791 research outputs found
Enthalpies of formation of L12 intermetallics derived from heats of reordering
A new method is proposed for estimating the enthalpies of formation of L12 (fcc-ordered) intermetallics from the heat release measured during ordering of their disordered polymorphs. The method is applied to Cu3Au, Ni3Al, and Ni3Si. The resulting estimates of enthalpies of formation are close to values obtained by high temperature dissolution calorimetry. They also appear to be more precise than estimates based on Miedema's correlations provided that care is taken to account properly for the magnetic and lattice stability contributions to the formation enthalpies in the ordered and disordered states
Measurement of 1323 and 1487 keV resonances in 15N({\alpha}, {\gamma})19F with the recoil separator ERNA
The origin of fluorine is a widely debated issue. Nevertheless, the
^{15}N({\alpha},{\gamma})^{19}F reaction is a common feature among the various
production channels so far proposed. Its reaction rate at relevant temperatures
is determined by a number of narrow resonances together with the DC component
and the tails of the two broad resonances at E_{c.m.} = 1323 and 1487 keV.
Measurement through the direct detection of the 19F recoil ions with the
European Recoil separator for Nuclear Astrophysics (ERNA) were performed. The
reaction was initiated by a 15N beam impinging onto a 4He windowless gas
target. The observed yield of the resonances at Ec.m. = 1323 and 1487 keV is
used to determine their widths in the {\alpha} and {\gamma} channels. We show
that a direct measurement of the cross section of the
^{15}N({\alpha},{\gamma})^{19}F reaction can be successfully obtained with the
Recoil Separator ERNA, and the widths {\Gamma}_{\gamma} and {\Gamma}_{\alpha}
of the two broad resonances have been determined. While a fair agreement is
found with earlier determination of the widths of the 1487 keV resonance, a
significant difference is found for the 1323 keV resonance {\Gamma}_{\alpha} .
The revision of the widths of the two more relevant broad resonances in the
15N({\alpha},{\gamma})19F reaction presented in this work is the first step
toward a more firm determination of the reaction rate. At present, the residual
uncertainty at the temperatures of the ^{19}F stellar nucleosynthesis is
dominated by the uncertainties affecting the Direct Capture component and the
364 keV narrow resonance, both so far investigated only through indirect
experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in PR
STUDIO DELL’EFFETTO DI TRATTAMENTI TERMOMECCANICI SULLA MICROSTRUTTURA DI FILI NiTi A MEMORIA DI FORMA MEDIANTE MICROSCOPIA TEM
Il processo preparativo di componenti in lega NiTi a memoria di forma (SMA), per esempio fili, partendo da lingotto, richiede una lunga sequenza di trattamenti termomeccanici. E’ noto come lo stato di incrudimento del materiale, il processo di trafilatura e le numerose ricotture possano fortemente influenzare le dimensioni, la forma e la tessitura dei grani di NiTi, modificando la concentrazione di dislocazioni e di difettosità a bordo grano, inducendo la formazione di geminati o la precipitazione di numerosi composti stechiometrici e non. Le proprietà funzionali a memoria di forma di componenti in NiTi derivano dall’effettiva microstruttura della lega. Nel presente studio saranno indagati, mediante microscopia elettronica in trasmissione (TEM), gli effetti di alcuni trattamenti termomeccanici, a diversi stadi del processo, sulla microstruttura di fili NiTi. Saranno inoltre confrontate le microstrutture di fili cui sono state impartite le proprietà a memoria di forma secondo modalità differenti. Le informazioni sui cambiamenti microstrutturali e cristallografici associati a differenti strade di processo possono essere un utile aiuto nel miglioramento e nell’ottimizzazione delle proprietà funzionali del materiale, in vista delle sue possibili applicazioni in attuatori e altri sistemi intelligenti
SPADA: A project to study the effectiveness of shielding materials in space
The SPADA (SPAce Dosimetry for Astronauts) project is a part of an extensive teamwork that aims to optimize shielding solutions against space radiation. Shielding is indeed an irreplaceable tool to reduce exposure of crews of future Moon and Mars missions. We concentrated our studies on two flexible materials, Kevlar R� and Nextel R,� because of their ability to protect human space infrastructures
from micrometeoroids. We measured radiation hardness of these shielding materials and compared to polyethylene, generally acknowledged as the most effective space radiation shield with practical applications in spacecraft. Both flight test (on the International Space Station and on the Russian FOTON M3 rocket), with passive dosimeters and accelerator-based experiments have been performed. Accelerator tests using high-energy Fe ions have demonstrated that Kevlar is almost as effective as polyethylene in shielding heavy ions, while Nextel is a poor shield against high-charge and -energy particles. Preliminary results from spaceflight, however, show that for the radiation environment in low-Earth orbit, dominated by trapped protons, thin shields of Kevlar and Nextel provide limited reduction
First Measurement of the He3+He3-->He4+2p Cross Section down to the Lower Edge of the Solar Gamow Peak
We give the LUNA results on the cross section measurement of a key reaction
of the proton-proton chain strongly affecting the calculated neutrino
luminosity from the Sun: He3+He3-->He4+2p. Due to the cosmic ray suppression
provided by the Gran Sasso underground laboratory it has been possible to
measure the cross section down to the lower edge of the solar Gamow peak, i.e.
