Optical and photocatalytic properties of single crystalline ZnO at the air-liquid interface by an aminolytic reaction

Crystalline flowerlike ZnO was synthesized by an aminolytic reaction at the air-liquid interface in an aqueous media at an alkaline pH. A thin visible film was formed at the air-liquid interface by self-assembly of flowerlike ZnO. Diffraction studies show rearrangement of the single crystalline units at the air-liquid interface leading to the formation of nanobelts. These nanobelts overlap systematically to form petals of the flowerlike structure; individual petals get curved with time. Each nanobelt is found to be single crystalline and can be indexed as the hexagonal ZnO phase. The organic product formed in the aminolytic reaction and dissolution-reprecipitation mechanism is the driving force for the formation of flowerlike ZnO at the air-liquid interface. A clear relationship between the surface, photocatalytic, and photoluminescent properties of ZnO is observed. The flowerlike structure exhibits a blue shift (3.56 eV) in the band emission as compared to bulk ZnO (3.37 eV). The photodegradation of methylene blue over the flowerlike ZnO catalyst formed at the air-liquid interface and in the sediments shows enhanced photocatalytic activity. The sub-bands formed due to surface defects facilitate separation of charge carriers increasing their lifetime, leading to enhanced photocatalytic activity of flowerlike ZnO.     

A Note on Projecting the Cubic Lattice

It is shown that, given any (n−1)-dimensional lattice Λ, there is a vector v∈ℤ ⁿ such that the orthogonal projection of ℤ ⁿ onto v ^⊥ is, up to a similarity, arbitrarily close to Λ. The problem arises in attempting to find the largest cylinder anchored at two points of ℤ ⁿ and containing no other points of ℤ ⁿ .     

A monopole mass filter with a hyperbolic V-shaped electrode

In this article we compare the classical monopole mass filter of von Zahn and the monopole mass filter with a hyperbolic V-shaped electrode. The experimental results and those of computer simulation for both mass spectrometers are presented. We show that the replacement of a conventional 90 degrees V-shaped electrode by an electrode with a hyperbolic profile substantially improves the peak shape of any given mass, and increases the mass resolution by a factor of 3-4 and the abundance sensitivity by a factor of 100. The potential of high analytical performance combined with electroforming techniques for electrode manufacture indicate future practical uses of such instruments. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Local canted spin behaviour in Co1.4−x Zn x Ge0.4Fe1.2O4 spinels: A macroscopic, mesoscopic and microscopic study

DC magnetization, neutron depolarization and neutron diffraction (with both polarized and unpolarized neutrons) measurements have been reported for the Co_1.1−x Zn _x Ge_0.1Fe_1.2O₁ spinels with x=0.5, 0.6 and 0.7. Neutron depolarization and neutron diffraction measurements confirm the presence of a long range ferrimagnetic ordering of the local canted spins in these ferrite samples. The observed features of low field magnetization have been explained under the framework of thermally activated domain wall movement of ferrimagnetic arrangement of local canted spins. An important role of magnetic anisotropy (due to the presence of Co²⁺ ions) in establishing the magnetic ordering and domain kinetics in these ferrites has been observed.     

Generalizations of Schöbi’s Tetrahedral Dissection

Let v ₁,…,v _n be unit vectors in ? ⁿ such that v _i ?v _j =?w for i≠j, where \(-1. The points ∑ _i=1 ⁿ λ _i v _i (1≥λ ₁≥???≥λ _n ≥0) form a “Hill-simplex of the first type,” denoted by \(\mathcal {Q}_{n}(w)\). It was shown by Hadwiger in 1951 that \(\mathcal {Q}_{n}(w)\) is equidissectable with a cube. In 1985, Schöbi gave a three-piece dissection of \(\mathcal {Q}_{3}(w)\) into a triangular prism \(c\mathcal {Q}_{2}(\frac{1}{2})\times I\), where I denotes an interval and \(c=\sqrt{2(w+1)/3}\). In this paper, we generalize Schöbi’s dissection to an n-piece dissection of \(\mathcal {Q}_{n}(w)\) into a prism \(c\mathcal {Q}_{n-1}(\frac{1}{n-1})\times I\), where \(c=\sqrt{(n-1)(w+1)/n}\). Iterating this process leads to a dissection of \(\mathcal {Q}_{n}(w)\) into an n-dimensional rectangular parallelepiped (or “brick”) using at most n! pieces. The complexity of computing the map from \(\mathcal {Q}_{n}(w)\) to the brick is O(n ²). A second generalization of Schöbi’s dissection is given which applies specifically in ?⁴. The results have applications to source coding and to constant-weight binary codes.     

Determination of electron affinity of carbonyl radicals by means of negative ion mass spectrometry

Appearance energies of [M-H](-) ions from carbonyl compounds R-CO-R' (R,R' = H, CH(3), NH(2), OH) have been measured by means of negative ion mass spectrometry in resonant electron capture mode. Values of electron affinity of the corresponding radicals, CH(2)&dbond;C(X)O, NH&dbond;C(X)O and O&dbond;C(X)O, have been determined. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.