Carbon nanowalls decorated with silicon for lithium-ion batteries

Carbon nanowalls (CNWs) are suggested as a promising nanostructured substrate for 3D anodes of lithium-ion batteries. Silicon sputtering onto CNWs results in improved electrochemical performance due to either a large surface area of free-standing CNWs or easy adhesion of deposited silicon clusters via the SiC interface layer formation. The 3D silicon-decorated nanowall framework (SDNF) could give the possibility to minimize the lithium diffusion length and make charge collection more effective yielding better cycling performance at high rates exceeding 2000 mA h per 1 g of silicon in the range of 0.05–2.00 V at 1.5 C rate.     

Hydrogen and deuterium mass transfer and separation during hydriding-dehydriding of palladium studied by the NERD method

The neutron induced elastic recoil detection (NERD) technique with monochromatic 14 MeV neutrons was applied to a hydrogen and deuterium concentration depth profile study during the hydriding—dehydriding process in palladium placed as a membrane or a membrane electrode within a gas or an electrolytic cell, respectively. It was found that hydrogen diffusion may be accompanied by a distinct α-β interphase boundary movement to the membrane exit whereupon a sharp growth of permeation gas flux takes place. An anomalous behaviour of gas flux was also revealed at the point of opposite β-α phase transition of the Pd-D system induced by the membrane heating. Dehydriding of the Pd-membrane as well as both hydriding and dehydriding of a membrane made from a Pd-Ag alloy do not reveal any concentration gradients in the membrane bulk. A much higher H/D isotope separation factor was found in the case of Pd membrane loading with an isotope mixture, when using electrochemical hydriding compared with that observed from gas surroundings.     

Tooth-colored inlays: new cementation technique

The diethylcarbamazine (DEC) provocative day test has been widely used for daytime diagnosis of Wuchereria bancrofti infections in areas where microfilariae exhibit nocturnal periodicity. Since DEC is also the primary drug for treatment of bancroftian filariasis, we examined the long term effect of the test on microfilaraemia in 2 groups of individuals receiving either 100 mg of DEC (n = 51) or placebo (n = 20). The low dose of DEC had a significant therapeutic effect. One year after treatment, the geometric mean in-tensity of microfilaraemia was reduced by 86.1%, and 10.6% of the individuals were amicrofilaraemic. No significant reduction of microfilaraemia was observed in the placebo group. The results imply that the DEC provocative day test should not be used as a diagnostic tool in follow-up studies on microfilaraemias.     

Adaptation of van der waals equation of state to the gaseous and liquid behavior of argon: Its application to simple substances

Utilizing the fact that the co-volume parameter, b = v_c/3, van der Waals equation of state has been reduced to the form where β = a/P_cv²_c and z = P_cv_c/RT_c. PVT data for argon, extending into the liquid region, have been utilized to establish the cohesive pressure parameter a as a function of temperature and density. This dependence is expressed in equation form and has been used to predict the PVT behavior of argon in its gaseous and liquid states, with an average deviation of 1.35% (250 points). The deviations resulting from this relationship for substances having similar z_c-values (z_c ≈? 0.291) were found to be of this order of magnitude.     

Improving the Space-Bounded Version of Muchnik’s Conditional Complexity Theorem via “Naive” Derandomization

Many theorems about Kolmogorov complexity rely on existence of combinatorial objects with specific properties. Usually the probabilistic method gives such objects with better parameters than explicit constructions do. But the probabilistic method does not give “effective” variants of such theorems, i.e. variants for resource-bounded Kolmogorov complexity. We show that a “naive derandomization” approach of replacing these objects by the output of Nisan-Wigderson pseudo-random generator can give polynomial-space variants of such theorems. Specifically, we improve the preceding polynomial-space analogue of Muchnik’s conditional complexity theorem. I.e., for all a and b there exists a program p of least possible length that transforms a to b and is simple conditional on b. Here all programs work in polynomial space and all complexities are measured with logarithmic accuracy instead of polylogarithmic one in the previous work.     

