Mass and thermal accommodation during gas-liquid condensation of water

In this Letter we report, for the first time, direct and simultaneous determinations of mass and thermal accommodation coefficients for water vapor condensation in air, based on the observation of droplet growth kinetics in an expansion cloud chamber. Our experiments exclude values below 0.85 for the thermal and below 0.4 for the mass accommodation coefficients at temperatures ranging from 250 to 290 K. Both coefficients are likely to be 1 for all studied conditions. Previously available experimental data on the mass accommodation coefficient for water span about 3 orders of magnitude. Our results provide new and firm insight to cloud microphysics and consequently to the global radiative balance.     

Identification of organic compounds in atmospheric aerosol particles by on-line supercritical fluid extraction-liquid chromatography-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Atmospheric particles were collected with a high-volume sampling system at an urban site in Helsinki (Finland). The samples were analysed by on-line coupled supercritical fluid extraction-liquid chromatography-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SFE-LC-GC-MS). The aerosol sample was first extracted by SFE. The extract was then transferred to a liquid chromatograph where it was fractionated into four fractions according to polarity. Each fraction from the liquid chromatograph was transferred to a gas chromatograph by large-volume injection, where final separation was carried out. The first LC fraction (280 microl) contained nonpolar compounds, such as n-alkanes, hopanes and steranes. The second fraction (840 microl) included polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and alkyl-PAHs, while the third and fourth fractions (840 microl each) contained more polar compounds, such as n-alkan-2-ones, n-alkanals, oxy-PAHs and quinones.     

Compensation of non-reciprocal interference in adaptive MIMO-OFDM cellular systems

In a time-division-duplex communication system, the channel knowledge can be obtained at the transmitter side due to channel reciprocity and it can be used to increase the spectral efficiency of a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications. However, the interference structure between transmission directions does not necessarily correlate. The obtained quality of service at the receiver may differ significantly from the desired one if the transmission parameters are assigned based on the reverse link measurements only. In this paper, the performance of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) cellular system with adaptive MIMO transmission is studied in the presence of non-reciprocal inter-cell interference when the downlink interference structure is known at the receiver and only limited feedback information about the interference is available at the transmitter. The results are compared to those with perfectly known interference structure per each sub-carrier. The system level impact of realistic interference non-reciprocity scenarios is studied via network simulations. Linear minimum mean squared error (MMSE) filter is applied at the receiver to suppress the impact of structured inter-cell interference together with a simple and bandwidth efficient closed-loop compensation algorithm. Both link and system level simulation results show that the proposed compensation algorithm with a simple scalar power offset feedback combined with interference suppression at the receiver results in nearly the same performance as the ideal case     

Thermoplastic Xylan Derivatives with Propylene Oxide

Polymeric xylan can be reacted with propylene oxide (PO) in aqueous alkali homogeneously. Since xylan is isolated from biomass in aqueous alkaline solution, an in-line modification with PO as part of the isolation protocol, is most practical. Hydroxypropyl xylan (HPX) is a low molecular weight, branched, water-soluble polysaccharide with low intrinsic viscosity and thermoplasticity. Following peracetylation of HPX in formamide solution, water-insoluble acetoxypropyl xylan (APX) is formed that is also thermoplastic but no longer water soluble. The glass transition temperature (T _g) of APX varies in relation to degree of substitution with hydroxypropyl groups (DS_PO), and this is found to decline from 160 to 70°C as DS_PO rises from 0.2 to 2.0. At a temperature above the T _g of HPX a molecular reorganization is noted, and a faint transition due to melting (T _m) is observed at 205°C. HPX thermally degrades with a weight loss maximum at 317°C, or approximately 60°C below that of a corresponding cellulose derivative. HPX forms clear films when solvent cast from aqueous solution. Films are higher in ultimate tensile strength and lower in toughness than corresponding cellulose derivative films. The properties of HPX and APX derivatives qualify this material as a potential biodegradable and thermoplastic additive to melt-processed plastics. Blend characteristics with polystyrene reveal a shear-thinning effect in melt and a plasticization effect in solid state.     

A low noise 0.9 GHz FBAR clock

A low noise 0.9 GHz FBAR clock consisting of an oscillator and divider circuit for single-sided-to-differential conversion for a high-speed interleaved pipeline A/D-converter was designed, realized with an in-house FBAR and a commercial 0.35 μm CMOS process, and tested. The circuit showed very good jitter and phase noise performance. A temperature coefficient of –47 ppm/K was measured.     

