One-dimensional migration of interstitial clusters in SUS316L and its model alloys at elevated temperatures

For self-interstitial atom (SIA) clusters in various concentrated alloys, one-dimensional (1D) migration is induced by electron irradiation around 300 K. But at elevated temperatures, the 1D migration frequency decreases to less than one-tenth of that around 300 K in iron-based bcc alloys. In this study, we examined mechanisms of 1D migration at elevated temperatures using in situ observation of SUS316L and its model alloys with high-voltage electron microscopy. First, for elevated temperatures, we examined the effects of annealing and short-term electron irradiation of SIA clusters on their subsequent 1D migration. In annealed SUS316L, 1D migration was suppressed and then recovered by prolonged irradiation at 300 K. In high-purity model alloy Fe-18Cr-13Ni, annealing or irradiation had no effect. Addition of carbon or oxygen to the model alloy suppressed 1D migration after annealing. Manganese and silicon did not suppress 1D migration after annealing but after short-term electron irradiation. The suppression was attributable to the pinning of SIA clusters by segregated solute elements, and the recovery was to the dissolution of the segregation by interatomic mixing under electron irradiation. Next, we examined 1D migration of SIA clusters in SUS316L under continuous electron irradiation at elevated temperatures. The 1D migration frequency at 673 K was proportional to the irradiation intensity. It was as high as half of that at 300 K. We proposed that 1D migration is controlled by the competition of two effects: induction of 1D migration by interatomic mixing and suppression by solute segregation.     

Influence of interlayer coupling and intra-layer Coulomb interaction on electronic transport in bilayer graphene

Calculations of renormalized perpendicular conductivity within Kubo formula employing single particle temperature dependent Green's function formalism for bilayer graphene has been attempted. On the basis of numerical analysis, perpendicular conductivity as a function of temperature, interlayer coupling, onsite Coulomb interaction and carrier concentration per site has been analyzed for both AA- and AB-stacked bilayer graphene. It is found that perpendicular conductivity increases with interlayer coupling and also with temperature at low temperatures while at higher temperatures, there is saturation in perpendicular conductivity. Influences of onsite Coulomb interaction and carrier concentration per site on perpendicular conductivity is just opposite to each other while onsite Coulomb energy suppresses the rate of increase of σ_⊥/σ_⊥0 with temperature, on the other hand increase in carrier density per site enhance this rate significantly. Finally, theoretically obtained results on temperature dependent perpendicular conductivity are viewed in terms of electronic transport data as well as recent theoretical works available in bilayer graphene.     

Synthesis of Cu vanadate nanorods for visible‐light photocatalytic degradation of gentian violet

Cu vanadate nanorods have been synthesized via the hydrothermal process using polymer polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as the surfactant. X‐ray diffraction (XRD) shows that the nanorods are composed of monoclinic Cu₅V₂O₁₀ phase. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observation shows that the diameter and length of the nanorods are 50–300 nm and 3 μm, respectively. PVP concentration, hydrothermal temperature and duration time play essential roles in the formation and sizes of the Cu vanadate nanorods. A PVP‐assisted nucleation and crystal‐growth process is proposed to explain the formation of the Cu vanadate nanorods. Gentian violet (GV) is used to evaluate the photocatalytic activities of the Cu vanadate nanorods under solar light. The GV concentration clearly decreases with increasing irradiation time, and content of the Cu vanadate nanorods. GV solution with the concentration of 10 mg L⁻¹ can be totally degraded under solar light irradiation for 4 h using 10 mg Cu vanadate nanorods. The Cu vanadate nanorods have good photocatalytic activities for the degradation of GV under solar light.     

Spatially Resolved Confocal Resonant Raman Microscopic Analysis of Anode‐Grown Geobacter sulfurreducens Biofilms

When grown on the surface of an anode electrode, Geobacter sulfurreducens forms a multi‐cell thick biofilm in which all cells appear to couple the oxidation of acetate with electron transport to the anode, which serves as the terminal metabolic electron acceptor. Just how electrons are transported through such a biofilm from cells to the underlying anode surface over distances that can exceed 20 microns remains unresolved. Current evidence suggests it may occur by electron hopping through a proposed network of redox cofactors composed of immobile outer membrane and/or extracellular multi‐heme c‐type cytochromes. In the present work, we perform a spatially resolved confocal resonant Raman (CRR) microscopic analysis to investigate anode‐grown Geobacter biofilms. The results confirm the presence of an intra‐biofilm redox gradient whereby the probability that a heme is in the reduced state increases with increasing distance from the anode surface. Such a gradient is required to drive electron transport toward the anode surface by electron hopping via cytochromes. The results also indicate that at open circuit, when electrons are expected to accumulate in redox cofactors involved in electron transport due to the inability of the anode to accept electrons, nearly all c‐type cytochrome hemes detected in the biofilm are oxidized. The same outcome occurs when a comparable potential to that measured at open circuit (?0.30 V vs. SHE) is applied to the anode, whereas nearly all hemes are reduced when an exceedingly negative potential (?0.50 V vs. SHE) is applied to the anode. These results suggest that nearly all c‐type cytochrome hemes detected in the biofilm can be electrochemically accessed by the electrode, but most have oxidation potentials too negative to transport electrons originating from acetate metabolism. The results also reveal a lateral heterogeneity (x–y dimensions) in the type of c‐type cytochromes within the biofilm that may affect electron transport to the electrode.     

