New efficient catalysts for the aerobic oxidation of ethers

Some nickel, copper, and silver salts or complexes are efficient catalysts for the oxidation of benzylic ethers with oxygen in 1,2-dimethoxyethane. Salts of the weakly coordinating anion trifluoroacetate are particularly efficient, approaching (and, in some cases, improving) the yields obtained with cobalt(II) chloride, the best catalyst so far reported.     

Noise-assisted mound coarsening in epitaxial growth

Two types of mechanisms are proposed for mound coarsening during unstable epitaxial growth: stochastic, due to deposition noise, and deterministic, due to mass currents driven by surface energy differences. Both yield the relation H=(RWL)² between the typical mound height W, mound size L, and the film thickness H. An analysis of simulations and experimental data shows that the parameter R saturates to a value which discriminates sharply between stochastic () and deterministic () coarsening. We derive a scaling relation between the coarsening exponent 1/z and the mound-height exponent which, for a saturated mound slope, yields . Received: 11 November 1997 / Revised in final form: 28 November 1997 / Accepted: 28 November 1997     

The 2D Rancieite-type manganic acid and its alkali-exchanged derivatives: Part I — Chemical characterization and thermal behavior

The 2D Rancieite type manganic acid was prepared by reduction of KMnO₄ in acidic medium. Its ion exchange behavior allows to prepare alkali derivatives. All compounds were characterized with use of a combination of X-ray diffraction, chemical analyses, TGA, magnetic measurements and spectroscopic techniques. The evolution of their chemical composition versus temperature was studied between 180 and 400 °C. It shows that the dehydration process is partly reversible in these compounds whereas the weak reduction is irreversible. The 2D Rancieite-type manganic acid is readily different from a Birnessite-type phyllomanganate, as shown by several features: the interlayer distance, the ion exchange capacity, the thermal behavior, the interlayer cation content, the manganese average oxidation state, the magnetic behavior and the IR spectrum.     

A branching process model for sand avalanches

An analytically solvable model for sand avalanches of noninteracting grains of sand, based on the Chapman-Kolmogorov equations, is presented. For a single avalanche, distributions of lifetimes, sizes of overflows and avalanches, and correlation functions are calculated. Some of these are exponentials, some are power laws. Spatially homogeneous distributions of avalanches are also studied. Computer simulations of avalanches of interacting grains of sand are compared to the solutions to the Chapman-Kolmogorov equations. We find that within the range of parameters explored in the simulation, the approximation of noninteracting grains of sand is a good one.     

Kinetic Studies of Electrochemical Oxidation of 1,3-Benzenedithiol

The electrochemical oxidation of 1, 3-benzenedithiol was investigated in a 0. 100 mol/L tetrabutylammonium perchlorate/acetonitrile electrolyte. The electrochemical techniques used were potential sweep, bulk electrolysis, rotating disc and the potential step method. The combination of the techniques yielded the number of electrons transferred per molecule, the reaction order, the transfer coefficient, the diffusion coefficient and concentration of dithiol anions, the standard heterogeneous rate constant as well as the formal potential and equilibrium constant of the preceeding dissociation reaction. This paper also illustrates the methods for studying the electrode kinetics of reactions which (a) involve a chemical reaction preceeding the electron-transfer process, (b) have insoluble polymer products, and (c) are totally irreversible.     

Optimal Investment in a Levy Market

In this paper we consider the optimal investment problem in a market where the stock price process is modeled by a geometric Levy process (taking into account jumps). Except for the geometric Brownian model and the geometric Poissonian model, the resulting models are incomplete and there are many equivalent martingale measures. However, the model can be completed by the so-called power-jump assets. By doing this we allow investment in these new assets and we can try to maximize the expected utility of these portfolios. As particular cases we obtain the optimal portfolios based in stocks and bonds, showing that the new assets are superfluous for certain martingale measures that depend on the utility function we use.     

La1-xNdxSrCoO4催化剂的合成及其催化性能

采用聚丙烯胺溶胶-凝胶法制备了类钙钛矿La1-xNDxSrCoO4(x=0.1～0.9)复合氧化物催化剂,考察了其对CO和C3H8的催化氧化活性,并运用XRD、IR和TPR等手段对催化剂进行了表征.结果表明,所制备的样品均具有K2NiF4型结构,适量Nd2O3的加入增加了LaSrCoO4的催化活性,使LaSrCoO4催化剂粒度变小、晶格畸变率变大及与氧的结合能力减弱,从而有利于CO和C3H8氧化活性的提高.     

Liquid phase oxidation of p-chlorotoluene to p-chlorobenzaldehyde over cobalt-doped mesoporous titania with a crystalline framework

Cobalt-doped mesoporous titania with a crystalline framework synthesized by surfactant templating method presented highly selective (99%) and reasonable conversion rate (49%) of catalytic oxidation of para-chlorotoluene to para-chlorobenzaldehyde in acetic acid using aqueous hydrogen peroxide as oxidant for the first time. Recycling of the catalyst indicates that the catalyst can be used a number of times without losing its activity to a greater extent. By contrast, cobalt-doped mesoporous titania without a crystalline structure and cobalt doped the commercial titania, Degussa P25 prepared by impregnation method with the similar concentration of cobalt were found inactive. The effects of catalyst concentration, reaction time, reaction temperature, and solvents on the performance of the catalyst were also investigated.     

Paradigms and Paradoxes: Energetics of Aqueous Oxyanions of Nonmetals and Metalloids

The enthalpies of formation of simple nonmetal or metalloid oxyanions in aqueous solution are discussed. Archival values are cited and estimates are made. Trends prove evasive.     

Asymptotic stability, ergodicity and other asymptotic properties of the nonlinear filter

In this work we study connections between various asymptotic properties of the nonlinear filter. It is assumed that the signal has a unique invariant probability measure. The key property of interest is expressed in terms of a relationship between the observation σ field and the tail σ field of the signal, in the stationary filtering problem. This property can be viewed as the permissibility of the interchange of the order of the operations of maximum and countable intersection for certain σ-fields. Under suitable conditions, it is shown that the above property is equivalent to various desirable properties of the filter such as

(a) uniqueness of invariant measure for the signal,

(b) uniqueness of invariant measure for the pair (signal, filter),

(c) a finite memory property of the filter,

(d) a property of finite time dependence between the signal and observation σ fields and

(e) asymptotic stability of the filter.

Previous works on the asymptotic stability of the filter for a variety of filtering models then identify a rich class of filtering problems for which the above equivalent properties hold.