Electrochemical Reduction of Oriented Graphene Oxide Films: An in Situ Raman Spectroelectrochemical Study

Graphene oxide (GO) is assembled on a gold substrate by a layer-by-layer technique using a self-assembled cystamine monolayer. The negatively charged GO platelets are attached to the positively charged cystamine monolayer through electrostatic interactions. Subsequently, it is shown that the GO can be reduced electrochemically using applied DC bias by scanning the potential from 0 to -1 V vs a saturated calomel electrode in an aqueous electrolyte. The GO and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) are characterized by Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). A clear shift of the G band from 1610 cm-1 of GO to 1585 cm-1 of RGO is observed. The electrochemical reduction is followed in situ by micro Raman spectroscopy by carrying out Raman spectroscopic studies during the application of DC bias. The GO and RGO films have been characterized by conductive AFM that shows an increase in the current flow by at least 3 orders of magnitude after reduction. The electrochemical method of reducing GO may open up another way of controlling the reduction of GO and the extent of reduction to obtain highly conducting graphene on electrode materials.

Highly Monodisperse Colloidal Magnesium Nanoparticles by Room Temperature Digestive Ripening

Nanoclusters of 25 nm sized Mg-THF have been prepared by the solvated metal atom dispersion method. Room-temperature digestive ripening of these nanoclusters in the presence of hexadecylamine (HDA) resulted in highly monodisperse colloidal Mg-HDA nanoparticles of 2.8 ± 0.2 nm. An insight into the room-temperature digestive ripening process was obtained by studying the disintegration of clusters for various Mg:HDA ratios. The Mg colloids are quite stable with respect to precipitation of particles under Ar atmosphere. Using this procedure, pure Mg(0) nanopowders were obtained in gram scale quantities. The Mg powder precipitated from the colloid was fully hydrided at 33 bar and 118 °C. Initial desorption of H2 from samples of MgH2 was achieved at a remarkably low temperature, 115 °C compared to >350 °C in bulk Mg, demonstrating the importance of the size on the desorption temperatures.

Analysis of recreational fish catches – dealing with highly skewed distributions with many zeros

Data from surveys of recreational anglers fishing on three estuaries in eastern Australia reveal highly skewed distributions of catches with many zeros. Such data may be analysed using a two component approach involving a binary (zero/non-zero catch) response and the non-zero catches. A truncated regression model was effective in analysing the non-zero catches. Covariates were incorporated in the modelling, and their critical assessment has led to improved measures of fishing effort for this recreational fishery.

05-ions in a low pressure glow discharge of oxygen

0:- ions have been detected and measured in a positive column of glow discharge in oxygen between 0.04 and 0.17 Torr. A suitable ion-molecule reaction has been proposed, which appears to be supported by the mass spectrometer measurements.

Classical Langevin dynamics of a charged particle moving on a sphere and diamagnetism: A surprise

It is generally known that the orbital diamagnetism of a classical system of charged particles in thermal equilibrium is identically zero —the Bohr-van Leeuwen theorem. Physically, this null result derives from the exact cancellation of the orbital diamagnetic moment associated with the complete cyclotron orbits of the charged particles by the paramagnetic moment subtended by the incomplete orbits skipping the boundary in the opposite sense. Motivated by this crucial but subtle role of the boundary, we have simulated here the case of a finite but unbounded system, namely that of a charged particle moving on the surface of a sphere in the presence of an externally applied uniform magnetic field. Following a real space-time approach based on the classical Langevin equation, we have computed the orbital magnetic moment that now indeed turns out to be non-zero and has the diamagnetic sign. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of the possibility of finite classical diamagnetism in principle, and it is due to the avoided cancellation.

Ammonium ions prevent methylation of uridine to ribothymidine in Azotobacter vinelandii tRNA

It was shown that tRNA from Azotobacter vinelandii grown in the presence of ammonium chloride lacks ribothymidine while that grown in the absence of the ammonium salt contains this modified nucleoside. [32P]-Labelled tRNA from this organism grown in a medium containing the ammonium salt was digested with RNase T1 and the pseudouridinecontaining tetranucleotide, common to all tRNAs was isolated and analysed for the nucleoside replacing the ribothymidine. It was found to be uridine. Cells previously labelled with [32P]- phosphate in the ammonium salt medium were washed and incubated in the ammonium saltfree medium to test whether ribothymidine would be formed upon removal of the ammoniumions. Methylation of the uridine did not take place.

Absence of reptation in highly confined polymers

We present results of mechanical stress relaxation measurements on polymers confined at the air-water interface in the form of a monolayer. Systematic measurements allow, to our knowledge, for the first time, observation of the scaling of the stress relaxation time of the highly confined polymers as a function of both surface concentration and molecular weight. The observed scaling is found to be very close to that expected for motion of unentangled polymer solutions with hydrodynamic interactions. Our experimental observations thus clearly rule out the possibility of entanglement and hence reptation as a mode of relaxation in such highly confined polymeric systems.

