pilot study CCQM-P106

The CCQM-P106 pilot study was organized by the inorganic working group of the Comité Consultatif pour la Quantité de Matière (CCQM) as a feasibility comparison to study the applicability of different analysis methods to the polypropylene sample and test the abilities of the participants for measuring the Cd, Cr, Hg and Pb in polypropylene. National Institute of Metrology P.R. China (NIM) acted as the coordinating laboratory of this pilot study. There were 21 laboratories that submitted the final results. The median values of the mass fraction of Cd, Cr, Hg and Pb were 36.12 mg kg^?1 (the median absolute deviation about the median (MADe) = 0.46 mg kg^?1), 252.5 mg kg^?1 (MADe = 3.4 mg kg^?1), 387.0 mg kg^?1 (MADe = 10.1 mg kg^?1) and 466.2 mg kg^?1 (MADe = 8.9 mg kg^?1), respectively. Isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS), inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) measurement methods were used, and microwave digestion was used by the most of the participants. In general, very good agreement of the results was observed. Moreover, compared to the results of other methods, the results of IDMS still showed less spread amongst laboratories and had a smaller uncertainty. In addition, the results of some analytes used by XRF and INAA also got satisfactory agreement with the median value.     

Preparation process for improving cathode electrode structure in direct methanol fuel cell

The cathode electrode structure of the direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) was improved by a novel catalyst ink preparation method. Regulation of the solvent polarity in the cathode catalyst ink caused increases in the electrochemical active surface (EAS) for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) as well as decreases in the methanol crossover effect. In a two-step preparation, agglomerates consisting of catalyst and Nafion ionomers were decreased in size, and polar groups in the ionomers formed organized networks in the cathode catalyst layer. Despite Pt catalysts in the cathode being only 0.5 mg cm^? 2, the maximum power density of the improved membrane electrode assembly (MEA) was 120 mW cm^? 2, at 3 M methanol, which was much larger than that of traditional MEA (67 mW cm^? 2).     

Relationship between oversulfation and conformation of low and high molecular weight fucoidans and evaluation of their in vitro anticancer activity

Low and high molecular weight fucoidans (F(5-30K) and F(>30K)) were chemically modified through the addition of sulfate groups, and the effect of oversulfation on the in vitro anticancer activity was investigated. After the addition of sulfate groups, a considerable increase of 35.5 to 56.8% was observed in the sulfate content of the F(5-30K) fraction, while the sulfate content of the F(>30K) fraction increased to a lesser extent (from 31.7 to 41.2%). Significant differences in anticancer activity were observed between the oversulfated F(5-30K) and F(>30K) fractions, with activities of 37.3-68.0% and 20.6-35.8%, respectively. This variation in the anticancer activity of oversulfated fucoidan derivatives was likely due to differences in their sulfate content. The results suggest that the molecular conformation of these molecules is closely related to the extent of sulfation in the fucan backbones and that the sulfates are preferably substituted when the fucoidan polymers are in a loose molecular conformation.