Ageing of wet-synthesized oxide powders

Wet chemical synthesis of precursor oxide ceramics is a method to obtain small particulate powders. Such powders are far more prone to ageing in air than more traditional precursors. Thermogravimetric analysis is used to highlight the species responsible for the ageing of ceramic precursors. Indeed water and carbon dioxide are observed to evolve from aged powders. Ceramics obtained from aged precursors can reach a very low final density with respect to the theoretical value. A large degree of the original sintering properties can be recovered after washing the aged powders with ethanol in a basic medium.     

Thermal behaviour of amorphous Li2ZrO3 prepared by sol-gel technique

The results of the investigations of thermal behaviour of Li₂ZrO₃, prepared in the amorphous state by means of sol-gel technique are demonstrated. The thermal treatment was carried out in air under constant heating rate of 5 deg·min^–1 and cooling rate of 2.5 deg·min^–1. The methods of DTA, TG, Emanation Thermal Analysis (ETA) and dilatometry were used, for characterization of the thermal behaviour in dynamic conditions. The X-ray diffraction patterns were used for characterization of the phase changes observed by TA Methods.

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Zusammenfassung Ergebnisse aus Untersuchungen des thermischen Verhaltens von Li₂ZrO₃, hergestellt mittels einer Sol-Gel-Technik im amorphen Zustand werden dargelegt. Die thermische Behandlung wurde in Luft bei einer konstanten Aufheizgeschwindigkeit von 5 Grad·min^–1 und einer Abkühlgeschwindigkeit von 2,5Grad·min^–1 durchgeführt. Zur Beschreibung des thermischen Verhaltens unter dynamischen Verhältnissen wurden DTA, TG, Emanationsthermoanalyse und Dilatometrie angewendet. Zur näheren Charakterisierung der bei TG beobachteten Phasenumwandlungen wurde Röntgendiffraktion verwendet.

     

Thermal and mechanical-induced phase transformations during YAG and alumina–YAG syntheses

The preparation of pure Y₃Al₅O₁₂ (YAG) and 50 vol% Al₂O₃–YAG composite powders by a wet chemical route is presented. The role of the synthesis temperature during reverse-strike precipitation has been investigated, showing its relevant effect on the purity and homogeneity of YAG powder. The composite material was prepared by comparing two different synthesis routes. A composite powder was synthesized via reverse-strike temperature-controlled co-precipitation. In the latter case, a pure-alumina precursor was firstly reverse-strike precipitated and then doped with an yttrium salt solution. For both syntheses, the role of thermal and mechanical pre-treatments on the phase development was demonstrated.     

Ozone-based electrochemical advanced oxidation processes

Novel processes have recently been developed that provide for the enhancement of ozonation through combination with electrochemical treatments. These are processes that can be included among those defined as advanced oxidation processes as they proceed via electrogeneration of highly oxidizing radical species.These processes are generally carried out by sparging ozone in both divided and undivided electrochemical cells in order to promote its decomposition through different mechanisms, depending on the electrode materials adopted, and in some cases still debated.This mini review presents the most recent advances in the field of electrochemically assisted ozonation.In particular, the first section is focused on the process known as electroperoxone (EP) where the ozone decomposition is enhanced by the adoption of carbon-based cathodes, due to the electrogeneration of hydrogen peroxide, while the second section is focused on the process that implies ozonation in a cell adopting metal-based cathodes.     

Counterexamples to Additivity of Minimum Output p-Rényi Entropy for p Close to 0

Complementing recent progress on the additivity conjecture of quantum information theory, showing that the minimum output p-Rényi entropies of channels are not generally additive for p > 1, we demonstrate here by a careful random selection argument that also at p = 0, and consequently for sufficiently small p, there exist counterexamples. An explicit construction of two channels from 4 to 3 dimensions is given, which have non-multiplicative minimum output rank; for this pair of channels, numerics strongly suggest that the p-Rényi entropy is non-additive for all p ≲ 0.11. We conjecture however that violations of additivity exist for all p < 1.     

Global Equivalence for Deformable Theormoeleastic Bodies

We consider equilibria arising in a model for phase transitions which correspond to stable critical points of the constrained variational problem Here W is a double‐well potential and is a strictly convex domain. For ε small, this is closely related to the problem of partitioning Ω into two subdomains of fixed volume, where the subdomain boundaries correspond to the transitional boundary between phases. Motivated by this geometry problem, we show that in a strictly convex domain, stable critical points of the original variational problem have a connected, thin transition layer separating the two phases. This relates to work in [GM] where special geometries such as cylindrical domains were treated, and is analogous to the results in [CHo] which show that in a convex domain, stable critical points of the corresponding unconstrained problem are constant. The proof of connectivity employs tools from geometric measure theory including the co‐area formula and the isoperimetric inequality on manifolds. The thinness of the transition layer follows from a separate calculation establishing spatial decay of solutions to the pure phases. (Accepted July 15, 1996)     

On the Distinguishability of Random Quantum States

We develop two analytic lower bounds on the probability of success p of identifying a state picked from a known ensemble of pure states: a bound based on the pairwise inner products of the states, and a bound based on the eigenvalues of their Gram matrix. We use the latter, and results from random matrix theory, to lower bound the asymptotic distinguishability of ensembles of n random quantum states in d dimensions, where n/d approaches a constant. In particular, for almost all ensembles of n states in n dimensions, p > 0.72. An application to distinguishing Boolean functions (the “oracle identification problem”) in quantum computation is given.     

Equivalence Theorems on the Propagation of Small-Amplitude Waves in Prestressed Linearly Elastic Materials with Internal Constraints

By extending the procedure of linearization for constrained elastic materials in the papers by Marlow and Chadwick et al., we set up a linearized theory of constrained materials with initial stress (not necessarily based on a nonlinear theory). The conditions of propagation are characterized for small-displacement waves that may be either of discontinuity type of any given order or, in the homogeneous case, plane progressive. We see that, just as in the unconstrained case, the laws of propagation of discontinuity waves are the same as those of progressive waves. Waves are classified as mixed, kinematic, or ghost. Then we prove that the analogues of Truesdell"s two equivalence theorems on wave propagation in finite elasticity hold for each type of wave. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Wave Propagation along Axes of Symmetry in Linearly Elastic Media with Initial Stress

The proofs of the Fedorov–Stippes and Fedorov's theorems, which hold for linearly elastic homogeneous bodies in natural configurations, remain valid for any linearly elastic medium with initial stress provided that Hooke's tensor be replaced by a suitable elasticity tensor.     

Uniqueness theorems for the entropy in any differential body of complexity one

Uniqueness theorems for the entropy in any differential body of complexity one