Sol-Gel Synthesis of Transparent Alumina Gel and Pure Gamma Alumina by Urea Hydrolysis of Aluminum Nitrate

-Alumina was synthesized by a sol-gel method with the aluminum ion hydrolysis control performed by urea. The initial saturated Al³⁺/urea solution presented urea coordinated with the aluminum ion, as shown in the ¹³C NMR and ²⁷Al NMR spectra and longitudinal relaxation times, T ₁, from the latter. The substitution of water molecules in the Al³⁺ coordination shell by urea controlled the hydrolysis process and provided an extensive nucleation during the initial steps of the aluminum hydroxide formation due to urea thermolysis at 90°C. The resulting sol, composed of Al(OH)₃ nanoparticles, coalesced and became a transparent gel permeated by a solution of urea and the polycation ion [Al₁₃O₄(OH)₂₄(H₂O)₁₂]⁷⁺. The freshly prepared gel was transformed, under heating at 300°C, directly to -alumina, characterized by FTIR, ²⁷Al-MAS-NMR and S_BET techniques, without - or -phases, as a consequence of the high degree of homogeneity of the -alumina precursor.     

Stable transition layers in a semilinear diffusion equation with spatial inhomogeneities in N-dimensional domains

We prove existence and establish the asymptotic behavior, as ε→0, of stable stationary solutions to the equation u_t=ε∇·[d(x)∇u]+(1−u²)[u−a(x)], for , where , N?2, with Neumann boundary condition. The function a(x)∈C0,ν(Ω) satisfies −1<a(x)<1 and vanishes on some hypersurfaces. The results generalize to N-dimensional domains and to variable diffusivity earlier paper by Angenent et al. (J. Differential Equations 67 (1987) 212).     

Rigidity Theorems for Manifolds with Boundary and Nonnegative Ricci Curvature

In this paper, we obtain some rigidity theorems for compact Riemannian manifolds Ω with boundary M and nonnegative Ricci curvature; for instance, we prove that the existence of certain functions on M together with a lower bound c > 0 on the principal curvtures of M imply that Ω is an euclidean ball of radius $ {1\over c} $ .     

Some existence and nonexistence theorems for compact graphs of constant mean curvature with boundary in parallel planes

Given H≥0 and bounded convex curves α₁, ...,⇌_n, α in the plane z=0 bounding domains D₁, …, D_n, D, respectively, with if i ∈ j and with D_i ⊂ D, we obtain several results proving the existence of a constanth depending only on H and on the geometry of the curves α_i, α such that the Dirichlet problem for the constant mean curvature H equation: where may accept or not a solution.     

Ion larmour radius effect on rf ponderomotive forces and induced poloidal flow in tokamak plasmas

Analytical approximations are used to clarify the effect of Larmour radius on rf ponderomotive forces and on poloidal flows induced by them in tokamak plasmas. The electromagnetic force is expressed as a sum of a gradient part and of a wave momentum transfer force, which is proportional to wave dissipation. The first part, called the gradient electromagnetic stress force, is combined with fluid dynamic (Reynolds) stress force, and gyroviscosity is included into viscosity force to model finite ion Larmour radius effects in the momentum response to the rf fields in plasmas. The expressions for the relative magnitude of different forces for kinetic Alfven waves and fast waves are derived.     

Lorentz violation in the linearized gravity

We study some physical consequences of the introduction of a Lorentz-violating modification term in the linearized gravity, which leads to modified dispersion relations for gravitational waves in the vacuum. We discuss two possible mechanisms for the induction of such a term in the Lagrangian. First, it is generated at the quantum level by a Lorentz-breaking coupling of the gravity field to a spinor field. Second, it appears as consequence of a particular modification of the Poisson algebra of the canonical variables, in the spirit of the so-called “noncommutative fields approach”.     

Characterization of natural cellulosic fibers from Yucca aloifolia L. leaf as potential reinforcement of polymer composites

Cellulose - In this work lignocellulosic fibers were obtained from Yucca aloifolia L. leaves and their chemical, morphological, thermal and mechanical properties were studied. The fibers were...     

Decay rates for Bresse system with arbitrary nonlinear localized damping

In this paper we consider a vibrating system of Bresse type, in a one-dimensional bounded domain with nonlinear localized damping mechanisms acting in all the three wave equations. We obtain some rates of decay for its solutions with no restrictions around the coefficients as well as the condition of equal-speed wave propagation. A new result concerning an internal observability for the conservative system was also proved in order to reach the asymptotics above.     

Layered stable equilibria of a reaction-diffusion equation with nonlinear Neumann boundary condition

In this work we investigate the existence and asymptotic profile of a family of layered stable stationary solutions to the scalar equation ut=ε²Δu+f(u) in a smooth bounded domain Ω⊂R³ under the boundary condition εν_∂u=δεg(u). It is assumed that Ω has a cross-section which locally minimizes area and limε→0εlnδε=κ, with 0?κ<∞ and δε>1 when κ=0. The functions f and g are of bistable type and do not necessarily have the same zeros what makes the asymptotic geometric profile of the solutions on the boundary to be different from the one in the interior.