Photometric determination of arsenic in silicate rocks

Summary The method described consists in decomposing the silicate rock sample by fusion with sodium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide-peroxide, leaching the melt with water, evolving arsine from the filtrate, and finally determining arsenic by photometric evaluation of molybdenum blue. Satisfactory accuracy has been demonstrated for the range 0.0 to 20 p. p. m. As, for which the method is particularly intended.

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Zusammenfassung Zur Bestimmung des Arsengehaltes in Silikatgesteinen wird die Probe durch Schmelzen mit Natriumhydroxyd und gegebenenfalls Natriumperoxyd aufgeschlossen. Aus dem Filtrat der wäßrigen Lösung dieser Schmelze wird Arsenwasserstoff entwickelt und in natriumhydrogenkarbonathältiger Jodlösung aufgefangen. Das hierbei entstehende Arsenat wird nach Zugabe von Molybdatreagens und Bisulfit photometrisch bestimmt. Für Arsengehalte unter 0,02% werden nach dieser Methode Resultate von zufriedenstellender Genauigkeit erhalten.

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Résumé La méthode décrite consiste en la décomposition de l'échantillon de roche silicatée par fusion avec la soude ou le peroxyde de sodium, reprenant la partie fondue par l'eau, libérant l'hydrogène arsénié du filtrat et finalement dosant l'arsenic par colorimétrie du bleu de molybdène. Une précision suffisante a été mise en évidence dans le domaine de 0,0 à 20 p. p. m. d'arsenic pour lequel la méthode convient particulièrement bien.

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Fulbright Scholar.     

Contribution of inter- and intramolecular energy transfers to heat conduction in liquids

The molecular dynamics expression of heat flux, originally derived by Irving and Kirkwood [J. Chem. Phys. 18, 817 (1950)] for pairwise potentials, is generalized in this paper for systems with many-body potentials. The original formula consists of a kinetic part and a potential part, and the latter term is found in the present study to be expressible as a summation of contributions from all the many-body potentials defined in the system. The energy transfer among a set of sites for which a many-body potential is defined is discussed and evaluated by the rate of increase in the kinetic energy of each site due to the potential, and its accumulation over all the potentials in the system is shown to make up the potential part of the generalized expression. A molecular dynamics simulation for liquid n-octane was performed to demonstrate the applicability of the new expression obtained in this study to measure the heat flux and to elucidate the contributions of inter- and intramolecular potentials to heat conduction.     

Facile Formation of Sulfurized Nanorod-Like ZnO/Zn(OH)2 and Hierarchical Flower-Like γ-Zn(OH)2/ϵ-Zn(OH)2 from a Green Synthesis and Application as Luminescent Solar Concentrator

This research endeavors to overcome the significant challenge of developing materials that simultaneously possess photostability and photosensitivity to UV-visible irradiation. Sulfurized nanorod (NR)-like ZnO/Zn(OH)₂ and hierarchical flower-like γ-Zn(OH)₂/ϵ-Zn(OH)₂ were identified from XRD diffraction patterns and Raman vibrational modes. The sulfurized material, observed by FEG-SEM and TEM, showed diameters ranging from 10 and 40 nm and lengths exceeding 200 nm. The S²⁻ ions intercalated Zn²⁺, modulating NRs to dumbbell-like microrods. SAED and HRTEM illustrated the atomic structure in (101) crystal plane. Its direct band gap of 3.0 eV was attributed to the oxygen vacancies, which also contribute to the deep-level emissions at 422 and 485 nm. BET indicated specific surface area of 4.4 m² g⁻¹ and pore size as mesoporosity, which are higher compared to the non-sulfurized analogue. These findings were consistent with the observed photocurrent, photostability and photoluminescence (PL), further supporting the suitability of sulfurized NR-like ZnO/Zn(OH)₂ as a promising candidate for Luminescent solar concentrators (LSC)-photovoltaic (PV) system.     

