The influence of cationic impurities in silica on its crystallization and point of zero charge

The influence of the heat treatment on the crystal structure change of five (two laboratory prepared and three commercial) silica powders were investigated. Silicas were heat treated in the temperature range from 150 to 1300 degrees C in air. Also, the influence of the washing procedure with 0.01 mol/L HCl in order to desorb cations present as impurities in silica samples, was studied. The change of the amorphous into the crystal structure (alpha-cristobalite) takes place in the range 1050-1300 degrees C, depending on the chemical purity of silica samples. Points of zero charge, pHpzc, of the same silica samples, ranging from 3.8 to 7.1, were also determined by batch equilibration method. It is shown that the desorption of cations from silica samples, i.e., increase in their purity, leads to a shift in pHpzc toward lower values.     

Effect of protons on the optical properties of oxide nanostructures

Site-specific functionalization of oxide nanostructures gives rise to novel optical and chemical surface properties. In addition, it can provide deeper insights into the electronic surface structure of the associated materials. We applied chemisorption of molecular hydrogen, induced by ultraviolet (UV) light, followed by vacuum annealing to MgO nanocubes to selectively decorate three-coordinated oxygen ions (oxygen corner sites, for simplicity) with protons. Fully dehydroxylated nanocubes exhibit 3.2 +/- 0.1 eV photoluminescence induced by 4.6 eV light, where both emission and absorption are associated with three-coordinated oxygen sites. We find that partially hydroxylated nanocubes show an additional photoluminescence feature at 2.9 +/- 0.1 eV. Interestingly, the excitation spectra of the 2.9 and 3.2 eV emission bands, associated with protonated and nonprotonated oxygen corner sites, respectively, nearly coincide and show well-pronounced maxima at 4.6 eV in spite of a significant difference in their local atomic and electronic structures. These observations are explained with the help of ab initio calculations, which reveal that (i) the absorption band at 4.6 eV involves four-coordinated O and Mg ions in the immediate vicinity of the corner sites and (ii) protonation of the three-coordinated oxygen ions eliminates the optical transitions associated with them and strongly red-shifts other optical transitions associated with neighboring atoms. These results demonstrate that the optical absorption bands assigned to topological surface defects are not simply determined by the ions of lowest coordination number but involve contributions due to the neighboring atoms of higher coordination. Thus, we suggest that the absorption band at 4.6 eV should not be regarded as merely a signature of the three-coordinated O2- ions but ought to be assigned to corners as multiatomic topological features. Our results also suggest that optical absorption signatures of protonated and nonprotonated sites of oxide surfaces can be remarkably similar.     

Phenolic profiles of Serbian autochthonous variety ‘Prokupac’ and monovarietal international wines from the Central Serbia wine region

Phenolic profiles of young monovarietal white and red wines from the Central Serbia were investigated. Quantification of phenolics was done using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) coupled with a diode array detector and a triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer. Generally, red wines were characterised with higher phenolics content when compared to the white wines. This applies also for the total phenolics content (TPC) and radical scavenging activity (RSA) values. Among all the samples, the red wine from autochthonous Serbian variety ‘Prokupac’ stood out with unique composition, showing the highest TPC, RSA and the highest concentration of the individual phenolics. Finally, based on a specific phenolic pattern, principal component analysis (PCA) indicated clustering of red and white wines, with the ‘Prokupac’ as a prominent outlier.     

Advances in Xmipp for Cryo–Electron Microscopy: From Xmipp to Scipion

Xmipp is an open-source software package consisting of multiple programs for processing data originating from electron microscopy and electron tomography, designed and managed by the Biocomputing Unit of the Spanish National Center for Biotechnology, although with contributions from many other developers over the world. During its 25 years of existence, Xmipp underwent multiple changes and updates. While there were many publications related to new programs and functionality added to Xmipp, there is no single publication on the Xmipp as a package since 2013. In this article, we give an overview of the changes and new work since 2013, describe technologies and techniques used during the development, and take a peek at the future of the package.     

European analytical column number 45

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