Facile conversion of electron rich benzylic hydrocarbons to carbonyl compounds by peroxydisulphate and copper ions

A convenient method for the conversion of electron rich benzylic hydrocarbons to carbonyl compounds is reported.

Selecting replacements for invasive plants to support frugivores in highly modified sites: a case study focusing on Lantana camara

Invasive plants are regarded as a major threat to biodiversity worldwide. Yet, in some cases, invasive plants now perform important ecological functions. For example, fleshy-fruited invasive plants provide food that supports indigenous frugivore populations. How can the disparate goals of conservation versus invasive weed control be managed? We suggest using the fruit characteristics of the invasive plant to select replacement indigenous plants that are functionally similar from the perspective of frugivores. These could provide replacement food resources at sites where plants with these characteristics are part of the goal plant community and where such plants would not otherwise regenerate. Replacement plants could also redirect seed dispersal processes to favour indigenous, rather than invasive, plant species. We investigated the utility of this approach by ranking all indigenous fleshy-fruited plant species from a region using a simple model that scored species based upon measures of fruit phenology, morphology, conspicuousness and accessibility relative to a target invasive species, Lantana (Lantana camara). The model successfully produced high scores for indigenous plant species that were used by more of the frugivores of Lantana than a random selection of plants, suggesting that this approach warrants further investigation.

Sustainable and profitable grazing management in a highly variable environment-evidence and insights from a long term grazing trial in northern Australia.

Rainfall variability is a major challenge to sustainable management in semi-arid rangelands. We present empirical evidence from a large, long-term grazing trial in northern Australia on the relative performance of constant heavy stocking, moderate stocking at long-term carrying capacity and variable stocking in coping with climate variability over a range of rainfall years. Moderate stocking gave good economic returns, maintained pasture condition and minimised soil loss and runoff. Heavy stocking was neither sustainable nor profitable in the long term. Variable stocking generally performed well but suffered economic loss and some decline in pasture condition in the transition from good to poor years. Importantly, our results show that sustainable and profitable management are compatible in semi-arid rangelands.

Frequency and temperature-dependent mobility of a charged carrier on a randomly interrupted strand

A randomly interrupted strand model of a one-dimensional conductor is considered. An exact analytical expression is obtained for the temperature-dependent ac mobility for a finite segment drawn at random, taking into account the reflecting barriers at the two open ends. The real part of mobility shows a broad resonance as a function of both frequency and temperature, and vanishes quadratically in the dc limit. The frequency (temperature) maximum shifts to higher values for higher temperatures (frequencies).

Highly Enhanced Thermopower in Two-Dimensional Electron Systems at Millikelvin Temperatures

We report experimental observation of an unexpectedly large thermopower in mesoscopic two-dimensional (2D) electron systems in GaAs/AlGaA heterostructures at sub-Kelvin temperatures and zero magnetic field. Unlike conventional nonmagnetic high-mobility 2D systems, the thermopower in our devices increases with decreasing temperature below 0.3 K, reaching values in excess of 100 mu V/K, thus exceeding the free electron estimate by more than 2 orders of magnitude. With support from a parallel study of the local density of states, we suggest such a phenomenon to be linked to intrinsic localized states and many-body spin correlations in the system.

High temperature stability of oxysulfides containing Ce3+ and Y3+ ions

Standard Gibbs energies of formation of oxysulfides of cerium and yttrium from their respective oxedes were determined using solid oxide galvanic cells incorporating calcia-stabilized zirconia as the electrolyte in the temperature range 870–1120 K. The sulfur potential over the electrode containing the oxide and oxysulfide was fixed by a buffer mixture of Ag + Ag2S. A small amount of CaH2 was added to the buffer to generate an equilibrium ratio of H2S and H2 species in a closed system containing the buffer and the electrode. The sulfur potential is transmitted to the electrode via the gas phase. The results can be summarized by the equations 2left angle bracketCeO2right-pointing angle bracket+1/2(S2)→left angle bracketCe2O2Sright-pointing angle bracket+(O2) ΔG°=430600−109·7T(±400)J mol−1 left angle bracketY2O3right-pointing angle bracket+1/2(S2)→left angle bracketY2O2Sright-pointing angle bracket+1/2(O2) ΔG°=114780−1·45T(±200)J mol−1 The values are compared with data reported in the literature. The stability field diagram for the Ce---O---S system has been developed using the results of this study for Ce2O2S and data for other phases from the literature.

ESR and optical studies of Mo5+ and W5+ ions in phosphomolybdate and phosphotungstate glasses

ESR and optical studies of phosphomolybdate and phosphotungstate glasses are discussed. Both the ESR and optical results indicate that molybdenum or tungsten ions are present in distorted octahedral environments in these glasses. In addition, ESR spectra of Mo5+ and W5+ ions show that the d electrons are localized on molybdenum and tungsten sites respectively. The variation of gperpendicular and gshort parallel values has been examined using appropriate structural models of these glasses.