130,396 research outputs found
Tailoring crystallinity of electrospun Plla fibres by control of electrospinning parameters
Poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) fibers were fabricated by electrospinning. The effects of various electrospinning process parameters on the thermal properties, especially the crystallinity of the electrospun fibers were investigated. Thermal analysis of the fibers revealed that they exhibited degree of crystallinity ranging from 23% to 46% while that for the as-received granules was approximately 37%, suggesting that the crystallinity of electrospun PLLA fibres can be controlled by optimizing the electrospinning process. This finding is very important because crystallinity affects polymer properties such as degradation, stiffness,yield stress, modulus and tensile strength, solubility, optical and electrical properties which will in turn affect the behavior of these materials when they are utilized in energy,environment, defense and security applications. The results presented in this paper show that the degree of crystallinity of the electrospun fibers decreased with increasing the polymer solution concentration. Furthermore, an optimum electrospinning voltage at which maximum degree of crystallinity can be obtained was observed. At voltages higher or lower than the optimum electrospinning voltage, the degree of rystallinity will decrease or increase,respectively. The effect of the needle tip to collector distance (NTCD) on the degree of\ud
crystallinity follows no predictable and consistent pattern
Crystalline silicates as a probe of disk formation history
We present a new perspective on the crystallinity of dust in protoplanetary
disks. The dominant crystallization by thermal annealing happens in the very
early phases of disk formation and evolution. Both the disk properties and the
level of crystallinity are thereby directly linked to the properties of the
molecular cloud core from which the star+disk system was formed. We show that,
under the assumption of single star formation, rapidly rotating clouds produce
disks which, after the main infall phase (i.e. in the optically revealed class
II phase), are rather massive and have a high accretion rate but low
crystallinity. Slowly rotating clouds, on the other hand, produce less massive
disks with lower accretion rate, but high levels of crystallinity. Cloud
fragmentation and the formation of multiple stars complicates the problem and
necessitates further study. The underlying physics of the model is
insufficiently understood to provide the precise relationship between
crystallinity, disk mass and accretion rate. But the fact that with `standard'
input physics the model produces disks which, in comparison to observations,
appear to have either too high levels of crystallinity or too high disk masses,
demonstrates that the comparison of these models to observations can place
strong contraints on the disk physics. The question to ask is not why some
sources are so crystalline, but why some other sources have such a low level of
crystallinity.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ
Mode expansion for the density profile of crystal-fluid interfaces: Hard spheres as a test case
We present a technique for analyzing the full three-dimensional density
profiles of a planar crystal-fluid interface in terms of density modes. These
density modes can also be related to crystallinity order parameter profiles
which are used in coarse-grained, phase field type models of the statics and
dynamics of crystal-fluid interfaces and are an alternative to crystallinity
order parameters extracted from simulations using local crystallinity criteria.
We illustrate our results for the hard sphere system using finely-resolved,
three-dimensional density profiles from density functional theory of
fundamental measure type.Comment: submitted for the special issue of the CODEF III conferenc
Mineral maturity and crystallinity index are distinct characteristics of bone mineral
The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that mineral maturity and crystallinity index are two different characteristics of bone mineral. To this end, Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy (FTIRM) was used. To test our hypothesis, synthetic apatites and human bone samples were used for the validation of the two parameters using FTIRM. Iliac crest samples from seven human controls and two with skeletal fluorosis were analyzed at the bone structural unit (BSU) level by FTIRM on sections 2–4 lm thick. Mineral maturity and crystallinity index were highly correlated in synthetic apatites but poorly correlated in normal human bone. In skeletal fluorosis, crystallinity index was increased and maturity decreased, supporting the fact of separate measurement of these two parameters. Moreover, results obtained in fluorosis suggested that mineral characteristics can be modified independently of bone remodeling. In conclusion, mineral maturity and crystallinity index are two different parameters measured separately by FTIRM and offering new perspectives to assess bone mineral traits in osteoporosis
Probing protoplanetary disks with silicate emission: Where is the silicate emission zone?
