The effect of porosity on the laser induced damage threshold of TiO2 and ZrO2 single layer films

Monolayer ZrO₂ and TiO₂ films were prepared on BK7 glass by physical vapor deposition (PVD) and were subsequently annealed for 1 h at 300 °C. By using the transmission spectra of two samples and the envelope method, the refractive index dispersion and extinction coefficients have been calculated. Laser induced damage threshold (LIDT) measurement shows that despite slight differences between the extinction coefficients of the two samples, the LIDT parameter of the ZrO₂ film is greater than that of the TiO₂ film. This fact leads us to consider thermal conductivity as an important parameter for interpreting the LIDT difference. According to our theoretical analysis, as a consequence of increase in the number of thermal barriers along poorer film, its thermal conductivity, and hence LIDT, decreased, which is in agreement with our experimental results. The measured porosity of the two samples shows higher porosity for TiO₂ single layer, which is in agreement with atomic force (AFM) images. The gradual and smooth damage morphology of ZrO₂ observed in optical images implies higher thermal conductivity than TiO₂.     

Highly confined hybrid spoof surface plasmons in ultrathin metal-dielectric heterostructures

Highly confined "spoof" surface plasmons (SSPs) are theoretically predicted to exist in a perforated metal film coated with a thin dielectric layer. Strong modes confinement results from the additional waveguiding by the layer. Spectral characteristics, field distribution, and lifetime of these SSPs are tunable by the holes' size and shape. SSPs exist both above and below the light line, offering two classes of applications: "perfect" far-field absorption and efficient emission into guided modes. It is experimentally shown that these plasmonlike modes can turn thin, weakly absorbing semiconductor films into perfect absorbers.     

A unique path to reach thermostable polypyrrole/Pd microfibers via chemical oxidative polymerization

Polypyrrole/palladium (PPy/Pd) nanocomposites, labeled by PPy/Pd-2/1-0, PPy/Pd-2/1-25, and PPy/Pd-3/1-0, are synthesized via a direct redox reaction between pyrrole monomer and PdCl₂ in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) stabilizer in chloroform (CHCl₃)/acetonitrile (CH₃CN) binary organic solvents with 2:1 and 3:1 volume ratios at two temperatures involving 0 and 25 °C. A Pd-unloaded polypyrrole (PPy-2/1-0) is also synthesized similarly using iron(III) chloride (FeCl₃) oxidant for comparison purposes. The volume ratio of the solvents used as well as the temperature at which the oxidative polymerization takes place affects significantly the thermostability of the resulting nanocomposites. According to the thermogravimetric analyses, the stability order towards heat is found to be PPy/Pd-2/1-25?>?PPy/Pd-2/1-0?>?PPy/Pd-3/1-0?>?PPy-2/1-0. The nanocomposite PPy/Pd-2/1-25 shows clearly more thermostability compared to PPy/Pd-2/1-0 analog at temperatures above 400 °C. Furthermore, whereas three discrete maxima can be obviously found in the differential thermal analysis (DTA) thermogram of PPy-2/1-0 pure sample, no distinctive exothermic peak is observed in the curves of the three Pd-loaded nanocomposites.     

Green synthesis of bis-coumarin derivatives using Fe(SD)3 as a catalyst and investigation of their biological activities

A convenient, practical, green, and environmentally friendly method was developed for the synthesis of biscoumarins and corresponding tetrakis products from the reaction of 4-hydroxycoumarin and various aldehydes. The bis-coumarins were synthesized in high yield under mild reaction conditions. Products were obtained in the presence of in situ prepared Fe(SD)₃ [Iron(III) dodecyl sulfate] as a combined Lewis acid–surfactant catalyst (LASC) in water in short reaction times. Also, the antibacterial activity of compounds was screened against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli as Gram-negative bacteria and Micrococcus luteus and Staphylococcus aureus as Gram-positive bacterial strains. Products 3g , 3k–l were most active than cefotaxime against E. coli and also compounds 3c and 3g were most active than cefotaxime against S. aureus.     

