Determination of mercury(II) ion by electrochemical cold vapor generation atomic absorption spectrometry.

A technique for determination of mercury is described; it is based on electrolytic reduction of Hg(II) ion on a graphite cathode, the trapping of mercury vapor and its volatilization into a quartz tube aligned in the optical path of an atomic absorption spectrometer. The electrochemical cell consisted of a graphite cathode and an anode operating with constant direct current for the production of mercury atoms. A pre-activated graphite rod was used as the cathode material. The optimum conditions for electrochemical generation of mercury cold vapor (the electrolysis time and current, the flow rate, the type of electrode and electrolyte) were investigated. The characteristic electrochemical data with chemical cold vapor using NaBH4-acid were compared. The presence of cadmium(II), arsenic(III), antimony(III), selenium(IV), bismuth(III), silver(I), lead(II), lithium(I), sodium(I) and potassium(I) showed interference effects which were eliminated by suitable separation techniques. The calibration curve is linear over the range of 5-90 ng ml(-1) mercury(II). The detection limit is 2 ng ml(-1) of Hg(II) and the RSD is 2.5% (n = 10) for 40 ng ml(-1). The accuracy and recovery of the method were investigated by analyzing spiked tap water and river water.     

Crosslinking investigation of polybutadiene thermal degradation by carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance

Thermal degradation of polybutadiene (PBD) in anaerobic atmosphere at 250 °C had been studied by carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (¹³C NMR) before complete crosslinking. In this investigation four types of low molecular weight PBD with different 1,2-vinyl isomer content had been chosen, then pure and mixed samples of PBD were heated in different time periods. ¹³C NMR spectra showed that two kinds of crosslinking mechanisms occur that both of them produce methyl groups. The first mechanism is a reaction between 1,2-vinyl isomers of two PBD chains, and the second one occurs between 1,2-vinyl isomer of one chain via methylene carbon of cis or trans isomer in another chain. Also ¹³C NMR results showed that the presence of 1,2-vinyl isomer in the PBD structure is necessary and without it none of the mentioned reactions will occur. Furthermore isomers sequence is another important parameter which affects crosslinking. Results show that cis or trans isomer which is not adjacent to 1,2-vinyl isomer does not take part in crosslinking reaction. Moreover such cis or trans isomer can take part in second mechanism of crosslinking that 1,2-vinyl isomer was attached from head to cis or trans isomer, thus in this arrangement of isomers second mechanism of crosslinking will become dominant rather than first mechanism of crosslinking.     

Excitonic effects of bilayer graphene: A simple approach

The present work investigates the excitonic effects on the bilayer graphene with layers of different thickness under the influence of external electric field through a simple numerical approach. The band structure and energy gap have been calculated using a tight-binding model including parameters like the second-nearest-neighbor-hopping energies t′ (in-plane) and γ (intra-layer) and the on-site energy Δ, in details. The binding energy of exciton for bilayer graphene has been calculated by Wannier model and Hartree–Fock approximation through the Bethe–Salpeter equation. Finally the optical conductivity spectrum of bilayer graphene has been calculated by using the effective mass approximation in two band model.     

An all-optical switch/photodetection at 1550 nm,based on a micro-ring resonator array

In this paper, a photodetector based on InGaAs micro-ring resonator array with 5 μm radius, in telecommunication wavelength region has been investigated. Then for the first time to our knowledge, with the change of refractive index due to optical nonlinear effects (such as: Kerr effect, two photon absorption, free carrier dispersion and free carrier absorption), an all-optical switch, based on pump-probe configuration using this photodetector have been proposed. So, the suggested device, will introduce a dual functionality that is important from view point of economically purposes and in term of integration. By numerically solving the light propagation equations, with FDTD and Crank–Nicolson methods, in addition to steady state and transient response, also we have found the frequency response, in both configurations. With increasing reverse bias voltage, and optimizing the free carrier transportation from absorption region, switching frequency can be increased up to 200 GHz. Also by optimal choosing of parameters such as the number of rings and spaces between two adjacent rings and so on, the box-like spectral response of photodetector with high efficiency is achievable.     

Solutions of the Sylvester Equation in C*-Modular Operators

Ukrainian Mathematical Journal - We study the solvability of the Sylvester equation AX + YB = C and the operator equation AXD + FYB = C in the general setting of adjointable operators between...     

Synthesis of new polyaryl-substituted imidazoles bridged on enamine or urea moieties and evaluation of their optical and electrochemical properties

Research on Chemical Intermediates - The reaction of the free amine group in polyaryl-substituted imidazole structures with phenyl isocyanate or dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate gave two new series...     

A moment model for phonon transport at room temperature

Heat transfer in solids is modeled by deriving the macroscopic equations for phonon transport from the phonon-Boltzmann equation. In these equations, the Callaway model with frequency-dependent relaxation time is considered to describe the Resistive and Normal processes in the phonon interactions. Also, the Brillouin zone is considered to be a sphere, and its diameter depends on the temperature of the system. A simple model to describe phonon interaction with crystal boundary is employed to obtain macroscopic boundary conditions, where the reflection kernel is the superposition of diffusive reflection, specular reflection and isotropic scattering. Macroscopic moments are defined using a polynomial of the frequency and wave vector of phonons. As an example, a system of moment equations, consisting of three directional and seven frequency moments, i.e., 63 moments in total, is used to study one-dimensional heat transfer, as well as Poiseuille flow of phonons. Our results show the importance of frequency dependency in relaxation times and macroscopic moments to predict rarefaction effects. Good agreement with data reported in the literature is obtained.     

Robust synchronization of uncertain fractional-order chaotic systems with time-varying delay

This paper presents a new technique using a recurrent non-singleton type-2 sequential fuzzy neural network (RNT2SFNN) for synchronization of the fractional-order chaotic systems with time-varying delay and uncertain dynamics. The consequent parameters of the proposed RNT2SFNN are learned based on the Lyapunov–Krasovskii stability analysis. The proposed control method is used to synchronize two non-identical and identical fractional-order chaotic systems, with time-varying delay. Also, to demonstrate the performance of the proposed control method, in the other practical applications, the proposed controller is applied to synchronize the master–slave bilateral teleoperation problem with time-varying delay. Simulation results show that the proposed control scenario results in good performance in the presence of external disturbance, unknown functions in the dynamics of the system and also time-varying delay in the control signal and the dynamics of system. Finally, the effectiveness of proposed RNT2SFNN is verified by a nonlinear identification problem and its performance is compared with other well-known neural networks.     

Synthesis of new aromatic polyamides containing α-amino phosphonate with high thermal stability and low heat release rate

The new aromatic polyamides containing α-amino phosphonate were synthesized from phosphorus-based dicarboxylic acid 4 and various aromatic diamines by direct polycondensation reaction. Dicarboxylic acid 4 was successfully synthesized from trimethyl phosphite, 4-aminobenzoic acid and terephthaldehyde via a three-component reaction. The polymerization reaction produced the polyamides 6a–f with high yield and desirable inherent viscosities. The thermal properties of the all samples were investigated by thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA). The TGA results in N₂ exhibited the 10% mass loss temperatures (T₁₀) in the ranges of 324–345 °C, while the T₁₀ resulted from thermo-oxidative degradation were higher than those. The main data obtained by microscale combustion calorimetry revealed acceptable combustion properties such as very low peak of heat release rate for the synthesized polyamides 6a–f. The all of the results indicated that these polyamides can be potentially utilized as additive for improvement of thermal resistance and combustion behavior of thermoplastic materials.