Chemical reduction of hematite by sodium borohydride
Well-crystallized hematite was suspended in water and treated at room-temperature (RT) with sodium borohydride. The product of the reaction is a highly magnetic black powder, which is stable at RT. The NaBH4 treatment converts about half of the hematite to an amorphous Fe–B alloy and to a small fraction of sub-micron sized, amorphous metallic-Fe nodules. Heating at 400°C of this composite has resulted in the crystallization and/or oxidation of more than half of the amorphous Fe–B phase to α-Fe and Fe3O4 and B2O3, respectively. After treatment at 800°C, the metallic Fe and the amorphous Fe–B have completely vanished, and the resulting product consists of hematite and FeBO3 embedded in the matrix of α-Fe2O3.
57Fe Mössbauer effect study of well-crystallized goethite (α-FeOOH)
Well-crystallized, natural goethite has been investigated as a function of temperature. The saturation magnetic hyperfine field was found to be 507 kOe and the Néel temperatureTN=(400±2) K. The antiferromagnetic structure is stable in external fields of up to 6O kOe and the spin direction is at right angles with respect to the EFG's principal axis. AtT/TN<0.5, the reduced hyperfine field varies asT2 and in the range 0.80<T/TN<0.97 asT1/3. From the temperature dependence of the isomer shift, the Debije temperature was found to be 440 K from which a relative Mössbauer fraction of 0.96 against hematite was evaluated.
Heritage Languages: In the 'Wild' and in the Classroom
Heritage speakers are people raised in a home where one language is spoken who subsequently switch to another dominant language. The version of the home language that they have not completely acquired – heritage language – has only recently been given the attention it deserves from linguists and language instructors. Despite the appearance of great variation among heritage speakers, they fall along a continuum based upon the speakers’ distance from the baseline language. Such a continuum-based model enables researchers and instructors to classify heritage speakers more accurately and readily. This article discusses the results of research on lower-proficiency speakers, identifying recurrent features of heritage languages in phonology, morphology, and syntax. Preliminary results indicate that different heritage languages share a number of structural similarities; this finding is important for the understanding of general processes involved in language acquisition. The article also presents implications of the main findings for language education and identifies areas needing further study.