Optimization of waste quail eggshells as biocomposites for polyaniline in ammonia gas detection

A simple, cost-effective, and novel chemical sensor for ammonia (NH₃) gas detection was developed from polyaniline (PANI)/quail eggshell (QES) composites. QES is a natural waste enriched in calcium carbonate. In this work, pure PANI was synthesized from chemical oxidation method and PANI/QES composites were prepared from physical mixing of QES with the synthesized PANI at different mass ratio. A series of complementary techniques including Fourier transform infrared and ultraviolet-visible spectrometers, scanning electron microscope with energy dispersive detection coupled with mapping, thermogravimetric analysis, and X-ray diffractometer were used to characterize the physicochemical and textural properties of the biocomposites. From the results, PANI/QES composite with a mass ratio of 1 exhibited the lowest NH₃ detection limit of 5.24 ppm with a linear correlation coefficient (R²) of close to unity (0.9932) between the signal and NH₃ gas concentration. As a whole, the PANI/QES biocomposites synthesized from this work exhibited excellent selectivity toward NH₃ gas even in the presence of other gas impurities, such as acetone, ethanol, and hexane. For the sensor reusability, the PANI/QES biocomposites can be reused in the application of NH₃ gas detection for at least 4 cycles.     

Photoinduced operation and diagnostic of superconductivity in the MgB2 films

The occurrence of the optical second harmonic generation (SHG) at fundamental wavelength of Er:glass nanosecond 1,540 nm stimulated by two coherent CO₂ microsecond laser beams at wavelengths 10.6 and 5.3 μm was observed for the MgB₂ films. The SHG signal has shown its sensitivity to the occurrence of the superconducting (SC) phase transition. The SHG achieves its maximum at temperatures higher with respect to the SC transition. The effect is reversible with respect to the photo induced treatment. After the switching off of the external photoinducing treatment the effect almost disappears. However, this still strongly affects the SC properties of the MgB₂ thin layers, as the critical current is increased by 50 % after illumination.     

Microwave absorption studies in field-cooled hafnium doped YBaCuO

The differential microwave absorption is studied in the field-cooled samples. Flux-trapping during field-cooling is clearly demonstrated. Glassy behaviour starts appearing for fields greater than the lower intergranular critical field revealed by the difference between field-cooled and zero-field-cooled cases. Results can be understood in terms of super-conducting cluster model.     

Effect of modulation amplitude on low-field microwave absorption in hafnium-doped Y-Ba-Cu-O

Low-field differential microwave absorption has been studied for hafnium-doped Y-Ba-Cu-O at the first harmonic of modulation field. The effect of modulation amplitude on peak height, peak position and the area under hysteresis curve has been discussed.     

Nano Fe<Subscript>3</Subscript>O<Subscript>4</Subscript> Induced Fluxoid Jumps and Low Field Enhanced Critical Current Density in MgB<Subscript>2</Subscript> Superconductor

Nano particle of Fe₃O₄ (nFe₃O₄) up to 6 at% were doped in the superconducting MgB₂ samples. Despite the strong ferromagnetic nature of Fe₃O₄, both the ac susceptibility and the resistivity measurements show that up to 4 at% of Fe₃O₄, T _c =38 K is not changed, whereas for 6% T _c decreases by 6 K. This indicates that a low concentration of Fe does not substitute either the Mg or B sites and probably occupies the intergrain spaces. For 0.5% doped Fe₃O₄, an increase in J _c with respect to the pure MgB₂ samples is observed in the lower field and temperature regions (H<2 T and 20 K) indicating an enhanced flux pinning and the magnetic activation, i.e., the interaction between the magnetic dipole of Fe ion and the vortices is weak in comparison to the effective pinning potential. Whereas, at H>2 T, J _c of the doped samples is always less than that of MgB₂, and the activation is dominant in comparison with the effective pinning potential provided by the doping. Flux jumps are observed in lower T and H regions for the samples doped up to 1% nFe₃O₄ only. Magnetization plots of higher Fe content samples exhibited clear paramagnetic background. Mossbauer measurements for the higher (4, 6 at%) nFe₃O₄ doped MgB₂ samples show that at RT, the hyperfine field for both samples is ∼100 kOe and ∼120 kOe at 90 K. This means that the nFe₃O₄ particles decompose and form possibly an intermetallic Fe-B phase in the matrix.     

Cu2+ Selective Chromogenic Behavior of Calix[4]arene Derivative

This study involves the copper selective chromogenic response of 5, 11, 17, 23-Tetrakis (N-pyrrolidinomethyl)-25, 26, 27, 28-tetrahydroxycalix[4]arene based mannich base (3). Complexation ability of (3) was explored by examining the effect of a series of various metal ions, such as Li⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, Ag⁺, Ba²⁺, Ca²⁺, Mn²⁺, Mg²⁺, Sr²⁺, Ni²⁺, Cd²⁺, Co²⁺, Cu²⁺, Hg²⁺, Pb²⁺, Zn²⁺, Fe²⁺, Fe³⁺, and Al³⁺, by using UV-visible spectroscopy. Ligand (3) exhibited pronounced selectivity toward Cu²⁺ even in the presence of various co-existing ions. The stoichiometric analysis, i.e., Job's plot revealed that (3) form 1:1 complex with Cu²⁺ ion in DMF-H₂O system. The complexation phenomenon was confirmed by FT-IR spectroscopy that favors the selective nature of (3) with Cu²⁺.     

Age-related changes in blood lymphocyte subsets of Saudi Arabian healthy children

The age-related changes in absolute and percentage values of lymphocyte subsets in the peripheral blood of healthy children of different ages (1 month to 13 years) were studied by flow cytometry. The absolute and percentage values for most lymphocyte subpopulations differed substantially with age. Comparisons among age groups from infants through adults revealed progressive declines in the absolute numbers of leukocytes, total lymphocytes, and T, B, and natural killer (NK) cells. The percentages of T cells increased with age. Within the T-lymphocyte population, the CD8(+) subset increased but the CD4(+) subset decreased, resulting in a declining CD4(+)/CD8(+) ratio. The percentage of B cells declined, but that of NK cells remained unchanged. The percentage of HLA-DR+ T cells increased over time, but their number changed inconsistently. Our findings confirm and extend earlier reports on age-related changes in lymphocyte subpopulations. These data should be useful in the interpretation of disease-related changes, as well as therapy-dependent alterations, in lymphocyte subsets in children of different age groups.