Diastereoselective Synthesis of Functionalized Tetrahydropyrimidin‐2‐thiones via ZnCl2 Promoted One‐pot Reactions

In the presence of zinc chloride, the in situ generated β‐enamino ester from the reaction of morpholine, piperidine and pyrrolidine with methyl propiolate reacted, with aromatic aldehydes and thiourea in ethanol resulting in the functionalized tetrahydropyrimidin‐2‐thiones in satisfactory yields and with good diastereoselectivity. When aromatic aldehydes bearing electron‐withdrawing group were used in the reaction, the 4‐hydroxytetrahydropyrimidin‐2‐thione derivatives were obtained as the main product.     

PARALLEL FRAME SYNCHRONOUS SCHEME FOR STM-1 IN SDH NETWORKS

This paper presents a novel parallel processing-based frame synchronous methodology for 155·520 Mbit/s high speed networks according to ITU-T Recommendations G.707, G.708 and G.709. This scheme is expected to relax operating speed requirements of the circuits used in the system. The proposed methodology can be implemented using off-the-shelf low-rate integrated circuits (ICs). The performance of the devised methodology is analysed and found to be similar to that of traditional approaches. Finally, the proposed scheme is efficient and easy to implement at low cost without sacrificing performance.     

Biotic Cathode of Graphite Fibre Brush for Improved Application in Microbial Fuel Cells

The biocathode in a microbial fuel cell (MFC) system is a promising and a cheap alternative method to improve cathode reaction performance. This study aims to identify the effect of the electrode combination between non-chemical modified stainless steel (SS) and graphite fibre brush (GFB) for constructing bio-electrodes in an MFC. In this study, the MFC had two chambers, separated by a cation exchange membrane, and underwent a total of four different treatments with different electrode arrangements (anodeǁcathode)—SSǁSS (control), GFBǁSS, GFBǁGFB and SSǁGFB. Both electrodes were heat-treated to improve surface oxidation. On the 20th day of the operation, the GFBǁGFB arrangement generated the highest power density, up to 3.03 W/m³ (177 A/m³), followed by the SSǁGFB (0.0106 W/m³, 0.412 A/m³), the GFBǁSS (0.0283 W/m³, 17.1 A/m³), and the SSǁSS arrangements (0.0069 W/m⁻³, 1.64 A/m³). The GFBǁGFB had the lowest internal resistance (0.2 kΩ), corresponding to the highest power output. The other electrode arrangements, SSǁGFB, GFBǁSS, and SSǁSS, showed very high internal resistance (82 kΩ, 2.1 kΩ and 18 kΩ, respectively) due to the low proton and electron movement activity in the MFC systems. The results show that GFB materials can be used as anode and cathode in a fully biotic MFC system.     

Spectroscopic and quantum-chemical study of molecular interactions of iso-quinolinium ylids in polar solutions

Abstract

Three iso-quinolinium ylids are studied by visible electron absorption spectroscopy from the point of view of their interactions with solvent molecules. The quantum mechanical calculations with Spartan 14 Program and solvatochromism of the intramolecular charge transfer visible absorption band of the studied molecules emphasized the prevalence of universal orientation-induction interactions in aprotic solvents and additionally the presence of hydrogen bond between the ylid molecules and the hydroxyl groups of the solvent molecules. The contribution of each type of interactions in the studied solutions is finally established by a multilinear regression applied to solvatochromic data.     

Vertex correction and conductivity in 2D Dirac-like systems with non-conserving spin disorder

We determine the classical diffusion of two dimensional Dirac-like quasiparticles, in the presence of conserving spin disorder (scattering off electric impurities) and non-conserving spin disorder (scattering off magnetic impurities). We use the Kubo formula for the conductivity tensor and employ diagrammatic perturbation theory to calculate the vertex correction and the renormalisation of the current operator for both electric and magnetic scattering. Scattering off electric impurities is isotropic and the current operator renormalised to two times the bare current operator irrespective of the direction of the dynamics, as usual for Dirac-like fermions. For magnetic scattering the renormalisation of the current operator depends on the direction of the dynamics and on the polarisation of the magnetic impurities, making the system anisotropic. We calculate the anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) and analyse it as a function of the ratio of the strength of the electric to the magnetic scattering potentials, for short range Gaussian correlation.     

Energy transport in boundary driven quantum spin systems: One-way street phenomenon in models with long range interactions

We address the investigation of non trivial properties of the energy current in boundary driven XXZ quantum spin models. In specific, we focus on the occurrence of the one-way street phenomenon in asymmetrical chains, a phenomenon stronger than rectification, which establishes the existence of a unique way for the energy current in the absence of external magnetic field, that is, the magnitude and direction of the energy flow does not change as we invert the baths at the boundaries. For general target polarizations at the boundaries, we show that such a phenomenon holds in the presence of long range interactions, ingredient which increases the flow and the rectification in chains of classical oscillators, and so, of interest in the study of manipulation and control of the energy flow.