Electrochemical deposition and structural characterization of Au-Sn alloys

In the present work the electrochemical deposition of Au-Sn alloys is addressed and a cyanide-free process is presented. The electrolyte is an acidic thiourea solution containing gold as a Au[CS(NH₂)₂]⁺ complex and tin as stannous ions. Results concerning the plating process development and deposit characterization are reported. Au-Sn alloy films with a Sn content up to 50 at% and a single-phase structure can be obtained from the acidic thiourea–Au(I) solution under pulsed current plating conditions. Alloy deposits show three main crystal structures: a face centred cubic (fcc) Au(Sn) solid solution, extending up to 7 at% Sn; a hexagonal close-packed structure, of the same type as the metallurgical phase, up to about 18 at% Sn; and a NiAs-type structure, corresponding to the phase of the equilibrium diagram, with an enlarged homogeneity range. Mechanical properties of thin layers of Au-Sn alloys derived from micro-indentation measurements follow the structural modification with the alloy composition. The ordered intermetallic phases occurring in the equilibrium binary system, in particular the and phases at 8 at% and 16 at% Sn, respectively, are not detected in the electrodeposited alloys. The main factors controlling electrochemical phase formation are pointed out, considering the differences between the phase structure of the electrodeposited alloys and the equilibrium phase diagram.Presented at the 3rd International Symposium on Electrochemical Processing of Tailored Materials held at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry, 15–20 September 2002, Düsseldorf, Germany     

Dielectric behavior of nano-structured and bulk Li Ni Zn ferrite samples

The ac conductivity and dielectric properties of spinel ferrite nanoparticles of Li_0.1(Ni_1−xZn_x)_0.8Fe_2.1O₄ (x=0.0–1.0) prepared by the chemical co-precipitation method were investigated as functions of frequency and temperature by using a complex impedance technique. Parts of the precipitated powders were pressed into a disk-shape and were sintered at 1473 K for 2 h to increase the particle size to the bulk scale (dimensions >100 nm). The ac conductivity of the samples increases with increasing temperature, ensuring the semiconducting behavior of both nano and bulk samples, in agreement with the Koops model to describe heterogeneous structures. The significant decrease in ac conductivity σ′_ac, dielectric constant, and dielectric loss of the as-prepared nanosamples compared to their bulk counterparts is correlated to the small size of the grain compared to the grain boundary size. This might be useful for many applications requiring the reduction of eddy current effects.     

Universal AC response of a 1D Luttinger liquid ring

The response of a spinless ballistic Luttinger liquid ring to an oscillating in time magnetic flux is considered in the discrete spectrum limit. The dependence of the magnitude of both AC response and the DC current on the frequency and magnitude of a magnetic flux at nonzero temperatures is calculated.     

Electrophoretic deposition of bacterial cells

The possibility to use alternating current electrophoretic deposition (AC-EPD) to deposit living cells in the form of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli on stainless steel was assessed. The experimental results revealed that these bacteria can be successfully deposited on metallic surfaces from demineralized water and sucrose based solutions using asymmetric unbalanced electric fields. Cell viability of the deposited bacteria was influenced by the strain and deposition medium.     

导电聚苯胺／MnO2空气阴极氧还原动力学

采用动电位扫描、交流阻抗技术研究了导电聚苯胺/MnO2复合阴极上氧还原反应动力学.动电位扫描表明氧在该复合阴极上还原的极化曲线服从Butler-Volmer公式,表观标准活化能为184.9 kJ/mol,反应为电化学步骤控制;交流阻抗谱观察到氧阴极还原由3个明显的线圈组成,表明氧阴极还原分3步进行,第1个圆弧随过电位的增大而显著减小,表明第1步电荷转移过程的确为氧还原反应的速率控制步骤;导电聚苯胺的高比表面积与MnO2的多微毛细管结构使氧在该复合电极上还原变得容易.     

Assessing the Apparent Effective Thickness of the Supported Hybrid Bilayer Membranes Consisting of Octadecanethiol and Phospholipid by ac Impedance Spectroscopy

The electrochemical behavior of the gold electrode modified by hybrid bilayer membranes in different concentrations of Fe(CN)₆^3?/Fe(CN)₆^4? was investigated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry technology. The electron transfer between gold and the redox species separated by the hybrid bilayers assembly was completed by an electron tunneling process. A detailed equivalent circuit for electron transport across the HBMs is proposed. It was found that the apparent effective thickness of the hybrid bilayer membranes was lower than that of the sum of the chain length of octadecanethiol and phospholipid so some possible collapsed sites might exist at the hybrid bilayer membranes.     

