Investigations of the lanthanum-europium-copper-oxygen system by X-ray powder diffraction,thermal analysis and europium-151 Mössbauer spectroscopy

Lanthanum-europium-copper oxides of composition La_2?x Eu _x CuO₄ with structures related to those of the high temperature superconducting oxides have been prepared by solid state reactions between the component oxides in air. The X-ray powder diffraction data demonstrate that an orthorhombic to tetragonal structural transformation occurs at compositions betweenx=0.5 andx=0.8. The¹⁵¹Eu Mössbauer spectra show that europium is present in all phases as Eu³⁺. Thermal analysis studies in hydrogen show that a two-step reduction process occurs in the lanthanum-europium-copper oxides with the orthorhombic type structure.¹⁵¹Eu Mössbauer spectroscopy shows that the process does not involve the reduction of the lanthanide ion.     

Interaction between the water soluble poly{1,4-phenylene-[9,9-bis(4-phenoxy butylsulfonate)]fluorene-2,7-diyl} copolymer and ionic surfactants followed by spectroscopic and conductivity measurements

The interaction has been studied in aqueous solutions between a negatively charged conjugated polyelectrolyte poly{1,4-phenylene-[9,9-bis(4-phenoxybutylsulfonate)]fluorene-2,7-diyl} copolymer (PBS-PFP) and several cationic tetraalkylammonium surfactants with different structures (alkyl chain length, counterion, or double alkyl chain), with tetramethylammonium cations and with the anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) by electronic absorption and emission spectroscopy and by conductivity measurements. The results are compared with those previously obtained on the interaction of the same polymer with the nonionic surfactant C12E5. The nature of the electrostatic or hydrophobic polymer-surfactant interactions leads to very different behavior. The polymer induces the aggregation with the cationic surfactants at concentrations well below the critical micelle concentration, while this is inhibited with the anionic SDS, as demonstrated from conductivity measurements. The interaction with cationic surfactants only shows a small dependence on alkyl chain length or counterion and is suggested to be dominated by electrostatic interactions. In contrast to previous studies with the nonionic C12E5, both the cationic and the anionic surfactants quench the PBS-PFP emission intensity, leading also to a decrease in the polymer emission lifetime. However, the interaction with these cationic surfactants leads to the appearance of a new emission band (approximately 525 nm), which may be due to energy hopping to defect sites due to the increase of PBS-PFP interchain interaction favored by charge neutralization of the anionic polymer by cationic surfactant and by hydrophobic interactions involving the surfactant alkyl chains, since the same green band is not observed by adding either tetramethylammonium hydroxide or chloride. This effect suggests that the cationic surfactants are changing the nature of PBS-PFP aggregates. The nature of the polymer and surfactant interactions can, thus, be used to control the spectroscopic and conductivity properties of the polymer, which may have implications in its applications.     

Synthesis of nanocrystalline zinc sulfide in a non-aqueous system by gamma-irradiation

Summary Gamma-irradiation has been applied to synthesize nanocrystalline ZnS with average size of 38 nm in a non-aqueous system at room temperature by utilizing homogeneous release of S^2- ions from the decomposition of carbon disulfide under γ-irradiation. The structure, morphology, size and optical properties have been studied by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), ultraviolet-visible spectrometer (UV-visible). The product containing zinc ions and the sulfur source has been characterized as β-ZnS, sphalerite phase, with spherical morphology and with a diameter average size of about 38 nm.The possible mechanism of formation of the product is suggested in accord with the experiment.     

