Supramolecular hybrids of [60]fullerene and single-wall carbon nanotubes

Noncovalent interactions between purified HiPCO single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNT) and a [60]fullerene-pyrene dyad, synthesized through a regioselective double-cyclopropanation process, produce stable suspensions in which the tubes are very well dispersed, as evidenced by microscopy characterization. Cyclic voltammetry experiments and photophysical characterization of the suspensions in organic solvents are all indicative of sizeable interactions of the pyrene moiety with the SWNT and, therefore, of the prevalence in solution of [60]fullerene-pyreneSWNT hybrids.     

Coupling of superconductivity with low-dimensional electron systems in mesoscopic geometries

We describe effects seen in coupled superconductor–semiconductor hybrid systems in various mesoscopic geometries. The hybrid structures consist of niobium films on high mobility InAs:GaSb quantum wells which form high transparency, low-resistance interfaces exhibiting a variety of effects in their resistive transitions and differential resistance scans. Grating structures show effects arising out of the confinement of quasiparticles while dot arrays show evidence of proximity induced superconductivity scaling as the density of dots. Superconducting dots deposited on narrow semiconductor channels show suppression of Andreev reflection which we attribute to interdot diffuse scattering from the walls of the channel.     

Reaction chemistry and kinetics of corn stalk pyrolysis without and with Ga/HZSM-5

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - The bifunctional Ga/HZSM-5 catalyst has been proven having the capability to increase the selectivity of aromatics production during catalytic...     

Development of a ZHER3‐Affibody‐Targeted Nano‐Vector for Gene Delivery to HER3‐Overexpressed Breast Cancer Cells

Despite the initial successes of gene delivery applications, they faced on several intrinsic drawbacks including toxicity and immunogenicity. Therefore, alternative gene‐delivery systems derived from recombinant peptides have emerged and is rapidly developing. Human epidermal growth factor receptor‐3 (HER3) shows high activity in tumor resistance to anti‐human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) therapies. In this study, an affibody molecule against HER3 is conjugated to a biomimetic peptide RALA (an amphipathic and cationic peptide enriched with arginine) and the ability of the fusion vector for targeting HER3 and afterward delivering specific genes in breast cancer cells is evaluated. The results demonstrate that the biopolymeric platform, which contains an affibody‐conjugated RALA peptide, can effectively condense DNA into nanoparticles and target the overexpressed HER3 receptors in breast cancer cells and transfer specific genes. The use of such a recombinant biopolymer may pave the way for the development of sensitive and effective diagnostic and treatment tool for breast cancer.     

Total synthesis of (±) aspidostomide B,C, regioisomeric N-methyl aspidostomide D and their derivatives

A full account of the total synthesis of aspidostomide B, C, their analogues and our synthetic efforts towards the synthesis of aspidostomide D, which led to the synthesis of regioisomeric N-methyl aspidostomide D, its analogues via epoxide opening strategy is presented. The synthesis of regioisomeric N-methyl aspidostomide D involves an efficient, five-step sequence, with 36.3% overall yield, starting from 3,4,5-tribromo-1H-pyrrole-2-carboxylic acid. The key features of this protocol are intramolecular cyclization, dehydration, oxidation, and a Lewis acid-mediated regioselective epoxide ring opening by C-3 position of 2,5-dibromo-1H-indole to furnish the title compounds.     

Synthesis and Computational Analysis of New Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Angular Chromenopyrimidines

A convenient synthetic protocol for the synthesis of novel chromenopyrimidine derivatives based on angular scaffold has been developed from the readily available enaminonitrile precursor 1 . The skeleton of chromenopyrimidines has been decorated with different moieties in order to approach compounds with improved antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. Compound 1 was reacted with Ac₂O to yield benzochromenopyrimidine 6 that gave chloropyrimidine 7 via chlorination reaction. The reaction of chloropyrimidine 7 with different amines afforded a series of benzochromenopyrimidines 9 – 12 . The hydrazine 11 and hydrazide 13 derivatives showed excellent antioxidant activity in addition to the potent antimicrobial activity revealed by aminopyrimidines 10 and 16 . Computational docking studies indicated the potential recognition of compound 13 towards antioxidant binding site. Dual evaluations of the antimicrobial affinity of compound 16 indicated its promising activity as antimicrobial lead.     

Modulational instability,rogue waves,and envelope solitons in opposite polarity dusty plasmas

Dust-acoustic (DA) waves (DAWs) and their modulational instability (MI) have been investigated theoretically in a plasma system consisting of inertial opposite polarity (positively and negatively) warm adiabatic charged dust grains as well as inertialess non-extensive $q?$distributed electrons and non-thermal ions. A nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) is derived by using the reductive perturbation method. It has been observed from the analysis of NLSE that the modulationally stable solitary DAWs give rise to the existence of dark envelope solitons, and that the modulationally unstable solitary DAWs give rise to the existence of bright envelope solitons or rogue structures. It is also observed for the fast mode of DAWs that the basic features (viz. stability of the DAWs, MI, growth rate, amplitude, and width of the DA rogue waves, etc.) are significantly modified by the related plasma parameters (viz. dust masses, dust charge state, non-extensive parameter q, and non-thermal parameter α). The results of our present investigation might be useful for understanding different nonlinear electrostatic phenomena in both space (viz. ionosphere and mesosphere) and laboratory plasmas (viz. high intensity laser irradiation and hot cathode discharge).     

Intensity modulated silver coated glass optical fiber refractive index sensor

Miniature optical fiber sensors with thin films as sensitive elements could open new fields for optical fiber sensor applications. Thin films work as sensitive elements and a transducer to get response and feedback from environments, in which optical fibers act as a signal carrier. A novel Ag coated intensity modulated optical fiber sensor based on refractive index changes using IR and UV-Vis(UV-visible) light sources is proposed. The sensor with an IR light source has higher sensitivity compared to a UV-Vis source. When the refractive index is enhanced to 1.38, the normalized intensity of IR and UV-Vis light diminishes to 0.2 and 0.8, respectively.     

Effect of alkali content on AC conductivity of borate glasses containing two transition metals

Sodium borate glasses containing iron and molybdenum ions with the total concentration of transition ions constant and gradual substitution of sodium oxide (network modifier) by borate oxide (network former) was prepared. Densities, molar volume, DC and AC conductivities are measured. The trends of these properties are attributed to changes in the glass network structure. Their DC and AC conductivity increased with increasing NaO concentration. The increase of AC conductivity of sodium borate glasses is attributed to the chemical composition and the hopping mechanism of conduction. Measurements of the dielectric constant (ε) and dielectric loss (tan δ) as a function of frequency (50 Hz–100 kHz) and temperature (RT—600 K) indicate that the increase in dielectric constant and loss (ε and tan δ) values with increasing sodium ion content could be attributed to the assumption that Fe and Mo ions tend to assume network-forming position in the glass compositions studied.The variation of the value of frequency exponent s for all glass samples as the function of temperature at a definite frequency indicates that the value of s decreases with increasing the temperature which agrees with the correlated barrier-hopping (CBH) model.