Development of a wide range-operable,rich-lean low-NOx combustor for NH3 fuel gas-turbine power generation

Low-NOx NH₃-air combustion power generation technology was developed by using a 50-kWe class micro gas-turbine system at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan, for the first time. Based on the global demand for carbon-free power generation as well as recent advances involving gas-turbine technologies, such as heat-regenerative cycles, rapid fuel mixing using strong swirling flows, and two-stage combustion with equivalence ratio control, we developed a low-NOx NH₃-air non-premixed combustor for the gas-turbine system. Considering a previously performed numerical analysis, which proved that the NO reduction level depends on the equivalence ratio of the primary combustion zone in a NH₃-air swirl burner, an experimental study using a combustor test rig was carried out. Results showed that eliminating air flow through primary dilution holes moves the point of the lowest NO emissions to the lesser fuel flow rate. Based on findings derived by using a test rig, a rich-lean low NOx combustor was newly manufactured for actual gas-turbine operations. As a result, the NH₃ single fueled low-NOx combustion gas-turbine power generation using the rich-lean combustion concept succeeded over a wide range of power and rotational speeds, i.e., below 10–40 kWe and 75,000–80,000?rpm, respectively. The NO emissions were reduced to 337?ppm (16% O₂), which was about one-third of that of the base system. Simultaneously, unburnt NH₃ was reduced significantly, especially at the low electrical power output, which was indicative of the wider operating range with high combustion efficiency. In addition, N₂O emissions, which have a large Global Warming Potential (GWP) of 298, were reduced significantly, thus demonstrating the potential of NH₃ gas-turbine power generation with low environmental impacts.     

Stereoselective synthesis of tubuvaline methyl ester and tubuphenylalanine, components of tubulysins, tubulin polymerization inhibitors

Synthetic studies of two components of tubulysins, tubulin polymerization inhibitors are described. The highly stereoselective synthesis of tubuvaline methyl ester (2) was accomplished by 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of nitrone d-6 and acrylic acid derivatives 7 as a key step. The synthesis of tubuphenylalanine (3) was conducted by an aldol reaction of a boron enolate of (S)-4-isopropyl-3-propionyl-2-oxazolidinone (13) with aldehyde 14, readily prepared from phenylalanine, followed by Barton deoxygenation under radical conditions.     

Leray’s problem on the stationary Navier–Stokes equations with inhomogeneous boundary data

Consider the stationary Navier–Stokes equations in a bounded domain whose boundary consists of multi-connected components. We investigate the solvability under the general flux condition which implies that the total sum of the flux of the given data on each component of the boundary is equal to zero. Based on our Helmholtz–Weyl decomposition, we prove existence of solutions if the harmonic part of the solenoidal extension of the given boundary data is sufficiently small in L ³ compared with the viscosity constant. Dedicated to Professor Giovanni P. Galdi on the occasion of his 60th birthday.     

Influence of Gravitational Settling on Turbulent Droplet Clustering and Radar Reflectivity Factor

This study investigates the influence of gravitational settling of droplets on turbulent clustering and the radar reflectivity factor. A three-dimensional direct numerical simulation (DNS) of particle-laden isotropic turbulence is performed to obtain turbulent droplet clustering data. The turbulent clustering data are then used to calculate the power spectrum of droplet number density fluctuations. The results show that the gravitational settling modulates the power spectrum more significantly as the settling becomes larger. The gravitational settling weakens the intensity of clustering at large wavenumbers for St≤1, whereas it significantly enlarges the intensity for St>1. The dependence on the Taylor-microscale-based Reynolds number is also investigated to discuss the contribution of large-scale eddies to the settling influence. The results show that large-scale eddies modulate the small scale clustering structure of large St droplets. The increment of radar reflectivity factor due to turbulent clustering is estimated from the power spectrum for the case of St=1.0. The result shows that the influence of gravitational settling on the radar reflectivity factor can be significant for the case of large settling velocity droplets.     

MTV-G experiment: Probing non-standard strong gravitational field at nuclear scale using geodetic precession

A new experiment named MTV-G, probing a large electron spin-precession due to a possible strong gravitational field, which predicted by large extra dimension model, is started at TRIUMF from 2011. In an electron-nuclear scattering experiment, a strong gravitational field is tested as a large spin precession effect caused by geodetic precession predicted by general relativity theory as a result of a warped space-time around nuclei. Experimental design using spin polarized electron source and Mott-spin analyzer, commissioning experiment and the preliminary results are described.     

Magnetically recoverable osmium catalysts for dihydroxylation of olefins

We prepared magnetically recoverable osmium catalysts by use of magnetite, quaternary ammonium salts, and potassium osmate(VI), and applied them to the dihydroxylation of olefins. By employing 2 mol% of the magnetic osmium catalyst, the dihydroxylation reaction proceeded smoothly to provide the corresponding vicinal diol in a good chemical yield. The osmium catalyst was readily recovered by use of an external magnet, and was reused repeatedly.