Physics in Melbourne

I survey highlights of the practice of physics and allied sciences in Melbourne,Australia, from the 1850s, soon after Europeans first settled in the area, to the present. I note recognizable sites of past and current physical-science activity that may be visited, as well as exhibits of historic items of physics apparatus. I trace the role of physics, in the course of a century and a half, in the evolution of a pioneering settlement into a large city embedded in a modern industrial economy.     

NOTE ON THE OSCILLATION OF THE SOLUTION FOR GENERALIZED LIENARD EQUATIONS

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Synthesis and polymerization of a new nitrogen‐containing bis‐ortho‐diynylarene monomer

This study focuses on the preparation, characterization, and optical properties of new bis(3,4‐diphenylethynylphenyl)phenylamine. This is the first nitrogen‐containing bis‐ortho‐diynylarene (BODA) monomer having a nitrogen atom as the spacer group. BODA monomers are usually prepared from common bisphenols, thereby providing great synthetic versatility and the opportunity to develop a wide array of novel polyarylene thermosets by varying the aromatic spacer group. The new bis(3,4‐bisphenylethynylphenyl)phenylamine was synthesized in five steps. This compound emits an intense blue color (λ = 438 nm) upon irradiation by UV light and may be suitable for use as an emitting layer in electroluminescent devices. Bis‐(3,4‐bisphenylethynylphenyl)phenylamine and its polymer have photoluminescence quantum yields 34 and 38%, respectively, and long excited‐state lifetimes of 3.2 and 3.6 ns, respectively. The structure of the monomer and its polymer were characterized using spectroscopic techniques including Ultraviolet–visible Spectrophotometer, Photoluminescence Spectrophotometer, Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy, and Gel Permeation Chromatography. The polymerizations were studied by Differential Scanning Calorimeter. The amount of weight loss and the thermostability of the nitrogen‐containing polymer were determined from thermogravimetric analysis. The electrical conductivity of neat HCl‐doped BODA‐derived polymer film was measured according to the standard four‐point probe technique. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 6988–6996, 2006     

Koexistenzbeziehungen,Darstellung und Eigenschaften ternärer Phasen im System Cu/Mo/O

Coexistence Relations, Preparation and Properties of Ternary Compounds in the System Cu/Mo/O The phase diagram of the ternary system Cu/Mo/O is presented at 773 K. The compounds CuMoO₄, Cu₃Mo₂O₉, Cu₄Mo₅O₁₇, Cu₆Mo₅O₁₈, Cu_4–xMo₃O₁₂, and Cu_xMoO₃ are found to be thermodynamical stable. The homogeneity range of Cu_4–xMo₃O₁₂ runs to x = 0.1–0.2. Single crystals of CuMoO₄ and Cu₃Mo₂O₉ were grown by chemical transport reactions with TeCl₄, Cl₂, HCl, and Br₂ as transport agent. The results were compared with thermochemical calculations. The decomposition of CuMoO₄ and Cu₃Mo₂O₉ was investigated with thermal analysis and decompositon pressure measurements.     

Limit cycle analysis of a class of strongly nonlinear oscillation equations

The limit cycle of a class of strongly nonlinear oscillation equations of the form % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafeart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXafv3ySLgzGmvETj2BSbqefm0B1jxALjhiov2D% aebbfv3ySLgzGueE0jxyaibaiGc9yrFr0xXdbba91rFfpec8Eeeu0x% Xdbba9frFj0-OqFfea0dXdd9vqaq-JfrVkFHe9pgea0dXdar-Jb9hs% 0dXdbPYxe9vr0-vr0-vqpWqaaeaabiGaciaacaqabeaadaqaaqGaaO% qaaiqadwhagaWaaiabgUcaRmXvP5wqonvsaeHbbjxAHXgiofMCY92D% aGqbciab-DgaNjab-HcaOiaadwhacqWFPaqkcqWF9aqpcqaH1oqzca% WGMbGaaiikaiaadwhacaGGSaGabmyDayaacaGaaiykaaaa!50B8!\[\ddot u + g(u) = \varepsilon f(u,\dot u)\] is investigated by means of a modified version of the KBM method, where is a positive small parameter. The advantage of our method is its straightforwardness and effectiveness, which is suitable for the above equation, where g(u) need not be restricted to an odd function of u, provided that the reduced equation, corresponding to =0, has a periodic solution. A specific example is presented to demonstrate the validity and accuracy of our 09 method by comparing our results with numerical ones, which are in good agreement with each other even for relatively large .     

