A Review on Effects of Lubricant Formulations on Tribological Performance and Boundary Lubrication Mechanisms of Non-Doped DLC/DLC Contacts

Tribological efficiency of industrial applications involving boundary lubrication regime can be improved to an appreciable extent by the deposition of hard coatings on interacting surfaces. Among such coatings, diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings are considered to be one of the most suitable ones for the said role. DLC coatings possess a unique combination of physical, chemical, and material properties due to which they can help in minimizing friction-induced energy and material losses even under starved lubrication conditions. Since commercial lubricants are optimized for steel surfaces, therefore, a lot of experimental investigations were carried out to analyze the tribological compatibility of these lubricants with various DLC coatings. However, there is still a lack of understanding about how DLC coatings interact with conventional lubricant additives. Some researchers reported tribologically beneficial interactions between DLC coatings and formulated lubricants while others observed no such behavior. To address these inconsistencies, there is a need to rearrange the published data in a more apprehensible and organized manner with a special emphasis on the mechanisms responsible for a particular tribological behavior. In this way, it can be determined whether synergistic or antagonistic correlation exists between a particular DLC-lubricant combination and research on DLC coatings can be continued in a logical way. In this article, most widely investigated non-doped DLC coatings (ta-C, a-C:H, a-C, and ta-C:H) are tribologically analyzed. Average values of friction and wear coefficients are calculated for various DLC-lubricant combinations using already published data and compared to quantify the effectiveness of a particular lubricant additive in enhancing tribological characteristics of symmetrical non-doped DLC contacts. Moreover, tribological performance parameters of non-doped DLC coatings are compared with those of doped-DLC coatings to understand differences in their tribological behavior in combination with additives.     

Structure–reactivity studies of chloro and isothiocyanato diorganotin (IV) complexes based on multidentate N‐donor ligands: Synthesis,spectral characterization and crystal structures

The reaction of [SnMe₂Cl₂] with the bidentate ligand 4,7‐phenanthroline (4,7‐phen) resulted in the formation of [SnMe₂Cl₂ (4,7‐phen)]_n ( 1a ) which is probably a polymeric chain in solution. On the other hand, the reaction of [SnEt₂Cl₂] with 4,7‐phen afforded the complex [Sn₂Et₄Cl₄ (κ¹‐N‐4,7‐phen)₂(μ‐κ²‐N,N‐4,7‐phen)] ( 1b ) which dissociates in dimethylsulfoxide solution. The reaction of [SnR₂Cl₂] (R = Me, Et) with 2,2′‐biquinoline (biq) yielded the complexes [SnMe₂Cl₂ (κ²‐N,N‐biq)] ( 2a ) and [SnEt₂Cl₂ (κ¹‐N‐biq)₂] ( 2b ) in the solid state. Moreover, the reaction of [SnR₂Cl₂] (R = Me, Et) with the tridentate ligand 4′‐(2‐furyl)‐2,2′:6′,2″‐terpyridine (ftpy) resulted in the formation of ionic penta‐ and hexa‐coordinated tin complexes [SnMe₂Cl (ftpy)][SnMe₂Cl₃] ( 3a ) and [SnEt₂Cl (ftpy)]Cl ( 3b ). The reaction of [SnMe₂ (NCS)₂] with ftpy afforded the hepta‐coordinated complex [SnMe₂ (NCS)₂(ftpy)] ( 4a ). The products were fully characterized using elemental analysis, and infrared, UV–visible, multinuclear (¹H, ¹³C, ¹¹⁹Sn) NMR, DEPT‐135°, HH‐COSY and HSQC NMR spectroscopies. The crystal structure of complex 3a reveals that it contains the simultaneous presence of penta‐ and hexa‐coordinated tin (IV) atoms. Notably, the crystal structure of complex 4a shows that tin (IV) is hepta‐coordinated in a pentagonal bipyramidal geometry SnC₂N₅ by three nitrogen atoms of ftpy, two nitrogen atoms of NCS^? and two Me groups with trans‐[SnMe₂] configuration. These data indicate the influence of halide or pseudo‐halide group on the coordination number and geometry of tin. Hirshfeld surface analysis and two‐dimensional fingerprint plots were calculated for 3a and 4a which show the π–π interaction between molecules in the solid is relatively weak.     

Non-Static Local String in Higher-Dimensional Gravity

We analyze the space-time structure of local gauge string with a phenomenological energy–momentum tensor, as prescribed by Vilenkin, in an arbitrary number of space-time dimensions with a non-zero cosmological constant Λ. A set of solutions of the full non-linear Einstein's equations for the interior region of such a string is presented.     