Thermodynamics and Phase Transition of Topological Dilatonic Lifshitz-Like Black Holes

It is known that scalar-tensor gravity models can be studied in Einstein and Jordan frames. In this paper, a model of scalar-tensor gravity in Einstein's frame is considered to calculate the Lifshitz-like black hole solutions with different horizon topologies. Thermodynamic properties and first order van der Waals-like phase transition are studied, and it is found that the Lifshitz parameter affects the phase structure. In addition, thermal stability is investigated by using the behavior of heat capacity and various methods of geometrical thermodynamics.     

Energy,Exergy, Exergoeconomic and Emergy-Based Exergoeconomic (Emergoeconomic) Analyses of a Biomass Combustion Waste Heat Recovery Organic Rankine Cycle

In recent decades, there has been an increasing trend toward the technical development of efficient energy system assessment tools owing to the growing energy demand and subsequent greenhouse gas emissions. Accordingly, in this paper, a comprehensive emergy-based exergoeconomic (emergoeconomic) method has been developed to study the biomass combustion waste heat recovery organic Rankine cycle (BCWHR-ORC), taking into account thermodynamics, economics, and sustainability aspects. To this end, the system was formulated in Engineering Equation Solver (EES) software, and then the exergy, exergoeconomic, and emergoeconomic analyses were conducted accordingly. The exergy analysis results revealed that the evaporator unit with 55.05 kilowatts and the turbine with 89.57% had the highest exergy destruction rate and exergy efficiency, respectively. Based on the exergoeconomic analysis, the cost per exergy unit (c), and the cost rate (C˙) of the output power of the system were calculated to be 24.13 USD/GJ and 14.19 USD/h, respectively. Next, by applying the emergoeconomic approach, the monetary emergy content of the system components and the flows were calculated to evaluate the system’s sustainability. Accordingly, the turbine was found to have the highest monetary emergy rate of capital investment, equal to 5.43×1012 sej/h, and an output power monetary emergy of 4.77×104 sej/J. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was performed to investigate the system’s overall performance characteristics from an exergoeconomic perspective, regarding the changes in the transformation coefficients (specific monetary emergy).     

Memory Effects in High-Dimensional Systems Faithfully Identified by Hilbert–Schmidt Speed-Based Witness

A witness of non-Markovianity based on the Hilbert–Schmidt speed (HSS), a special type of quantum statistical speed, has been recently introduced for low-dimensional quantum systems. Such a non-Markovianity witness is particularly useful, being easily computable since no diagonalization of the system density matrix is required. We investigate the sensitivity of this HSS-based witness to detect non-Markovianity in various high-dimensional and multipartite open quantum systems with finite Hilbert spaces. We find that the time behaviors of the HSS-based witness are always in agreement with those of quantum negativity or quantum correlation measure. These results show that the HSS-based witness is a faithful identifier of the memory effects appearing in the quantum evolution of a high-dimensional system with a finite Hilbert space.     

ZnO thin film characterization by X-ray reflectivity optimization using genetic algorithm and Fourier transformation

Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin film was fabricated by sol-gel spin coating method on glass substrate. X-ray reflectivity (XRR) and its optimization have been used for characterization and extracting physical parameters of the film. Genetic algorithm (GA) has been applied for this optimization process. The model independent information was needed to establish data analyzing process for X-ray reflectivity before optimization process. Independent information was exploited from Fourier transform of Fresnel reflectivity normalized X-ray reflectivity. This Fourier transformation (Auto Correlation Function) yields thickness of each coated layer on substrate. This information is a keynote for constructing optimization process. Specular X-ray reflectivity optimization yields structural parameters such as thickness, roughness of surface and interface and electron density profile of the film. Acceptable agreement exists between results obtained from Fourier transformation and X-ray reflectivity fitting.     

Turbulent combined forced and natural convection of nanofluid in a 3D rectangular channel using two-phase model approach

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - The nanofluid is a mixture of base fluid and solid nanoparticles in nanosize. The heat transfer generated by the nanofluid is more than the base fluid...