Research areas

The authors thank the german research community (DFG) for the support of the presented investigations whieh were realized inside the Special Research Area 326, named, J rocess Integrated Quality Control with Quality Information System for Metallic Parts in Mechanical Engineering, and special thanks to the scientific bilateral project between Brazil and Germany supported by the CNPq, KFA and DLR to realize the presented investigations in advanced radioscopy and tomography. 

This sets out the specific objectives for European R D and defines the research areas and the budget envelope for the period 1994-1998 at a total budget 12.3 BECU... 

The detailed research areas and tasks under these headlines are presently (January 1998) under preparation by the Commission. More information should be available at the time of the 7th ECNDT Conference. 

This section deals with some selected examples of typical SFA results, collected from various research areas. It is not meant to be a comprehensive review, rather a brief glance at the kind of questions that can be addressed with the SFA. 

In addition to their practical importance, colloidal suspensions have received much attention from chemists and physicists alike. This is an interesting research area in its own right, and it is an important aspect of what is referred to as soft condensed matter physics. This contribution is written from such a perspective, and although a balanced account is aimed for, it is inevitably biased by the author s research interests. References to the original literature are included, but within the scope of this contribution only a fraction of the vast amount of literature on colloidal suspensions can be mentioned. 

The striking size-dependent colours of many nanocrystal samples are one of tlieir most compelling features detailed studies of tlieir optical properties have been among tire most active research areas in nanocrystal science. Evidently, tire optical properties of bulk materials are substantially different from Arose of isolated atoms of tire... 

Biorational approaches have proven useful in the development of classes of herbicides which inhibit essential metaboHc pathways common to all plants and thus are specific to plants and have low toxicity to mammalian species. Biorational herbicide development remains a high risk endeavor since promising high activities observed in the laboratory may be nullified by factors such as limitations in plant uptake and translocation, and the instabiHty or inactivity of biochemical en2yme inhibitors under the harsher environmental conditions in the field. Despite these recogni2ed drawbacks, biorational design of herbicides has shown sufficient potential to make the study of herbicide modes of action an important and growing research area. 

Data Analysis. The computerization of spectrometers and the concomitant digitization of spectra have caused an explosive increase in the use of advanced spectmm analysis techniques. Data analysis in infrared spectrometry is a very active research area and software producers are constantly releasing more sophisticated algorithms. Each instmment maker has adopted an independent format for spectmm files, which has created difficulties in transferring data. The Joint Committee on Atomic and Molecular Physical Data has developed a universal format for infrared spectmm files called JCAMP-DX (52). Most instmment makers incorporate in thek software a routine for translating thek spectmm files to JCAMP-DX format. 

The plastic deformation of such polymers is a major research area and has a triennial series of conferences entirely devoted to it. The process seems to be drastically different from that familiar from metals. A review some years ago (Young 1988) surveyed the available information about polyethylene the yield stress is linearly related to the fraction of crystallinity, and it increases sharply as the thickness... 

In a similar way, computational chemistry simulates chemical structures and reactions numerically, based in full or in part on the fundamental laws of physics. It allows chemists to study chemical phenomena by running calculations on computers rather than by examining reactions and compounds experimentally. Some methods can be used to model not only stable molecules, but also short-lived, unstable intermediates and even transition states. In this way, they can provide information about molecules and reactions which is impossible to obtain through observation. Computational chemistry is therefore both an independent research area and a vital adjunct to experimental studies. 

Biomass is a relatively inexpensive raw material. Since it is made by nature there is an enormous saving of energy. The main research areas include (1) isolation and purification of natural monomers and polymers, (2) modification of natural monomers and polymers, and... 

These two research areas share the common characteristic of involving inorganic solids in the combustion process. Catalytic combustion research focuses on using the solid to facilitate the oxidation of well-known fuels such as hydrogen and methane. Materials synthesis research focuses on using combustion as a means to react the solids either with each other or a gas, such as nitrogen (which in this case acts as an oxidizer), to make new solid materials. 

