Experiments with a URT-0.5 accelerator (0.5 MeV, 50 ns, 1 kW) generating a nanosecond electron beam for irradiation of silver nitrate in various liquid solutions (water and toluene) were performed with the aim of producing silver nanopowders. A radiochemical reaction allows making weakly agglomerated pure Ag powders with particles of 10-15 nm and 30-50 nm in size by irradiation in toluene and water respectively. The injection of the nanosecond electron beam energy to the solution is optimal. As the absorbed dose increases, the output of the radiochemical reaction does not grow, but more agglomerated powders are synthesized.

We have demonstrated the feasibility of using electrospinning method to fabricate long and continuous composite nanofiber sheets of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) incorporated with zinc oxide (ZnO). Such PAN/ZnO composite nanofiber sheets represent an important step toward utilizing carbon nanofibers (CNFs) as materials to achieve remarkably enhanced physico-chemical properties. In an attempt to derive these advantages, we have used a variety of techniques such as field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high resolution X-ray diffraction (HR-XRD) to obtain quantitative data on the materials. The CNFs produced are in the diameter range of 100 to 350 nm after carbonization at 1000℃. Electrical conductivity of the random CNFs was increased by increasing the concentration of ZnO. A dramatic improvement in porosity and specific surface area of the CNFs was a clear evidence of the novelty of the method used. This study indicated that the optimal ZnO concentration of 3 wt% is enough to produce CNFs having enhanced electrical and physico-chemical properties.

In the present study Sisal fiber obtained from the leaves of Agave sisalana has been chosen to validate its viability as an adsorbent for the removal of Nickel from aqueous solutions. The material was also surface modified and its effect on adsorption of Nickel was also studied. Agave sisalana fiber was found to be a cheap and effective adsorbent doing away with the need to activate the material therby reducing processing cost. The equilibrium studies indicated that the adsorption capacity of raw fiber and the surface modified fiber was 8.66 and 9.77 mg/g respectively with the Langmuir isotherm describing the adsorption phenomena better than the Freundlich and Temkin isotherm. The adsorption was found to be exothermic from the thermodynamic studies and the kinetics showed that the adsorption phenomena were second order.

Understanding of the basic characteristics of an astronomical instrument is a prerequisite to obtaining reliable data from the instrument. We have analyzed more than 1,000 calibration images from the Fairchild 486 CCD (hereafter the Maidanak 4k CCD system) attached to the AZT-22 1.5m telescope at Maidanak Astronomical Observatory in Uzbekistan. The Maidanak 4k CCD system supports three readout modes through 1, 2, or 4 amplifiers. In most cases observers use 4-amplifier readout mode to save time. We have tested the stability and seasonal variation of zero levels and confirm that two quadrants of the images (Amp 1 & 2) show no appreciable seasonal variation. but the other two quadrants (Amp 3 & Amp 4) show an evident seasonal variation in the bias level. The Cryo Tiger, the cooling system used at the Maidanak 4k CCD system, maintains the CCD temperature at -108'E, and effectively suppresses the dark electrons. The mean value versus the variance plot of the flat images does not show the expected relation for an ideal Poisson noise distribution and this is attributed to the large variation in quantum efficiency between different pixels. In addition, we confirm that there is no appreciable difference in gain between readout amplifiers, but there is a large variation in quantum efficiency across CCD chip especially in U. Due to the finite length of shutter opening and closing time, the effective exposure time varies across the science images. We introduce two parameters to quantify the effect of this uneven illumination and present a method to remove these effects. We also present a method to remove the interference patterns appearing in the images obtained with longer wavelength filters and investigate the spatial variation of the point spread function.