Nanofiber organic semiconductors: The effects of nanosize on the electrical charge transport and optical properties of bulk polyanilines

The electrical transport, optical, and microstructural properties of bulk polyaniline (PANI) and nano‐PANIs were investigated. A field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of bulk PANI showed macroscopic and aggregated granular particles. A SEM image of the nanostructured PANI showed the formation of one‐dimensional nano/microstructures. The formation of nanofibers was observed from the transmission electron microscopy image. The electrical conductivities of the bulk and nanostructured PANIs increased with increasing temperature, which indicated semiconductor behavior. The electrical conductivities of the bulk and nanostructured PANIs at room temperature were found to be 2.12 × 10^?5 and 1.80 × 10^?2 S/cm, respectively. The electrical conductivity of the nanostructured PANI was about 850 times higher than that of the bulk PANI. The obtained band gaps of the bulk and nanostructured PANIs were determined from diffuse reflectance measurements and were found to be 3.27 and 2.41 eV, respectively. The refractive index of the PANI samples changed from 1.3 to 1.61. The obtained results indicate that the electrical and optical properties of the PANI were inherently dependent on the nanostructure. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009     

A Novel Graphene Conductive Ink Based Circular Patch Antenna for 2.4 GHz Application

Graphene conductive ink based microstrip line fed circular patch is presented in this paper. The main objective of this work is to replace copper with graphene which is an emerging promising material, in the field of patch antennas with conventional rigid substrates using a simple printing technique and to measure its performance. The prototyped screen printed graphene antenna is perfectly radiating and the return loss, VSWR and gain of the graphene antenna is found to be better than conventional copper antenna. Also, the bandwidth of the graphene antenna is 1.6 times greater than that of the conventional copper antenna on rigid substrate.

     

A new interpretation of interferometric fringe patterns

The interferometric method of Nisida and Saito, the absolute retardation method of Post and the double-exposure holo-interferometric method of Hovanesian, Brcic and Powell are correlated and shown to give identical fringe patterns as regards intensity. Various discrepancies in Nisida and Saito's interpretation of their fringe patterns are pointed out, and the simultaneous presence and relative predominance of isochromatic and isopachic half-tones are discussed. The principles of photography and the concept of half-tones are used to explain the formation of concomitant isochromatics and isopachics and to give a new interpretation to these fringe patterns.     

Investigation of wax deposit ‘sloughing’ from paraffinic mixtures in pipe flow

Deposit ‘sloughing’ from ‘waxy’ crude oils has been described in the literature as a possible mechanism, leading to partial or complete dislodging of the deposit from the pipe wall due to changes in flow parameters. A bench‐scale flow loop apparatus was used to investigate ‘sloughing’ with prepared single‐phase ‘waxy’ mixtures of a multicomponent paraffinic wax dissolved in a multicomponent solvent. Experiments were performed to study the changes in the deposit‐layer thickness due to step increments in the ‘waxy’ mixture flow rate, the mixture temperature, and the coolant temperature. It was observed that the deposit‐layer thickness decreased with an increase in each of the three parameters; however, a complete or sudden dislodging of the deposit‐layer did not occur in any of the experiments. A steady‐state heat‐transfer model was used to predict the variation in the deposit mass or thickness due to changes in the selected parameters. In each case, the step‐wise decrease in the deposit thickness, as observed experimentally, was predicted to be caused by changes in the thermal resistance and/or thermal driving force.     

On the implementation of the Opus coordination language

Opus is a new programming language designed to assist in coordinating the execution of multiple, independent program modules. With the help of Opus, coarse grained task parallelism between data parallel modules can be expressed in a clean and structured way. In this paper we address the problems of how to build a compilation and runtime support system that can efficiently implement the Opus constructs. Our design considers the often‐conflicting goals of efficiency and modular construction through software re‐use. In particular, we present the system requirements for an efficient Opus implementation, the Opus runtime system, and describe how they work together to provide the underlying services that the Opus compiler needs for a broad class of machines. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of Mechanically Induced Reactivity of Boehmite Using Kinetics of Boehmite to <Emphasis Type="Italic">γ-</Emphasis>Al<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript> Transformation

This article focuses on the mechanically induced reactivity of boehmite prepared by thermal decomposition of gibbsite. Boehmite, which retained the morphology of gibbsite, was characterized by a specific surface area of 264 m²/g. Mechanical activation (MA) was carried out in a planetary mill up to 240 minutes. The samples were characterized in terms of morphology, characteristic particle diameters, Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET) specific surface area (SSA_BET), microcrystallite dimension (MCD), microstrain (ε) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The reactivity was construed from the kinetics of thermal transformation of boehmite into γ-Al₂O₃. The transformation observed between 600 K and 900 K (327 °C and 627 °C), manifested itself as two overlapping peaks in the differential thermogravimetric plot. These peaks correspond to two stages of dehydroxylation involving Al₂OH and AlOH groups in succession. The peaks were resolved using Gaussian deconvolution. The reactivity was assessed separately for the two stages by comparing the fraction reacted in MA samples (α) with that of nonactivated sample (α _ref). During both stages, enhanced kinetics, as revealed by α-α _ref plots, indicated an increase in reactivity with MA. The transformation mechanism conformed to n ^th order reaction (f[α] = [1 – α] ⁿ with n = 1.3–1.5 in both stages). Values of n remained similar for the activated and reference samples. Activation energies (E _a) for the first and second dehydroxylation stages were respectively 115 and 300 kJ/mol for the nonactivated sample. E _a for the second stage decreased exponentially to a value of 222 kJ/mol after 240 minutes of milling. An anomalous negative correlation between reactivity and SSA_BET was observed. Reactivity parameters were strongly correlated with MCD and ε. A plausible explanation for the observed correlations is presented.     

Decrease in net mercury methylation rates following iron amendment to anoxic wetland sediment slurries

The rate of mercury methylation in anoxic wetland sediments is affected by the concentration of bioavailable complexes between Hg and sulfide. Previous research with pure bacterial cultures has shown that addition of ferrous iron reduces the net rate of mercury methylation by decreasing the concentration of dissolved sulfide. To assess the possibility of using this approach to decrease net mercury methylation in restored and constructed wetlands, laboratory experiments were conducted by adding Hg(II) and Fe(II) to sediments collected from six sites in five estuarine wetlands. Addition of 30 mM (0.07 mmol g(-1) or 3.9 mg g(-1)) Fe(II) decreased net mercury methylation relative to that of unamended controls by a factor of 2.1-6.6. In all cases, the observed decrease in net mercury methylation was accompanied by a decrease in the concentrations of sulfide and filterable mercury in the water overlying the sediments. When iron was added to one of the sediment samples at doses that were small relative to the concentration of sulfide present, net mercury methylation either increased slightly or was unaffected. Comparison of the results to speciation model predictions suggests that dissolved reduced sulfur-containing species play a role in the formation of uncharged, bioavailable Hg complexes. Although further research is needed to determine the long-term effect of iron amendment, these results suggest that iron addition decreases mercury methylation in authentic wetland sediments.