23,148 research outputs found
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The effect of water absorption on the dielectric properties of epoxy nanocomposites
In this research, the influence of water absorption on the dielectric properties of epoxy resin and epoxy micro-composites and nano-composites filled with silica has been studied. Nanocomposites were found to absorb significantly more water than unfilled epoxy. However, the microcomposite absorbed less water than unfilled epoxy: corresponding to reduced proportion of the epoxy in this composite. The glass transition temperatures of all the samples were measured by both differential scanning calorimetry and dielectric spectroscopy. The Tg decreased as the water absorption increased and, in all cases, corresponded to a drop of approximately 20K as the humidity was increased from 0% to 100%. This implied that for all the samples, the amount of water in the resin component of the composites was almost identical. It was concluded that the extra water found in the nanocomposites was located around the surface of the nanoparticles. This was confirmed by measuring the water uptake, and the swelling and density change, as a function of humidity as water was absorbed. The water shell model, originally proposed by Lewis and developed by Tanaka, has been further developed to explain low frequency dielectric spectroscopy results in which percolation of charge carriers through overlapping water shells was shown to occur. This has been discussed in terms of a percolation model. At 100% relative humidity, water is believed to surround the nanoparticles to a depth of approximately 5 monolayers. A second layer of water is proposed that is dispersed by sufficiently concentrated to be conductive; this may extend for approximately 25 nm. If all the water had existed in a single layer surrounding a nanoparticle, this layer would have been approximately 3 to 4 nm thick at 100%. This "characteristic thickness" of water surrounding a given size of nanoparticle appeared to be independent of the concentration of nanoparticles but approximately proportional to water uptake. Filler particles that have surfaces that are functionalized to be hydrophobic considerably reduce the amount of water absorbed in nanocomposites under the same conditions of humidity. Comments are made on the possible effect on electrical aging
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A "water shell" model for the dielectric properties of hydrated silica-filled epoxy nano-composites
The electrical properties of epoxy resin have been studied as a function of hydration. The epoxy was studied in an un-filled state, filled with 40 µm SiO2 particles, and filled with 50 nm SiO2 particles. The relative humidity was controlled by saturated salt solutions at ambient temperatures from 298-353 K. Measurements were made using dielectric spectroscopy over the frequency range 10-3-105 Hz. The hydration isotherm (i.e. the mass uptake of water) was established by measuring the mass as a function of relative humidity (RH). It was found that the nanocomposites absorb up to 60% more water than the unfilled and micro-filled epoxies. Dielectric spectroscopy shows different conduction and quasi-DC behaviours at very low frequencies (<10-2 Hz) with activation energies dependent on the hydration and temperature. These observations have led to the development of a “water shell” model to explain this phenomenon
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Influence of absorbed water on the dielectric properties and glass-transition temperature of silica-filled epoxy nanocomposites
Work on dielectric spectroscopy of epoxy resin filled with nano-SiO2 at different relative humidities and temperatures is reported. Above the glass-transition temperature (Tg), dc-like imperfect charge transport (QDC or LFD) dominates the low frequency dielectric spectrum. Another mid-frequency relaxation process was found in the non-dried composites. Water also induces glass-transition temperature decreases, which can be measured both by dielectric spectroscopy and DSC. Both theory and experiment demonstrated that a higher water content could exist in nanocomposites than unfilled epoxy suggesting a bigger free volume when nanostructured. In our system, the hydrophilic surface of silica is likely to cause water to surround and lead to delamination of the epoxy from SiO2. This is a potential mechanical and dielectric weakness in the nanocomposites, which may lead to an ageing phenomenon. Hydrophobic surface group may reduce the water adsorption in nanocomposites
A large-scale one-way quantum computer in an array of coupled cavities
We propose an efficient method to realize a large-scale one-way quantum
computer in a two-dimensional (2D) array of coupled cavities, based on coherent
displacements of an arbitrary state of cavity fields in a closed phase space.
Due to the nontrivial geometric phase shifts accumulating only between the
qubits in nearest-neighbor cavities, a large-scale 2D cluster state can be
created within a short time. We discuss the feasibility of our method for scale
solid-state quantum computationComment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Spectrum of low-lying configurations with negative parity
Spectrum of low-lying five-quark configurations with strangeness quantum
number and negative parity is studied in three kinds of constituent
quark models, namely the one gluon exchange, Goldstone Boson exchange, and
instanton-induced hyperfine interaction models, respectively. Our numerical
results show that the lowest energy states in all the three employed models are
lying at 1800 MeV, about 200 MeV lower than predictions of various
quenched three-quark models. In addition, it is very interesting that the state
with the lowest energy in one gluon exchange model is with spin 3/2, but 1/2 in
the other two models.Comment: Version published in Phys. Rev.
Kinetic analysis of an efficient DNA-dependent TNA polymerase.
alpha-l-Threofuranosyl nucleoside triphosphates (tNTPs) are tetrafuranose nucleoside derivatives and potential progenitors of present-day beta-d-2'-deoxyribofuranosyl nucleoside triphosphates (dNTPs). Therminator DNA polymerase, a variant of the 9 degrees N DNA polymerase, is an efficient DNA-directed threosyl nucleic acid (TNA) polymerase. Here we report a detailed kinetic comparison of Therminator-catalyzed TNA and DNA syntheses. We examined the rate of single-nucleotide incorporation for all four tNTPs and dNTPs from a DNA primer-template complex and carried out parallel experiments with a chimeric DNA-TNA primer-DNA template containing five TNA residues at the primer 3'-terminus. Remarkably, no drop in the rate of TNA incorporation was observed in comparing the DNA-TNA primer to the all-DNA primer, suggesting that few primer-enzyme contacts are lost with a TNA primer. Moreover, comparison of the catalytic efficiency of TNA synthesis relative to DNA synthesis at the downstream positions reveals a difference of no greater than 5-fold in favor of the natural DNA substrate. This disparity becomes negligible when the TNA synthesis reaction mixture is supplemented with 1.25 mM MnCl(2). These results indicate that Therminator DNA polymerase can recognize both a TNA primer and tNTP substrates and is an effective catalyst of TNA polymerization despite changes in the geometry of the reactants
Vector magnetic field sensing by single nitrogen vacancy center in diamond
In this Letter, we proposed and experimentally demonstrated a method to
detect vector magnetic field with a single nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in
diamond. The magnetic field in parallel with the axis of the NV center can be
obtained by detecting the electron Zeeman shift, while the Larmor precession of
an ancillary nuclear spin close to the NV center can be used to measure the
field perpendicular to the axis. Experimentally, both the Zeeman shift and
Larmor precession can be measured through the fluorescence from the NV center.
By applying additional calibrated magnetic fields, complete information of the
vector magnetic field can be achieved with such a method. This vector magnetic
field detection method is insensitive to temperature fluctuation and it can be
applied to nanoscale magnetic measurement.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
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