Liquid–gas critical phenomena under confinement: small-angle neutron scattering studies of CO2 in aerogel

Small angle neutron scattering (SANS) is a well-established technique for investigating the behavior of confined binary liquid solutions, as it can probe the correlation length and susceptibility in pores on length scales 1 – 100 nm. We applied SANS to explore the influence of confinement on critical behavior of an individual fluid carbon dioxide (CO₂) in a highly porous aerogel. The results demonstrate that quenched disorder induced by aerogel significantly depresses density fluctuations. Despite the negligible volume occupied by aerogel (< 4%), the macroscopic phase separation of confined CO₂ into coexisting liquid and gaseous phases is suppressed and below the critical temperature of the bulk fluid frozen methastable microdomains are formed. Experimental data show that critical adsorption is as important as the effect of confinement in defining the behavior of confined fluids.     

Enhancing the Bolzon–Schrefler–Zienkiewicz Constitutive Model for Partially Saturated Soil

This paper presents an enhanced version of the elasto-plastic model for partially saturated soil first proposed by Bolzon, Schrefler and Zienkiewicz in 1996, “BSZ” model, which uses the effective stress tensor and suction as independent stress variables. It is recalled that the effective stress tensor proposed by Lewis and Schrefler in 1982 is thermodynamically consistent and, compared with other choices of stress tensors, results particularly suitable for partially saturated soil mechanics. A hydraulic constitutive relationship and a hydraulic hysteresis are introduced in the model, to take into account the irreversible deformation during cyclic drying and wetting until structural collapse. For this reason the plastic rate of strain is split into the sum of two components: one depending on the effective stress tensor and the other one on suction. This is the new feature of the BSZ model. This enhanced model is then cast into a thermodynamical framework at macroscopic level and it is shown that it is possible to derive the constitutive law from the Helmholtz free energy and a dissipation function, both for associative and non- associative plasticity. Finally the model predictions have been compared with experimental data for Sion slime, with particular emphasis on the deviatoric part, and model predictions of hysteretic behaviour have been investigated in case of a wetting and drying cycle on compacted betonite–kaolin.     

Invariants of Characteristics of Some Systems of Partial Differential Equations

We introduce the notion of an invariant of characteristics for a system of first-order partial differential equations. We prove that the existence of invariants is connected with passiveness of some systems. We describe a few methods for construction of new invariants from those already known. We give a scheme for application of the invariants to reduction and integration of systems of partial differential equations. As an application we consider the equation of gas dynamics.     

Structure of neutron-rich Be and C isotopes

The structure of neutron-rich beryllium isotopes has been investigated using different heavy-ion-induced transfer reactions. In neutron transfer reactions, the population of final states shows a strong sensitivity to the chosen core nucleus, i.e., the target nuclei ⁹Be or ¹⁰Be, respectively. Molecular rotational bands up to high excitation energies are observed with ⁹Be as the core due to its pronounced 2α-cluster structure, whereas only a few states at low excitation energies are populated with ¹⁰Be as the core. For ¹¹Be, a detailed investigation has been performed for the three states at 3.41, 3.89, and 3.96 MeV, which resulted in the most probable spin-parity assignments 3/2⁺, 5/2^?, and 3/2^?, respectively. Furthermore, we have studied particle-hole states of ¹⁶C using the ¹³C(¹²C, ⁹C)¹⁶C reaction and found 14 previously unknown states. Using the ¹²C(¹²C, ⁹C)¹⁵C reaction, five new states were observed for ¹⁵C.     

On the electron energy spectrum in heavily doped non-parabolic semiconductors

An attempt is made to present a simple theoretical analysis of the energy-wave vector dispersion relation of the conduction electrons in heavily doped non-parabolic semiconductors forming band tails. We observe that the complex energy spectrum in doped small-gap materials whose unperturbed conduction band is described by the three band model of Kane is due to the interaction of the impurity atoms in the tail with the spin-orbit splitting constant of the valence band (Δ), For band-gap (E_g)<Δ the imaginary part predominates which tails in to the conduction band. For the opposite inequality the real part comes in to play which tails in to the split-off band. In the absence of the band tailing effect, the imaginary part of the complex energy spectrum vanishes and the same is also true for doped two-band Kane-type and parabolic energy bands respectively. The present formulation helps us in investigating the Boltzmann transport equation dependent transport properties of degenerate semiconductors and are expected to agree better with experiments. The well-known results of unperturbed three and two band models of Kane together with wide-gap parabolic energy bands have been obtained as special cases of our generalized analysis under certain limiting conditions.     