Accretion Product Formation from Self‐ and Cross‐Reactions of RO2 Radicals in the Atmosphere

Hydrocarbons are emitted into the Earth's atmosphere in very large quantities by human and biogenic activities. Their atmospheric oxidation processes almost exclusively yield RO₂ radicals as reactive intermediates whose atmospheric fate is not yet fully unraveled. Herein, we show that gas‐phase reactions of two RO₂ radicals produce accretion products composed of the carbon backbone of both reactants. The rates for accretion product formation are very high for RO₂ radicals bearing functional groups, competing with those of the corresponding reactions with NO and HO₂. This pathway, which has not yet been considered in the modelling of atmospheric processes, can be important, or even dominant, for the fate of RO₂ radicals in all areas of the atmosphere. Moreover, the vapor pressure of the formed accretion products can be remarkably low, characterizing them as an effective source for the secondary organic aerosol.     

Atomic layer deposition of crystalline molybdenum oxide thin films and phase control by post-deposition annealing

Molybdenum forms a range of oxides with different stoichiometries and crystal structures, which lead to different properties and performance in diverse applications. Herein, crystalline molybdenum oxide thin films with controlled phase composition are deposited by atomic layer deposition. The MoO₂(thd)₂ and O₃ as precursors enable well-controlled growth of uniform and conformal films at 200–275 °C. The as-deposited films are rough and, in most cases, consist of a mixture of α- and β-MoO₃ as well as an unidentified suboxide MoO_x (2.75 ≤ x ≤ 2.89) phase. The phase composition can be tuned by changing deposition conditions. The film stoichiometry is close to MoO₃ and the films are relatively pure, the main impurity being hydrogen (2–7 at-%), with ≤1 at-% of carbon and nitrogen. Post-deposition annealing is studied in situ by high-temperature X-ray diffraction in air, O₂, N₂, and forming gas (10% H₂/90% N₂) atmospheres. Phase-pure films of MoO₂ and α-MoO₃ are obtained by annealing at 450 °C in forming gas and O₂, respectively. The ability to tailor the phase composition of MoO_x films deposited by scalable atomic layer deposition method represents an important step towards various applications of molybdenum oxides.     

Formation of the main gas compounds during thermal analysis and pyrolysis: Betaine and betaine monohydrate

The thermochemical behaviour of betaine and betaine monohydrate was investigated under two degradation conditions. Betaine was heated up to 700°C at 10°C min^–1 in air and nitrogen flows and the evolved gas was analysed with the combined TG-FTRIR system. The evolved gas from betaine pyrolysis at 350 and 400°C was analysed by gas chromatography using mass-selective detection (Py-GC/MSD). In addition, the electron impact mass spectra of betaine and betaine monohydrate were measured.Esterification is one of the most important pyrolytic processes involving beta- ines. Even glycine betaine can change to dimethylglycine methyl ester via intermolecular transalkylation by heating. Trimethylamine, CO₂, and glycine esters were the main degradation products. Small amounts of ester type compounds evolved both in pyrolysis and with TG-FTIR. The monohydrate lost water between 35 and 260°C while the main decomposition took place at 245-360°C. The residual carbon burnt in air to CO₂ up to a temperature 570°C.This revised version was published online in November 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Bounds for binary multiple covering codes

We study codes that are multiple coverings of the Hamming space and discuss lower and upper bounds onK(n, r, ), the minimum cardinality of a binary code of lengthn such that the Hamming spheres of radiusr centered at the codewords cover at least times. We also study the similar problem of multiple coverings containing repeated words. A table of bounds forn16,r4, 4 is given.     

Chemical compounds formed from diacetylene and rare-gas atoms: HKrC4H and HXeC4H

New organic rare-gas compounds, HRgC4H (Rg = Kr or Xe), are identified in matrix-isolation experiments supported by ab initio calculations. These compounds are the largest molecules among the known rare-gas hydrides. They are prepared in low-temperature rare-gas matrixes via UV photolysis of diacetylene and subsequent thermal mobilization of H atoms at approximately 30 and 45 K for Kr and Xe, respectively. The strongest IR absorption bands of the HRgC4H molecules are the H-Rg stretches with the most intense components at 1290 cm(-1) for HKrC4H and at 1532 cm(-1) for HXeC4H, and a number of weaker absorptions (C-H stretching, C-C-C bending, and C-C-H bending modes) are also found in agreement with the theoretical predictions. As probably the most important result, the IR absorption spectra indicate some further stabilization of the HRgC4H molecules as compared with the corresponding HRgC2H species identified recently (Khriachtchev et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125, 4696 and Khriachtchev et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125, 6876). The computational energetic results support this trend. HXeC4H is predicted to be 2.5 eV lower in energy than H + Xe + C4H, which is approximately 1 eV larger than the corresponding value for HXeC2H. We expect that the larger molecules HRgC6H and HRgC8H are even more stable and the HRgC2nH species are good candidates for bulk organic rare-gas material.