In this work, we present the role of vanadium ions (V+5 and V+3), oxygen vacancies (VO), and interstitial zinc (Zni) to the contribution of specific magnetization for a mixture of ZnO-V2O5 nanoparticles (NPs). Samples were obtained by mechanical milling of dry powders and ethanol-assisted milling for 1 h with a fixed atomic ratio V/Zn?=?5% at. For comparison, pure ZnO samples were also prepared. All samples exhibit a room temperature magnetization ranging from 1.18?×?10−3 to 3.5?×?10−3 emu/gr. Pure ZnO powders (1.34?×?10−3 emu/gr) milled with ethanol exhibit slight increase in magnetization attributed to formation of Zni, while dry milled ZnO powders exhibit a decrease of magnetization due to a reduction of VO concentration. For the ZnO-V2O5 system, dry milled and thermally treated samples under reducing atmosphere exhibit a large paramagnetic component associated to the formation of V2O3 and secondary phases containing V+3 ions; at the same time, an increase of VO is observed with an abrupt fall of magnetization to σ?~?0.7?×?10−3 emu/gr due to segregation of V oxides and formation of secondary phases. As mechanical milling is an aggressive synthesis method, high disorder is induced at the surface of the ZnO NPs, including VO and Zni depending on the chemical environment. Thermal treatment restores partially structural order at the surface of the NPs, thus reducing the amount of Zni at the same time that V2O5 NPs segregate reducing the direct contact with the surface of ZnO NPs. Additional samples were milled for longer time up to 24 h to study the effect of milling on the magnetization; 1-h milled samples have the highest magnetizations. Structural characterization was carried out using X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. Identification of VO and Zni was carried out with Raman spectra, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy was used to verify that V did not diffuse into ZnO NPs as well to quantify O/Zn ratios.

Manganites of the family La_0.7Ca_0.3−xSr_xMnO₃ were fabricated by four preparation methods: (a) the microwave-assisted sol-gel Pechini method; (b) sol-gel Pechini chemical synthesis; (c) solid-state reaction with a planetary mill; and (d) solid-state reaction with an attritor mill, in order to study the effect of the preparation route used on its magnetocaloric and magnetic properties. In addition, the manganites manufactured by the Pechini sol-gel method were compacted using Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) to determine how the consolidation process influences its magnetocaloric properties. The Curie temperatures of manganites prepared by the different methods were determined in ~295 K, with the exception of those prepared by a solid-state reaction with an attritor mill which was 301 K, so there is no correlation between the particle size and the Curie temperature. All samples gave a positive slope in the Arrot plots, which implies that the samples underwent a second order Ferromagnetic (FM)–Paramagnetic (PM) phase transition. Pechini sol-gel manganite presents higher values of Relative Cooling Power (RCP) than the solid-state reaction manganite, because its entropy change curves are smaller, but wider, associated to the particle size obtained by the preparation method. The SPS technique proved to be easier and faster in producing consolidated solids for applications in active magnetic regenerative refrigeration compared with other compaction methods.

The effect of native defects originated by a non-stoichiometric variation of composition in CoSb₃ on I-V curves and Hall effect was investigated. Hysteretic and a non-linear behavior of the I-V curves at cryogenic temperatures were observed; the non-linear behavior originated from the Poole-Frenkel effect, a field-dependent ionization mechanism that lowers Coulomb barriers and increases emission of charge carriers, and the hysteresis was attributed to the drastic decrease of specific heat which produces Joule heating at cryogenic temperatures. CoSb₃ is a narrow gap semiconductor and slight variation in the synthesis process can lead to either n- or p-type conduction. The Sb-deficient CoSb₃ presented an n-type conduction. Using a single parabolic model and assuming only acoustic-phonon scattering the charge transport properties were calculated at 300 K. From this model, a carrier concentration of 1.18 × 10¹⁸ cm⁻³ and a Hall factor of 1.18 were calculated. The low mobility of charge carriers, 19.11 cm²/V·s, and the high effective mass of the electrons, 0.66 m₀, caused a high resistivity value of 2.75 × 10⁻³ Ω·m. The calculated Lorenz factor was 1.50 × 10⁻⁸ V²/K², which represents a decrease of 38% over the degenerate limit value (2.44 × 10⁻⁸ V²/K²).

First-order reversal curves (FORC) and the FORC distribution provide a detailed characterization of the relative proportions of reversible and irreversible components of the magnetization of a material, revealing the dominant interactions in the system. Alloys with the nominal composition SmFe₂ were obtained by melt-spinning with a cooper wheel velocity of 30 m/s. X-ray powder diffraction analysis showed a greater part consisting of an amorphous phase and a very small amount of SmFe₂ crystalline phase with an average crystallite size of 8 nm. A constant acceleration Mössbauer spectrum, measured at room temperature in transmission mode, was fitted to a continuous distribution of effective fields at the nucleus of the amorphous phase (about 84% of the total area), plus two sextets for the non-equivalent sites of Fe in the SmFe₂ crystalline phase. 91 first-order reversal curves were collected in a Quantum Design PPMS-VSM with reversal fields from –800 mT to +800 mT and using a calibration field of 850 mT. The obtained FORC diagrams showed a combined effect of a local interaction field and a mean interaction field, and showed that the reversible magnetization is a function of both, the applied magnetic field and the irreversible magnetization.

Glyphosate is an herbicide used worldwide with harmful health effects, and efforts are currently being made to develop sensors capable of detecting its presence. In this work, an array of four interdigitated microwave sensors was used together with the multivariate statistical technique of principal component analysis, which allowed a well-defined pattern to be found that characterized waters for agricultural use extracted from the Bustillos lagoon. The variability due to differences between the samples was explained by the first principal component, amounting to 86.3% of the total variance, while the variability attributed to the measurements and sensors was explained through the second principal component, amounting to 13.2% of the total variance. The time evolution of measurements showed a clustering of data points as time passed, which was related to microwave–sample interaction, varied with the fluctuating dynamical structure of each sample, and tended to have a stable mean value.