Browsing by Subject "nickel"

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Open Access
Six low-strain zinc-blende half metals: An ab initio investigation
(2003) Pask J.E.; Yang L.H.; Fong, C.Y.; Pickett W.E.; Dag, S.
A class of spintronic materials, the zinc-blende (ZB) half metals, has recently been synthesized in thin-film form. We apply all-electron and pseudopotential ab initio methods to investigate the electronic and structural properties of ZB Mn and Cr pnictides and carbides, and find six compounds to be half metallic at or near their respective equilibrium lattice constants, making them excellent candidates for growth at low strain. Based on these findings, we further propose substrates on which the growth may be accomplished with minimum strain. Our findings are supported by the recent successful synthesis of ZB CrAs on GaAs and ZB CrSb on GaSb, where our predicted equilibrium lattice constants are within 0.5% of the lattice constants of the substrates on which the growth was accomplished. We confirm previous theoretical results for ZB MnAs, but find ZB MnSb to be half metallic at its equilibrium lattice constant, whereas previous work has found it to be only nearly so. We report here two low-strain half metallic ZB compounds, CrP and MnC, and suggest appropriate substrates for each. Unlike the other five compounds, we predict ZB MnC to become/remain half metallic with compression rather than expansion, and to exhibit metallicity in the minority-rather than majority-spin channel. These fundamentally different properties of MnC can be connected to substantially greater p-d hybridization and d-d overlap, and correspondingly larger bonding-antibonding splitting and smaller exchange splitting. We examine the relative stability of each of the six ZB compounds against NiAs and MnP structures, and find stabilities for the compounds not yet grown comparable to those already grown.
Open Access
Tissue distribution and correlation profiles of heavy-metal accumulation in the freshwater crayfish astacus leptodactylus
(2013) Tunca, E.; Ucuncu, E.; Ozkan, A.D.; Ulger, Z.E.; Tekinay, T.
The present work details the analysis of heavy-metal and metalloid concentrations in exoskeleton, gill, hepatopancreas, and abdominal muscle tissues of 60 crayfish (Astacus leptodactylus) specimens collected from Lake HirfanlI, a dam lake located in KIrşehir (Turkey) with a low metal-contamination profile. Concentrations of 11 metals (aluminum [Al], chromium [Cd], manganese [Mn], cobalt [Co], nickel [Ni], copper [Cu], molybdenum [Mo], silver [Ag], cadmium [Cd], mercury [Hg], and lead [Pb]) and a metalloid (arsenic [As]) were measured by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, and the relative frequencies of the most abundant isotopes of Cr, Cu, Ag, Cd, Hg, and Pb were evaluated. Three correlation trends were evaluated between the following: (1) different elements in the each individual tissue, (2) individual elements in different tissues, and (3) different elements in different tissues. In addition, correlation rates of growth parameters (weight, cephalothorax length, and total length) with heavy-metal and metalloid concentrations in each tissue were investigated. Our results suggest that substantial differences in metal and metalloid-accumulation levels exist between male and female specimens, with stronger correlations between the heavy-metal concentrations observed in the male cohort. It is notable that correlation trends of Co, Cu, 52As, Cr, and Ni in exoskeleton of the male specimens display strong similarities. Likewise, a very strong correlation is present in Ni-Cd and Ni-Pb accumulations in abdominal muscle of the male specimens; a similar trend is present between Cd and Pb concentrations in the same tissue of female specimens. For correlation rates of different heavy metals and metalloid in different tissues, the strongest positive association observed was between 63Cu in gill and As in hepatopancreas, whereas the strongest negative correlation was between accumulated Ni in abdominal muscle and As in exoskeleton. Strong correlations between metals and metalloid accumulations were observed between exoskeleton and gill. In many cases, metal and metalloid accumulation was negatively correlated with growth parameters. Preferential accumulation of Cr and Cu isotopes was observed in different tissues, suggesting that significant amounts of isotope fractionation occur during heavy-metal accumulation. Relatively low correlation rates were observed between 52Cr/ 53Cr and 63Cu/65Cu concentrations in several tissue types in both male and female cohorts, whereas no such trend was observed between Cd and Pb isotopes. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York.