The existence and stability of bulk nanobubbles:a long-standing dispute on the experimentally observed mesoscopic inhomogeneities in aqueous solutions

In theory,nanobubbles can stably exist with a lifetime of microseconds at most,but numerous experimental observations demonstrate that nanobubbles in bulk solution can be stable from hours to weeks.Although various conjectures on the stability mechanism of bulk nanobubbles,such as the contaminant mechanism,skin mechanism,surface zeta potential mechanism,are proposed,there has not yet been a unified conclusion.Since bulk nanobubbles show great potential in a wide spectrum of applications and are relevant to a number of unsolved questions on cavitation and nucleation,the debate over their stability mechanisms has been active.In the past,extensive studies have been carried out to understand the mechanism of nanobubble stability,and important insights have already been provided.This paper will provide a brief overview of our current understanding of the unexpected stability of bulk nanobubbles.     

长寿命吸收过程对超快动力学过程测量的影响

使用飞秒时间分辨抽运-探测透射光谱技术,实验研究了GaAs体材料中光激发载流子的超快弛豫动力学的波长依赖.在相同的光激发载流子浓度和抽运/探测比时,发现760 nm和780 nm两中心波长处的瞬态透射变化延迟扫描信号出现负的和振荡的信号.与模拟计算结果对比,判定该实验瞬态信号是错误的.分析探测器输出波形,发现是由于反相波形导致的,而引起反相波形的原因在于样品中存在长寿命的吸收过程.指出通过提高探测器上的抽运/探测比能够矫正反相波形,从而获得正确的瞬态透射变化动力学.提高探测器上的抽运/探测比与目前的应尽量减小抽运光对探测器的散射贡献的观点是对立的.文章的研究结果对应用抽运-探测时间分辨光谱技术正确地测量超快瞬态动力学过程具有重要的参考价值. 关键词： 时间分辨抽运-探测透射光谱 饱和吸收 吸收增强 GaAs体材料     

Changes in electronic,magnetic and bonding properties from Zr2FeH5 to Zr3FeH7 addressed from ab initio

Potential hydrogen storage ternaries Zr₃FeH₇ and Zr₂FeH₅, are studied from ab initio with the purpose of identifying changes in electronic structures and bonding properties. Cohesive energy trends: E_coh. (ZrH₂) > E_coh. (Zr₂FeH₅) > E_coh. (Zr₃FeH₇) > E_coh. (hypothetic-FeH) indicate a progressive destabilization of the binary hydride ZrH₂ through adjoined Fe so that Zr₃FeH₇ is found less cohesive than Zr₂FeH₅. From the energy volume equations of states EOS the volume increase upon hydriding the intermetallics leads to higher bulk moduli B₀ explained by the Zr/Fe–H bonding. Fe–H bond in Zr₂FeH₅ leads to annihilate magnetic polarization on Fe whereas Fe magnetic moment develops in Zr₃FeH₇ identified as ferromagnetic in the ground state. These differences in magnetic behaviors are due to the weakly ferromagnetic Fe largely affected by lattice environment, as opposed to strongly ferromagnetic Co. Hydrogenation of the binary intermetallics weakens the inter-metal bonding and favors the metal–hydrogen bonds leading to more cohesive hydrides as with respect to the pristine binaries. Charge analyses point to covalent like Fe versus ionic Zr and hydrogen charges ranging from covalent H^−0.27 to more ionic H^−0.5.     

Impact of chain architecture (branching) on the thermal and mechanical behavior of polystyrene thin films

The modulus and glass transition temperature (T_g) of ultrathin films of polystyrene (PS) with different branching architectures are examined via surface wrinkling and the discontinuity in the thermal expansion as determined from spectroscopic ellipsometry, respectively. Branching of the PS is systematically varied using multifunctional monomers to create comb, centipede, and star architectures with similar molecular masses. The bulk‐like (thick film) T_g for these polymers is 103 ± 2 °C and independent of branching and all films thinner than 40 nm exhibit reductions in T_g. There are subtle differences between the architectures with reductions in T_g for linear (25 °C), centipede (40 °C), comb (9 °C), and 4 armed star (9 °C) PS for ≈ 5 nm films. Interestingly, the room temperature modulus of the thick films is dependent upon the chain architecture with the star and comb polymers being the most compliant (≈2 GPa) whereas the centipede PS is most rigid (≈4 GPa). The comb PS exhibits no thickness dependence in moduli, whereas all other PS architectures examined show a decrease in modulus as the film thickness is decreased below ～40 nm. We hypothesize that the chain conformation leads to the apparent susceptibility of the polymer to reductions in moduli in thin films. These results provide insight into potential origins for thickness dependent properties of polymer thin films. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2012     

Direct observations of the leaching of a simulated nuclear waste glass in a radiation environment

The durability of the media proposed for the containment of commercial nuclear waste will be affected not only by the differences in groundwater composition that they might encounter but also by the changes that their own irradiation fields will make to these solutions. Experimental results that question the ability of current leaching experiments to predict the stability of nuclear waste composites are presented.     

