Aplicações clássicas da técnica de espalhamento de raios-x a baixo ângulo em materiais nanoestruturados

The small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) technique has been used with very much versatility and success in the structural characterization of nanostructured materials. The present work deals with a study of the principles of the SAXS technique and of some classical models employed in the structural characterization of nanostructured materials. Particularly, the study of the models and of the associated methodologies is applied to a set of samples of silica gels, of varied typical structures, prepared in the Laboratório de Novos Materiais of the Departamento de Física of the IGCE. The work discusses in an introductory chapter the principles of the SAXS technique and the foundation of classical models often used in the structural characterization of materials. The classical models and the associated methodologies were applied to a variety of silica gel structures. The studies include: i) the scattering from a system of particles - Guinier's law; ii) the asymptotic scattering from a two-phase system - Porod's law; iii) systematic deviation from Porod's law - Surface Fractal; iv) heterogeneities in solids with random size distribution - DAB Model; and v) the scattering from mass fractal structures. The analyses were carried out from experimental SAXS data obtained in several opportunities at the Laboratório Nacional de Luz Síncrotron (LNLS)

Análise fractal de fraturas em regime linear elástico: modo I de carregamento

For the development of this graduate work of fractal fracture behavior, it is necessary to establish references for fractal analysis on fracture surfaces, evaluating, from tests of fracture tenacity on modes I, II and combined I / II, the behavior of fractures in fragile materials, on linear elastic regime. Fractures in the linear elastic regime are described by your fractal behavior by several researchers, especially Mecholsky JJ. The motivation of that present proposal stems from work done by the group and accepted for publication in the journal Materials Science and Engineering A (Horovistiz et al, 2010), where the model of Mecholsky could not be proven for fractures into grooved specimens for tests of diametric compression of titania on mode I. The general objective of this proposal is to quantify the distinguish surface regions formed by different mechanisms of fracture propagation in linear elastic regime in polymeric specimens (phenolic resin), relating tenacity, thickness of the specimens and fractal dimension. The analyzed fractures were obtained from SCB tests in mode I loading, and the acquisition of images taken using an optical reflection microscope and the surface topographies obtained by the extension focus method of reconstruction, calculating the values of fractal dimension with the use of maps of elevations. The fractal dimension was classified as monofractal dimension (Df), when the fracture is described by a single value, or texture size (Dt), which is a macroscopic analysis of the fracture, combined with the structural dimension (Ds), which is a microscopic analysis. The results showed that there is no clear relationship between tenacity, thickness and fractal values for the material investigated. On the other hand it is clear that the fractal values change with the evolution of cracks during the fracture process ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Propriedades estruturais de géis de sílica preparados com adições de dodecil sulfato de sódio

This work aims to study the structural characteristics of silica gels obtained from the acid hydrolysis of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) in water solutions with different concentrations of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). The structural characteristics were studied in stages ranging from the wet gel to the dry stages of the gels (aerogels and xerogels). Aerogels were obtained by ambient pressure drying (APD) after silylation process using trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS) as silylating agent. Xerogels were obtained by conventional evaporating the liquid phase from non silylated gels. The samples were characterized by nitrogen adsorption and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The structure of the wet gels and of the aerogels prepared with the surfactant exhibited characteristics of mass-fractal structures with fractal dimension D in the range 2.1-2.2 for the wet gels and 2.3-2.4 for the aerogels. The characteristic size  of the fractal domain reduces while the size a0 of the primary silica particle composing the fractal structure increases with the drying of the gels, in a process in which share of the porosity is eliminated. Aerogels exhibited typical values for the specific surface of 900 m2g-1 and of 3.5 cm3.g-1 for the total pore volume. These values are correspondingly comparable to those of the aerogels prepared by supercritical drying, since the silylation process replaces hydrophilic –OH groups by hydrophobic –Si-R3 ones, inhibiting the porosity elimination on drying. The silica particle size also increases lightly with the silylation because the attachment of the –Si-R3 groups on the silica surface. The pore size distribution curves of the aerogels are similar for all samples exhibiting a maximum in around 40 nm, independent the concentration of surfactant. This suggests that the characteristic size of 40 nm is due to the association of surfactant micelles... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Estudo da variação do limite de resistência à tração ao longo da bobina de vergalhão de alumínio 1350 AA