Comparative study of kinetic modeling for the oxidative coupling of methane by genetic and marquardt algorithms

Overall kinetic studies on the oxidative coupling of methane, OCM, have been conducted in a tubular fixed bed reactor, using perovskite titanate as the reaction catalyst. The appropriate operating conditions were found to be: temperature 750-775 ℃, total feed flow rate of 160 ml/min, CH4/O2 ratio of 2 and GHSV of 100 min-1. Under these conditions, C2 yield of 28% was achieved. Correlations of the kinetic data have been performed with lumped rate equations for C2 and COx formation as functions of temperature, O2 and CH4 partial pressures. Six models have been selected among the common lumped kinetic models. The selected models have been regressed with the experimental data which were obtained from the Catatest system by genetic algorithm in order to obtain optimized parameters. The kinetic coefficients in the overall reactions were optimized by different numerical optimization methods such as: the Levenberg-Marquardt and genetic algorithms and the results were compared with one another. It has been found that the Santamaria model is in good agreement with the experimental data. The Arrhenius parameters of this model have been obtained by linear regression. It should be noted that the Marquardt algorithm is sensitive to the first guesses and there is possibility to trap in the relative minimum.     

Investigation of a mutual interaction force at different pressure amplitudes in sulfuric acid

This paper investigates the secondary Bjerknes force for two oscillating bubbles in various pressure amplitudes in a concentration of 95% sulfuric acid.The equilibrium radii of the bubbles are assumed to be smaller than 10 μm at a frequency of 37 kHz in various strong driving acoustical fields around 2.0 bars (1 bar=10 5 Pa).The secondary Bjerknes force is investigated in uncoupled and coupled states between the bubbles,with regard to the quasi-adiabatic model for the bubble interior.It finds that the value of the secondary Bjerknes force depends on the driven pressure of sulfuric acid and its amount would be increased by liquid pressure amplitude enhancement.The results show that the repulsion area of the interaction force would be increased by increasing the driven pressure because of nonlinear oscillation of bubbles.     

Higher dimensional global monopole in Brans-Dicke theory

The gravitational field of a higher dimensional global monopole in the context of Brans-Dicke theory of gravity is investigated. The space time metric and the scalar field generated by a global monopole are obtained using the weak field approximation. Finally, the geodesic of a test particle due to the gravitational field of the monopole is studied.     

Metal‐Doped Nitrogenated Carbon as an Efficient Catalyst for Direct CO2 Electroreduction to CO and Hydrocarbons

This study explores the kinetics, mechanism, and active sites of the CO₂ electroreduction reaction (CO2RR) to syngas and hydrocarbons on a class of functionalized solid carbon‐based catalysts. Commercial carbon blacks were functionalized with nitrogen and Fe and/or Mn ions using pyrolysis and acid leaching. The resulting solid powder catalysts were found to be active and highly CO selective electrocatalysts in the electroreduction of CO₂ to CO/H₂ mixtures outperforming a low‐area polycrystalline gold benchmark. Unspecific with respect to the nature of the metal, CO production is believed to occur on nitrogen functionalities in competition with hydrogen evolution. Evidence is provided that sufficiently strong interaction between CO and the metal enables the protonation of CO and the formation of hydrocarbons. Our results highlight a promising new class of low‐cost, abundant electrocatalysts for synthetic fuel production from CO₂.     

Steroids and related studies,Part LIII. Structure and function of synthetic bisquaternary aza steroidal neuromuscular blocking agents

The molecular structures of three dimethiodide bisquaternary aza steroids, determined crystallographically, are reported. The compounds are (i) 17a-methyl-3-pyrrolidino-17a-aza-d-homo-5-androstene dimethiodide (HS310, or chandonium iodide), (ii) 4,17a-dimethyl-4, 17a-diaza-d-homo-5-androstane dimethiodide (HS342), and (iii) 4-methyl-17-dimethylamino-4-aza-5-androstane dimethiodide (HS467). RingB in HS310 is a half-chair and ringD in HS467 is a distorted envelope. All other rings in the steroid skeletons of the three molecules are in the chair conformation, and all rings aretrans-connected. All three molecules are known to exhibit competitive neuromuscular blocking activity, each with different potency. This is discussed in relation to the observed inter-onium N⁺ N⁺ distances and other features of molecular geometry of importance in drug design.