The Hard Rod Fluid in a Uniform Gravitational Field

Abstract

The system of hard rods in an external, uniform gravitational field is studied and exact expressions obtained for the partition functions, and the one- and two-particle distributions. In principle all higher order distributions can be exactly expressed as finite sums and the Laplace transforms of the one-particle density and pressure for a semi-infinite system are reducible to single integrals. Limiting cases of weak field and small rod diameters are examined. In the former case, these results agree with Percus and Lebowitz's local density expansion. In the latter case, corrections to the barometric pressure and density laws are obtained. Finally some mathematical difficulties involved in the calculation of the virial expansion and distribution of roots of the grand partition function are mentioned.     

Novel conjugated copolymers based on dithiafulvalene moiety for bulk heterojunction solar cells

New conjugated copolymers, P1‐P3 , based on dithiafulvalene‐fused entity and different conjugated segments have been synthesized. Incorporation of electron‐deficient conjugated segments into the conjugated copolymers results in red shifting the absorption band and lowering the hole mobility. Bulk heterojunction solar cells using on these polymers as the donor and [6,6]‐phenyl‐C61 ‐butyric acid methyl ester (PC₆₁BM) as the acceptor were fabricated by solution process. The cells based on the blend of P1‐P3 /PC₆₁BM (1:1, w/w) have power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) ranging from 0.53 to 0.93%. Among these, the cell of P1 /PC₆₁BM exhibited the highest open‐circuit voltage at 0.85 V, and the cell of P3/PC₆₁BM exhibited the best PCE at 0.93% with the short‐circuit current (J_SC) of 4.88 mA/cm². © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012     

Pd-Si binary bulk metallic glass

Pd_80+x Si_20−x (x = 0, 1, and 2) binary metallic glasses with the diameter ranging from 7 to 8 mm were prepared by a combination of fluxing and water quenching or air cooling. Thermal analysis results show that with increasing Si content, the glass transition temperature T _g, the initial crystallization temperature T _x and the onset crystallization temperature T _p of Pd-Si binary glassy alloys increase. Moreover, the supercooled liquid region reaches 61 K. It indicates that Pd-Si binary alloys possess large glass forming ability, which can be greatly improved by fluxing treatment. Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2007CB613905) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 50671050 and 50431030)     

Brane Cosmology, Varying Speed of Light and Inflation in Models with One or More Extra Dimensions

We summarize the approach to brane cosmology known as mirage cosmology and use it to determine the Friedmann equation on a 3-brane embedded in different bulk spacetimes all with one or more extra dimensions. Usually, when there is more than one extra dimension the junction conditions, central to the usual brane world scenarios, are difficult to apply. This problem does not arise in mirage cosmology because the brane is treated as a test particle in the background spacetime. We discuss in detail the dynamics of a brane embedded in two specific 10D bulk spacetimes, namely Sch-AdS₅ × S₅ and a rotating black hole, and from the dynamics—which are now rather more complicated since the brane can move in all the extra dimensions—determine the new dark fluid terms in the brane Friedmann equation. Some of these, such as the cosmological constant term, are seen to be bulk dependent. We then show explicitly how this mirage cosmology approach matches with the familiar junction condition approach when there is just one extra dimension. The issue of a varying speed of light in mirage cosmology is addressed and we find a scenario in which c _eff always increases, tending asymptotically to c ₀ as the universe expands. Finally some comments are made regarding brane inflation and limitations of the mirage cosmology approach are also discussed.     

Exact Values of Widths of Classes of Analytic Functions on the Disk and Best Linear Approximation Methods

In the Hardy space H _p, (p1, 0< 1, H _p,1 H _p) we develop best linear approximation methods (previously studied by Taikov and Ainulloev) for the classes W(r,,) of analytic functions on the unit disk and calculate the exact values of linear, Gelfand, and informational n-widths of these classes.