Preparation and characterization of vinyltrimethoxysilane and dicumyl peroxide–cured (ethylene propylene diene monomer)/polypropylene thermoplastic vulcanizates

The present investigation deals with understanding the influence of vinyltrimethoxysilane (VTMS) concentration on the mechanical, thermal, thermomechanical, rheological, morphological, gel content, crosslinking density, and compression set properties of dynamically vulcanized ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM)/polypropylene (PP) (60/40, w/w) ‐based thermoplastic vulcanizates. It was determined that the values of crosslinking density, gel content, tensile strength, Young's modulus, elongation at break, and viscosity increased; whereas that of compression set, melting temperature, enthalpy of melting, crystallinity, and damping factor decreased with increased addition of VTMS in the EPDM/PP‐based thermoplastic vulcanizate. This is attributed to the physical crosslinking caused because of VTMS grafting on EPDM and chemical crosslinking induced by VTMS between PP and EPDM. This has been confirmed by Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy spectra, whereas the thermomechanical and scanning electron microscopy analysis confirmed increased compatibility between EPDM and PP on the addition of VTMS. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 23:312–320, 2017. © 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Cobalt Iron Hydroxide as a Precious Metal‐Free Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Efficient Overall Water Splitting

Highly efficient and stable electrocatalysts from inexpensive and earth‐abundant elements are emerging materials in the overall water splitting process. Herein, cobalt iron hydroxide nanosheets are directly deposited on nickel foam by a simple and rapid electrodeposition method. The cobalt iron hydroxide (CoFe/NF) nanosheets not only allow good exposure of the highly active surface area but also facilitate the mass and charge transport capability. As an anode, the CoFe/NF electrocatalyst displays excellent oxygen evolution reaction catalytic activity with an overpotential of 220 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm^?2. As a cathode, it exhibits good performance in the hydrogen evolution reaction with an overpotential of 110 mV, reaching a current density of 10 mA cm^?2. When CoFe/NF electrodes are used as the anode and the cathode for water splitting, a low cell voltage of 1.64 V at 10 mA cm^?2 and excellent stability for 50 h are observed. The present work demonstrates a possible pathway to develop a highly active and durable substitute for noble metal electrocatalysts for overall water splitting.     

Investigating Feasibility Through Performance Analysis of Green Dielectrics for Sustainable Electric Discharge Machining

This work represents a feasibility study for the newly proposed vegetable oil-based green dielectric fluids, biodielectric1 (BD1) and biodielectric2 (BD2) for electric discharge machining (EDM). Comparative analyses for BD1, BD2, and kerosene have been studied to assess the performance in terms of material removal rate (MRR), electrode wear rate (EWR), and relative wear ratio (RWR) for P20 + cold-worked plastic injection mold steel using electrolytic grade copper electrode. Current, gap voltage, pulse on time (T_on), and pulse off time (T_off) have been chosen as input parameters, and one variable at a time approach has been used for designing experimental plan for investigating the feasibility of the newly suggested fluids. The results obtained show that the performance of the newly suggested biodielectrics BD1 and BD2 is better than commercially used hydrocarbon-based dielectric, i.e., kerosene, for MRR and RWR. Analysis of variance results indicated that current is the most influencing parameter for MRR and EWR, while T_on is the most significant parameter for RWR. Under the influence of current, BD1 and BD2 produced 38% and 165% improvement in MRR, respectively. Moreover, BD1 and BD2 resulted 30% higher and 7% lower RWR, respectively, under the influence of T_on.     

Performance Analysis of a Low Profile Hybrid Antenna for Broadband Applications

In this paper, a low profile dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) is proposed and investigated. To achieve the broad impedance bandwidth the proposed antenna geometry combines the dielectric resonator antenna and an underlying microstrip-fed slot with a narrow rectangular notch, which effectively broadens the impedance bandwidth by merging the resonances of slot and DRA. The physical insight gained by the detailed parametric study has led to find out a set of guidelines for designing the antennas for any particular frequency band. The design guidelines have been verified by simulating a set of antennas designed for different frequency bands. For validation, a prototype antenna is fabricated and tested experimentally. The measured results show that the proposed DRA offers an impedance bandwidth of about \(125.34\%\) from 1.17 to 5.1 GHz with reasonable gain between 3.5 and 5.7 dBi. The volume of the proposed DRA is \(0.16\lambda _{dr}^{3}\), where \(\lambda _{dr}\) is the wavelength at center operating frequency of the DR. A comprehensive study on bandwidth shows that the proposed DRA provides maximum bandwidth in terms of the DR volume (\(\hbox {BW}/V_{dr}\)) and the DR height (\(\hbox {BW}/h_{dr}\)) than the other similar reported work on hybrid wideband DRA designs.     