Correlations of13C chemical shifts and geometry modifications

The effect of geometry modifications of¹³C chemical shifts has been investigated in a small subset of molecules using both LO-INDO and Gaussian 70 (4–31) calculations. The Gaussian calculations, while known to give poor absolute shifts, compare well to the reparameterized semi-empirical INDO determinations in calculated shift changes. In virtually all cases the signs of the shift changes were found to be opposite to that of the changes in the calculated electronic energy.     

Chemical applications of group theory and topology

The following procedure is described for investigating the qualitative dynamics of simple chemical systems: 1) A so-called influence diagram is generated representing the relationships between the reference reactants (phase-determining intermediates); 2) This influence diagram is used to generate a truth table indicating possible transitions between state vectors representing the signs of the time derivatives of of the reference reactant concentrations; 3) The truth table is used to determine a state transition diagram representing the flow topology around unstable equilibrium points; 4) The characteristic equation of the adjacency matrix of the influence diagram is solved in order to determine the presence of such unstable equilibrium points. The two types of qualitative dynamics possible for chemical systems containing two reference reactants and one feedback circuit are bifurcation between two attracting regions (bistability) and limit cycle oscillation. However, in two reference reactant systems oscillation requires an additional self-activating loop to generate the unstable equilibrium point required for its realization. Bistability and limit cycle oscillation are also two of the possible types of qualitative dynamics for chemical systems containing three reference reactants. However, chemical systems with three reference reactants and two or more feedback circuits can also contain interlocking limit cycles, which can lead to toroidal oscillations or chaos. The influence diagrams are given for the systems exhibiting these various types of dynamic behavior along with a summary of the important properties of all 729 possible influences for simple chemical systems containing three reference reactants.     

Calculation of the proton affinities of polyfluorobenzenes and the activation energies for 1,2-hydrogen shifts in their carbocations

Isolated polyfluorobenzene (PFB) molecules and their protonated forms are investigated by the AM1 method with full geometry optimization. The proton affinities of PFB are estimated for different protonated positions. The proton affinity of PFB averaged over all isomers is shown to decrease monotonically as the number of fluorine atoms in the molecule increases. The relative populations of different isomers of arenonium ions (AI) formed by PFB protonation are determined. From the calculated data, the value of ⁺ for the F atom in theipso-position is estimated as 1.00. The activation energies of the 1,2-hydrogen shifts in AI are calculated. The dependences of the proton affinity and the activation energies of 1,2-hydrogen shifts on the number of halogen atoms are found to have distinct characters for PFB and polychlorobenzenes. The physical reasons for these difference are discussed.Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 11, pp. 1878–1882, November, 1993.     

Electronic Structure, Aromaticity, and Physicochemical Characteristics of Carbene, Radical, and Ionic Forms of Compounds of the Imidazole Series, and their Oxo and Thio Analogs

The effects of benzannellation, phenyl substitution at the nitrogen atom, protonation at the carbene carbon, ionization, and the state of the carbene center (² or ²) on the electronic structure, diamagnetic susceptibility, induced -electron ring currents, the ¹H, ¹³C, and ¹⁴N chemical shifts, and the energies of the lowest electronic transitions of imidazol-2-ylidenes and their oxo and thio analogs were examined in the bound version of -electron perturbation theory. The calculated and experimental data are compared.     

Cadmium colloids from non-aqueous solvents

Cadmium colloids have been prepared by Chemical Liquid Deposition (CLD). The metal is evaporated to yield atoms which are solvated at liquid nitrogen temperature, and upon warming, stable liquid colloids are formed with particle size ranging between 25–100 Å. Zeta potentials were calculated according to the conversion of Hunter and the Hückel equation, for ethanol and dimethyl sulphoxide. UV/VIS measurement of most of the black colloids showed absorption band around 280 nm. For comparison, we prepared CdS colloid with size 400–625 Å. The colloids are stable to oxidation in air and/or oxygen bubbling. The synthesis of colloids and films from Cd with acetone, 2-butanone, ethanol, 2-propanol, 2-methoxyethanol, DMF and DMSO is reported. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) allows us to determine particle size.