Structure disordering

The discussion of diffraction so far has made no reference to the size of the 2D grating. It has been assumed that the grating is infinite. In analogy with optical or X-ray diffraction, finite sizes of the ordered regions on the surface (finite-sized gratings) broaden the diffracted beams. From an analysis of the diffracted-beam shapes, the types of structural disorder in the surface region can be identified and quantified. - ... 

LEED can be used to determine the atomic structure of surfaces, surface structural disorder, and to some extent, surfiice morphology, as well as changes in structure with time, temperature, and externally controlled conditions like deposition or chemical reaction. Some examples are briefly discussed here ... 

Similar results were found by Bacsa el al. [26] for cathode core material. Raman scattering spectra were reported by these authors for material shown in these figures, and these results are discussed below. Their HRTEM images showed that heating core material in air induces a clear reduction in the relative abundance of the carbon nanoparticles. The Raman spectrum of these nanoparticles would be expected to resemble an intermediate between a strongly disordered carbon black synthesized at 850°C (Fig. 2d) and that of carbon black graphitized in an inert atmosphere at 2820°C (Fig. 2c). As discussed above in section 2, the small particle size, as well as structural disorder in the small particles (dia. —200 A), activates the D-band Raman scattering near 1350 cm . ... 

Lattice models for bulk mixtures have mostly been designed to describe features which are characteristic of systems with low amphiphile content. In particular, models for ternary oil/water/amphiphile systems are challenged to reproduce the reduction of the interfacial tension between water and oil in the presence of amphiphiles, and the existence of a structured disordered phase (a microemulsion) which coexists with an oil-rich and a water-rich phase. We recall that a structured phase is one in which correlation functions show oscillating behavior. Ordered lamellar phases have also been studied, but they are much more influenced by lattice artefacts here than in the case of the chain models. 

The example illustrates how Monte Carlo studies of lattice models can deal with questions which reach far beyond the sheer calculation of phase diagrams. The reason why our particular problem could be studied with such success Hes of course in the fact that it touches a rather fundamental aspect of the physics of amphiphilic systems—the interplay between structure and wetting behavior. In fact, the results should be universal and apply to all systems where structured, disordered phases coexist with non-struc-tured phases. It is this universal character of many issues in surfactant physics which makes these systems so attractive for theoretical physicists. 

Pandya et al. have used extended X-ray ascription fine structure (EXAFS) to study both cathodically deposited -Ni(OH)2 and chemically prepared / -Ni(OH)2 [44], Measurements were done at both 77 and 297 K. The results for / -Ni(OH)2 are in agreement with the neutron diffraction data [22]. In the case of -Ni(OH)2 they found a contraction in the first Ni-Ni bond distance in the basal plane. The value was 3.13A for / -Ni(OH)2 and 3.08A for a-Ni(OH)2. The fact that a similar significant contraction of 0.05A was seen at both 77 and 297K when using two reference compounds (NiO and / -Ni(OH)2) led them to conclude that the contraction was a real effect and not an artifact due to structural disorder. They speculate that the contraction may be due to hydrogen bonding of OH groups in the brucite planes with intercalated water molecules. These ex-situ results on a - Ni(OH)2 were compared with in-situ results in I mol L"1 KOH. In the ex-situ experiments the a - Ni(OH)2 was prepared electrochemi-cally, washed with water and dried in vac-... 

AgsSBr, /3-AgsSI, and a-AgsSI are cationic conductors due to the structural disorder of the cation sublattices. AgsSI (see Fig. 5) has been discussed for use in solid-electrolyte cells (209,371, 374,414-416) because of its high silver ionic conductivity at rather low temperatures (see Section II,D,1). The practical use seems to be limited, however, by an electronic part of the conductivity that is not negligible (370), and by the instability of the material with respect to loss of iodine (415). 

Cul) is not due to point defects but to partial occupation of crystallographic sites. The defective structure is sometimes called structural disorder to distinguish it from point defects. There are a large number of vacant sites for the cations to move into. Thus, ionic conductivity is enabled without use of aliovalent dopants. A common feature of both compounds is that they are composed of extremely polarizable ions. This means that the electron cloud surrounding the ions is easily distorted. This makes the passage of a cation past an anion easier. Due to their high ionic conductivity, silver and copper ion conductors can be used as solid electrolytes in solid-state batteries. 

Bemtsen et al. [84, 85] have separated the effect of hydrogen content and bond-angle variation. The structural disorder causes broadening of the valence and conduction bands and a decrease of the bandgap by 0.46 eV. Hydrogenation to 11 at.% results in an independent increase of the bandgap with 0.22 eV. 

It was found that in this energy range, a follows the same behavior of the joint (valence -I- conduction) density of states. Thus, Eo, may be interpreted as a measure of the structural disorder [98], as it represents the inverse of band tail sharpness. 

The so-called Boson peak is visible as a hump in the reduced DOS, g(E)IE (Fig. 9.39b), and is a measure of structural disorder, i.e., any deviation from the symmetry of the perfectly ordered crystal will lead to an excess vibrational contribution with respect to Debye behavior. The reduced DOS appears to be temperature-independent at low temperatures, becomes less pronounced with increasing temperature, and disappears at the glass-liquid transition. Thus, the significant part of modes constituting the Boson peak is clearly nonlocalized on FC. Instead, they represent the delocalized collective motions of the glasses with a correlation length of more than 20 A. 

Another factor that supports the probability of structural disordering that may occur in the interaction between 02( ) and a surface of... 

Table 8.53 shows the main features of XAS. The advantages of EXAFS over diffraction methods are that the technique does not depend on long-range order, hence it can always be used to study local environments in amorphous (and crystalline) solids and liquids it is atom specific and can be sensitive to low concentrations of the target atom (about 100 ppm). XAS provides information on interatomic distances, coordination numbers, atom types and structural disorder and oxidation state by inference. Accuracy is 1-2% for interatomic distances, and 10-25 % for coordination numbers. 

The rate of crystallization of polybutadiene depends mainly on the cis content and therefore on the catalyst system. As far as commercial catalysts are concerned it increases in the order Li < Ti < Co < Ni. High-cis SE-BR, like U-BR, crystallizes more rapidly than all the other types (Table III). However, SE-BR with 93 % cis-1,4 content, and even one with only 90 % cis-1,4 content, crystallizes more rapidly than Ti-BR (93 % cis-1,4 content). In our opinion the reason for this anomaly is a structural disorder in molecules with different chain length. 

Thanks to the pioneering works of many research groups, solid-state NMR is now a well established spectroscopy for the study of biological solids, particularly for those with inherent structural disorder such as amyloid fibrils. We have provided an overview of a rather complete set of NMR techniques which have developed for samples prepared by chemical synthesis or protein expression. There are many different ways to present the materials discussed in this review. We hope that the way we have chosen can give a snapshot of some facets of the very exciting discipline of biological solid-state NMR spectroscopy. In spite of the success of solid-state NMR as a tool in biological study, it is not yet a mature technique and there is much room for further development. Below we will speculate on a few possibilities from our own perspective. 

Tompa P (2009) Structural disorder in amyloid fibrils its implication in dynamic interactions of proteins. FEBS J 276 5406-5415... 

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