Chapter 9 provides an introductory discussion of a research area that is rapidly growing in importance lattice gases. Lattice gases, which are discretized models of continuous fluids, represent an early success of CA modeling techniques. The chapter begins with a short primer on continuum fluid dynamics and proceeds with a discussion of CA lattice gas models. One of the most important results is the observation that, under certain constraints, the macroscopic behavior of CA models exactly reproduces that predicted by the Navier-Stokes equations. 

Dr. Woodward I tried to indicate in my paper that in ammonia-hydrogen plant operation, in comparison with several other catalysts in such plants, the methanation catalyst situation is really well under control. Speaking for our company, and I would guess others, it s not a particularly active research area because we have higher priorities in catalyst development. As regards methanation catalysts for SNG, I did not discuss that today and perhaps I should let some other fellows answer first. Sulfur tolerance is one area for future development. 

Rarely has any research area so continuously been in the focus of scientific interest as organosilicon chemistry. A rapidly increasing number of publications, review articles, and scientific conferences reflects this development. The initiating factor was the spectacular discovery of stable molecules with SiSi double bonds, disilaethenes (disilenes) by R. West and S. Masamune in 1981 and 1982 [1-7]. 

Very recently, the coordination chemistry of low valent silicon ligands has been established as an independent, rapidly expanding research area. With the discovery of stable coordination compounds of silylenes [35-38], a major breakthrough was achieved. Within a short time a variety of stable complexes with a surprising diversity of structural elements was realized. Besides neutral coordination compounds (A, B) [35, 36, 38], and cationic compounds (C) [37], also cyclic bissilylene complexes (D) [39,40] exist. A common feature of the above-mentioned compounds is the coordination of an additional stabilizing base (solvent) to the silicon. However, base-free silylene complexes (A) are also accessible as reactive intermediates at low temperatures. 

The chemistry of silicon in very low oxidation states is one of the most fascinating research areas, which can be located between molecular compounds of silicon and elemental (perhaps amorphous) silicon [190-194]. Most interesting results have recently been obtained by structural investigations of siliddes in Zintl phases. However, compounds of silicon with negative oxidation states and very low coordination numbers of 1, 2, and 3 are so far only known in the composite of a crystal lattice. 

The collaboration with many scientists over the years has had a major influence on the structure and content of this book. We are especially indebted to J. Rex Goates, who collaborated closely with one of the authors (JBO) for over thirty years, and has a close personal relationship with the other author (JBG). Two giants in the field of thermodynamics, W. F. Giauque and E. F. Westrum, Jr., served as our major professors in graduate school. Their passion for the discipline has been transmitted to us and we have tried in turn to pass it on to our students. One of us (JBG) also acknowledges Patrick A. G. O Hare who introduced her to thermodynamics as a challenging research area and has served as a mentor and friend for more than twenty years. 

Laser-induced fluorescence has proven to be the key to these pioneering studies of transuranic hexafluoride electronic state photophysics and photochemistry. This is a research area of unique opportunity in which fundamental and technical research interests strongly converge. 

All of the information obtained in this research area depends upon indirect evidence through the use of nonisotopic carriers or normalized data in the form of ratios. These are subject to error but the trends and insights that have been obtained are very useful to the description of the behavior of plutonium in the environment. Better thermodynamic data in the range of environmental concentrations would be helpful in further quantification of chemical species, as would phenomenalogical descriptions of the behavior of plutonium in reasonably good models of the environment. 

In 1979, the formation of conductive polypyrrole films by the electrochemical oxidation of pyrrole was reported for the first time This work has stimulated intense and fruitful research in the field of organic conducting polymers. Further important conductive polymers are polythiophene, polyaniline and polyparaphenylene. The development and technological aspects of this expanding research area is covered... 

The fourth volume of the electrochemistry series in Topics in Current Chemistry combines three contributions from the field of organic electrochemistry. They demonstrate the broad scope of this research area which in itself is only a small part of electrochemical science. 

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