as low as 16.5 keV centre of mass energy. The data clearly show the cross
section increase due to the electron screening effect but they do not exhibit
any evidence for a narrow resonance suggested to explain the observed solar
neutrino flux.Comment: 5 pages, RevTeX, and 2 figures in PostScript Submitted for
publicatio
NN coupling and two-pion photoproduction on the nucleon
Effects of non-resonant photoproductions arising from two different
couplings are investigated in the reaction. We find that
the pseudoscalar (PS) coupling is generally preferable to the
pseudovector (PV) coupling and particularly the total cross sections
are successfully described by the model with the PS coupling. In order
to see the difference between the two couplings, we also show the results of
invariant mass spectra and helicity-dependent cross sections in various isospin
channels calculated with the PS and PV couplings.Comment: 35 pages, 11 figures, minor changes and version to be published in
Phys.Rev.
The 198Au beta-half-life in the metal Au revisited
The half-life of the beta-decay of 198Au has been measured for room
temperature and 12 K. The resulting values of T(RT) = 2.684 +- 0.004 d and T(12
K) = 2.687 +- 0.005 d agree well within statistical uncertainties. An evidence
for a temperature dependence of the half-life was not observed.Comment: accepted for publication in Eur. Phys. J.
Design Study of a Novel Positron Emission Tomography System for Plant Imaging
Positron Emission Tomography is a non-disruptive and high-sensitive digital imaging technique which allows to measure in-vivo and non invasively the changes of metabolic and transport mechanisms in plants. When it comes to the early assessment of stress-induced alterations of plant functions, plant PET has the potential of a major breakthrough. The development of dedicated plant PET systems faces a series of technological and experimental difficulties, which make conventional clinical and preclinical PET systems not fully suitable to agronomy. First, the functional and metabolic mechanisms of plants depend on environmental conditions, which can be controlled during the experiment if the scanner is transported into the growing chamber. Second, plants need to be imaged vertically, thus requiring a proper Field Of View. Third, the transverse Field of View needs to adapt to the different plant shapes, according to the species and the experimental protocols. In this paper, we perform a simulation study, proposing a novel design of dedicated plant PET scanners specifically conceived to address these agronomic issues. We estimate their expected sensitivity, count rate performance and spatial resolution, and we identify these specific features, which need to be investigated when realizing a plant PET scanner. Finally, we propose a novel approach to the measurement and verification of the performance of plant PET systems, including the design of dedicated plant phantoms, in order to provide a standard evaluation procedure for this emerging digital imaging agronomic technology
Polished silver solid amalgam electrode and cationic surfactant as tool in electroanalytical determination of methomyl pesticide.
Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso (Graduação)The polished silver solid amalgam electrode (p-AgSAE) combined with square wave voltammetry (SWV) was
used in the development of an analytical procedure to Methomyl determination in natural water samples. The
experimental and voltammetric parameters were optimized and the use of cationic surfactant cetyltrimethyl
ammonium bromide promoted a considerable change in the kinetic and mechanism of the Methomyl reaction.
Was observed the presence one-single reduction peak, related to a totally irreversible two-electrons transfer,
followed by chemical reaction involving two protons. Analytical parameters (linearity range, analytical curve
equations, correlation coefficient, detection and quantification limits, recovery efficiency, and relative standard
deviation for intraday and interday experiments) were evaluated indicating that the proposed voltammetric
procedure is suitable for determination of Methomyl. The application of the proposed procedure in natural water
analysis indicated high robustness with only simple filtration, without pre-concentration steps, good stability
and suitable sensitivity to determination of Methomyl in natural water samples
A computational study of the configurational and vibrational contributions to the thermodynamics of substitutional alloys: the Ni3Al case
We have developed a methodology to study the thermodynamics of order-disorder
transformations in n-component substitutional alloys that combines
nonequilibrium methods, which can efficiently compute free energies, with Monte
Carlo simulations, in which configurational and vibrational degrees of freedom
are simultaneously considered on an equal footing basis. Furthermore, by
appropriately constraining the system, we were able to compute the
contributions to the vibrational entropy due to bond proportion, atomic size
mismatch, and bulk volume effects. We have applied this methodology to
calculate configurational and vibrational contributions to the entropy of the
Ni3Al alloy as functions of temperature. We found that the bond proportion
effect reduces the vibrational entropy at the order-disorder transition, while
the size mismatch and the bond proportion effects combined do not change the
vibrational entropy at the transition. We also found that the volume increase
at the order-disorder transition causes a vibrational entropy increase of 0.08
kB/atom, which is significant when compared to the configurational entropy
increase of 0.27 kB/atom. Our calculations indicate that the inclusion of
vibrations reduces in about 30 percent the order-disorder transition
temperature determined solely considering the configurational degrees of
freedom.Comment: Already submitte
- …