Size-dependent electron chemical potential: Effect on particle charging

Electrostatic charging of particles of identical composition, but different sizes, is a poorly understood phenomenon that may be of importance in dust storms, generation of lightning, numerous technological applications involving solid particulates, and in the agglomeration of lunar dust and inter-stellar dust clouds. We show that under optical excitation, the relative magnitude of surface to volume de-excitation gives size-dependent electron and hole concentrations. The consequent differences in chemical potentials can lead to charge transfer between particles of different size. The direction of charge transfer, from large to small or vice versa, depends critically on the properties of the materials.     

Attainment of Emulsions with Liquid Crystal from Marigold Oil Using the Required HLB Method

Development of new formulations for topical use and cosmetic and pharmaceutical delivery agents has increased the complexity of emulsified systems. Liquid crystals, known since the nineteenth century are the third phase of an emulsion, being responsible for increasing its stability and the solubility of substances poorly soluble in water, or the oily phase, modulating the release of drugs imprisoned in its structure and promoting hydration of the skin surface. In the present work we developed oil/water emulsions, making use of Marigold oil (Calendula officinalis L) and ethoxylated fat alcohols as surfactant. The required HLB value for marigold oil was determined to be 6.0. The surfactants were associated in lipophilic/hydrophilic pairs. The lipophilic surfactants were Ceteth‐2 and Steareth‐2 and the hydrophilic surfactants were Steareth‐20, Ceteareth‐20, Ceteareth‐5, and Ceteth‐10. To identify the liquid crystalline phases, the emulsions were analyzed by polarized light microscopy. The physical stability was evaluated by rheology and zeta potential analysis. All emulsions presented lamellar liquid crystal structures. Results showed that this type of surfactant is able to produce liquid crystal in the system, with slight difference in appearance, influencing the physical stability, according to the methods applied.     

A new formulation of regularized meshless method applied to interior and exterior anisotropic potential problems

This paper proposes a new formulation of regularized meshless method (RMM), which differs from the traditional RMM in that the traditional formulation generates the diagonal elements of influence matrix via null-field integral equations, while our new one directly employs the boundary integral equations at the domain point to evaluate the diagonal elements. We test the present RMM formulation to two-dimensional anisotropic potential problems in finite and infinite domains in comparison with the traditional RMM. Numerical results show that the present RMM sharply outperforms the traditional RMM in the solution of interior problems, while the latter is clearly superior for exterior problems. A rigorous theoretical analysis of circular domain case also corroborates such numerical experiment observations and is provided in the appendix of this paper.     

Zero Current Potentiometry for Measuring the Interface Potential at the Electrode/Solution Interface. Theoretical and Experimental Study

A novel electrochemical approach has been proposed to measure the interface potential at the electrode/solution interface based on reconstructing the three‐electrode system of a potentiostat. In this work, the method was investigated both theoretically and experimentally. Mathematical expressions, describing current? potential characteristics, were derived. Zero current potential E_zcp was defined as the potential at which the current is zero based on linear sweep voltammetry, and was determined from the I? E curve to measure the interface potential. The experimental results obtained with the couples Fe(CN)₆^3?/Fe(CN)₆^4? and Co(NH₃)₆³⁺/Co(NH₃)₆²⁺ as examples agreed well with the theory. The proposed approach exhibits an excellent performance for measuring the interface potential due to the advantages of rapidity, high stability and accuracy.     

Pressure induced phase transitions in Ga1 − x In x P

We have theoretically investigated the effect of pressure on the structural stability of GaP?:?InP mixed system. The three-body-potential (TBP) model has been used. The TBP model consists of long-range as well as short-range interactions; the long-range part includes the modified Coulomb force as well as a three-body term; the short-range part in TBP defines the van der Waals and overlap repulsive interactions. We observe a pressure-induced structural phase transformation from ZnS (B3) to NaCl (B1) type phase in Ga _1?x In _x P. Our calculated transition pressures for the initial GaP and final InP compound semiconductors are in good agreement with other reported data.     

A QM/MM study on the reaction pathway leading to 2‐Aceto‐2‐hydroxybutyrate in the catalytic cycle of AHAS

The reaction between the intermediate 2‐hydroxyethyl‐thiamin diphosphate (HEThDP^?) and 2‐ketobutyrate, in the third step of the catalytic cycle of acetodydroxy acid synthase, is addressed from a theoretical point of view by means of hybrid quantum/molecular mechanical calculations. The QM region includes one molecule of 2‐ketobutyrate, the HEThDP^? intermediate, and the residues Arg 380 y Glu 139; whereas the MM region includes the rest of the protein. The study includes potential energy surface scans to identify and characterize critical points on it, transition state search and activation barrier calculations. The results show that the reaction occurs via a two‐step mechanism corresponding to the carboligation and proton transfer in the first stage; and the product release in the second step. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Effective Kratzer and Coulomb potentials as limit cases of a multiparameter exponential-type potential

We show that the effective Kratzer and Coulomb potentials can be obtained by taking particular limits of a multiparameter exponential potential that was studied recently. Moreover, we demonstrate that the bound state solutions of the exponential potential reduce correctly to their well-known counterparts associated with the Kratzer and Coulomb potentials. As a byproduct, we obtain a new limit relation for the hypergeometric function.     

Effect of deuteron density distribution on the deduction of screening potential from the D(d,p)T reaction in Be metals

The D(d,p)T reaction in Be metal environments has been measured to investigate the electron screening effect in metals in an energy region of from 5.5 keV to 10 keV in a center of mass system(CMS)at a temperature of 121 K.The depth distribution of deuteron density in Be metals has an impact on the observed reaction yields.A model of deuteron density distribution in metal has been proposed to obtain the original yields.A screening energy of(116±46)eV has been obtained with the assumed deuteron density distribution model.     

The extended Hulburt–Hirschfelder‐long‐range oscillator model for direct‐potential‐fit analysis

In the present work, an extended Hulburt–Hirschfelder oscillator model is proposed as a means of simplifying potential energy functions for direct‐potential‐fit analyses. The new potential energy function is joined smoothly to the long‐range inverse‐power dispersion energy expression. The new model is employed in direct‐potential‐fits using spectroscopic line positions that involve the ground electronic states of the principal isotopologues of hydrogen iodide and carbon monoxide, and the ground and first singlet‐sigma excited states of hydrogen fluoride and hydrogen chloride. The present methodology is found to lead to compact, flexible, and robust representations for the potential energy that compare favorably with the results of past work where more complicated models were employed.