Touma B Issa

This paper aims at presenting a Syriac (Aramaic) viewpoint of the reposition of such an ancient language from a Disk Operating System DOS to UNICODE. This is of importance especially when this relates to adopting technology to the Ancient Classical Syriac (Aramaic), especially with the scholars claims that this language is the most ancient amongst the world languages, and consider it as one of the oldest with its characteristic, unique and original way of writing that started on tablets of clay. Syriac (Aramaic) is one of the Semitic tongues in which parts of the Holy Bible, such as the Prophecy of Daniel and the Gospel according to St. Matthew were revealed. Syriac (Aramaic) was the lingua franca of the area from Middle East to China; in a manner as Latin was the lingua franca of Old Europe. Syriac (Aramaic) was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent, and here lies the challenge to develop the script and font of such an ancient language and establish that marriage between the ancient world and the most modern technology.

Intercalation of lithium into the vacant sites of a host compound can be achieved electrochemically using non-aqueous electrolytes. The use of aqueous electrolyte is less common because of the reactivity of many lithium intercalation compounds with water. Here we propose that lithium could be intercalated using aqueous solutions, lithium hydroxide as the electrolyte. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (SIMS) data on the discharged material indicate that lithium is intercalated into the host structure of EMD without the destruction of its core structure. A significant improvement on cell performance was obtained by adding small amounts (<3 wt%) of titanium disulphide (TiS2) to the cathode.

The electrochemical behavior of lithium manganese phosphate (LIMnPO4) as a cathode material has been investigated in a saturated aqueous lithium hydroxide electrolyte. The crystal structure and surface characterization of the olivine type L1MnPO4 and the products which arc formed on its oxidation and subsequent reduction were studied. X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) were used for these investigations. LIMnPO4 is found to be reversibly delithiated on electro oxidation.

2-(11-mercaptoundecyl) [3] (1,1 ')ferrocenophane, BSFc (I) and 3-(11 –mercaptoundecyl) [5] (1,1 ') ferrocenophane, BSFc (II), were synthesized and their electrochemical behaviour in aqueous sulphuric acid electrolyte investigated. It is found that these compounds, chemisorbed on a gold substrate, undergo reversible oxidation/reduction. The anodic and cathodic peak potentials are found to be independent of the acid concentration in the range (1.0x10-2 to 1xI0-7 mol L-1) but change linearly with the acid concentration in the range 1 to SM. While this behaviour is similar to that for other ferrocenes, the materials are much more chemically stable in aqueous sulphuric acid media. The presence of thiol group enhances the retainability of the bridged ferrocenes on gold surface. The possibility of applying this observation for determining state of charge of lead-acid battery is discussed.

The electrochemistry of ferrocene derivatives has been investigated cyclovoltammetrical. It is found that the oxidation potentials and chemical stability are related to the number of the bridging chains. While the oxidation peak potentials are independent of solution pH in the range (2-10), In concentrated sulphuric acid media (1-SM) they shift linearly to less anodic potentials. This observation may form the basis of using ferrocenes as sensors for determining state of charge of lead-acid battery. However, it is found that the open circuit voltage of the ferrocenes tends to change rapidly even in neutral aqueous media. This may be related to the decomposition of the ferricinium ion or the dissolution of the ionic species in the acid media. Further work to establish the mechanism of this observation is continuing.