2-Mercapto-benzothiazole as an analytical reagent

Summary The reagent 2-mercapto-benzothiazole quantitatively precipitates palladium at a PH 5.6 to 10.2. The red coloured compound, Pd(C₇H₄NS₂)₂, is diamagnetic and is stable up to a temperature of 388 C. Palladium is separated from alkalis, alkaline earths, Mg, Fe³⁺, Cr, Th, Zr, Ti, UO₂ ²⁺, Be, rare earths, Ce³⁺, Ce⁴⁺, Zn, Mn, Co, Ni, Pb, Bi, Sb³⁺, As³⁺, Sn⁴⁺, Tl+, Cu²⁺, Cd, Ir⁴⁺, Rh³⁺, Ru³⁺, Os⁴⁺, CrO₄ ^2–, MoO₄ ^2–, WO₄ ^2–, VO₃ ^–, PO₄ ^3– and AsO₄ ^3– at apH 6–8 in presence of EDTA and tartaric or citric acid. Besides Pb, Ag and Hg²⁺ are kept in solution with potassium iodide and Au in a limited quantity forms a soluble complex with thiosulphate. The palladium complex is either weighed after drying and determined gravimetrically or dissolved in an excess of cyanide and determined volumetrically by back titrating the latter with silver nitrate.     

Working group report: Collider Physics

This is summary of the activities of the working group on collider physics in the IXth Workshop on High Energy Physics Phenomenology (WHEPP-9) held at the Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar, India in January 2006. Some of the work subsequently done on these problems by the subgroups formed during the workshop is included in this report.     

A real space description of magnetic field induced melting in the charge ordered manganites: I. The clean limit

We study the melting of charge order in the half doped manganites using a model thatincorporates double exchange, antiferromagnetic superexchange, and Jahn-Teller couplingbetween electrons and phonons. We primarily use a real space Monte Carlo technique tostudy the phase diagram in terms of applied field (h) and temperature(T),exploring the melting of charge order with increasing h and its recovery ondecreasing h.We observe hysteresis in this response, and discover that the “field melted” highconductance state can be spatially inhomogeneous even without extrinsic disorder. Thehysteretic response plays out in the background of field driven equilibrium phaseseparation. Our results, exploring h, T, and the electronic parameter space, are backedup by analysis of simpler limiting cases and a Landau framework for the field response.This paper focuses on our results in the “clean” systems, a companion paper studies theeffect of cation disorder on the melting phenomena.     

The Quantum-Classical Comparison of the Arrival-Time Distribution Through the Probability Current

We consider the arrival time distribution defined through the quantum probability current for a Gaussian wave packet representing free particles in quantum mechanics in order to explore the issue of the classical limit of arrival time. We formulate the classical analogue of the arrival time distribution for an ensemble of free particles represented by a phase space distribution function evolving under the classical Liouville's equation. The classical probability current so constructed matches with the quantum probability current in the limit of minimum uncertainty. Further, it is possible to show in general that smooth transitions from the quantum mechanical probability current and the mean arrival time to their respective classical values are obtained in the limit of large mass of the particles.     

Polarity switching and transient responses in single nanotube nanofluidic transistors

We report the integration of inorganic nanotubes into metal-oxide-solution field effect transistors (FETs) which exhibit rapid field effect modulation of ionic conductance. Surface functionalization, analogous to doping in semiconductors, can switch the nanofluidic transistors from p-type to ambipolar and n-type field effect transistors. Transient study reveals the kinetics of field effect modulation is controlled by ion-exchange step. Nanofluidic FETs have potential implications in subfemtoliter analytical technology and large-scale nanofluidic integration.     

Deposition of aluminide and silicide based protective coatings on niobium

We compare aluminide and alumino-silicide composite coatings on niobium using halide activated pack cementation (HAPC) technique for improving its oxidation resistance. The coated samples are characterized by SEM, EDS, EPMA and hardness measurements. We observe formation of NbAl₃ in aluminide coating of Nb, though the alumino-silicide coating leads to formation primarily of NbSi₂ in the inner layer and a ternary compound of Nb-Si-Al in the outer layer, as reported earlier (Majumdar et al. [11]). Formation of niobium silicide is preferred over niobium aluminide during alumino-silicide coating experiments, indicating Si is more strongly bonded to Nb than Al, although equivalent quantities of aluminium and silicon powders were used in the pack chemistry. We also employ first-principles density functional pseudopotential-based calculations to calculate the relative stability of these intermediate phases and the adhesion strength of the Al/Nb and Si/Nb interfaces. NbSi₂ exhibits much stronger covalent character as compared to NbAl₃. The ideal work of adhesion for the relaxed Al/Nb and Si/Nb interfaces are calculated to be 3226 mJ/m² and 3545 mJ/m², respectively, indicating stronger Nb-Si bonding across the interface.     

Magnetism in FeNiW disordered alloys: Experiment and theory

We report here an experimental study of magnetization of FeNiW alloys at different compositions. We have studied variation of magnetization with temperature (at low external fields) and magnetic field (at low temperatures). The alloy shows para to ferromagnetic transitions across the composition range. We do not find any indication of the spin-glass phase. We have supplemented the experimental work with theoretical analysis using the first-principles tight-binding linear muffin-tin orbitals based augmented space recursion method. Our theoretical estimates of magnetic moment and Curie temperatures agree well with experiment. Our mean-field phase analysis also does not indicate the possibility of a spin-glass phase.     

Magnetic properties of amorphous ferromagnet Fe78Mo2B20

Low-field magnetic susceptibility and the magnetic field dependence of magnetization of Metglas 2605 A (Fe₇₈Mo₂B₂₀) were studied between 300 and 600 K and in fields up to 10kG. It is shown here that for an amorphous ferromagnetic alloy, the various methods of determination of Curie temperature T_c give the same value, which in this case is (564 ± 1) K. The critical exponent γ is 1.7 ± 0.1. Our low-field susceptibility measurements on Metglas 2605 (Fe₈₀B₂₀) gives a T_c of (634 ± 3) K while the reported high-field method value is 647 K. These results are discussed in terms of crystallization temperatures.     

Gravimetric determination of thorium and zirconium

Summary Thorium and zirconium can be quantitatively precipitated by quinaldinic acid atph 2.7 and 3, respectively. As the precipitates are of nonstoichiometric composition they are to be ignited to oxides. By this reagent thorium can be quantitatively separated from arsenic (As³⁺), mercury (Hg²⁺), rare earths, manganese, magnesium and alkaline earths and zirconium from all the aforesaid ions excepting rare earths which contaminate to a slight extent.