Preparation of gold nanoparticles (GNP) aqueous suspensions by a new method involving Tiron

A new method is proposed to produce gold nanoparticles (GNP) by in situ reduction of a gold salt dissolved in water. The reducing agent used is Tiron instead of the citrate anion most often mentioned in literature. The influence of various parameters has been investigated, such as the content of Tiron with respect to that of the precursor of gold HAuCl₄, or the initial pH of the solution after mixing of reactants. It is shown that Tiron also exerts a positive influence as a dispersant, which impedes agglomeration of gold nanoparticles. The typical average size of GNP synthesized in the present work is close to 7 nm.     

The treatment of waste-air containing mixed solvent using a biofilter 2. Treatment of waste-air containing ethanol and toluene in a biofilter

An experiment for five stages of a biofilter-run was performed to investigate the effect of hydrophilic ethanol and hydrophobic toluene on the biodegradation of hydrophobic toluene and hydrophilic ethanol, respectively, when waste-air containing toluene and ethanol was treated by a biofilter. Removal efficiencies of toluene and ethanol began to decrease when inlet load surpassed 90 g/m³/h and 100 g/m³/h consistent with maximum elimination capacities of toluene and ethanol, respectively. At the end of the biofilter-run, removal efficiencies for toluene and ethanol were decreased and maintained at 65% and 40%, respectively. The concentration of toluene at 1st sampling port was raised by factor of two in the 3rd stage of the biofilter run when the inlet load of ethanol co-feed was increased by 1.5 times, while the process conditions of toluene were maintained the same as those of the 2nd stage of biofilter-run. According to the result of Mohseni and Allen, it may be interpreted that removal efficiency of hydrophobic toluene was affected by the presence of hydrophilic ethanol when high load of hydrophobic toluene was applied like that of the 1st sampling port of the biofilter. However it was not the case when a low load of hydrophobic toluene was applied like those of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th sampling ports since hydrophobicity of toluene is much less that of α-pinene. Thus, it may be suggested that biodegradation of hydrophobic VOC was interfered by hydrophilic VOC dissolved in the biolayer and the degree of interference was proportional to the inlet load of hydrophobic VOC as well as that of hydrophilic VOC and was inversely proportional to the solubility of hydrophobic VOC. However, it was inferred that the existence of hydrophobic toluene from waste-air can hardly inversely hinder the removal of hydrophilic ethanol in the biofilter when timeevolutions of hydrophilic ethanol concentrations of this experiment were compared with those of the previous experiment of biofilter to treat waste-air containing ethanol only.     

Stimulation of negative magnetoresistance by an electric field and light in silicon doped with boron and manganese

It is experimentally ascertained that light stimulates the negative magnetoresistance observed in a high electric field in silicon doped with boron and manganese. The optimum conditions (the electric field, temperature, illumination, and resistivity of the material) for observation of the largest magnitude of negative magnetoresistance in (Si:B):Mn are determined. The dependence of the negative magnetoresistance on the concentration of compensating impurity is established.     

The stress intensity factors for a short crack partially penetrating an inclusion of arbitrary shape

Some approximate solutions for predicting the stress intensity factor of a short crack penetrating an inclusion of arbitrary shape have been developed under mode I and mode II loading conditions. The derivation of the fundamental formula is based on the transformation toughening theory. The transformation strains in the inclusion are induced by the crack-tip field and remotely applied stresses, and approximately evaluated by the Eshelby equivalent inclusion theory. As validated by detailed finite element (FE) analyses, the developed solutions have good accuracy for different inclusion shape and for a wide range of modulus ratio between inclusion and matrix material.     

An overview of nondestructive evaluation methods

ondestructive evaluation is described as nondestructive testing (NDT), nondestructive inspection (NDI), and nondestructive examination (NDE). The activities associated with the evaluation include testing, inspection, and examination and primarily involve looking at (or through) and/or measuring some characteristic of an object. Frequently there is a desire to determine some characteristic of the object or to determine whether the object contains irregularities, discontinuities, or flaws. These examinations, inspections, or tests are used to determine the physical soundness of a material without impairing its usefulness. Nondestructive evaluation is a powerful tool that can help assure safety, quality, and reliability; increase productivity; decrease liability; protect the environment; and save money. In this article, nondestructive evaluation is represented by the acronym NDE.     

Influence of the preparation conditions on the size and morphology of nanocrystalline lanthanum orthoferrite

Nanocrystalline LaFeO₃ is prepared by the dehydration of coprecipitated lanthanum and iron(III) hydroxides. It is shown that the behavior of the samples during heating and the size distribution of LaFeO₃ nanocrystals can be considerably different depending on the scheme used for coprecipitation of lanthanum and iron hydroxides; independently of the method employed for coprecipitation of the initial compounds, sintering of the samples at 950°C leads to the formation of lanthanum orthoferrite crystals up to 100 nm in size.