Robust Analyzing Tools for Wind Turbine Blades Coupled with Multiobiective Optimization

This paper presents an approach that utilizes the recently developed tools for analyzing wind blade properties resulting from geometric shape and geographical site characteristics to find possible blade design improvements. A set of blade shapes with a certain deviation of chord distribution from the initial geometry was investigated for WindPACT 1.5 MW turbine. The results showed that the original blade geometry can be improved based on individual site wind characteristics, giving better aerodynamic efficiency and reduced cost.     

Features of low-temperature oxidation of hydrogen in the medium of nitrogen,carbon dioxide,and water vapor at elevated pressures

The article discusses novel research results on combustion features of high-density Н₂/О₂ mixtures (ρ_H2 = 0.70–1.89 mol/dm³, ρ_O2 = 0.32–0.81 mol/dm³) diluted with nitrogen, carbon dioxide, or water vapor (from 46 to 76% mol.) at the uniform heating (1 K/min) of tubular reactor. Based on time dependencies of temperature increment in the reaction mixtures caused by the heat release during oxidation of H₂, it is found that the self-ignition temperature of Н₂/О₂/N₂ and Н₂/О₂/H₂O mixtures is by ≈ 30 K lower than that of the Н₂/О₂/СО₂ mixture. Unlike combustion of H₂ in the N₂ medium, in the CO₂ and H₂O media a chain-thermal explosion is observed at a certain concentration of reagents. The influencing mechanisms of diluents on the H₂ oxidation dynamics, as well as the contribution of homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions in the heat release are revealed. It is established that high heat capacity of H₂/O₂/CO₂ mixture, chemical interaction between its components, and presence of CO₂ molecules adsorbed on the reactor inner surface, are the factors determining the H₂ oxidation dynamics in CO₂ medium. At oxidation of H₂ in the H₂O medium, the process takes place against the background of water evaporation and, as a consequence, is characterized by increased heat capacity and thermal conductivity of the H₂/O₂/H₂O reaction mixture.     

Wafer-Scale High-Quality Microtubular Devices Fabricated via Dry-Etching for Optical and Microelectronic Applications

Mechanical strain formed at the interfaces of thin films has been widely applied to self-assemble 3D microarchitectures. Among them, rolled-up microtubes possess a unique 3D geometry beneficial for working as photonic, electromagnetic, energy storage, and sensing devices. However, the yield and quality of microtubular architectures are often limited by the wet-release of lithographically patterned stacks of thin-film structures. To address the drawbacks of conventionally used wet-etching methods in self-assembly techniques, here a dry-release approach is developed to roll-up both metallic and dielectric, as well as metallic/dielectric hybrid thin films for the fabrication of electronic and optical devices. A silicon thin film sacrificial layer on insulator is etched by dry fluorine chemistry, triggering self-assembly of prestrained nanomembranes in a well-controlled wafer scale fashion. More than 6000 integrated microcapacitors as well as hundreds of active microtubular optical cavities are obtained in a simultaneous self-assembly process. The fabrication of wafer-scale self-assembled microdevices results in high yield, reproducibility, uniformity, and performance, which promise broad applications in microelectronics, photonics, and opto-electronics.     

Silica coated hard-magnetic strontium hexaferrite nanoparticles

Stable colloids of hard magnetic particles are newly developed and very promising materials. Surface functionalization of these particles remains challenging because the particles tend to aggregate during reaction due to strong magnetic interactions. Herein we report on a synthesis of strontium hexaferrite hard magnetic nanoparticles coated with silica by hydrolysis of tetraethoxysilane. As a source of hexaferrite we used stable colloid of plate-like nanoparticles with mean diameter of 40 nm and thickness of 5 nm, which were prepared by a glass-ceramic process. We have shown that to successfully coat each hexaferrite particle individually the hydrolysis conditions should provide heterogeneous nucleation of silica with rate higher than the aggregation rate of the colloidal nanoparticles. The resulting materials represent single crystal hexaferrite cores wrapped in silica shell with mean thickness of 18 and 23 nm depending on synthesis conditions. The obtained core-shell particles can be easily dispersed as stable aqueous colloids. The materials can be used as magnetic sorbents or nanocontainers and, furthermore, they are very promising colloidal building blocks for various magnetically assembled nanostructures.