Orientation and Structure of Ionic Liquid Cation at Air/[bmim][BF4] Aqueous Solution Interface

The watermiscible room temperature ionic liquid 1butyl3methylimidazolium tetrafluorob orate （[bmim] [BF4]） is a model system for studying the interactions between ionic liquid and water molecules. In this work the orientational structure of the low concentrated aqueous solution of [bmim] [BF4] at the air/liquid interface was investigated by sum frequency gener ation vibrational spectroscopy. It has been found that at very low concentrations, the butyl chain exhibited a significant gauche defect, indicating a disordered conformation; and the cation ring oriented with a fairly small tilting angle at the surface. When the concentration increased, the cation ring tended to lie flat at the surface, and the gauche defects of the butyl chain decreased due to the intermolecular chainchain interactions and the consequent more ordered interfacial molecular arrangement. Additionally, the antisymmetric stretching mode in the PPP and SPS spectra exhibited a peak shift, showing that there exists more than one kind of orientation or chemical environment for the butyl CH3 group. These results may shed new light on understanding the surface behavior of watermiscible ionic liquids as well as the imidazolium based surfactants.     

Two types of diffusions at the cathode/electrolyte interface in IT-SOFCs

Analytical transmission electron microscopy, in particular with the combination of energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS), has been performed to investigate the microstructure and microchemistry of the interfacial region between the cathode (La_0.6Sr_0.4Co_0.8Fe_0.2O₃, LSCF) and the electrolyte (Gd-doped ceria, GDC). Two types of diffusions, mutual diffusion between cathode and electrolyte as well as the diffusion along grain boundaries, have been clarified. These diffusions suggest that the chemical stability of LSCF and GDC are not as good as previously reported. The results are more noteworthy if we take into consideration the fact that such interdiffusions occur even during the sintering process of cell preparation.     

Facile fabrication of porous pure and Ag nanoparticle-doped poly(4-vinylpyridine) films at the liquid-liquid interfaces

We reported an interfacial self-assembly of regularly layered porous poly(4-vinylpyridine)(P4VP) films at the interfaces of water-chloroform or -dichloroethane.The porous diameters were in the range from hundred nanometers to several micrometers.It was revealed that formation of such kind of porous materials was solvent dependent.Moreover,cyclic Ag nanoparticles could be grown in the porous P4VP films to form Ag-P4VP nanohybrids under radiation.     

Interface physicochemical processes controlling sulphate anion incorporation in porous anodic alumina and their dependence on the thermodynamic and transport properties of cations

Aluminium was anodised in H₂SO₄, LiHSO₄, NaHSO₄, KHSO₄, Mg(HSO₄)₂ and Al(HSO₄)₃ electrolytes. The kinetics of growth of porous anodic alumina films and of the pore wall oxide dissolution during anodisation was studied. Based on the derived kinetic parameters, suitable physicochemical processes in the barrier layer electrolyte interface controlling the anion incorporation in the barrier layer were suggested and relevant models were formulated. According to these processes Al³⁺ and H⁺ ions are rejected from the pore base surface in the attached double layer, where Al³⁺ ions are solvated, and are transferred to the pore filling solution. The strongly different mobilities of Al³⁺ and H⁺ and the necessary space negative charge density distribution in the double layer result in similar concentration distributions of Al³⁺ and anions inside it, which differ strongly from that of H⁺. These Al³⁺ and anion concentrations increase with decreasing mobility of the main cations in the solution which depends on their hydration enthalpy and transport mechanism. The concentration of incorporated anions inside both a thin surface layer of the barrier layer and the double layer vary similarly. For identical surface density and base diameter of pores the decrease of the above mobility reinforces anion incorporation.     

Isotactic poly(p-fluorostyrene): Conformation and molecular packing analysis

The chain conformation and molecular packing of isotactic poly(p-fluorostyrene) have been examined using calculations made with semiempirical potential energy functions. Isolated chain conformational energies indicate no difference in conformation for the fluoropolymer from the conformation for isotactic polystyrene. The energy for packing poly(p-fluorostyrene) chains into a crystalline array as 3₁ or 4₁ helices was also compared with the energies for packing polystyrene in both of these helical forms. While not being the lowest energy mode of packing for poly(p-fluorostyrene), the packing of 4₁-helices does yield a local energy minimum. Such packing of 4₁ helical polystrene chains is considerably less energetically feasible. The results indicate the causes for the experimentally observed difference in the crystalline conformations of the two isotactic polymers as being due to intermolecular influences.     

Interfacial cracking in ceramic laminates

The lamination of composite elements such as sheets or fibres made from ceramic powders represents a cheap and easy way of making tough ceramics. The fabrication and failure behaviour of such layered structures is described. It is shown that crack growth along the interfaces is dominated by dynamic effects due to the storage of excess elastic energy and that effects of loading state, in the silicon carbide/graphite system at least, appear to be relatively unimportant. Crack deflection at interfaces is also discussed and it is shown that observations made in these systems are not consistent with existing theories. Various possibilities are investigated.     

Role of weak interface to retain high strength of fiber in monofilamentary SiC fiber/titanium-aluminide composite

The tensile strength of monofilamentary weakly bonded SiC fiber/γ-TiAl intermetallic compound matrix composite, prepared by the sputtering method, was measured and analysed using a fracture mechanical technique. The main results are summarized as follows: (1) The fracture of TiAl occurred prior to that of fiber, resulting in formation of circumferential cracks on the fiber. Interfacial debonding occurred during tensile test, resulting in long pull-out of the fiber. (2) The strength of the fiber in the TiAl matrix was nearly the same as that of the bare fiber. (3) The fracture mechanical analysis showed that (i) the interfacial debonding grows unstably upon initiation and (ii) the stress distribution in the fiber in the cross-section, where the matrix is fractured, approaches to that of bare fiber with increasing debonded length. The reason why the fiber strength was maintained in spite of the formation of cracks on the fiber surface due to the premature fracture of the matrix was accounted for by the fully blunted crack-tip from the above calculation result.     

Stream function solution of Navier-Stokes problems with inter-element penalties

In this note, we apply a finite element stream function formulation with inter-element penalties to the Navier-Stokes equations. The approach is an extension of a technique previously introduced for Stokes, flow. The solution is obtained by iterative linearization using successive approximation, and results for a standard numerical test case are given.     

Design of a Resonant-Cavity-Enhanced p-i-n GaN/AlxGa1-xN Photodetector

A resonant-cavity-enhanced p-i-n photodetector has been designed and analyzed to operate at a wavelength of 360 nm based on the Al_xGa_1-xN material system. The novel approach has been adopted of using epitaxial AlN/Al_xGa_1-xN quarter-wave stacks as the distributed Bragg reflector that serves as the front mirror. An Al_xGa_1-xN absorptive filter layer is incorporated to suppress all but one resonant mode to ensure single, narrow-band operation. This device structure is projected to achieve wavelength selective, high speed, and high quantum efficiency operation in the ultraviolet. MOCVD-grown 6 1/2-pair AlN/Al_xGa_1-x     

Shear viscosity of polymer and surfactant monolayers

The surface shear viscosity of monolayers formed at the surface of water by adsorbed polyethyl- eneoxyde and by stearic acid is measured as a function of the surface pressure of the monolayer using a new surface viscometer. The principle of the viscometer is the measurement of the drag force on a circular disk undergoing a uniform translation at the water surface: a hydrodynamic model based on the lubrication approximation allows a calculation of the surface viscosities from the absolute measurement of the drag forces. Received: 26 August 1999