Parametric Study of Nonplanar Dust Acoustic Solitons in Two‐Dimensional Superthermal Dusty Plasmas

The nonlinear properties of two dimensional low‐frequency electrostatic excitations of charged dust particles (or defects) are studied in a collisionless, unmagnetized dusty plasma. A fully ionized three‐component model plasma consisting of kappa distributed electrons, Maxwellian ions, and negatively charged massive dust grains is considered. In this regard, the well known reductive perturbation technique is used to the hydrodynamical equations and the Poisson equation, obtaining the cylindrical Kadomtsev–Petviashvili (CKP) equation. A parametric investigation indicates that the structural characteristics of these nonlinear excitations (width, amplitude) are significantly affected by the plasma nonthermality as well as by the relevant plasma parameters, such as dust concentration and dust temperature. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

The effect of anti-reflection coating of porous silicon on solar cells efficiency

Anti-reflection coatings of solar cells have been fabricated using different techniques. The techniques used include SiO₂ thermal oxidation, ZnO/TiO₂ sputtering deposition and porous silicon prepared by electrochemical etching. Surface morphology and structural properties of solar cells were investigated by using scanning electron microscopy and atomic forces microscopy. Optical reflectance was obtained by using optical reflectometer. I-V characterizations were studied under 80 mW/cm² illumination conditions. Porous silicon was found to be an excellent anti-reflection coating against incident light when it is compared with another anti-reflection coating and exhibited good light-trapping of a wide wavelength spectrum which produced high efficiency solar cells.     

Analytical Investigation of Soliton Solutions to Three Quantum Zakharov-Kuznetsov Equations

In the present paper, the two-dimensional quantum Zakharov-Kuznetsov(QZK) equation, three-dimensional quantum Zakharov-Kuznetsov equation and the three-dimensional modified quantum Zakharov-Kuznetsov equation are analytically investigated for exact solutions using the modified extended tanh-expansion based method. A variety of new and important soliton solutions are obtained including the dark soliton solution, singular soliton solution, combined dark-singular soliton solution and many other trigonometric function solutions. The used method is implemented on the Mathematica software for the computations as well as the graphical illustrations.     

Transient Non-Thermal Mobility of CO for CO--NO Catalytic Reaction on Square Lattice: Monte Carlo Simulation

We study a model based on precursor mechanism for CO-NO catalytic reaction on square lattice with Monte Carlo simulation. The precursor mechanism clearly demonstrates its impact on the phase diagram. The steady reactive state （SRS） gets established. The width of reactive region increases by increasing the range of precursor mobility. When the precursor mobility is increased to third-nearest neighbourhood, the second-order transition disappears.     

Appraisal of radioactivity and associated radiation hazards in sand samples of four rivers of Punjab province, Pakistan

Natural and anthropogenic radioactivity of sand and water samples collected from the four big rivers of Punjab province, Pakistan, was measured using a high-purity germanium detector coupled with a high resolution multichannel analyser. The average concentration of the naturally occurring radionuclides (226)Ra, (232)Th and (40)K in all the sand samples from the rivers Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi and Indus was found to be 22±0.6, 36±1 and 287±10 Bq kg (-1), respectively, while the concentration of the anthropogenic radionuclide (137)Cs was found to be below the minimum detectable activity, i.e. ~1.2 Bq?kg (-1). All the sand samples have Ra(eq) concentrations lower than the limit of 370 Bq kg (-1). Indoor (H (in)) and outdoor (H (out)) radiation hazard indices were calculated for the samples to assess the radiation hazards arising due to the use of this sand in construction, and were found to be less than unity in the study area. Calculated values of the absorbed dose rate were less than the typical world average value of 59 nGy h (-1), and the annual effective dose rate was also less than the typical world value of 70 μSv, except in the Indus river, in which it is slightly higher then the world average. Results show that the measured values are comparable with other global radioactivity measurements. None of the studied riverbeds was considered a radiological hazard, and their sand can be safely used in construction.     

Method for vector characterization of polar liquids using frequency-domain spectroscopy

A device for performing vector transmission spectroscopy on aqueous and polar solvent specimens at terahertz frequencies is presented. The device enables the direct measurement of the complex dielectric function across the terahertz band using a Fourier transform IR spectrometer for lossy solutions. Using microfluidic sampling, specimen handling is straightforward and direct measurements on polar specimens are made possible. The method is scalable to longer or shorter wavelengths.     

Preparation of highly efficient Al-doped ZnO photocatalyst by combustion synthesis

Novel Al-doped ZnO (AZO) photocatalysts with different Al concentrations (0.5–6.0 mol%) were prepared through a facile combustion method and followed by calcination at 500 °C for 3 h. The obtained nanopowders were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) combined with EDX, transmission electron microscope (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV–vis spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The XRD patterns of AZO nanopowders were assigned to wurtzite structure of ZnO with the smallest crystallite size about 11 nm consistent with the results from TEM. The doping of Al in ZnO crystal structure successfully suppressed the growth of ZnO nanoparticles confirmed by XRD patterns. The absorption spectra analysis showed that the optical band gap energy (E_g) for the AZO nanopowders were in the range of 3.12–3.21 eV and decreased with increasing of Al dopant. The photocatalytic activities of the samples were evaluated by photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange under visible light (λ ≥ 420 nm) and sunlight irradiation. The results showed that the AZO photocatalyst doped with 4.0 mol% Al exhibited five times enhanced photocatalytic activity compared to pure ZnO. The enhanced photocatalytic activity could be attributed to extended visible light absorption, inhibition of the electron–hole pair's recombination and enhanced adsorptivity of MO dye molecule on the surface of AZO nanopowders.     

Effects of inclined magnetic field on mixed convection in a nanofluid filled double lid-driven cavity with volumetric heat generation or absorption using finite element method

A computational analysis has been performed on mixed convection in a double sided lid-driven cavity in the presence of volumetric heat generation or absorption. Effects of inclined magnetic field are also studied. The governing parameters are solved via Galerkin weighted residual finite element method in space and the Crank–Nicolson in time. Governing parameters are nanoparticle volume fraction (0.0?≤???≤?0.04), Richardson number (0.01?≤?Ri?≤?10), internal heat generation or absorption parameter $(?10\le q\le 10),$ inclination angle of magnetic field (0°?≤?γ?≤?90°) and Hartmann number (0?≤?Ha?≤?100). It is observed that the highest heat transfer is obtained in case of the maximum value of heat absorption. As a further finding, heat transfer decreases with increasing of Hartmann number and increases with increasing of nanoparticle volume fraction.