Solvent Effects in the Homogeneous Catalytic Reduction of Propionaldehyde with Aluminium Isopropoxide Catalyst: New Insights from PFG NMR and NMR Relaxation Studies

Solvent effects in homogeneous catalysis are known to affect catalytic activity. Whilst these effects are often described using qualitative features, such as Kamlet-Taft parameters, experimental tools able to quantify and reveal in more depth such effects have remained unexplored. In this work, PFG NMR diffusion and T₁ relaxation measurements have been carried out to probe solvent effects in the homogeneous catalytic reduction of propionaldehyde to 1-propanol in the presence of aluminium isopropoxide catalyst. Using data on diffusion coefficients it was possible to estimate trends in aggregation of different solvents. The results show that solvents with a high hydrogen-bond accepting ability, such as ethers, tend to form larger aggregates, which slow down the molecular dynamics of aldehyde molecules, as also suggested by T₁ measurements, and preventing their access to the catalytic sites, which results in the observed decrease of catalytic activity. Conversely, weakly interacting solvents, such as alkanes, do not lead to the formation of such aggregates, hence allowing easy access of the aldehyde molecules to the catalytic sites, resulting in higher catalytic activity. The work reported here is a clear example on how combining traditional catalyst screening in homogeneous catalysis with NMR diffusion and relaxation time measurements can lead to new physico-chemical insights into such systems by providing data able to quantify aggregation phenomena and molecular dynamics.     

The class of mappings with bounded specific oscillation,and integrability of mappings with bounded distortion on Carnot groups

This paper is the first of the author’s three articles on stability in the Liouville theorem on the Heisenberg group. The aim is to prove that each mapping with bounded distortion of a John domain on the Heisenberg group is close to a conformal mapping with order of closeness \(\sqrt {K - 1} \) in the uniform norm and order of closeness K ? 1 in the Sobolev norm L _p ¹ for all \(p < \tfrac{C}{{K - 1}}\).In the present article we study integrability of mappings with bounded specific oscillation on spaces of homogeneous type. As an example, we consider mappings with bounded distortion on the Heisenberg group. We prove that a mapping with bounded distortion belongs to the Sobolev class W _p,loc ¹ , where p → ∞ as the distortion coefficient tends to 1.     

Controlling the infrared optical properties of rf-sputtered NiO films for applications of infrared window

In this paper, we will focus on an IR transmittance enhancement technique from the window material point of view by using metal oxides, especially nickel oxide (NiO). At first, anti-reflection (AR) coatings were modeled by using the optical properties of NiO films. The transmittance of the model was predicted using Swanepoel’s model and verified with NiO film prepared by rf magnetron sputtering. Also, post-deposition annealing was performed and was found to change the optical properties of the NiO film. Therefore, we analyzed the annealing effect on the IR optical properties of the NiO film. Furthermore, we confirmed the durability of the NiO film and verified the possibility of this material being used in infrared optics.     

Study on the changes of ultrasonic parameters over supercritical Ni-Co electroplating process

This work discusses the influence of changes to ultrasound (US) parameters over the nickel cobalt (Ni-Co) metal thin film properties produced by supercritical CO₂ (SC-CO₂) electroplating. Additionally, Ni-Co films were produced by conventional electroplating and silent SC-CO₂ and compared against each other.The discussion on metal thin film properties revolves around variations to the bath type ultrasonic power (15 W and 20 W) and frequency (42 k Hz and 72 kHz) during experiments. The properties provided by the three electroplating processes and analyzed include: grain sizes, film elemental content analyses, surface microstructures, film hardness, corrosion resistance, surface roughness, crystalline structure and preferential growth, etc. From the results it was clear that quality of films produced by US-SC-CO₂ was improved compared to that of films produced by silent SC-CO₂, which itself was better than those produced by conventional electroplating. However, when US power was varied we observed a decline in the mechanical properties of the produced films.The combination of ultrasonic agitation with SC-CO₂ allows for improved mechanical properties such as: lower surface roughness, finer grain size and surface morphologies, increased corrosion resistance and film hardness. The ultrasound agitation applied to SC-CO₂ electroplating enhanced the formation of alloyed metal as ultrasonic agitation increased the electrolyte flowability during electroplating process resulting in increased mass transfer while at the same time achieving a surface cleaning effect which removed metal ions with poor adhesion and other unwanted particles. Moreover, application of ultrasonic agitation avoids the use of surfactants so only changes to the physical phenomena and no changes to the chemical composition of the deposited thin films were observed, meaning less pollution to the electrolyte and higher purity of the deposited films.The US-SC-CO₂ electroplating method described in this work effectively enhanced the mechanical properties of the deposited thin films compared to those produced by both silent SC-CO₂ and conventional electroplating processes.     

Bäcklund transformations and abundant exact explicit solutions of the Sharma-Tasso-Olver equation

By using an extension of the homogeneous balance method and Maple, the Bäcklund transformations for the Sharma-Tasso-Olver equation are derived. The connections between the Sharma-Tasso-Olver equation and some linear partial differential equations are found. With the aid of the transformations given here and the computer program Maple 12, abundant exact explicit special solutions to the Sharma-Tasso-Olver equation are constructed. In addition to all known solutions re-deriving in a systematic way, several entirely new and more general exact explicit solitary wave solutions can also be obtained. These solutions include (a) the algebraic solitary wave solution of rational function, (b) single-soliton solutions, (c) double-soliton solutions, (d) N-soliton solutions, (e) singular traveling solutions, (f) the periodic wave solutions of trigonometric function type, and (g) many non-traveling solutions. By using the Airy’s function and the Bäcklund transformations obtained here, the exact explicit solution of the initial value problem for the STO equation is presented. The variety of the structure of the solutions for the Sharma-Tasso-Olver equation is illustrated.     

Tunable Upconversion Emissions from Lanthanide-doped Monodisperse β-NaYF4 Nanoparticles

We report upconversion multicolor tuning based on uniform β-NaYF₄:Yb/Tm/Er nanoparticles. The as-synthesized nanoparticles with an average diameter of 25 nm are well dispersed in a wide range of nonpolar solvents including hexane, cyclohexane, dichloromethane, and toluene. These nanoparticles show intense upconversion emissions and the color output can be precisely modulated by adjusting activator ratios of Tm³⁺ to Er³⁺. Dopant-concentration dependent emission properties of the triply doped particle system are also investigated. In addition, we demonstrate that these nanoparticles can be readily transferred to polar solvents such as ethanol and water by growing a thin silica layer (10 nm) around the particles, providing potential applications in biological labeling and imaging.     

Espaces homogènes d'Einstein non-compacts

In this text, we consider the solvmanifolds obtained by an abelian extension of two-step nilmanifolds and obtain Einstein metrics (with negative scalar curvature) near to the symmetric spaces.     

奇异积分算子在实与复分析中的应用

本文是一份综合报告,它基于作者的一部份研究工作和他在北京师范大学的五次讲演稿,以奇异分算子作为桥梁联结函数空间的结果和偏微分方程的结果作了阐述,它包括奇次空间上的调和分析,并应用到多复变函数论上,综述了右的结果并提出未解决的问题。     

Backlund Transformation and Exact Solutions for a New Generalized Zakharov-Kuzentsov Equation with Nonlinear Terms of Any Order

In this paper, with the help of symbolic computation, a new Backlund transformation (BT) for a newgeneralized Zakharov-Kuznetsov equation with nonlinear term of any order, ut+aupux +bu2pux +γuxy +δuxxx +ρuxyy=0, is obtained by using the homogeneous balance method. Based on the BT, some exact solutions are presented.