Experimental Investigation of Spray-Deposited Fe-Doped ZnO Nanoparticle Thin Films: Structural, Microstructural, and Optical Properties

Structural, microstructural, and optical properties of the undoped and Fe-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films grown by spray pyrolysis technique using zinc nitrate as a host precursor have been reported here. X-ray diffraction spectra confirm that all the films have stable wurtzite structure and the effects of Fe dopants on the diffraction patterns have been found to be in agreement with the Vegard’s law. Scanning electron microscopy results show good uniformity and dense surface having spherical-shaped grains. Energy dispersive x-ray analyses with elemental mapping of the Fe-doped films show that the Fe dopants are incorporated homogeneously into the ZnO film matrix. The x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy spectra confirm the presence of 3+ oxidation state of Fe in the doped films. Atomic force microscopy analyses clearly show that the average surface roughness and the grain size decrease with the addition of Fe dopants. Optical studies reveal that the optical band gap value decreases on Fe doping. The 1 at.% Fe-doped film shows normal dispersion for the wavelength range 450-700 nm. The PL spectra of the films show a strong ultraviolet emission centered at ~388 nm in the case of 1 at.% Fe-doped film. A slow photo current response in the films has been observed in the transient photoconductivity measurement.     

Ground Water Basin Management at the Neyveli Lignite Mines

Water conservation and water management practices have been adopted at Neyveli to ensure proper hydrologic balance. These practices are important because ground water pumping is a prerequisite for lignite mining in the Neyveli basin. This paper delineates some of these practices and the scientific studies undertaken by the Neyveli Lignite Corporation to develop and implement them. Optimal water utilization would be achieved by maintaining the ground water recharge (input) and the ground water extraction (output) ratio in the basin.     

A Probabilistic Approach to Examine the Effect of Chemistry Variations on Distortion During Industrial Gas Carburizing

Industrial carburizing operations have been traditionally simulated for several decades by solving the diffusion equation. However, using this deterministic approach, it is difficult to capture batch-to-batch variations in the properties attributed to process and chemistry variations. In the current study, a probabilistic approach is used to capture the variations in process parameters and alloy chemistry. The advantage of this approach is illustrated through a case study on reduction in distortion variations as well as its absolute value during the carburizing operation. Finally, some of the opportunities and challenges in the carburizing simulation are discussed.     

AC transport properties of nanocrystalline SnO2 semiconductor

Nanocrystalline SnO₂ materials were prepared by the chemical co-precipitation route by adding ammonia solution to 0.1 M solution of SnCl₄·5H₂O. The resulting precipitate after thorough washing with distilled water and calcination at 600 °C for 10 h was investigated by XRD for phase identification and crystallite size determination. The materials have been found to be polycrystalline SnO₂, possessing tetragonal rutile crystal structure and nanocrystalline in grain size of approximately 30 nm. The TEM micrograph shows agglomerated particles (cluster of primary crystallites) with an average size of 37.4 nm. A corresponding selected area electron diffraction pattern reveals the different Debye rings of SnO₂, as analyzed in XRD.The complex dielectric constant ?^* has been found to vary with frequency which is attributed to the multi-relaxation time constants of the energy states responsible for conduction mechanism. At any particular frequency, ?^* has been found to increase with temperature. The frequency dependence of loss tangent tan δ has been explained with the help of the equivalent circuit model. The observed frequency dependence of ac conductivity has been found to obey the power law: σ_ac ∝ ω^S, where variation of S with temperature indicates multi-hopping conduction mechanism in nanocrystalline SnO₂ samples. The complex impedance plots of Z′ versus Z″ at different temperatures have been found to be single semicircular arcs with a non-zero intersection with the real axis in the high frequency region and have their centres lying below the real axis at a particular angle of depression, indicating multirelaxation processes in the material.     

Heat Transfer Mechanisms and Furnace Productivity During Coil Annealing: Aluminum vs. Steel

An integrated model, incorporating heat transfer and phase transformation during industrial coil annealing of aluminum and steel has been developed and used to analyze macro-performance parameters such as furnace productivity. The model predictions have been extensively validated with industrial data. It has been shown that when the coil material is changed from steel to aluminum, the dominant mechanism of radial conduction significantly changes from conduction through entrapped gases to heat transfer through contact points. As a result, the productivity enhancement strategies are different for steel (changing gas from nitrogen to hydrogen) and aluminum (increasing the coiling tension) coil annealing. When the gas is changed from nitrogen to hydrogen, the productivity of the steel coils increases by 36%, whereas the productivity of aluminum coils remains invariant with changes in gases. On the other hand, the productivity of aluminum coils shows greater increase with increase in coil pressure as compared to steel coils.     