Therebar of aluminum 1350 AA produced by CBA are used inthe manufacture of wires and cables for electric power transmission, which marketshows increasingly favorableto aluminum due to itslow densityand high electrical conductivity, but to ensure that this materialmeets all specifications of projectsfor electricity transmission, it must have homogeneity in the chemicaland mechanicalproperties.One of the points of improvement in the process of rod production isreducing the high variation of the limitof tensile strengthalong the coils, therefore, this work seeks a better understanding of the factors that significantly influence the mechanical properties of rebar, specifically assessing the influence oftemperatureat the output of the coils, which can cause a recovery effect on the material andif thereare relevantdifferences between the two modes of rebar production: auto and manual.Samples of six coils have been specifically produced forthis study, which weresubsequently subjected to different annealing temperatures for one hour and ten minutes, similar to what occurs in the output of the coil from the machine. The tensile tests showed that aluminum 1350 AA is significantly influenced by temperature, whose behavior was very similar to that presented in the literature. It was found that the phenomenon of recovery occurred more significantly at high temperatures. Through the optical electron microscope Zeiss, 18 surface maps were made with 100x magnification for each sample in different conditions and the images were analyzed using entropy and fractal dimension, aiming to relate the condition of surface hardening on mechanical property of the samples in that condition. The results showed that these methods can be applied, provided they do not have any kind of imperfection on the surface, once they can influence the results. The study concluded that a more efficient cooling is required in ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Análise estrutural de aerogéis via espalhamento de luz a baixo ângulo

The sol-gel process is a method for obtaining vitreous or vitro-ceramic materials which, are prepared a sol and by drying the liquid phase. This technique has been used extensively for the preparation of glassy gels, films, fibers and particles from the hydrolysis and polycondensation reactions of metal alkoxides. The usual methods for drying are: evaporation drying (xerogels), freeze drying (criogéis) and via supercritical CO2 extraction (aerogels). In the present work, we studied the preparation of silica gels by the sol-gel process from the hydrolysis of alkoxides tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) and 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPTS). The hydrolysis was promoted from GPTS and TEOS in proportion (4: 1) under acidic conditions. The hydrolysis reaction was promoted inside a Becker at room temperature. After hydrolyses the prepared sol had pH 2, and kept under mechanical agitation for a period of 1 hour. In order to accelerate the polycondensation reaction, the pH was corrected to a value near 5 by slowly adding NH4OH. Then the sols were leaked in sealed polycarbonate containers and maintained for 20 days at 40°C for gelation. Silica aerogels were prepared via supercritical CO2 extraction of the wet gel at temperature and pressure higher than 31°C and 74 atm, in an autoclave specially developed for the process. The structural characteristics were studied in the dry gel (aerogel). Aerogels were then characterized by nitrogen adsorption and small angle light scattering. The nitrogen adsorption data were analyzed for the determination of the BET specific surface (SBET), the total pore volume Vp, the pore mean size (lP=4Vp/SBET), the particle mean size (lS) and the pore size distribution (PSD). And the data from small angle light scattering were analyzed to determine the correlation function (γ'), the area per unit volume (S/V), average pore size (l ) and the average particle size...

Aplicações médicas das abordagens complexas não lineares: a geometria fractal do EEG

Pós-graduação em Saúde Coletiva - FMB

Pano Kente: estrutura e estética africana

The fractal geometry of nature is seen in organizations and has set handcrafted artifacts, among them African Kente cloth traditionally produced by Ewe and Ashanti of West Africa. Incorporating parameters also classify products as carriers of fractal geometry, the Kente fabrics exhibit built from geometric shapes classified as seeds or unique architecture. This article aims to analyze examples of Kente cloths and establish the existence of geometric structures formed from a parent cell, exposing how this cell and how its architecture and formed patterns are maintained throughout the finished product.

