Parameters optimization of electroless deposition of Cu on Cr-coated diamond

Electroless copper plating on diamond particles precoated with 1%Cr was carried out to evaluate the effects of various experimental parameters on coating quality and deposition rate to obtain the optimized reaction parameters. The formulated samples under optimized parameters were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectra and optical microscopy. The best parameters, where uniform and maximum coating thickness was achieved, are etching with 20%NaOH for 30 min, sensitization and activation with SnCl2 and PdCl2 for 5 and 20 min, respectively. The composition of the copper solution bath was 16 g/L CuSO4＆#183;5H2O, 35 mL/L formaldehyde （HCHO）, 23 g/L KNaC4H4O6 at 60 ℃, pH=13 and stirring at （350±15） r/min under ultrasonication.

Impact of temperature on yield and related traits in cotton genotypes

Cotton growth and development is influenced by various uncontrollable environmental conditions. Temperature variations in the field can be created by planting at different dates. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of planting dates and thermal temperatures（growing degree days） on yield of 4 cotton genotypes, viz., CIM-598, CIM-599, CIM-602 and Ali Akbar-703. Plants were subjected to 6 planting dates during 2013 and 2014 in a trial conducted in randomized complete block design with four replications. For boll number, boll weight and seed cotton yield, cotton genotypes exhibited significant differences, CIM-599 produced the highest seed cotton yield of 2 062 kg ha^（–1） on account of maximum boll number and boll weight. The highest seed cotton yield was recorded in planting dates from 15 th April to 1st May whereas early and delayed planting reduced the yield due to less accumulation of heat units. Regression analysis revealed that increase of one unit（15 days） from early to optimum date（15th March to 15 th April） increased yield by 93.58 kg ha^–1. Delay in planting also decreased the seed cotton yield with the same ratio. Thus it is concluded that cotton must be sown from 15 th April to 1st May to have good productivity in this kind of environment.

Improvement of a High Velocity Compaction Technique for Iron Powder

Water atomized pure iron powder was compacted by high velocity compaction （HVC） with and without upper relaxation assist （URA） device. The influence of URA device on green density, spring back, green strength and hardness was studied. Morphological characteristics of the samples were observed by scanning electron microscope （SEM）. Green strength of the samples was measured by computer controlled universal testing machine. The results show that as stroke length increases, the green density, green strength and hardness of the compacts increase gradually. At the identical stroke length, the green density of the compacts pressed with URA devise was 2% higher than the compacts pressed without URA device. The green strength and hardness of the compacts pressed with URA device were higher than the compacts pressed without URA device. Furthermore, the radial spring back of the compacts decreased gradually with the increment in stroke length, whilst that of compacts prepared with URA device was lower.