Detection of NO traces Using resonantly enhanced multiphoton ionization: A method for monitoring atmospheric pollutants

Resonantly enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) is proposed as an ultrasensitive detection method forreal-time monitoring of atmospheric pollutants in situ. The technique is demonstrated in the laboratory for NO diluted in pure nitrogen at 560 mbar. The MPI current resulting from (2+1) photon ionization of NO via the resonantC ² H (v=0) state has been measured for several NO concentrations. Detection levels as low as 50 ppt have been obtained.Laboratoire associé à l'Université de Paris-Sud     

Hydrolysis and Condensation of Transition Metal Alkoxide: Experiments and Simulations

We present here an experimental and numerical study of the chemical and aggregative mechanisms for titanium alkoxide in a reverse micellar medium. NMR experiments were done to study the first step of the sol-gel process: hydrolysis of titanium isopropoxide. Light and X-ray scattering experiments were then conducted to characterize the clustering of aggregates and aggregation kinetics. Fractal dimension, measured by U.S.A.X.S., varies with the hydrolysis ratio and the hydration of the surfactant. This evolution was explained by polydispersity of the hydrolysis which depends on the surfactant concentration. This hypothesis was tested through a numerical simulation of irreversible aggregation using a chemically limited aggregation model. The hydrolyzed sites are distributed among the monomers by a random procedure governed by a polydispersity parameterp, varying from 0 to 1. The total number of hydrolyzed sites is governed by a parameterq belonging to the interval [0, 1]. Thep-q evolution of the fractal dimension coincides rather well with the experimental data in all the region of the two dimensional phase space.     

Sol-gel processing of inorganic membranes

Basic principles involved in sol-gel processing of ceramic membranes are described. This process has been applied to ceramic ultrafiltration membranes and is now investigated to prepare ceramic nanofilters. In this paper special emphasis is put on new developments concerning microporous zirconia membranes obtained by the polymeric route. A zirconium alkoxide precursor modified with an acetylacetone ligand has been used in order to control particle growth in the sols and pore size distribution in the membranes. N₂ adsorption and X-ray diffraction analysis have been performed on membrane materials showing the influence of process parameters (molar ratio r = acacH/Zr and sintering temperature T) on membrane structural evolution.     

Chemical and rheological investigations of the sol-gel transition in organically-modified siloxanes

Ormosils are well-known organic-inorganic sol-gel derived materials also called heteropolysiloxanes. This paper presents two basic heteropolysiloxane structures where the organic part is either a short organic chain bridging two silicon atoms for the first material or an organic polymer backbone for the second. Their synthesis is detailed and a variety of experimental techniques (IR, ¹³C and ²⁹Si NMR and CP-MAS NMR, GPC) have been employed to investigate the chemical structure of these new materials. Their mechanical properties, more precisely their viscoelastic behaviour, have been evaluated using dynamic rheological techniques. The storage and loss moduli have been followed during the sol-gel transition at fixed and variable oscillation frequencies. The results have been correlated to the ²⁹Si CP-MAS NMR informations concerning the network polycondensation and compared to a pure inorganic sol-gel material prepared from tetraethoxysilane.     

Dynamics of femtosecond laser interactions with dielectrics

Femtosecond laser pulses appear as an emerging and promising tool for processing wide bandgap dielectric materials for a variety of applications. This article aims to provide an overview of recent progress in understanding the fundamental physics of femtosecond laser interactions with dielectrics that may have the potential for innovative materials applications. The focus of the overview is the dynamics of femtosecond laser-excited carriers and the propagation of femtosecond laser pulses inside dielectric materials. PACS 61.80.Ba; 52.38.Mf; 42.65.Jx; 78.47.+p; 71.35.-y     

α-ω-Bifunctional oligomers from copolymers of conjugated dienes with isobutene

The selective oxidative cleavage of unsaturated copolymers of isobutene with conjugated diene using ruthenium tetroxide has been carried out, giving various bifunctional oligomers. A comparison between molecular weight determination and microanalysis seems to show that the nearly perfect bifunctionality obtained for the cleavage of 2,3-dimethylbutadiene-isobutene copolymer is due to the almost enclusive 1–4 configuration of the diene unit in the copolymer; some non-1–4 incorporation is apparent in the case of 1,3-pentadiene.     

SANS investigations of oxide gel formation in inverse micelle and lamellar surfactant systems

The mechanisms of oxide gel formation in inverse micelle and lamellar surfactant systems have been investigated by Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS). In the first of these processes colloidal particles and gels are formed by the controlled hydrolysis and condensation of metal alkoxides in a reversed microemulsion system (water in oil), where the water is confined in the microemulsion core. With this route the rate of formation and structure of the oxide gel can be controlled by appropriate choice of the surfactant molecule (e.g. chain length) and the volume fraction of the micelles dispersed in the continuous organic phase. Investigations have been made with the system cyclohexane/water/C₈E _x , where C₈E _x is the non-ionic surfactant octylphenyl polyoxyethylene. The influence of the size and structure of the microemulsion has been studied by contrast variation (using deuterated solvents) before and during the reaction to form zirconia gels, and the mechanism of gelation is analysed in terms of percolation of fractal cluster aggregates. The structure of gels formed in surfactant/water lamellar phase systems, using surfactants with greater chain length, has also been investigated by SANS. The application of contrast variation to study such anisotropic bilayer systems, in which oriented gel films can be formed, is illustrated.     

Synthesis of Alumina Gels in Amphiphilic Media

This work deals with the synthesis of alumina gels from aqueous solutions of aluminum chloride in the presence of cationic surfactant molecules. The effect on the sol-gel transition of the reagent concentrations and of the synthesis temperature are first studied. The structure of the resulting wet and dried gels and the formation of liquid crystal mesophases are studied by X-ray diffraction. The thermal and structural evolutions of the gels are then characterized by thermogravimetric and X-ray diffraction measurements. Finally, nitrogen adsorption isotherms are used to investigate the porous texture of the thermally treated materials up to the transformation into -Al₂O₃.