Phytohormone Supplementation Significantly Increases Growth of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Cultivated for Biodiesel Production

Cultivation is the most expensive step in the production of biodiesel from microalgae, and substantial research has been devoted to developing more cost-effective cultivation methods. Plant hormones (phytohormones) are chemical messengers that regulate various aspects of growth and development and are typically active at very low concentrations. In this study, we investigated the effect of different phytohormones on microalgal growth and biodiesel production in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and their potential to lower the overall cost of commercial biofuel production. The results indicated that all five of the tested phytohormones (indole-3-acetic acid, gibberellic acid, kinetin, 1-triacontanol, and abscisic acid) promoted microalgal growth. In particular, hormone treatment increased biomass production by 54 to 69 % relative to the control growth medium (Tris–acetate–phosphate, TAP). Phytohormone treatments also affected microalgal cell morphology but had no effect on the yields of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) as a percent of biomass. We also tested the effect of these phytohormones on microalgal growth in nitrogen-limited media by supplementation in the early stationary phase. Maximum cell densities after addition of phytohormones were higher than in TAP medium, even when the nitrogen source was reduced to 40 % of that in TAP medium. Taken together, our results indicate that phytohormones significantly increased microalgal growth, particularly in nitrogen-limited media, and have potential for use in the development of efficient microalgal cultivation for biofuel production.     

Synthesis of new di-anchoring organic sensitizer based on quinoxaline acceptor for dye-sensitized solar cells

New quinoxaline-based organic sensitizer bearing di-anchoring group for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) was synthesized from diethyl 4,5-diaminophthaltate, in which was prepared under mild condition by using Takehito’s method. The synthesized sensitizer was compared with mono-anchoring sensitizer through absorption spectra, emission spectra, J-V curve, and IPCE spectra, indicating the di-anchoring group leads to a noticeable improvement of J_sc value owing to more efficient intramolecular charge transfer and channel number increment.     

Redox‐responsive core cross‐linked micelles of poly(ethylene oxide)‐b‐poly(furfuryl methacrylate) by Diels‐Alder reaction for doxorubicin release

Redox‐responsive core cross‐linked (CCL) micelles of poly(ethylene oxide)‐b‐poly(furfuryl methacrylate) (PEO‐b‐PFMA) block copolymers were prepared by the Diels‐Alder click‐type reaction. First, the PEO‐b‐PFMA amphiphilic block copolymer was synthesized by the reversible addition‐fragmentation chain transfer polymerization. The hydrophobic blocks of PFMA were employed to encapsulate the doxorubicin (DOX) drug, and they were cross‐linked using dithiobismaleimidoethane at 60 °C without any catalyst. Under physiological circumstance, the CCL micelles demonstrated the enhanced structural stability of the micelles, whereas dissociation of the micelles took place rapidly through the breaking of disulfide bonds in the cross‐linking linkages under reduction environment. The core‐cross‐linked micelles showed fine spherical distribution with hydrodynamic diameter of 68 ± 2.9  nm. The in vitro drug release profiles presented a slight release of DOX at pH 7.4, while a significant release of DOX was observed at pH 5.0 in the presence of 1,4‐dithiothreitol. MTT assays demonstrated that the block copolymer did not have any practically cytotoxicity against the normal HEK293 cell line while DOX‐loaded CCL micelles exhibited a high antitumor activity towards HepG2 cells. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2016 , 54, 3741–3750     

Thin-film capacitance models

Models for distributed capacitance in a thin film are derived in the form of a system of local RC diffusion equations coupled by a global elliptic equation. Such models contain the local geometry of the distributed capacitance on which charge pis stored and the exchange of current flux on its interface with the medium. Certain singular limits are characterized, and the resulting degenerate initial-boundary-value problems are shown to be well posed.     

LGP pattern design with single LED light source

We investigated optimize pattern design of a LGP for TFT-LCD with single LED. For the purpose, we introduced new concepts of pattern design most appropriate design for single light source, density adjustment design and radius adjustment design. And than compared the LGP output intensity distribution of the two cases with that of the uniform density pattern. As the result, above two types pattern design given a good result. Especially, the radius adjustment pattern design enhanced intensity uniformity definitely.     

Cauchy’s Formula on Surfaces Embedded in the Quaternions

Cauchy’s theorem for analytic functions on complex numbers is extended to analytic functions on the quaternions. For this purpose, we carefully define the notions of differentiation and integration on two or three dimensional manifolds embedded in the quaternions.     

Thermal stability of ester linkage in the presence of 1,2,3‐Triazole moiety generated by click reaction

The copper(I)‐catalyzed alkyne‐azide cycloaddition (CuAAC), so‐called “click” reaction, is one of most useful synthetic strategies to connect two polymer chains. 1,2,3‐Triazole ring (TA) produced by the click reaction has good thermal and chemical stability. However, we observed that block copolymers synthesized by the click reaction showed thermal degradation to give homopolymers when they are thermally annealed at high temperature, which is required for obtaining equilibrium microdomain structure. To investigate the origin of thermal instability of block copolymers, we synthesized model polystyrenes (PSs) using systematically designed bi‐functional atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) initiators containing TA. PS including both ester and TA groups showed thermal decomposition at relatively low temperature (e.g., 140 °C). MALDI‐TOF analysis clearly demonstrated that the cleavage site is the ester group adjacent to TA. We also found that the bromine group located at the polymer chain end plays an important role in pyrolysis of ester groups at low temperature. The pyrolysis occurs by syn‐elimination of the ester group. This result implies that the phase behavior of block copolymer synthesized by click reaction should be carefully investigated when high temperature thermal annealing is required. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017 , 55, 427–436