Electrochemical reduction of 2,4,6-trinitro diphenylamine in buffered and unbuffered methanolic solutions

The polarographic reduction of 2,4,6-trinitro diphenylamine was found to give three waves of nearly equal height in all pH regions in buffered solutions and also in unbuffered methanol—water mixtures. The waves were shown to be diffusion-controlled and irreversible on the basis of the usual criteria. Controlled-potential electrolysis at the limiting region of the third wave gave n_app = 18 and thus it was shown that n_app = 6 for each of the waves. It was concluded that each of the nitrogroups in the compound is reduced to the corresponding amino group, the nitro groups ortho to the --- NH group in the parent compound being reduced first followed by the other. Cyclic voltammetric experiments in unbuffered solutions gave evidence for a new redox system which was attributed to amine-quinone diimine intermediate couple. It was inferred that each of the nitro groups in the compound is reduced to the amino function via this intermediate.     

Electron density distribution and bonding in ZnSe and PbSe using maximum entropy method (MEM)

The study of electronic structure of materials and bonding is an important part of material characterization. The maximum entropy method (MEM) is a powerful tool for deriving accurate electron density distribution in crystalline materials using experimental data. In this paper, the attention is focused on producing electron density distribution of ZnSe and PbSe using JCPDS X-ray powder diffraction data. The covalent/ ionic nature of the bonding and the interaction between the atoms are clearly revealed by the MEM maps. The mid bond electron densities between atoms in these systems are found to be 0.544 e/ų and 0–261 e/ų, respectively for ZnSe and PbSe. The bonding in these two systems has been studied using two-dimensional MEM electron density maps on the (100) and (110) planes, and the one-dimensional electron density profiles along [100], [110] and [111] directions. The thermal parameters of the individual atoms have also been reported in this work. The algorithm of the MEM procedure has been presented.     

On the optical and electrical properties of rf and a.c. plasma polymerized aniline thin films

Polyaniline is a widely studied conducting polymer and is a useful material in its bulk and thin film form for many applications, because of its excellent optical and electrical properties. Pristine and iodine doped polyaniline thin films were prepared by a.c. and rf plasma polymerization techniques separately for the comparison of their optical and electrical properties. Doping of iodine was effectedin situ. The structural properties of these films were evaluated by FTIR spectroscopy and the optical band gap was estimated from UV-vis-NIR measurements. Comparative studies on the structural, optical and electrical properties of a.c. and rf polymerization are presented here. It has been found that the optical band gap of the polyaniline thin films prepared by rf and a.c. plasma polymerization techniques differ considerably and the band gap is further reduced byin situ doping of iodine. The electrical conductivity measurements on these films show a higher value of electrical conductivity in the case of rf plasma polymerized thin films when compared to the a.c. plasma polymerized films. Also, it is found that the iodine doping enhanced conductivity of the polymer thin films considerably. The results are compared and correlated and have been explained with respect to the different structures adopted under these two preparation techniques.     

Ion beam modification of strained InGaAs/InP characterized by HRXRD, PL and AFM

Highly tensile strained InGaAs/InP multi quantum wells have been grown by the LP-MOVPE technique. Such samples were subjected to irradiation with 100 MeV Au⁸⁺ ions. These were studied as a function of fluence, then the irradiated samples were annealed by rapid thermal annealing at 700 °C for 60 s in nitrogen atmosphere. We used high resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD), photoluminescence (PL) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) characterization techniques to study the interfacial induced changes, band gap modifications and surface morphology. Multi quantum wells were then studied before and after irradiation.     

Analysis of active damping in composite laminate cylindrical shells of revolution with skewed PVDF sensors/actuators

Active damping in a FRP composite cylindrical shell with collocated piezoelectric sensors/actuators is studied. The electrode on the sensors/actuators are spatially shaped to reduce spillover between circumferential modes. A three noded, isoparametric, semianalytical finite element is developed and used to model the cylindrical shell. The element is based on a mixed piezoelectric shell theory which makes a single layer assumption for the displacements and a layerwise assumption for the electric potential. The effects of location of patch of collocated piezoelectric sensors/actuators, percentage length of the shell covered with these patches, fiber angle of the laminae in the composite laminate, stacking sequence of laminae in a laminate and skew angle of the sensor/actuator piezoelectric material, on the system damping for various modes is studied.     

Effect of inhibitors on hydrogen consumption and microbial population dynamics in mixed anaerobic cultures

The impact of different chemical microbial stressors (2-bromoethanesulfonate (BES), furfural, fish oil, lauric acid (LUA) and linoleic acid (LA)) on the inhibition of mesophilic hydrogen (H₂) consumption was examined in this study. Hydrogen consumption half-life values were used to compare the extent of inhibition by the different microbial stressing agents. A statistical analysis of the percent H₂ consumed using Tukey's analysis revealed the following trend: Control > fish oil = linoleic acid (LA (C18:2)) = furfural > BES > lauric acid (LUA (C12:0). The terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RLFP) results indicated that aceticlastic methanogens (Methanosaeta sp., Methanosarcina sp.) and hydrogenotrophic methanogens (Methanococcus sp.) were inhibited by the different chemical stressing agents. Cultures fed LUA and LA had a high abundance of Clostridium sp., Clostridium propionicum and Propionibacterium acnes. In comparison, BES and furfural fed cultures contained large fractions of Clostridium sp., Eubacteria sp. and Bacteroides sp. while in the fish oil fed cultures, the dominant organism detected was Eubacteria sp. This study indicated that H₂ consumption was affected by the chemical stressing agent concentration.     

Spherical granular structures of Ag/Co nanoparticles: Synthesis, characterization and magnetic properties

Ag/Co bimetallic nanoparticles in the form of hierarchical spherical structures were prepared by the polyol process using oleic acid and oleylamine as surfactants. The Ag/Co nanoparticles so obtained were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), UV-vis spectroscopy (UV-Vis), small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and super-conducting quantum interference device (SQUID). The XRD results in complement with the UV-vis studies indicated the absence of Ag-Co alloy formation during the synthesis. The FESEM observations depicted dense and uniform spherical granular structures for the Ag/Co nanoparticles; while the TEM studies apparently revealed a bimodal distribution of nanoparticles exist in the Ag/Co samples. The SAXS analysis on the Ag/Co colloids further validated the TEM results. The VSM studies showed typical ferromagnetic characteristics for the Ag/Co nanoparticles at room temperature; whereas the SQUID measurements demonstrated superparamagnetic nature for these nanoclusters with a blocking temperature close to 250 K. The synthetic route presented in this work represents a simple means of producing bimetallic composite superstructures of Ag/Co nanoparticles in the form of spherical granules on a large scale. These spherical aggregates have the potential to be important building blocks for more complex nanostructures and would be interesting for magnetic studies and catalytic applications.