Synthesis,characterization and alcohol sensing property of Zn-doped SnO2 nanoparticles

The Zn-doped SnO₂ nanoparticles synthesized by the chemical co-precipitation route and having dopant concentration varying from 0 to 4 at%, were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for structural and morphological studies. XRD analyses reveal that all the samples are polycrystalline SnO₂ having tetragonal rutile structure with nanocrystallites in the range 10–25 nm. The TEM images show agglomeration of grains (cluster of primary crystallites). A corresponding selected area electron diffraction pattern reveals the different Debye rings of SnO₂, as analyzed in XRD. Alcohol sensing properties of all the Zn-doped samples were investigated for various concentrations of methanol, ethanol and propan-2-ol in air at different operating temperatures. Among all the samples examined, the 4 at% Zn-doped sample exhibits the best response to different alcohol vapors at the operating temperature of 250 °C. For a concentration of 50 ppm, the 4 at% Zn-doped sample shows the maximum response 85.6% to methanol, 87.5% to ethanol and 94.5% to propan-2-ol respectively at the operating temperature of 250 °C. A possible reaction mechanism of alcohol sensing has been proposed.     

Model and algorithm for efficient verification of high-assurance properties of real-time systems

In this paper, we present a new compositional verification methodology for efficiently verifying high-assurance properties such as reachability and deadlock freedom of real-time systems. In this methodology, each component of real-time systems is initially specified as a timed automaton and it communicates with other components via synchronous and/or asynchronous communication channels. Then, each component is analyzed by a generation of its state-space graph which is formalized as a new state-space representation model called Multiset Labeled Transition Systems (MLTSs). Afterward, the state spaces of the components are hierarchically composed and simplified through a composition algorithm and a set of condensation rules, respectively, to get a condensed state space of the system. The simplified state spaces preserve equivalence with respect to deadlock and reachable states. Such equivalence is assured by our reduction theories called IOT-failure equivalence and IOT-state equivalence. To show the performance of our methodology, we developed a verification tool RT-IOTA and carried out experiments on some benchmarks such as CSMA/CD protocol, a rail-road crossing, an alternating bit-protocol, etc. Specifically, we look at the time taken to generate the statespace, the size of the state space, and the amount of reduction achieved by our condensation rules. The results demonstrate the strength of our new technique in dealing with the state-explosion problem.     

Absorption characteristics of ocean water in the Arabian Sea during winter bloom from in situ measurements and Oceansat 2 OCM and MODIS data

In the northern Arabian Sea, blooms usually occur during the northeast monsoon (November–January) and inter-monsoon (February–April) periods. After death, these phytoplankton blooms produce massive subsurface zones of low dissolved oxygen levels that have a major impact on the ocean water ecosystem. Many studies have been done to identify the bloom in this region, but those on the optical properties of bloom water are scarce. The present study emphasizes the optical properties (inherent) of the bloom water in the study region using in situ and satellite data. The total absorption coefficient of ocean water was measured from in situ radiance data collected in the northern Arabian Sea from the Sagar Sampada cruise (SS-286) during March 2011. The same data were also derived from the top-of-atmosphere radiance and remote sensing reflectance of the Oceansat 2 Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM-2) and Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors, respectively. A comparison between measured (in situ) and retrieved total absorption coefficients from OCM-2 was made. The measured and retrieved absorption coefficients are in good agreement. Root mean square errors between measured and retrieved absorption coefficients are 0.018 m^?1, 0.026 m^?1, and 0.034 m^?1 for 490 nm, 510 nm, and 555 nm, respectively. An inter-comparison of total absorption properties retrieved from OCM-2 and MODIS data in the region of one degree radius around the stations was also made. A fairly good match was observed on 10, 14, and 16 March 2011 (coefficient of determination, R² = 0.75, 0.87, and 0.62, respectively) for the blue band (490 nm) and (R² = 0.77, 0.79, and 0.71, respectively) the green band (555 nm). The study demonstrates the potential of using remote-sensing optical data for identifying bloom waters.