Recent results indicate that the grain size and crystallinity inferred from observations of silicate features may be correlated with the spectral type of the central star and/or disk geometry. In this paper, we show that grain size, as probed by the 10 μm silicate feature peak-to-continuum and 11.3 to 9.8 μm flux ratios, is inversely proportional to log Lsstarf. These trends can be understood using a simple two-layer disk model for passive irradiated flaring disks, CGPLUS. We find that the radius, R10, of the 10 μm silicate emission zone in the disk goes as (L*/L☉)^0.56, with slight variations depending on disk geometry (flaring angle and inner disk radius). The observed correlations, combined with simulated emission spectra of olivine and pyroxene mixtures, imply a dependence of grain size on luminosity. Combined with the fact that R10 is smaller for less luminous stars, this implies that the apparent grain size of the emitting dust is larger for low-luminosity sources. In contrast, our models suggest that the crystallinity is only marginally affected, because for increasing luminosity, the zone for thermal annealing (assumed to be at T > 800 K) is enlarged by roughly the same factor as the silicate emission zone. The observed crystallinity is affected by disk geometry, however, with increased crystallinity in flat disks. The apparent crystallinity may also increase with grain growth due to a corresponding increase in contrast between crystalline and amorphous silicate emission bands
Understanding crystallinity in aromatic polyimides
Aromatic polyimides are a class of polymers that show remarkable thermal stability, strength, and toughness. These properties make them attractive candidates for use in high-performance carbon fiber composites for airborne and spaceborne structural components. Our research centered on the development of an understanding of the underlying process of crystallite formation in a particular class of aryl polyimides for which there are some x-ray crystallographic data available. The ultimate aim of the project is to be able to develop a model sufficiently flexible to be able, on the basis of the chemical structure of a polymer in this class, to predict: (1) whether it will be prone to form crystallites; (2) crystallographic features of the crystallites; and (3) synthesis and/or processing conditions that will be favorable or unfavorable to crystallite formation. This will provide guidance to the laboratory chemists in their choice of candidate polymers and processing methods
On time crystallinity in dissipative Floquet systems
We investigate the conditions under which periodically driven quantum systems
subject to dissipation exhibit a stable subharmonic response. Noting that
coupling to a bath introduces not only cooling but also noise, we point out
that a system subject to the latter for the entire cycle tends to lose
coherence of the subharmonic oscillations, and thereby the long-time temporal
symmetry breaking. We provide an example of a short-ranged two-dimensional
system which does not suffer from this and therefore displays persistent
subharmonic oscillations stabilised by the dissipation. We also show that this
is fundamentally different from the disordered DTC previously found in closed
systems, both conceptually and in its phenomenology. The framework we develop
here clarifies how fully connected models constitute a special case where
subharmonic oscillations are stable in the thermodynamic limit
Local Complexity of Delone Sets and Crystallinity
This paper characterizes when a Delone set X is an ideal crystal in terms of
restrictions on the number of its local patches of a given size or on the
hetereogeneity of their distribution. Let N(T) count the number of
translation-inequivalent patches of radius T in X and let M(T) be the minimum
radius such that every closed ball of radius M(T) contains the center of a
patch of every one of these kinds. We show that for each of these functions
there is a `gap in the spectrum' of possible growth rates between being bounded
and having linear growth, and that having linear growth is equivalent to X
being an ideal crystal. Explicitly, for N(T), if R is the covering radius of X
then either N(T) is bounded or N(T) >= T/2R for all T>0. The constant 1/2R in
this bound is best possible in all dimensions. For M(T), either M(T) is bounded
or M(T) >= T/3 for all T>0. Examples show that the constant 1/3 in this bound
cannot be replaced by any number exceeding 1/2. We also show that every
aperiodic Delone set X has M(T) >= c(n)T for all T>0, for a certain constant
c(n) which depends on the dimension n of X and is greater than 1/3 when n > 1.Comment: 26 pages. Uses latexsym and amsfonts package
Femtosecond-laser-irradiation-induced structural organization and crystallinity of Bi2WO6
Controlling the structural organization and crystallinity of functional oxides is key to enhancing
their performance in technological applications. In this work, we report a strong enhancement of
the structural organization and crystallinity of Bi2WO6 samples synthetized by a microwave-assisted
hydrothermal method after exposing them to femtosecond laser irradiation. X-ray difraction, UVvis and Raman spectroscopies, photoluminescence emissions, energy dispersive spectroscopy, feld
emission scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy were employed to
characterize the as-synthetized samples. To complement and rationalize the experimental results, frstprinciples calculations were employed to study the efects of femtosecond laser irradiation. Structural
and electronic efects induced by femtosecond laser irradiation enhance the long-range crystallinity
while decreasing the free carrier density, as it takes place in the amorphous and liquid states. These
efects can be considered a clear cut case of surface-enhanced Raman scattering
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