Graphene sheet-encased silica/sulfur composite cathode for improved cyclability of lithium-sulfur batteries

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - The “shuttle effect” of polysulfides is a serious issue, resulting in a decrease in the life-cycle of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries. To...     

Freeze-drying synthesis and characterisation of Na composites of ZnO,TiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> and ZnTiO<Subscript>3</Subscript> semiconductor oxides

The freeze-drying method of metal oxides synthesis has a number of advantages such as high homogeneity, varying porous structures, morphologies and uniform particle size distribution, etc. Because of these advantages, the binary metal oxides ZnO, TiO₂ and ternary metal oxide ZnTiO₃ were synthesised by the freeze-drying method. The synthesised materials were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform-infra red spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV-VIS spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX). The as-synthesised metal oxides were calcined at different temperatures to study the phase evolution and morphological changes. The crystalline cubic-phase ZnTiO₃ (a = 8.3948 Å) was obtained on calcination of the precursor at 600°C, and decomposed to the cubic phase Zn₂TiO₄ (a = 8.4580 Å) and rutile TiO₂ (a = 4.5955 Å and c = 2.9593 Å) at 1000°C. The band gap of ZnO (3.28?3.10 eV), TiO₂ (3.37?2.97 eV) and ZnTiO₃ (3.92?3.80 eV) calculated using Tauc’s relation was found to vary inversely with calcination temperature and phase transition.     

TFRC friendliness and the case of ECN

The TFRC protocol has been proposed as a TCP‐friendly protocol to transport streaming media over the Internet. However, its deployment is still questionable because it has not been compared to other important protocols, analysed in the presence of important mechanisms, such as the explicit congestion notification (ECN), and studied under more realistic network conditions. In this paper, we address these three aspects, including other congestion control protocols not considered before in the same investigation, such as TCP Tahoe, Reno, Newreno, Vegas, Sack, GAIMD, and the Binomial algorithms, the effect of using ECN in the friendliness of the protocols, and the fairness of the protocols under static and dynamic network conditions. We found that TFRC can be safely deployed in the Internet if competing with TCP Tahoe, New Reno and SACK since fairness is achieved under all scenarios considered. We also found that ECN actually helps in achieving better fairness. However, fairness problems arise when TFRC competes with TCP Reno, GAIMD, SQRT or IIAD in static or dynamic conditions, or both. We used normalized throughput, fairness index, and convergence time as the main performance metrics for comparison. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Crystal growth,optical and thermal studies of nonlinear optical γ-glycine single crystal grown from lithium nitrate

Single crystals of the nonlinear material γ-glycine have been grown in the presence of lithium nitrate by slow-evaporation method. Structural characterization of the grown crystals was carried out by powder and single crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods and it is observed that the samples crystallize in hexagonal system with non-centrosymmetric space groups. The modes of vibrations of different molecular groups present in glycine have been identified by spectral analyses. UV–visible transmittance study was performed to analyze optical transparency of γ-glycine crystals and found that the crystal was transparent in the entire visible-NIR region. Second harmonic generation (SHG) conversion efficiency has been estimated as 62 mV and the output power by the crystal was 1.72 times that of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) crystal. The thermal stability and decomposition of the sample have been studied by thermal analysis and it is observed that the γ-glycine crystal have good thermal stability.     

Synthesis, structure, and characterization of novel two- and three-dimensional vanadates: Ba2.5(VO2)3(SeO3)4.H2O and La(VO2)3(TeO6).3H2O

Two new vanadates, Ba(2.5)(VO2)3(SeO3)4.H2O and La(VO2)3(TeO6).3H2O, have been synthesized by hydrothermal methods using BaCO3, Ba(OH)2.H2O, La(NO3)3.6H2O, V2O5, TeO2, and H2SeO3 as reagents. The structures were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Ba(2.5)(VO2)3(SeO3)4.H2O exhibits a two-dimensional layered structure consisting of VO(5) square pyramids and SeO3 polyhedra, whereas La(VO2)3(TeO6).3H2O has a three-dimensional framework structure composed of VO(4) tetrahedra and TeO6 octahedra. Infrared and Raman spectroscopy, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis are also presented. Crystal data: Ba(2.5)(VO2)3(SeO3)4.H2O, trigonal, space group P (No. 147) with a = b = 12.8279(15) A, c = 7.2631(9) A, V = 1035.1(2) A(3), and Z = 2; La(VO2)3(TeO6).3H2O, trigonal, space group R3c (No. 161) with a = b = 9.4577(16) A, c = 23.455(7) A, V = 1816.9(7) A3, and Z = 6.     

Moore-Penrose inverse in an indefinite inner product space

The concept of the Moore-Penrose inverse in an indefinite inner product space is introduced. Extensions of some of the formulae in the Euclidean space to an indefinite inner product space are studied. In particular range-hermitianness in completely characterized. Equivalence of a weighted generalized inverse and the Moore-Penrose inverse is proved. Finally, methods of computing the Moore-Penrose inverse are presented.     

Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Reactive Dyes over MnTiO3/TiO2 Heterojunction Composites Under UV‐Visible Irradiation

In this study, the photocatalytic degradation of organic reactive dyes have been investigated using MnTiO₃/TiO₂ heterojunction composites in the presence of electron acceptors under UV‐Visible light irradiation. This MnTiO₃/TiO₂ heterojunction composites were prepared by annealing different mass ratios of pyrophanite MnTiO₃ (3–11 wt%) and TiO₂ at 300°C. All the MnTiO₃/TiO₂ heterojunction composites were characterized by spectral techniques like X‐ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and diffused reflectance UV‐visible spectroscopic analysis (DRS). Among them, 9 wt% MnTiO₃/TiO₂ heterojunction composites exhibited higher photocatalytic activity for the degradation of Reactive Blue 4 (RB 4). The photocatalytic efficiency of 9 wt% MnTiO₃/TiO₂ heterojunction composites was further enhanced by the addition of substantial amount of electron acceptors like hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and ammonium peroxydisulfate ([NH₄]₂S₂O₈). The presence of oxidants (electron acceptors) facilitates the fast degradation of dye solution even in higher concentration upto 200 mg/L. The photocatalytic activity of MnTiO₃/TiO₂ heterojunction composites was also studied for the degradation of other four different structured reactive dyes. The extent of mineralization of these organic reactive dyes during photocatalytic degradation was estimated from COD analysis. MnTiO₃/TiO₂ heterojunction composites was also found to have good photostability in the presence of oxidants.     

Fabrication of planar gratings by direct ablation using an ultrashort pulse laser in a common optical path configuration

Planar gratings have wide applications and to date, many methods for the fabrication of gratings have been reported. Ultrashort pulse lasers have been used for the machining of gratings primarily because they allow direct ablation and the manufacturing of sub-wavelength structures. In this paper, we present a novel direct ablation technique for the fabrication of planar gratings which makes use of the interference of ultrashort pulses in a common optical path configuration. This technique of grating fabrication not only simplifies the optical setup, but also immunizes the system to extraneous and inherent vibrations, thus enabling the manufacturing of planar gratings of good edge acuity. We have successfully fabricated planar gratings on a copper substrate. Received: 6 November 2001 / Accepted: 4 March 2002 / Published online: 10 September 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +65/77-904-674, E-mail: mvenkata@ntu.edu.sg     

POLYBiNN: Binary Inference Engine for Neural Networks using Decision Trees

Journal of Signal Processing Systems - Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) have gained significant popularity in several classification and regression applications....