Síntese de aluminas macro-mesoporosas pelo método sol-gel acompanhado de separação de fases

Pós-graduação em Química - IQ

Characterization of nanostructured material images using fractal descriptors

This work presents a methodology to the morphology analysis and characterization of nanostructured material images acquired from FEG-SEM (Field Emission Gun-Scanning Electron Microscopy) technique. The metrics were extracted from the image texture (mathematical surface) by the volumetric fractal descriptors, a methodology based on the Bouligand-Minkowski fractal dimension, which considers the properties of the Minkowski dilation of the surface points. An experiment with galvanostatic anodic titanium oxide samples prepared in oxalyc acid solution using different conditions of applied current, oxalyc acid concentration and solution temperature was performed. The results demonstrate that the approach is capable of characterizing complex morphology characteristics such as those present in the anodic titanium oxide.

Texture analysis by multi-resolution fractal descriptors

This work proposes a novel texture descriptor based on fractal theory. The method is based on the Bouligand- Minkowski descriptors. We decompose the original image recursively into four equal parts. In each recursion step, we estimate the average and the deviation of the Bouligand-Minkowski descriptors computed over each part. Thus, we extract entropy features from both average and deviation. The proposed descriptors are provided by concatenating such measures. The method is tested in a classification experiment under well known datasets, that is, Brodatz and Vistex. The results demonstrate that the novel technique achieves better results than classical and state-of-the-art texture descriptors, such as Local Binary Patterns, Gabor-wavelets and co-occurrence matrix.

Multiscale fractal descriptors applied to nanoscale images

This work proposes the application of fractal descriptors to the analysis of nanoscale materials under different experimental conditions. We obtain descriptors for images from the sample applying a multiscale transform to the calculation of fractal dimension of a surface map of such image. Particularly, we have used the Bouligand-Minkowski fractal dimension. We applied these descriptors to discriminate between two titanium oxide films prepared under different experimental conditions. Results demonstrate the discrimination power of proposed descriptors in such kind of application.

Combining fractal and deterministic walkers for texture analysis and classification

In this paper,we present a novel texture analysis method based on deterministic partially self-avoiding walks and fractal dimension theory. After finding the attractors of the image (set of pixels) using deterministic partially self-avoiding walks, they are dilated in direction to the whole image by adding pixels according to their relevance. The relevance of each pixel is calculated as the shortest path between the pixel and the pixels that belongs to the attractors. The proposed texture analysis method is demonstrated to outperform popular and state-of-the-art methods (e.g. Fourier descriptors, occurrence matrix, Gabor filter and local binary patterns) as well as deterministic tourist walk method and recent fractal methods using well-known texture image datasets.

Desenvolvimento e otimização de antenas Vivaldi antipodais para aplicações a altas frequências.

Esta tese propõe a síntese e o estudo de uma nova técnica de cavidades de borda aplicada a antenas Vivaldi, com o intuito de melhorar suas características de diretividade. Embora as antenas do tipo Vivaldi possuam características diretivas, elas produzem radiações laterais indesejáveis, o que se reflete nos elevados índices de lóbulos laterais devido a correntes superficiais que fluem ao longo das bordas metalizadas nas laterais da antena. Estas correntes são a origem das radiações laterais que vêm sendo mitigadas pela aplicação de cavidades ressonantes, triangulares ou retangulares, que aprisionam tais correntes e, consequentemente, atenuam os lóbulos laterais, sem o incremento do lóbulo principal, uma vez que toda a energia dos lóbulos laterais é apenas confinada nos ressonadores e por isso literalmente perdida. Ao contrário desses esforços, este trabalho propõe cavidades radiantes tanto na forma de abertura exponencial, como na forma do fractais de Koch, que funcionam como radiadores auxiliares (antenas auxiliares), canalizando as correntes de borda e aproveitando-as para aumentar os níveis do lóbulo principal, mitigando os níveis de lóbulo lateral. A síntese desta nova técnica foi implementada em uma antena Vivaldi antipodal com características de baixa diretividade, como qualquer antena Vivaldi, o que foi corrigido e a aplicação da técnica de cavidades radiantes deu origem a duas novas antenas Vivaldis efetivamente diretivas. Os resultados foram obtidos através de simulações do modelo numérico no CST Microwave Studio e confirmados com medidas de laboratório, o que evidenciou a melhora das características de diretividade da antena pela aplicação da nova técnica de cavidades radiantes.

