Thermo-electrochemical selective growth of ZnO nanorods on any noble metal electrodes

Selective growth of ZnO nanorods has been successfully performed on the patterned Au/Ti metal electrode regions on a glass substrate by using a seeded thermo-electrochemical method in an acidic growth solution. The selective growth mechanism of the thermo-electrochemical method was proposed by using a series of chemical reactions for the first time. The thermo-electrochemical selective ZnO growth was performed on the cathode electrode at a temperature below 90 °C. A ZnO seed layer was precoated and selectively etched away from the non-metal regions in order to create the patterned selective nucleation sites on which the precursors are transferred and crystallized into ZnO nanorods. Both the dimensions and the placements of the ZnO nanorods have been simultaneously controlled. Energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry showed that the selectively grown ZnO nanorods consist of only Zn and O, indicating that the selectively grown ZnO nanorods are pure and contamination free. XRD and electron diffraction patterns revealed that the obtained ZnO nanorods have a wurtzite single-crystal structure.     

Photoreduction of Ag<Superscript>+</Superscript> cations in a perfluorosulfonic membrane

The two-stage synthesis of nanosize silver in the pore space of a perfluorosulfonic membrane by ion-exchange fixation of Ag⁺ cations with the subsequent photoreduction in formaldehyde vapor was fulfilled. The study of the obtained composites shows that they contain silver “near-wall” form and nanoparticles weakly connected with the membrane surface.     

On a paper of Hasse concerning the Eisenstein reciprocity law

In the present paper, necessary and sufficient conditions are given for the equality of the power rezidue symbols ( \fracaa )_n {\left( {\frac{\alpha }{a}} \right)_n} and ( \fracaa )_n {\left( {\frac{\alpha }{a}} \right)_n} in the cyclotomic field ℚ(ζ _n ), 2 ∤ n, for a ∈ ℤ, (a, n) = 1. This result is a generalization of the classical Eisenstein reciprocity law and its continuation in a Hasse’s paper. Bibliography: 3 titles.     

Simulation study of charged nanoparticles confined in a rectangular tube with discrete wall charges

The development of novel nanomaterials has been a subject of intense interest in recent years. An interesting structure among these materials is the so-called "pea pods" (i.e., nanoparticles confined in nanotubes). To facilitate the development and commercialization of these materials, it is important that we have an in-depth understanding of their behavior. The study of confined charged particles is particularly challenging because of the long-ranged nature of electrostatic interaction, and both interparticle and particle-confinement interactions are likely to play a role in determining the system behavior. The primary objective of this study is to develop a better understanding of the behavior of charged nanoparticles in a charged tubular confinement using Monte Carlo simulation, with particular focus on the effect of electrostatic interactions on the structure of the particles. Simulation results have shown that (i) the structuring of confined particles is associated with the asymmetry of the long-ranged interaction and (ii) factors such as confinement geometry and particle charge and size asymmetry can be manipulated to produce different particle structures. The present study represents the first step in an attempt to gain further insight into the behavior of confined nanosystems, with the ultimate objective of exploiting these characteristics, particularly the interactions between the confined particles and their external environment, in developing novel nanomaterials.     

Tuning molecule-surface interactions with sub-nanometer-thick covalently bound organic monolayers

Measurements of the thermal desorption of methyl bromide (MeBr) from bare and RS-functionalized GaAs(110), where R = CH3 and CH3CH2, reveal marked systematic changes in molecule-surface interactions. As the thickness of the organic spacer layer is increased, the electrostatic MeBr-GaAs(110) interaction decreases, lowering the activation energy for desorption, Ed, as well as decreasing the critical coverage required for nucleation of bulklike MeBr. On the CH3CH2S-functionalized surface, Ed is lowered to a value roughly equal to that for desorption from three-dimensional (3-D) clusters; because the kinetics of desorption of isolated molecules differs from that for desorption from clusters, desorption of isolated molecules from the organic surface occurs at a lower temperature than desorption from the clusters. Thus, the "monolayer" desorption wave occurs at a lower temperature than the "multilayer" desorption wave. These results illustrate the role that organic chain length in nanometer-scale thin films can play in alteration of the delicate balance of interfacial interactions.     

Temperature-modulated differential scanning calorimetry of reversible and irreversible first-order transitions

Temperature-modulated differential scanning calorimetry of first-order transitions has led to many new observations. Some of these involve non-linear processes or deal with transformations of practically instantaneous response. The latter may cause serious lags within the calorimeter due to limited thermal conductivity of the sample and the instrument. In both cases the “reversing heat capacity” or a “complex heat capacity” is not a precise representation of the transition since both are computed from abbreviated Fourier transforms, limited to the evaluation of the first harmonic component. One has in these cases to work in the time-domain with the raw output. But even from these analyses in the time-domain many interesting new insights about the transition and the calorimeter performance can be generated.     

Temperature dependence of the electrical conductivity of orthophosphoric acid in porous glass

Temperature dependence of the proton conductivity of a 85 wt % solution of orthophosphoric acid in a set of porous glasses with predominant channel radii of 4.5, 9, 19, and 74 nm was studied. A method for saturating a wide-pore glass with a dehydrated acid is suggested. This method provides a conductivity on the order of 10⁻⁴–10⁻³ ohm⁻¹ cm⁻¹ in the temperature range 373–473 K.     

Fluorescence of anthracene in a perfluorosulfone membrane

The fluorescence spectrum of anthracene introduced into the pore space of a perfluorosulfone membrane reflects the localization of a guest material in carrier nanochannels with the formation of closely spaced molecules able to form either excimers or stable dimers depending on the irradiation conditions.     

On a question of B. H. Neumann

The automorphism group of a free group acts on the set of generating -tuples of a group . Higman showed that when , the union of conjugacy classes of the commutators and is an orbit invariant. We give a negative answer to a question of B.H. Neumann, as to whether there is a generalization of Higman's result for .