Feedback controlled periodic states for different kinds of photorefractive nonlinear response

We investigate analytically and numerically the influence of the type of the photorefractive nonlinear response on the periodic states (attractors) which occur during feedback controlled 2W-coupling and correspond to almost 100% diffraction efficiency of the dynamic index grating. In addition to the case of the local response typical, for example, for LiNbO₃ crystals we consider the cases of nonlocal (diffusive) response (BaTiO₃, SBN) and resonant response (DC-biased BSO, BTO, and BGO crystals). It is shown that the conditions for the transition to the periodic states and their apparent characteristics are strongly different for the two limiting cases above. Received 16 July 2002 / Received in final form 29 October 2002 Published online 4 March 2003     

Investigation of the thermoelastic phase transformation in a NiAl alloy by molecular dynamics simulation

The Ni_xAl_1−x alloys exhibit shape memory effect, for which thermoelastic phase transformations are essential, in the composition range of 60<x<65. The analytical studies are very difficult on the thermoelastic phase transformations because these types of transformations exhibit anharmonic behaviour. In order to overcome this difficulty, it is possible to benefit from the molecular dynamics (MD) calculations based on interatomic interaction potentials. In the present study, the interatomic interactions of Ni_62.5Al_37.5 alloy have been modelled by means of Lennard-Jones potential energy function. A MD cell of 1024 atoms in B2 super lattice has been chosen and the structural changes were investigated on this system with changing temperature. It has been observed that the model alloy exhibits the thermoelastic phase transformation with thermal cycling. A hysteresis has been determined between forward and backward transformation temperatures. The structural analysis is also done before and after the transformation.     

Dynamics and spectra of excited states of water-micellar suspensions of single-walled carbon nanotubes

The dynamics of the photoinduced differential absorption and excited-state bleaching spectra of single-walled carbon nanotubes suspended in a micellar solution were studied in the spectral range from 40 to 1000 nm within a time interval from 70 fs to 150 ps under excitation by 50-fs pulses with photon energies 2 and 4 eV. The bleaching and absorption bands were observed in the spectra; the positions of the bleaching peaks were independent of the photon energy of the exciting femtosecond pulse in the range 2–4 eV. It was established that, for delay times shorter than 1 ps, the shape of the differential spectrum of excited nanotubes coincided with the shape of the second derivative of the absorption spectrum of unexcited nanotubes in the frequency range of exciting pulse above 18000 cm^?1 (the range of absorption bands of metallic nanotubes). In the frequency range below 16000 cm^?1 (the range of absorption peaks of semiconducting nanotubes), the bleaching peaks in the differential spectrum of excited nanotubes undergo a high-frequency shift of 200–300 cm^?1 with respect to the second-derivative spectrum of unexcited nanotubes. The excited-state relaxation rate constants were measured. They are well approximated by the exponential dependences and depend on the probe-pulse wavelength. An assumption was made about the nature of the observed spectra of excited nanotubes and about the excitation relaxation.     

Effect of the structure of smooth copper surfaces on the accuracy of determination of the optical constants of copper

The accuracy of determination of the optical constants of smooth copper surfaces produced by different technologies is analyzed, with particular attention paid to the consideration of the influence of scattered radiation (which is ignored by many authors) on the retrieval of the optical constants of copper surfaces from reflected radiation. The neglect of scattered radiation can lead to errors as high as 50% in determining the optical constants for bulk copper. For thin films, the errors are much lower. The influence of surface oxidation during measurements in air and surface features of studied objects on the parameters to be determined is analyzed as well. It is shown that errors in determination of the constants are maximal in the plasma resonance region of copper.

     

Liquid Ion-Selective Electrodes for Determining Nonionic Surfactants

It was shown that nonionic surfactants (NS) can be determined by potentiometry using liquid NS-selective electrodes. The effect of medium acidity and foreign substances on the operation of liquid NS-selective electrodes was studied. Some properties of NS-selective electrodes were determined.