Polarisation dependent Raman study of single-crystal nickel oxide

The magnetic domain structure and Raman scattering have been studied in NiO single-crystals with three different (100), (110) and (111) orientations. Twin-domain structure was observed in NiO(100) and NiO(110) single-crystals using cross-polarized optical microscopy. We found that the ratio of the two-magnon (at 1500 cm⁻¹) to the two-phonon (2LO, at 1100 cm⁻¹) Raman bands intensity is sensitive in a particular way to the type of the twin-domain pattern.     

A PCA study to determine how features in meteorite reflectance spectra vary with the samples’ physical properties

Meteorites have advanced our knowledge of processes in the Solar System with the application of high precision instruments here on Earth. The study of asteroids, the source of most meteorites, has in turn given us knowledge regarding the large scale evolution of the Solar System. Using the complementary information that asteroids and meteorites give us the story of our cosmic backyard can be more easily read. One efficient way to link meteorites to asteroids is by matching their respective reflectance spectra. There have been few convincing matches because of observational and scale differences as well as an incomplete knowledge of the light scattering physics involved. To better interpret the reflectance data we need to know the dependencies of the reflectance on physical properties and develop techniques for better comparisons of data sets. For these purposes we utilise our own measurements of 26 different meteorites together with spectra available on the NASA PDS.We find that normalisation of reflectance at a wavelength between 1.1 and 1.3 μm gives the closest match of spectra from meteorites common to both data sets. The depth of the spectra bands deepens by similar amounts for different types of surface texture alterations i.e. rock to sawn surface, rock to polished surface and rock to powdered surface. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is able to easily place carbonaceous chondrites, ordinary chondrites and achondrites into distinct groups using their reflectance spectra. We track the variation of spectral features in principal component space by using a set of meteorite spectra synthesised from mineral and elemental spectra. A spectral agent that reduces the reflectance at all wavelengths is required, in addition to olivine, pyroxene and carbon, to generate a set of synthesised spectra to match the distribution of measured spectra, in principal component space.     

Virtual reality in posturography.

Balance dysfunctions are common, especially among elderly people. Present methods for the diagnosis and evaluation of severity of dysfuntion have limited value. We present a system that makes it easy to implement different visual and mechanical perturbations for clinical investigations of balance and visual-vestibular interaction. The system combines virtual reality visual stimulation with force platform posturography on a moving platform. We evaluate our contruction's utility in a classification task between 33 healthy controls and 77 patients with Ménière's disease, using a series of tests with different visual and mechanical stimuli. Responses of patients and controls differ significantly in parameters computed from stabilograms. We also show that the series of tests achieves a classification accuracy slightly over 80% between controls and patients.     

Acid-catalyzed hydrolyses of bridged bi- and tricyclic compounds-XII: Kinetics of hydration of 2-norbornenone,a special β,γ-unsaturated ketone

The reaction rates, activation parameters, solvent deuterium isotope effects, and dependences of rates on acid concentration measured for the hydration of 2-norbornenone and its four Me-substituted homologs in aqueous acid agree with the slow protonation of the CC double bond (A-S_E2 mechanism). Thus the mechanism differs from that reported for the isomerization (to α,β-unsaturated ketones) of unbridged β,γ-unsaturated ketones, e.g. 3-cycloalkenones and Δ⁵-3-ketosteroids, under catalysis by acid.     

Time-dependent density-functional theory in the projector augmented-wave method

We present the implementation of the time-dependent density-functional theory both in linear-response and in time-propagation formalisms using the projector augmented-wave method in real-space grids. The two technically very different methods are compared in the linear-response regime where we found perfect agreement in the calculated photoabsorption spectra. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the two methods as well as their convergence properties. We demonstrate different applications of the methods by calculating excitation energies and excited state Born-Oppenheimer potential surfaces for a set of atoms and molecules with the linear-response method and by calculating nonlinear emission spectra using the time-propagation method.     

Coordination of pyridinethiols in gold(I) complexes

High-yield synthesis of gold(I) thionato complexes, bis(pyridine-2-thionato)gold(I) chloride (1) and bis(pyridine-4-thionato)gold(I) chloride (2), are described. According to their solid-state structures, a linear coordination of Au(I), equiplanar coordination of the ligands and two weak gamma-agostic interactions are found in both of these complexes despite of different relative positions of N and S atoms in the pyridinethionato ligands. Density functional theory calculations on 1 and 2 reproduce the observed X-ray structures. Even though the C-H...Au interactions of Au(I) and two pyridine moieties (2.83 and 2.88 A in 1 and 2.86 A in 2) are relatively weak, according to calculations they seem to provide further stabilization for the coordination and orientation of the ligands. In 1 the shortest Au...Au distances of 3.50 A indicate that aurophilic interactions, even though weak, are present in the solid state, whereas in 2 these interactions are absent.     

