Optical behaviour of swift heavy ions irradiated poly(vinyl alcohol) films

Polyvinyl alcohol films were irradiated to 90 MeV O ⁶⁺ and 150 MeV Si ¹⁴⁺ ions at fluence ranging from 10¹⁰ to 10¹² ions/cm². The observed changes in optical energy gap of this polymer have been investigated and results are tried to be explained in terms of energy transferred by the incident ions. It has been noticed that the value of optical energy gap decreases with increasing energy loss during the ion–polymer interaction process.     

Influence of hole mobility on the response characteristics of p-type nickel oxide thin film based glucose biosensor

RF sputtered p-type nickel oxide (NiO) thin film exhibiting tunable semiconductor character which in turns enhanced its functional properties. NiO thin film with high hole mobility is developed as a potential matrix for the realization of glucose biosensor. NiO thin film prepared under the optimized deposition conditions offer good electrical conductivity (1.5 × 10⁻³ Ω⁻¹-cm⁻¹) with high hole mobility (2.8 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹). The bioelectrode (GO_x/NiO/ITO/glass) exhibits a low value of Michaelis–Menten constant (K_m = 1.05 mM), indicating high affinity of the immobilized GO_x toward the analyte (glucose). Due to the high surface coverage (2.32 × 10⁻⁷ mol cm⁻²) of the immobilized enzyme on to the NiO matrix and its high electrocatalytic activity, the prepared biosensor exhibits a high sensitivity of 0.1 mA (mM⁻¹-cm⁻²) and a good linearity from 25 to 300 mg dL⁻¹ of glucose concentration with fast response time of 5 s. Various functional properties of the material (mobility, crystallinity and stress) are found to influence the charge communication feature of NiO thin film matrix to a great extent, resulting in enhanced sensing response characteristics.     

Thermal effect on frequencies of coupled vibrations of a rotating beam of linearly varying semi-circular cross-section

An analysis is presented of the effect of a constant thermal gradient on coupled vibrations of a beam of linearly varying semi-circular cross-section attached to a rotating disc. A method based on Rayleigh's quotient is used to obtain upper bounds of the frequencies corresponding to the first three modes of vibrations. The frequencies for various values of cross-section variation, hub-radius and temperature gradient are obtained.     

Investigate oxoazolidine-2,4-dione based eutectic mixture via DFT calculations and SAR

In this work, DFT calculations for the designed eutectic mixtures (EMs) using oxoazolidine 2,4-dione (OZD) and zinc chloride (ZnCl2) are done. The interaction between the hydrogen bond donor and hydrogen bond acceptor at atomic level to get EMs are studied using DFT calculations. At room temperature, the stability of these various systems have been investigated using thermodynamic values or parameters such as enthalpy, free energy and others. DFT calculations is used to investigate the possibility of forming the systems (EMs). Further, the impact of varying the temperature on each system was also investigated (323K, 348K). Various other thermodynamic parameters are studied like dipole moment, hardness, chemical potential of the systems (individual molecules and EMs) at different temperatures. The results of the calculations showed that O1Z4 and O4Z1 have maximum dipole moment having values 8.1291, 9.8801 respectively, indicating maximum polarizability. Change in free energy for O1Z4 is least and was found to be ?37.2496 kcal/ mol. Further on changing the temperature, the parameters do not show much variation. Additionally, we have analyzed structure activity relationship (SAR) method to understand the physico-chemical properties of designed EMs and predict their regression and correlation to optimized energy. From the calculated values of pOE model, the value of r² is 0.9995 confirms the validity of the equation obtained. The results of this study suggest a link between the structures that have been utilized to describe the intermolecular interaction between the hydrogen bond donor and acceptor, as well as the stability of the EMs.     

After effects of β− on time differential perturbed angular correlation spectra

The after effects of β⁻ -decay on time differential perturbed angular correlation (TDPAC) spectra of II–VI semiconductor CdS have been studied using β⁻ -emitting¹¹¹Ag as well as^111mCd as probe nuclei. The TDPAC spectrum of¹¹¹Ag in CdS exhibits a time dependent interaction indicating that the preceding β⁻ -decay leaves the daughter nucleus in an excited state. The recovery time (τ_g) of the probe atom was found to be 16±6 ns while Abragam and Pound's relaxation time (τ_kr) was found to be 9±2 ns. The results show that β⁻ -decay does change the chemical environment around the probe atom.     

Sodium diffusion in sodium borosilicate glass used for immobilization of high level liquid waste

Diffusion of sodium in Mn and Ti bearing sodium borosilicate glass used for the immobilization of the high level waste at the Waste Immobilization Plant, Tarapur has been studied by heterogeneous isotopic exchange using ²⁴Na as the radiotracer for sodium. The temperature dependence of the self-diffusion coefficient of sodium in the glass was found to follow Arrhenius equation below the glass transition temperature.     

Sorption of plutonium from low level liquid waste using nano MnO2

Nano-crystalline MnO₂ has been synthesized by the method of alcoholic hydrolysis of KMnO₄ and its potential as a sorbent for plutonium present in the low level liquid waste (LLW) solutions was investigated. The kinetic studies on the sorption of Pu by MnO₂ reveal the attainment of equilibrium sorption in 15 h, however 90 % of sorption could be achieved within an hour. In the studies on optimization of the solution conditions for sorption, it was observed that the sorption increases with the pH of the aqueous solution, attains the maximum value of 100 % at pH = 3 and remains constant thereafter. The sorption was found to be nearly independent of the ionic strength (0.01–1.0 M) of the aqueous solutions maintained using NaClO₄, indicating the inner sphere complexation between the Pu⁴⁺ ions and the surface sites on MnO₂. Interference studies with different fission products, viz., Cs⁺, Sr²⁺ and Nd³⁺, revealed decrease in the percentage sorption with increasing pH of the suspension indicating the competition between the metal ions. However, at the metal ion concentrations prevalent in the low level liquid waste solutions, the decrease in the Pu sorption was only marginally decreased to 90 % at pH = 3, the decrease being more in the case of Nd³⁺ than that in the case of Cs⁺. This study, therefore, shows nano-crystalline MnO₂ can be used as a sorbent for separation of Pu from LLW solutions.