The peculiarities of the effect of mercury ions on the kinetics of gold electrodeposition from cyanide solutions

The peculiarity of the catalytic effect of complex mercury ions (in the concentration of 10^?5 to 10^?4 M) on the gold electrodeposition from cyanide solutions are studied. It is shown that, all other conditions being the same, the catalytic activity of mercury ions is much lower than that of earlier studied thallium and lead ions. Another peculiarity of catalytic effect of mercury ions is the necessity of prolonged (for tens minutes) contact of gold with the mercury-containing solution. Possible explanation for the obtained regularities is proposed.     

Vibrational spectroscopy,electrical characterization,nonlinear optical properties and DFT calculation of (NEt4)(H2AsO4)(H3AsO4)2

An organic-inorganic compound of tetraethylammonium dihydrogenarsenate bis(arsenic acid) salts of formula (NEt₄)(H₂AsO₄)(H₃AsO₄)₂, a potential new nonlinear optical material, was prepared by a slow evaporation technique and characterized by IR and Raman spectroscopy accomplished with DFT calculation and electrical-dielectrical measurements. The structure has been solved using direct method and refined by least-squares analysis. In this case, the structure consists of infinite parallel two-dimensional planes built of mutually H₂AsO₄^?, H₃AsO₄ tetrahedra connected by strong O–H?O hydrogen bonding giving birth to trimers. The geometry, first hyperpolarizability and harmonic vibrational wavenumbers were calculated by means of density functional theory (DFT) with the B3LYP/6-31G(d) level of theory. Good consistency was found between the calculated and the experimental structure, IR, and Raman results. The first hyperpolarizability β_tot of the title compound is about 1.75 times more than that of the reference crystal KDP. The complex impedance has been investigated in relation to the temperature and frequency ranges 297 and 373 K and 1 to 100 KHz, respectively. The conductivity temperature variation shows a typical Arrhenius-type behavior with a linear dependence on logarithm of conductivity. Transport properties in this material appear to be due to proton hopping mechanism.     

Achieving very high fraction of β-crystal PVDF and PVDF/CNF composites and their effect on AC conductivity and microstructure through a stretching process

It is well known that the ferroelectric performance of poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) is caused by its β-crystal structure, which can be efficiently induced through a stretching process applied to the PVDF. Though numerous PVDF nanocomposites have been reported on, there is still a lack of studies on how the stretching process affects the phase transformation in PVDF nanocomposites. In this study, the effects of stretching on the crystalline structures and alternating current (AC) conductivity of PVDF nanocomposites with different concentrations (up to 5.0 wt.%) of CNFs were investigated. Results revealed that the stretching process is not only an effective approach to produce β-crystal from pure PVDF, but also for CNF/PVDF composites. The extremely high phase transformation from α- to β-crystal (?96%) is maintained for the nanocomposites with above 1.0 wt.% CNFs. The AC conductivity of CNF/PVDF composites remarkably decreases when the resultant percolation threshold is raised from 1.0 to 4.2 wt.% CNFs after stretching. This is attributed to the reduced crystallinity induced by the phase transformation from α- to β-PVDF as well as the CNF re-orientation.     

Regenerable Leptin Immunosensor Based on Protein G Immobilized Au‐Pyrrole Propylic Acid‐Polypyrrole Nanocomposite

A regenerable, labelless electrochemical immunosensor is investigated. In this work, pyrrole (Py) and pyrrole propylic acid (Pa) were co‐electropolymerized in the presence of gold nanoparticles to form a porous, conductive, stable and hydrophilic nanocomposite, followed by the covalent attachment of protein G to capture an antibody as the probe for the immunoassay. The regeneration of the sensor was achieved by rinsing the electrodes with 0.1 M glycine buffer (pH 2.7). The binding and dissociation of the antibody with protein G and optimization of the efficient immobilization were studied by impedance and optical measurements, respectively. The charge transfer resistance obtained from the impedance measurements is used to study the interaction between antibody‐protein G and antibody‐antigen. The immunosensor performance and its regenerability were evaluated by using anti‐leptin IgG as the probe protein to detect leptin in 0.01 M PBS, and its specificity was tested in 1% human serum. The leptin impedimetric immunosensor exhibits a detection dynamic range of 10–100 000 ng/mL with 10 ng/mL detection limit in 0.01 M PBS+1% serum solutions. This work proves the feasibility to make a sensitive, regenerative electrochemical immunosensor, which could be very useful for environmental control and food analysis.