Rotational isomerism between the E and Z forms of o-substituted benzo-N-methyl hydroxamic acids in strong acid

The $\text{E}$∠$\text{Z}$ equilibrium of the cations of benzo hydroxamic acids, in mineral acid, was studied utilizing ¹H NMR spectroscopy, NOEDS and MNDO claculations     

Reactions of the carbonyl complexes M(CO)3(L)3 (L = py,M = Mo,W; L = NH3, M = Mo) and M(CO)4(2-Mepy)2 (M = Mo,W) with HgX2 (X = Cl,CN, SCN)

The reactions of the substituted Group VI metal carbonyls of the type M(CO)₄(2-Mepy)₂ (M = Mo, w) and M(CO)₃(L)₃ (L = py, M = Mo, W; L = NH₃, M = Mo) with mercuric derivatives HgX₂ (X = Cl, CN, SCN) have given rise to three series of tricarbonyl complexes: M(CO)₃(py)HgCl₂ · 1/2HgCl₂ (M = Mo, W); 2[M(CO)₃(L)]Hg(CN)·nHg(CN)_x (L = py, M = Mo, W, n = $\text{1}\text{2}$, × = 2; L = 2- Mepy, × = 1; M = Mo, n = 3; M = W, n = 1); and [M(CO)₃(L)Hg(SCN)₂ · nHg(SCN)₂] (L = py, M = Mo,W, n = 0; L = 2-Mepy, M = Mo, W, n = $\text{1}\text{2}$; L = NH₃, M = Mo, n = 0) depending on which mercuric compound is employed. All the reactions with Hg(SCN)₂ give isolable products whereas those with Hg(CN)₂ and HgCl₂ did so far only the reactions with [M(CO)₄(2-Mepy)₂] and M(CO)₃(py)₃. The greater reactivity of Hg(SCN)₂ than of Hg(CN)₂ and HgCl₂ is consistent with the various acceptor capacities of the groups bonded to the mercury atom.The reactions studied always involve displacement of the N-donor ligand of the original complex and partial or total displacement of the halide or pseudohalide groups of the mercury compound to give in all cases compounds containing MHg bonds. In addition, elimination of a CO group in the tetracarbonyl complexes M(CO)₄(2-Mepy)₂occurs.     

An Overview of the Antimicrobial Properties of Lignocellulosic Materials

Pathogenic microbes are a major source of health and environmental problems, mostly due to their easy proliferation on most surfaces. Currently, new classes of antimicrobial agents are under development to prevent microbial adhesion and biofilm formation. However, they are mostly from synthetic origin and present several disadvantages. The use of natural biopolymers such as cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, derived from lignocellulosic materials as antimicrobial agents has a promising potential. Lignocellulosic materials are one of the most abundant natural materials from renewable sources, and they present attractive characteristics, such as low density and biodegradability, are low-cost, high availability, and environmentally friendly. This review aims to provide new insights into the current usage and potential of lignocellulosic materials (biopolymer and fibers) as antimicrobial materials, highlighting their future application as a novel drug-free antimicrobial polymer.     

Why are large cities faster? Universal scaling and self-similarity in urban organization and dynamics

Cities have existed since the beginning of civilization and have always been intimately connected with humanity's cultural and technological development. Much about the human and social dynamics that takes place is cities is intuitively recognizable across time, space and culture; yet we still do not have a clear cut answer as to why cities exist or to what factors are critical to make them thrive or collapse. Here, we construct an extensive quantitative characterization of the variation of many urban indicators with city size, using large data sets for American, European and Chinese cities. We show that social and economic quantities, characterizing the creation of wealth and new ideas, show increasing returns to population scale, which appear quantitatively as a power law of city size with an exponent β≃ 1.15 > 1. Concurrently, quantities characterizing material infrastructure typically show economies of scale, namely β≃ 0.8 < 1. The existence of pervasive scaling relations across city size suggests a universal social dynamics common to all cities within an urban system. We sketch some of their general ingredients, which include the acceleration of social life and a restructuring of individual social networks as cities grow larger. We also build simple dynamical models to show that increasing returns in wealth and innovation can fuel faster than exponential growth, which inexorably lead to crises of urban organization. To avoid them we show that growth may proceed in cycles, separated by major urban adaptations, with the unintended consequence that the duration of such cycles decreases with larger urban population size and is now estimated to be shorter than a human lifetime.