Análise fractal da vasculatura retínica: métodos de segmentação e de cálculo dimensional

Embora tenha sido proposto que a vasculatura retínica apresenta estrutura fractal, nenhuma padronização do método de segmentação ou do método de cálculo das dimensões fractais foi realizada. Este estudo objetivou determinar se a estimação das dimensões fractais da vasculatura retínica é dependente dos métodos de segmentação vascular e dos métodos de cálculo de dimensão. Métodos: Dez imagens retinográficas foram segmentadas para extrair suas árvores vasculares por quatro métodos computacionais (“multithreshold”, “scale-space”, “pixel classification” e “ridge based detection”). Suas dimensões fractais de “informação”, de “massa-raio” e “por contagem de caixas” foram então calculadas e comparadas com as dimensões das mesmas árvores vasculares, quando obtidas pela segmentação manual (padrão áureo). Resultados: As médias das dimensões fractais variaram através dos grupos de diferentes métodos de segmentação, de 1,39 a 1,47 para a dimensão por contagem de caixas, de 1,47 a 1,52 para a dimensão de informação e de 1,48 a 1,57 para a dimensão de massa-raio. A utilização de diferentes métodos computacionais de segmentação vascular, bem como de diferentes métodos de cálculo de dimensão, introduziu diferença estatisticamente significativa nos valores das dimensões fractais das árvores vasculares. Conclusão: A estimação das dimensões fractais da vasculatura retínica foi dependente tanto dos métodos de segmentação vascular, quanto dos métodos de cálculo de dimensão utilizados

Análise fractal da vasculatura retínica: métodos de segmentação e de cálculo dimensional

Embora tenha sido proposto que a vasculatura retínica apresenta estrutura fractal, nenhuma padronização do método de segmentação ou do método de cálculo das dimensões fractais foi realizada. Este estudo objetivou determinar se a estimação das dimensões fractais da vasculatura retínica é dependente dos métodos de segmentação vascular e dos métodos de cálculo de dimensão. Métodos: Dez imagens retinográficas foram segmentadas para extrair suas árvores vasculares por quatro métodos computacionais (“multithreshold”, “scale-space”, “pixel classification” e “ridge based detection”). Suas dimensões fractais de “informação”, de “massa-raio” e “por contagem de caixas” foram então calculadas e comparadas com as dimensões das mesmas árvores vasculares, quando obtidas pela segmentação manual (padrão áureo). Resultados: As médias das dimensões fractais variaram através dos grupos de diferentes métodos de segmentação, de 1,39 a 1,47 para a dimensão por contagem de caixas, de 1,47 a 1,52 para a dimensão de informação e de 1,48 a 1,57 para a dimensão de massa-raio. A utilização de diferentes métodos computacionais de segmentação vascular, bem como de diferentes métodos de cálculo de dimensão, introduziu diferença estatisticamente significativa nos valores das dimensões fractais das árvores vasculares. Conclusão: A estimação das dimensões fractais da vasculatura retínica foi dependente tanto dos métodos de segmentação vascular, quanto dos métodos de cálculo de dimensão utilizados