DNA‐Binding Properties of New Fluorescent AzaHx Amides: Methoxypyridylazabenzimidazolepyrroleimidazole/pyrrole

DNA minor groove binding polyamides have been extensively developed to control abnormal gene expression. The establishment of novel, inherently fluorescent 2‐(p‐anisyl)benzimidazole (Hx) amides has provided an alternative path for studying DNA binding in cells by direct observation of cell localization. Because of the 2:1 antiparallel stacking homodimer binding mode of these molecules to DNA, modification of Hx amides to 2‐(p‐anisyl)‐4‐azabenzimidazole (AzaHx) amides has successfully extended the DNA‐recognition repertoire from central CG [recognized by Hx‐I (I=N‐methylimidazole)] to central GC [recognized by AzaHx‐P (P=N‐methylpyrrole)] recognition. For potential targeting of two consecutive GG bases, modification of the AzaHx moiety to 2‐ and 3‐pyridyl‐aza‐benzimidazole (Pyr‐AzaHx) moieties was explored. The newly designed molecules are also small‐sized, fluorescent amides with the Pyr‐AzaHx moiety connected to two conventional five‐membered heterocycles. Complementary biophysical methods were performed to investigate the DNA‐binding properties of these molecules. The results showed that neither 3‐Pyr‐AzaHx nor 2‐Pyr‐AzaHx was able to mimic I‐I=N‐methylimidazole–N‐methylimidazole to target GG dinucleotides specifically. Rather, 3‐Pyr‐AzaHx was found to function like AzaHx, f‐I (f=formamide), or P‐I as an antiparallel stacked dimer. 3‐Pyr‐AzaHx‐PI ( 2 ) binds 5′‐ACGCGT′‐3′ with improved binding affinity and high sequence specificity in comparison to its parent molecule AzaHx‐PI ( 1 ). However, 2‐Pyr‐AzaHx is detrimental to DNA binding because of an unfavorable steric clash upon stacking in the minor groove.     

Studies in Effect of Synthetic and Natural Microfibers on Properties of High-Density Polyethylene-Reinforced Composite

Natural fibers are now arising as one of the promising reinforcement components for fiber-reinforced polymer composites. A study has been conducted to optimize weight concentration of surface-treated and surface-untreated microfibers on the properties of high-density polyethylene composite. Polyethylene terephthalate and henequen microfibers in varying compositions, namely, 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, and 20?wt% were reinforced into high-density polyethylene matrix. These fibers were treated with coupling agent at 0.5?wt%. Vinyltrimethoxysilane-treated composite shows enhanced properties as compared to untreated microfiber composite. Rheological and morphological results reveal that addition of coupling agent improves dispersion and matrix fiber interactions.     

Investigation of DC and RF Performance of Novel MOSHEMT on Silicon Substrate for Future Submillimetre Wave Applications

Semiconductors - In this work, the DC and RF performance of a 20 nm gate length novel metal oxide semiconductor high electron mobility transistor (MOSHEMT) on Silicon substrate is studied using...     

Benefits of sliceable photonic-based transponders in metro and long-haul networks

The multicast paradigm offers tremendous benefits in efficiency for transmitting data across optical networks, allowing a single client to send information to an entire set of endpoints. A multicast request is most efficiently provisioned through the creation of a tree, with the endpoints, or resources, occasionally serving as branching points. This practice can lead to the source of the request becoming disconnected from the associated resources should one of those branching resources fail. In cases where a large amount of data are currently in transmission, the ramifications of this failure can be severe. We propose an optimal solution through integer linear programming for the static protected multicast routing and wavelength assignment problem, where an entire set of requests is provisioned with built-in redundancy against single resource node failure. We compare the optimal performance against several heuristics and find that protection against this type of failure can be provided with the trade-off of increased wavelength consumption, compared to less-protected solutions.     

Nonlinear Dynamic Behavior of Granular Materials in Base Excited Silos

Nonlinear behavior of granular materials stored in steel silos subjected to dynamic base excitation due to earthquake is presented in the current article. Three-dimensional finite element (FE) modeling of the granular material silo is carried out under three-directional earthquake ground acceleration time histories. Granular material is modeled by adopting a continuum approach. The nonlinearity of the granular materials is represented by a hypoplastic material law in the FE approximation. The interface between the granular material and the silo wall is modeled by using surface-to-surface based contact formulation. The horizontal and vertical displacements of the granular material under earthquake ground acceleration at various depths of the silo are studied. Moreover, the stresses induced in the steel silo are also investigated. The static FE simulation and the analytical solution obtained by using Janssen's theory are observed to be in close agreement. Also, the dynamic FE simulations compare with the calculated results using Eurocode 8 part 4 with reasonable accuracy. The stresses in the steel silo wall are higher for loose packing of the granular material as compared to that for the dense packing.