A simple and sensitive method for the determination of hydroxylamine in fresh-water samples using hypochlorite followed by gas chromatography.

A new and simple method for the determination of hydroxylamine in environmental water, such as fresh rivers and lakes using hypochlorite, followed by its gas choromatographic detection, has been developed. A glass vial filled with sample water was sealed by a butyl-rubber stopper and aluminum cap without head-space, and then sodium hypochlorite solution was injected into the vial through a syringe to convert hydroxylamine to nitrous oxide. The head-space in the glass vial was prepared with 99.9% grade N2 using a gas-tight syringe. After the glass vial was shaken for a few minutes, nitrous oxide in the gas-phase was measured by a gas chromatograph with an electron-capture detector. The dissolved nitrous oxide in the liquid-phase was calculated according to the solubility formula. The proposed method was applied to the analysis of fresh-water samples taken from Iu river and Hii river, flowing into brackish Lakes Nakaumi and Shinji, respectively.     

Depth profile analysis of polyimide film treated by potassium hydroxide

The structural change in the depth direction of a polyimide (UPILEX‐S) film treated in alkaline solution, which was a representative surface treatment used to form a seed layer for plating and to improve the adhesive strength, was analyzed by means of micro Fourier transform infrared attenuated total reflection (FTIR‐ATR) line analysis with gradient shaving preparation. The polyimide film was treated with KOH. The imide ring opened through the alkaline treatment, and the amide structure and carboxylic acid salt were formed. The attainment depth of this structural change was almost proportional to the treatment time, and it reached about 8 μm after a 30‐min treatment. The degree of structural change through the alkaline treatment was almost constant after it reached a considerably degraded stage, and the chemically changed region penetrated into the inner part of the film from the surface. An intermediate layer before the final degraded stage appeared in the treated layer, and its thickness increased with the treatment time. The region that was changed chemically by the alkaline treatment progressed to the inner part simultaneously and continuously as the treatment time increased. The combined use of gradient shaving preparation and micro FTIR‐ATR line analysis was found to be extremely effective for the depth profiling of organic materials. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 2071–2078, 2003     

Evaluation of atomic fluorescence, absorption and emission techniques for the determination of mercury

Summary Atomic fluorescence (AFS), absorption (AAS) and emission (AES) systems were evaluated for the determination of inorganic mercury. Identical vapour generation and amalgamation procedures were used to permit direct comparison of the performance of a commercial long-path AAS instrument to laboratory constructed non-dispersive AFS as well as He-MIP based AES instruments. Instrumental noise-limited detection limits (LOD) were 0.94, 2.4, 2.8 pg for AAS, AES and AFS techniques, respectively. Methodological LOD's were found to be blank controlled and similar for all three instruments, viz. 9, 25 and 16 pg for AAS, AFS and AES, respectively. All three systems produced accurate results at the low ng/l concentration, as verified by the analysis of a certified river water reference material (NRCC ORMS-1).     

Isotopic dependence of the giant monopole resonance in the even-A 112-124Sn isotopes and the asymmetry term in nuclear incompressibility

The strength distributions of the giant monopole resonance (GMR) have been measured in the even-A Sn isotopes (A=112-124) with inelastic scattering of 400-MeV alpha particles in the angular range 0 degrees -8.5 degrees . We find that the experimentally observed GMR energies of the Sn isotopes are lower than the values predicted by theoretical calculations that reproduce the GMR energies in 208Pb and 90Zr very well. From the GMR data, a value of Ktau = -550 +/- 100 MeV is obtained for the asymmetry term in the nuclear incompressibility.     

Effects of entanglement on the scattering intensity of neutron compton scattering by a proton pair in solids

We calculate scattering functions S(q-->,omega) of neutron Compton scattering (NCS) for a proton (deuteron) pair in the entangled state caused by the indistinguishability of particles. From the calculation, it is concluded that the effect of entanglement on the scattering intensity is undetectable in NCS experiments because of their high energy transfer and broad energy resolution.     

Effect of Static Magnetic Field on Photocatalytic Degradation of Methylene Blue over ZnO and TiO2 Powders

Magnetic field effects (MFEs) on photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) solution over ZnO and TiO₂ powders are investigated under static magnetic field up to 0.7 T with light irradiation by ultraviolet (UV) light emitting diode. The UV–visible-near-infrared spectrometer is used to monitor the MB concentrations. The positive MFE is observed for ZnO, while the negative MFE for TiO₂, and both MFEs are increased with the increase in the magnetic field applied. By increasing the settling time (the time interval between the preparation of MB solution and the powder dispersion into the MB solution), the photodegradation abilities under MFEs are decreased for both the catalysts. The cause of MFE is discussed in terms of dissolved oxygen in the MB solution and magnetic adsorption of the constituent molecules.     

Exact diagonalization studies on two-band minimal model for iron-based superconductors

In order to explore a superconducting mechanism on iron-based superconductors, we numerically study a two-band minimal model considering two degenerate d_xz and d_yz orbitals on Fe atom. We perform exact diagonalization on a two-band and two-leg square ladder totally composed of 10 lattice sites, which is computationally equivalent to 4-leg 20-sites square-Hubbard-ladder. Consequently, we find that a robust pairing occurs in a wide parameter range when the intra-orbital repulsive interaction becomes smaller than the inter-orbital one. Moreover, the obtained binding energy can grow into much larger value than that obtained in the single band Hubbard model depending on the parameter range.