Frequency independent‐dependent conductivity and dielectric properties of some ionomers

The preparation and physical properties of some ionomers have been investigated. The addition of CH₃I significantly improved the conductivity of the ionomers. At room temperature, the highest ionic conductivity value was found to be 4.93 10⁻⁸ S cm⁻¹ in the I4 ionomer. The conductivity data do not obey the Arrhenius law and the non‐linearity indicates ionic transport. The alternating current conductivity parameters and dielectric constants of the ionomers were determined. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry     

Chemical changes of three native Turkish hazelnut varieties (Corylus avellana L.) during fruit development

Three native hazelnut varieties from Turkey, namely, Tombul, Palaz, and Badem, were examined for their proximate composition, minerals, and fatty acid profiles, as well as polyphenol oxidase (PPO), peroxidase (POD), and lipase activities during fruit development stages (early stage: ES, middle stage: MS, and harvest stage: HS). Proximate composition varied considerably (dry weight basis) from ES to MS. Fat was the predominant component at all stages and showed increasing trends. Six essential minerals (calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc) were analysed (dry weight basis). Consuming recommended daily amount of 42.5 g hazelnut at HS supplies 23.3–25.0% of phosphorus, 11.6–18.1% of magnesium, 7.0–18.9% of iron, 4.9–8.9% of zinc, 5.1–5.7% of calcium, and 5.1–5.3% of potassium for recommended dietary allowances or adequate intake for adults. Significant (P < 0.05) decreasing trends were found in all mineral contents from early development to maturity, with some exceptions. Sixteen fatty acids were identified, among which 18:1ω9 was by far the most predominant one, followed by 18:2ω6, 16:0, and 18:0. As expected, total monounsaturated fatty acids constituted the main group of fatty acids ranging from 75.51 to 81.07% in Tombul, from 78.21 to 82.71% in Palaz, and from 73.69 to 81.65% in Badem through the maturation stages. In contrast, total polyunsaturated fatty acids showed decreasing trends from ES to HS. No significant changes (P > 0.05) were observed in total saturated fatty acids at different maturation stages. Tombul variety had the lowest PPO activity compared to those of Palaz and Badem. Badem showed highest POD activity compared to Tombul and Palaz at three stages of maturation and significant decreases (P < 0.05) in all hazelnut samples were observed in POD activity from ES to HS. No lipase activity was detected in any hazelnut samples at ES and MS, except in Badem at MS. In contrast, lipase activity was detected in all hazelnut samples at HS. These results suggest that some proximate compositions, minerals, and fatty acids gave good indications during fruit development stages, whereas enzymatic activities of PPO, POD, and lipase behaved differently among varieties and fruit development stages.     

PROANTHOCYANIDIN-FREE BARLEY—MALTING AND BREWING

Colloidal haze in beer is due to the precipitation of proteins by proanthocyanidins. Carlsberg Research Center reported in 1977 that the use of barley mutants which block the biosynthesis of catechins and proanthocyanidins in the grain prevents the formation of haze in beer. The results from ten years of malting and brewing research with proanthocyanidin-free barley and malt are reviewed.     

Speech synthesis using AM/FM sinusoids and band-pass noise

In the speech synthesis model presented in this paper, voiced speech is synthesized as the sum of sinusoidally modulated two FM sinusoids corresponding to the first and second formants. Each FM signal is generated such that its amplitude is equal to the formant amplitude, its carrier frequency to the formant frequency or its linear combination, its modulation frequency to the pitch, and its modulation index to one fifth of the carrier to modulation frequency ratio. Unvoiced speech is generated by shifting the center frequency of a low-pass noise with a bandwidth of 1 KHz, to the frequency where the energy of the unvoiced speech is concentrated. The drawbacks of this scheme are that the pitch and the formant frequencies of the FM signals may deviate up to 40% and 9%, respectively, and spurious formants may occur. A hardware implementation can be accomplished by driving a linear analog circuitry which can simply be integrated on a single chip, by a digital computer which supplies voltages at every T = 5 ms corresponding to seven parameter values. Examples of the signals and spectrograms of synthesized speech obtained by both synthesis by analysis and synthesis by rule are given along with a set of rules for text-to-speech synthesis of Turkish. It is observed that the speech synthesized by analysis loses the speaker's identity but it is highly intelligible, while understanding the speech synthesized by rules requires a training period.     

Second law analysis of two‐stage compression transcritical CO2 heat pump cycle

Because of the global warming impact of hydro fluorocarbons, the uses of natural refrigerants in automotive and HVAC industries have received worldwide attention. CO₂ is the most promising refrigerant in these industries, especially the transcritical CO₂ refrigeration cycle. The objective of this work is to identify the main factors that affect two‐stage compression transcritical CO₂ system efficiency. A second law of thermodynamic analysis on the entire two‐stage CO₂ cycle is conducted so that the exergy destruction of each system component can be deduced and ranked, allowing future efforts to focus on improving the components that have the highest potential for advancement. The inter‐stage pressure is used as a variable parameter in the analysis study. The second law efficiency, coefficient of cooling performance and total exergy destruction of the system variations with the inter‐stage pressure are presented graphically. It was concluded that there is an optimum inter‐stage pressure that maximizes both first law and second law efficiencies. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The accumulation of La,Ce and Y by Lemna minor and Lemna gibba in the Keban gallery water,Elazig Turkey

This study investigated the phytoremediation ability of Lemna minor and Lemna gibba to accumulate lanthanum, cerium and yttrium from gallery water polluted by metals. L. minor and L. gibba were settled in the mining water and adapted to separate reactors. During the experiment, the water and plant samples were daily taken and the temperature, electric conductivity and pH of the water were daily measured in situ. These plants were firstly washed, dried in and then ashed at 300°C for 24 h in an oven. Both water and ashed plant samples were measured by ICP‐MS to detect the concentrations of lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce) and yttrium (Y). Although these elements are at low concentrations in gallery water, they were accumulated at the highest levels in L. gibba and in L. minor. This study showed that both plants have high ability to remove lanthanum, cerium and yttrium in gallery water polluted by different elements.     

