分子量对壳聚糖溶致液晶性的影响

三种不同分子量的壳聚糖[脱乙酰度均为(84±1)%]在二氯乙酸溶液中都呈现胆甾型溶致液晶相.临界浓度随分子量增加而降低,但均比同样聚合度的甲壳素的高.用偏光显微镜法和激光小角散射法测得的胆甾液晶相的螺距很相近,在浓度相同时,其值随分子量的增加而减小.     

The effect of potential of impedance in the pulsed-laser-deposited SrBi2Ta2O9 thin film

Ferroelectrics SrBi₂Ta₂O₉ (SBTO) thin films were grown on a highly oriented Pt/Ti/SiO₂/Si substrates using the pulsed laser ablation. The ac impedance of SBTO thin films have been measured at room temperature both in the frequency range from 10⁻¹ to 10⁶ Hz and bias voltage range from −6 to 6 V. The ac impedance dispersion was observed at low frequency with increasing bias voltage, which was interpreted based on a blocked charge. We can explain that the blocking interface gives rise to constant phase element (CPE) response, and we give an impedance model function that can fit data along the low frequency range when such a CPE is found. The low frequency dispersion phenomena of SBTO thin film are related to a charge diffusion process at the surface of thin film.     

Waiting time distributions in financial markets

We study waiting time distributions for data representing two completely different financial markets that have dramatically different characteristics. The first are data for the Irish market during the 19th century over the period 1850 to 1854. A total of 10 stocks out of a database of 60 are examined. The second database is for Japanese yen currency fluctuations during the latter part of the 20th century (1989-1992). The Irish stock activity was recorded on a daily basis and activity was characterised by waiting times that varied from one day to a few months. The Japanese yen data was recorded every minute over 24 hour periods and the waiting times varied from a minute to a an hour or so. For both data sets, the waiting time distributions exhibit power law tails. The results for Irish daily data can be easily interpreted using the model of a continuous time random walk first proposed by Montroll and applied recently to some financial data by Mainardi, Scalas and colleagues. Yen data show a quite different behaviour. For large waiting times, the Irish data exhibit a cut off; the Yen data exhibit two humps that could arise as result of major trading centres in the World. Received 31 December 2001     

Quantitative analysis of the Ge concentration in a SiGe quantum well: comparison of low-energy RBS and SIMS measurements

The germanium concentration and the position and thickness of the quantum well in molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)-grown SiGe were quantitatively analyzed via low-energy Rutherford backscattering (RBS) and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). In these samples, the concentrations of Si and Ge were assumed to be constant, except for the quantum well, where the germanium concentration was lower. The thickness of the analyzed quantum well was about 12 nm and it was situated at a depth of about 60 nm below the surface. A dip showed up in the RBS spectra due to the lower germanium concentration in the quantum well, and this was evaluated. Good depth resolution was required in order to obtain quantitative results, and this was obtained by choosing a primary energy of 500 keV and a tilt angle of 51° with respect to the surface normal. Quantitative information was deduced from the raw data by comparing it with SIMNRA simulated spectra. The SIMS measurements were performed with oxygen primary ions. Given the response function of the SIMS instrument (the SIMS depth profile of the germanium delta (δ) layer), and using the forward convolution (point-to-point convolution) model, it is possible to determine the germanium concentration and the thickness of the analyzed quantum well from the raw SIMS data. The aim of this work was to compare the results obtained via RBS and SIMS and to show their potential for use in the semiconductor and microelectronics industry. The detection of trace elements (here the doping element antimony) that could not be evaluated with RBS in low-energy mode is also demonstrated using SIMS instead.     

