Cobalt Based Nanoparticles Embedded Reduced Graphene Oxide Aerogel for Hydrogen Evolution Electrocatalyst

Efficient water electrolysis catalyst is highly demanded for the production of hydrogen as a sustainable energy fuel. It is reported that cobalt derived nanoparticle (CoS₂, CoP, CoS|P) decorated reduced graphene oxide (rGO) composite aerogel catalysts for highly active and reliable hydrogen evolution reaction electrocatalysts. 7 nm level cobalt derived nanoparticles are synthesized over graphene aerogel surfaces with excellent surface coverage and maximal expose of active sites. CoS|P/rGO hybrid aerogel composites show an excellent catalytic activity with overpotential of ≈169 mV at a current density of ≈10 mA cm^?2. Accordingly, efficient charge transfer is attained with Tafel slope of ≈52 mV dec^?1 and a charge transfer resistance (R_ct) of ≈12 Ω. This work suggests a viable route toward ultrasmall, uniform nanoparticles decorated graphene surfaces with well‐controlled chemical compositions, which can be generally useful for various applications commonly requiring large exposure of active surface area as well as robust interparticle charger transfer.     

On the option valuation and decomposition of exchange option

In this paper, we shall find the uniquerational price associated with the exchange option. Also, we find the decomposition of Snell envelope and value function of the American exchange option.     

Ruthenium-catalyzed regioselective synthesis of 2-substituted indoles via ring-opening of epoxides by anilines

Anilines react with epoxides in dioxane at 180°C in the presence of a catalytic amount of a ruthenium catalyst along with tin(II) chloride to afford 2-substituted indoles in moderate to good yields.     

Quantum Dynamics of Systems Connected by a Canonical Transformation

Quantum Hamiltonian systems corresponding to classical systems related by a general canonical transformation are considered. The differential equation to find the unitary operator, which corresponds to the canonical transformation and connects quantum states of the original and transformed systems, is obtained. The propagator associated with their wave functions is found by the unitary operator. Quantum systems related by a linear canonical point transformation are analyzed. The results are tested by finding the wave functions of the under-, critical-, and over-damped harmonic oscillator from the wave functions of the harmonic oscillator, free-particle system, and negative harmonic potential system, using the unitary operator to connect them, respectively.     

Investigation of the Li1+xV3O8 electrode–organic electrolyte interface by scanning photoelectron microscopy

To investigate the formation of a solid electrolyte interface (SEI) on the Li_1+xV₃O₈ electrode surface in the thermodynamic stability range of the organic electrolyte, we applied scanning photoelectron microscopy (SPEM) to a pristine electrode and to an electrode after ten cycles. The F K-edge absorption spectrum of the cycled electrode showed that LiF forms on the electrode surface during the lithium insertion–extraction process in the Li_1+xV₃O₈/Li cell. The photoelectron spectrum for the cycled electrode showed intense spectral features corresponding to Li 1s, F 2s, F 2p, and P 2p electron signals, whereas these spectral features were of negligible intensity for the pristine electrode. The above results give strong support for the formation of an SEI that consists of LiF and compounds containing phosphorus during operation of the battery. The SPEM images also revealed that the fluorine distribution on the surface of the cycled electrode was inhomogeneous.     

Interpretation of the polyelectrolyte and antipolyelectrolyte effects of poly(N‐vinylimidazole‐co‐sodium styrenesulfonate) hydrogels

Hydrogels of N‐vinylimidazole (VI) and sodium styrenesulfonate (SSS) were synthesized in aqueous solution by radical crosslinking copolymerization with N,N′‐methylene‐bis(acrylamide) as crosslinker. Swelling in several saline solutions was measured for hydrogel samples synthesized with different comonomer concentrations (C_T = 10, 25, or 40%) and with SSS mole fractions covering a broad range (f_SSS = 0–0.7), while the crosslinker ratio was 2 wt % in all cases. The degree of swelling in aqueous solution with a specific ionic strength (μ), plotted versus the SSS composition of the feed, shows a minimum for any set of samples synthesized with a fixed C_T. The dependence of swelling on μ shows both polyelectrolyte (f_SSS beyond the minimum) and antipolyelectrolyte behaviors (in the low f_SSS limit). It was found that the nonGaussian factor of the crosslinking density and the polymer‐solvent interaction parameter increase with f_SSS for any C_T. Moreover, in the low f_SSS limit, the osmotic swelling pressure is governed not only by the ionic contribution, but also by the polymer‐solvent mixing and, the concentration of mobile counterions inside the gel is not proportional to the net fixed charge but to the addition of cationic and anionic side groups, what discards the formation of ionic pairs. The antipolyelectrolyte effect is interpreted as due to the increasing protonation of VI as μ goes up. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 45: 1683–1693, 2007     

The spectrum is continuous on the set of quasi-n-hyponormal operators

In this paper it is shown that the spectrum σ, a set-valued function, is continuous when the function is restricted to the set of all ‘quasi-n-hyponormal’ operators acting on an infinite-dimensional separable Hilbert space, where a quasi-n-hyponormal operator is defined to be unitarily equivalent to an n×n upper triangular operator matrix whose diagonal entries are hyponormal operators.     

Preparation of antimicrobial poly(vinyl alcohol) nanofibers containing silver nanoparticles

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanofibers containing Ag nanoparticles were prepared by electrospinning PVA/silver nitrate (AgNO₃) aqueous solutions, followed by short heat treatment, and their antimicrobial activity was investigated for wound dressing applications. Since PVA is a water soluble and biocompatible polymer, it is one of the best materials for the preparation of wound dressing nanofibers. After heat treatment at 155 °C for 3 min, the PVA/AgNO₃ nanofibers became insoluble, while the Ag⁺ ions therein were reduced so as to produce a large number of Ag nanoparticles situated preferentially on their surface. The residual Ag⁺ ions were reduced by subsequent UV irradiation for 3 h. The average diameter of the Ag nanoparticles after the heat treatment was 5.9 nm and this value increased slightly to 6.3 nm after UV irradiation. It was found that most of the Ag⁺ ions were reduced by the simple heat treatment. The PVA nanofibers containing Ag nanoparticles showed very strong antimicrobial activity. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 2468–2474, 2006     

Acetate-Selective Anion Receptor with Methylene-Bridged Bis-Imidazolium Rings

Methylene-bridged bis-imidazolium receptor 1 has been synthesized. Anion binding studies carried out using ¹H NMR revealed that this compound displayed good affinities for acetate, while binding spherical halide anions weakly.     

Mössbauer Studies and Magnetic Properties of Y3−x Ce x Fe5O12

It is shown that in-situ ^166mHo (I = 7) in a spherical single crystal of HoF₃ can be used as sensitive internal thermometer to thermally detect NMR (NMR-TDNO) from the 100% abundant stable ¹⁶⁵Ho (I = 7/2) nuclei. In addition, new ^166mHo NMRON results are reported. Both the ^166mHo NMRON and ¹⁶⁵Ho NMR-TDNO spectra show three distinct quadrupolar split sub-resonances, in zero applied field. The data is used to make estimates of the Ho magnetic moments and quadrupole parameters for the ^166mHo and ^166mHo sites.