Release of K,Cl, and S during combustion and co-combustion with wood of high-chlorine biomass in bench and pilot scale fuel beds

Studies of the release of critical ash-forming elements from combustion of biomass are typically conducted with small sample masses under well controlled conditions. In biomass combustion on a grate, secondary recapture and release reactions in the fuel-bed may affect the overall release and partitioning of these elements. Earlier work by the authors on the release of K, Cl, and S from a high-chlorine biomass (corn stover) in a lab-scale setup is, in the present work, supplemented with novel results from a bench-scale fixed bed reactor and a 100 kW moving grate pilot facility. The results from the bench-scale reactor indicate that S and K release are not significantly affected by secondary reactions, while Cl is partly recaptured by secondary reactions in the char. A linear increase in K-release was observed from 50% at 906 °C to almost 80 wt.% at 1234 °C when firing only corn stover. A similar release profile was observed for Cl, from 65% to nearly 100%. Complete release of S was achieved at 1234 °C with a linear increase from 70% at 906 °C. Co-combustion of corn stover with low-Cl wood chips served to increase the bed temperature, resulting in complete and close to complete release of Cl and S, respectively. An increase in the relative K-release was observed when increasing the wood chip fraction from 40% to 100% (energy basis). Pilot scale flue gas results indicate that the share of Cl released as HCl decreases towards 0% as the share of wood chips is increased towards 100%. Hence, co-combustion of corn stover with wood chips is expected to decrease the absolute release of KCl due to the lower feedstock quantity of Cl, however, increase the relative release of Cl as KCl.     

Nanostructures increase water droplet adhesion on hierarchically rough superhydrophobic surfaces

Hierarchical roughness is known to effectively reduce the liquid-solid contact area and water droplet adhesion on superhydrophobic surfaces, which can be seen for example in the combination of submicrometer and micrometer scale structures on the lotus leaf. The submicrometer scale fine structures, which are often referred to as nanostructures in the literature, have an important role in the phenomenon of superhydrophobicity and low water droplet adhesion. Although the fine structures are generally termed as nanostructures, their actual dimensions are often at the submicrometer scale of hundreds of nanometers. Here we demonstrate that small nanometric structures can have very different effect on surface wetting compared to the large submicrometer scale structures. Hierarchically rough superhydrophobic TiO(2) nanoparticle surfaces generated by the liquid flame spray (LFS) on board and paper substrates revealed that the nanoscale surface structures have the opposite effect on the droplet adhesion compared to the larger submicrometer and micrometer scale structures. Variation in the hierarchical structure of the nanoparticle surfaces contributed to varying droplet adhesion between the high- and low-adhesive superhydrophobic states. Nanoscale structures did not contribute to superhydrophobicity, and there was no evidence of the formation of the liquid-solid-air composite interface around the nanostructures. Therefore, larger submicrometer and micrometer scale structures were needed to decrease the liquid-solid contact area and to cause the superhydrophobicity. Our study suggests that a drastic wetting transition occurs on superhydrophobic surfaces at the nanometre scale; i.e., the transition between the Cassie-Baxter and Wenzel wetting states will occur as the liquid-solid-air composite interface collapses around nanoscale structures. Consequently, water adheres tightly to the surface by penetrating into the nanostructure. The droplet adhesion mechanism presented in this paper gives valuable insight into a phenomenon of simultaneous superhydrophobicity and high water droplet adhesion and contributes to a more detailed comprehension of superhydrophobicity overall.     

Reaction of Selenium with Bromine in the Presence of Methyltriphenylphosphonium Bromide: Syntheses and Crystal Structures of [PMePh3]2[Se2Br6] and [PMePh3]2[SeBr6(SeBr2)2]

The brown crystals of [PMePh₃]₂[Se₂Br₆] ( 1 ) and red crystals of [PMePh₃]₂[SeBr₆(SeBr₂)₂] ( 2 ) were obtained when selenium and bromine reacted in the solution of acetonitrile in the presence of methyltriphenylphosphonium bromide. The crystal structures of 1 and 2 has been determined by the X‐ray methods and refined to R = 0.0373 for 2397 reflections and 0.0397 for 3417 reflections, respectively. The salt 1 crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P2₁/n with the cell dimensions a = 13.202(5) Å, b = 11.954(4) Å, c = 13.418(6) Å, β = 93.08(4)° (193(2)). The crystals of 2 are triclinic, space group with the cell dimensions a = 10.266(3) Å, b = 11.311(3) Å, c = 11.619(2) Å, α = 108.87(2)°, β = 105.72(2)°, γ = 99.40(2)° (193(2) K). In the solid state structure of 1 the dinuclear hexabromo‐diselenate(II) anion is centrosymmetric and consists of two distorted almost square planar SeBr₄ units sharing a common edge through two μ‐bridging Br atoms. The terminal Se^II–Br bonds are 2.3984(11) and 2.4273(11) Å, whereas the bridging μBr–Se^II bonds are 2.7817(11) and 2.9081(12) Å. In the solid state the trinuclear [SeBr₆(SeBr₂)₂]^2? anion of 2 is centrosymmetric too and contains a nearly regular [SeBr₆] octahedron where the four equatorial bromo ligands each have developed bonds to the Se^II atoms of the SeBr₂ molecules. The contacts between the bridging bromo and the Se^II atoms of the SeBr₂ molecules are 3.0603(15) and 3.1043(12) Å, and can be interpreted as bonds of the donor‐acceptor type with the bridging bromo ligands as donors and the SeBr₂ molecules as acceptors. The Se^IV–Br distances are in the range 2.5570(9)–2.5773(11) Å and the Se^II–Br bond lengths in coordinated SeBr₂ molecules – 2.3411(12) and 2.3421(10) Å.     

Neutrino masses in supersymmetry: R-parity and leptogenesis

In the supersymmetric standard model of particle interactions, R-parity nonconservation is often invoked to obtain nonzero neutrino masses. We point out here that such interactions of the supersymmetric particles would erase any pre-existing lepton or baryon asymmetry of the universe before the electroweak phase transition through the B+L violating sphaleron processes. We also point out that all models of radiative generation of neutrino masses suffer from the same problem. We then show how neutrino masses may be obtained in supersymmetry (assuming R-parity conservation) together with successful leptogenesis and predict the possible existence of new observable particles.