Use of the liquid-liquid interface for generating ultrathin nanocrystalline films of metals,chalcogenides,and oxides

The air-water interface has traditionally been employed to prepare particle assemblies and films of metals and semiconductors. The interface between water and an organic liquid, however, has not been investigated sufficiently for possible use in preparing nanocrystals and thin films of materials. In this article, we demonstrate the use of the liquid-liquid interface as a medium for preparing ultrathin films of metals, chalcogenides and oxides. The method involves the reaction at the interface between a metal-organic compound in the organic layer and an appropriate reagent for reduction, sulfidation, etc. in the aqueous layer. Some of the materials discussed are nanocrystalline films of gold, CuS, CuSe, CuO, and Cu(OH)(2) formed at the liquid-liquid interface. The results reported in this article should demonstrate the versatility and potential of the liquid-liquid interface for preparing nanomaterials and ultrathin films and encourage further research in this area.

On the stacking fault energies of some close-packed hexagonal metals

It is now realised (1,2,3) that a knowledge of stacking fault energy is fundamental for an understanding of the mechanical behaviour of metals. There are several processes in which the imperfect dislocations have to recombine locally to form an unextended dislocation . For intersection of two dislocations it is, for example, necessary to form 'constrictions'. Cross slip of extended dislocations also involves constriction. The onset of stage llI work hardening in a crystal with close-packed structure is attributed to cross slip and hence is controlled by the stacking fault energy (SPE). Methods of estimation of SFE are based on either the direct observation of stacking faults in an electron microscope or their effects on the deformation processes.

Quantum phase transition in capacitively coupled double quantum dots

We investigate two equivalent, capacitively coupled semiconducting quantum dots, each coupled to its own lead, in a regime where there are two electrons on the double dot. With increasing interdot coupling, a rich range of behavior is uncovered: first a crossover from spin- to charge-Kondo physics, via an intermediate SU(4) state with entangled spin and charge degrees of freedom, followed by a quantum phase transition of Kosterlitz-Thouless type to a non-Fermi-liquid "charge-ordered" phase with finite residual entropy and anomalous transport properties. Physical arguments and numerical renormalization group methods are employed to obtain a detailed understanding of the problem.

Sound Velocity Anomaly at the Mott Transition: Application to Organic Conductors and V2O3

Close to the Mott transition, lattice degrees of freedom react to the softening of electron degrees of freedom. This results in a change of lattice spacing, a diverging compressibility, and a critical anomaly of the sound velocity. These effects are investigated within a simple model, in the framework of dynamical mean-field theory. The results compare favorably to recent experiments on the layered organic-conductor kappa-(BEDT-TTF)(2)Cu[N(CN)(2)]Cl. We predict that effects of a similar magnitude are expected for V2O3, despite the much larger value of the elastic modulus of this material.

Unusual dielectric response in B-site size-disordered hexagonal transition metal oxides

We discover that hexagonal holmium copper titanate (Ho2CuTiO6), has a unique and highly desirable combination of high dielectric constant, low losses, very small temperature coefficient, and low frequency dependence. Our first-principles calculations indicate that these exceptional properties result from a size-difference at the Cu/Ti B-site that suppresses the expected ferroelectric transition, combined with the dominance of intermediate-frequency polar vibrational modes in the dielectric response. Our results suggest that the use of such B-site disorder in alloys of hexagonal transition-metal oxides should generally result in similar robust dielectrics.

A novel fibre-coated sorbent for rapid removal of heavy metals from wastewater. Sorption of Zinc(II) from dilute aqueous solutions in the presence of high concentrations of common salts

The commercial acrylic fibre "Cashmilon" was partially hydrolyzed to convert a fraction of its nitrile (-CN) groups to carboxylic acid (-COOH) groups and then coated with polyethylenimine (PEI) resin and cross-linked with glutaraldehyde to produce a novel gel-coated fibrous sorbent with multiple functionalities of cationic, anionic and chelating types, and significantly faster sorption kinetics than bead-form sorbents. The sorption properties of the fibrous sorbent were measured using Zn(II) in aqueous solution as the sorbate to determine the effects of pH and the presence of common ions in the solution on the sorption capacity. The rate of sorption on the gel-coated fibre was measured in comparison with that on Amberlite IRA-68 weak-base resin beads, to demonstrate the marked difference between fibre and bead-form sorbents in their kinetic behaviour.

Synthesis, Structure, and Magnetic Properties of Amine-Templated Transition-Metal Phosphites

Transition-metal phosphites of cobalt and vanadium, [C4N2H12][Co(HPO3)(2)] (I), [C4N2H14][Co(HPO3)(2)] (II), [Co[C4H8N12)(H2PO3)(2)] (III),[C4N2H14][(VF)-F-III(HPO3)(2)]center dot H2O (IV), and[C3N2H5](2)[V-4(III)(H2O)(3)(HPO3)(4)(HPO4)(3)] (V), have been synthesized and characterized. Organophosphorus esters were employed to stabilize cobalt in tetrahedral coordination and also to prepare the low-dimensional structures, which are otherwise difficult to synthesize. The structures have one- (I, II, IV), two- (III) and three-dimensionally (V) extended networks built up by the linking of metal polyhedra and phosphite units. Another vanadyl phosphite, [C2N2H10][((VO)-O-IV)(3)(H2O) (HPO3)(4)]center dot H2O,([15]) was also prepared and investigated extensively by ESR, magnetic susceptibility, and other studies. All the compounds in the present study exhibit antiferromagnetic interactions. Well-established magnetic models have been used to fit the experimental data. The compounds havealso been characterized in detail by using UV/Vis spectroscopic studies.

Transition metal complexes of 3-aryl-2-substituted 1,2-dihydroquinazolin-4(3H)-one derivatives: New class of analgesic and anti-inflammatory agents

Five-coordinate, neutral transition metal complexes of newly designed pyridine-2-ethyl-(3-carboxyhdeneamino)-3-(2-phenyl)-1,2-dihydroquinazoli n-4(3H)-one (L) were synthesized and characterized The structure of ligand is confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction studies The compounds were evaluated for the anti-inflammatory activity by carrageenan-induced rat paw edema model while their analgesic activity was determined by acetic acid-induced writhing test in mice wherein the transition metal complexes were found to be more active than the free ligand (C) 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS All rights reserved.

Insulator-metal transition

A theory of the insulator-metal transition in transition-metal compounds is developed in terms of the collapse of the effective energy gap which is a function of the thermally excited electron-hole pairs. This dependence is shown to arise from the hole-lattice interaction. The reaction of the lattice is found to be equivalent to generating an internal positive pressure (strain). Estimates show that the observed typical behaviour of the conductivity jump and the change of volume at the transition temperature can be explained by the present theory.

Stability and transition in the flow of polymer solutions

The linear stability analysis of a plane Couette flow of viscoelastic fluid have been studied with the emphasis on two dimensional disturbances with wave number k similar to Re-1/2, where Re is Reynolds number based on maximum velocity and channel width. We employ three models to represent the dilute polymer solution: the classical Oldroyd-B model, the Oldroyd-B model with artificial diffusivity and the non-homogeneous polymer model. The result of the linear stability analysis is found to be sensitive to the polymer model used. While the plane Couette flow is found to be stable to infinitesimal disturbances for the first two models, the last one exhibits a linear instability.