Photoluminescence studies of γ-irradiated CaF2:Dy:Pb:Na single crystals

The optical absorption (OA) and photoluminescence (hereafter referred to as luminescence) studies were made on CaF₂:Dy:Pb:Na single crystals (Dy—0.005 at%, Pb—0.188 at% and Na—0.007 at%) before and after γ-irradiation. The unirradiated crystal exhibited a strong OA band around 6.36 eV attributed to the ‘A’ band absorption of Pb²⁺ ions. The γ-irradiated crystal exhibited OA bands around 2.06, 3.28, 3.75 (broad shoulder) and 2.48 eV. The first three bands could be tentatively attributed to M_Na centre when compared with that of the coloured CaF₂:Na. The origin of 2.48 eV band was not explicitly known. Luminescence emission and excitation of Pb²⁺ and Dy³⁺ ions were negligible in the unirradiated crystal. Irradiated crystal exhibited a strong excitation spectrum with overlapping bands, due to different colour centres, in the UV-vis region for the 2.15 eV emission characteristic of Dy³⁺ ion. When excited, the absorbed energy (may be a part) was transferred from a colour centre to nearby Dy³⁺ ions and Dy³⁺ characteristic emission was observed. Exciting the irradiated crystal around 3.28 eV yielded emission at 2.56, 2.15 and 1.76 eV. The first two emission bands were due to Dy³⁺ ions. The excitation spectrum for the 1.76 eV emission showed two prominent bands around 2.02 and 3.08 eV and hence the emission was attributed to the M_Na centre. The luminescence mechanism was described.     

Polyvinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene (PVdF-HFP)-based composite polymer electrolyte containing LiPF3(CF3CF2)3

This paper describes the preparation and characterization of lithium fluoroalkylphosphate-containing composite polymer electrolyte based on a polyvinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene (PVdF-HFP) matrix. A mixture of ethylene carbonate and diethyl carbonate was used as a plasticizing agent and nanoscopic Al₂O₃ as a filler. The membranes were characterized by ac impedance, SEM, DSC, FTIR and fluorescence. An electrolyte with 2.5 wt% Al₂O₃ exhibited a conductivity of 9.8 × 10⁻⁴ S cm⁻¹ at ambient temperature. It was found that filler contents above 2.5 wt% rendered the membranes less conducting.     

FTIR, XRD and ac impedance spectroscopic study on PVA based polymer electrolyte doped with NH4X (X = Cl, Br, I)

The present study focuses on characterizing PVA: NH₄X (X = Cl, Br, I) proton conducting polymer electrolyte prepared by solution casting technique using XRD, FTIR and ac impedance spectroscopic studies. The XRD patterns of all the prepared polymer electrolytes reveal the amorphous nature of the films. The FTIR spectroscopic study indicates the detailed interaction of PVA with proton. From ac impedance spectroscopic studies, it has been found that PVA doped with NH₄I have high ionic conductivity (2.5 × 10⁻³S cm⁻¹) than PVA doped with NH₄Br (5.7 × 10⁻⁴S cm⁻¹) and NH₄Cl (1.0 × 10⁻⁵S cm⁻¹) polymer electrolytes. This is due to the large anionic size and low lattice energy of NH₄I (in comparison with NH₄Br and NH₄Cl).The temperature dependence of ionic conductivity for all the PVA: NH₄X (X = Cl, Br, I) polymer films obey Arrhenius equation. Ionic transference number measured has been found to be in the range of 0.93-0.96 for all the polymer electrolytes proving that the total conductivity is mainly due to ions.     

Consensus problem in directed networks of multi-agents via nonlinear protocols

In this Letter, the consensus problem via distributed nonlinear protocols for directed networks is investigated. Its dynamical behaviors are described by ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Based on graph theory, matrix theory and the Lyapunov direct method, some sufficient conditions of nonlinear protocols guaranteeing asymptotical or exponential consensus are presented and rigorously proved. The main contribution of this work is that for nonlinearly coupled networks, we generalize the results for undirected networks to directed networks. Consensus under pinning control technique is also developed here. Simulations are also given to show the validity of the theories.     

A singularity-avoiding moving least squares scheme for two-dimensional unstructured meshes

Moving least squares interpolation schemes are in widespread use as a tool for numerical analysis on scattered data. In particular, they are often employed when solving partial differential equations on unstructured meshes, which are typically needed when the geometry defining the domain is complex. It is known that such schemes can be singular if the data points in the stencil happen to be in certain special geometric arrangements, however little research has specifically addressed this issue. In this paper, a moving least squares scheme is presented which is an appropriate tool for use when solving partial differential equations in two dimensions, and the precise conditions under which singularities occur are identified. The theory is used to develop a stencil building algorithm which automatically detects singular stencils and corrects them in an efficient manner, while attempting to maintain stencil symmetry as closely as possible. Finally, the scheme is applied in a convection–diffusion equation solver and an incompressible Navier–Stokes solver, and the results are shown to compare favourably with known analytical solutions and previously published results.