Hydroformylation of 1-octene using rhodium–phosphite catalyst in a thermomorphic solvent system

The use of a liquid–liquid biphasic thermomorphic or temperature-dependent multicomponent solvent (TMS) system, in which the catalyst accumulates in one of the liquid phases and the product goes preferably to the other liquid phase, can be an enabling strategy of commercial hydroformylation processes with high selectivity, efficiency and ease of product separation and catalyst recovery. This paper describes the synthesis of n-nonanal, a commercially important fine chemical, by the hydroformylation reaction of 1-octene using a homogeneous catalyst consisting of HRh(PPh₃)₃(CO) and P(OPh)₃ in a TMS-system consisting of propylene carbonate (PC), dodecane and 1,4-dioxane. At a reaction temperature of 363 K, syngas pressure of 1.5 MPa and 0.68 mM concentration of the catalyst, HRh(CO)(PPh₃)₃, the conversion of 1-octene and the yield of total aldehyde were 97% and 95%, respectively. With a reaction time of 2 h and a selectivity of 89.3%, this catalytic system can be considered as highly reactive and selective compared to conventional ones. The resulting total turnover number was 600, while the turnover frequency was 400 h^?1. The effects of increasing the concentration of 1-octene, catalyst loading, partial pressure of CO and H₂ and temperature on the rate of reaction have been studied at 353, 363 and 373 K. The rate was found to be first order with respect to concentrations of the catalyst and 1-octene, and the partial pressure of H₂. The dependence of the reaction rate on the partial pressure of CO showed typical substrate inhibited kinetics. The kinetic behavior differs significantly from the kinetics of conventional systems employing HRh(CO)(PPh₃)₃ in organic solvents. Most notable are the lack of olefin inhibition and the absence of a critical catalyst concentration. A mechanistic rate equation has been proposed and the kinetic parameters evaluated with an average error of 5.5%. The activation energy was found to be 69.8 kJ/mol.     

Spectrophotometric and electrochemical behavior of a novel azocalix[4]arene derivative as a highly selective chromogenic chemosensor for Cr

In this study, a novel azocalix[4]arene derivative, 5,11,17-tris[(1-naphtyl)azo]-25,26,27,28-tetrahydroxy-calix[4]arene (NAC4) bearing napthyl groups on the upper rim was synthesized. Its complexation behavior for alkali, alkaline-earth and various heavy metal ions (Li⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, Rb⁺, Cs⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, Sr²⁺, Ba²⁺, Pb²⁺, Hg²⁺, Ni²⁺, Cd²⁺, Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺, Co²⁺, Fe²⁺, Cr³⁺, Ag⁺) was investigated by spectroscopic and voltammetric methods. This chemosensor exhibits decreased absorbance in the presence of Hg²⁺ and a unique absorbance quenching effect only for Cr³⁺. In addition, a new absorption band centered at 565 nm with the formation of the 1:1 host–guest complex (Cr³⁺-NAC4) was observed in the case of Cr³⁺, leading to an obvious color change from light orange to dark lilac. In voltammetric experiments, Cr³⁺ ions decreased voltammetric peaks of NAC4, whereas no significant changes occurred in the presence of the other metal ions. The Benesi–Hildebrand method was used to determine a logarithmic value of 3.76 for the association constant of the complex between Cr³⁺ and NAC4.     

RF-MEMS load sensors with enhanced Q-factor and sensitivity in a suspended architecture

In this paper, we present and demonstrate RF-MEMS load sensors designed and fabricated in a suspended architecture that increases their quality-factor (Q-factor), accompanied with an increased resonance frequency shift under load. The suspended architecture is obtained by removing silicon under the sensor. We compare two sensors that consist of 195 μm × 195 μm resonators, where all of the resonator features are of equal dimensions, but one’s substrate is partially removed (suspended architecture) and the other’s is not (planar architecture). The single suspended device has a resonance of 15.18 GHz with 102.06 Q-factor whereas the single planar device has the resonance at 15.01 GHz and an associated Q-factor of 93.81. For the single planar device, we measured a resonance frequency shift of 430 MHz with 3920 N of applied load, while we achieved a 780 MHz frequency shift in the single suspended device. In the planar triplet configuration (with three devices placed side by side on the same chip, with the two outmost ones serving as the receiver and the transmitter), we observed a 220 MHz frequency shift with 3920 N of applied load while we obtained a 340 MHz frequency shift in the suspended triplet device with 3920 N load applied. Thus, the single planar device exhibited a sensitivity level of 0.1097 MHz/N while the single suspended device led to an improved sensitivity of 0.1990 MHz/N. Similarly, with the planar triplet device having a sensitivity of 0.0561 MHz/N, the suspended triplet device yielded an enhanced sensitivity of 0.0867 MHz/N.