Efficient method to prepare diethylphosphonacetamides

An efficient and versatile synthetic method is described to synthesize diethylphosphonacetamides in a single step.     

Magnetic bead based immunoassay for enumeration of CD4 T lymphocytes on a microfluidic device

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) diagnostics are urgently needed in resource-scarce settings. Monitoring of HIV-infected patients requires accurate counting of CD4⁺ T lymphocytes. However, the current methods for enumeration of CD4⁺ T lymphocytes are of high cost, technically complex and time-consuming. In this paper, we developed a simple, rapid and inexpensive one-step immunomagnetic method for separating and counting CD4⁺ T lymphocytes on microfluidic devices with enlarged reaction chambers. CD4⁺ T lymphocytes were successfully separated and captured from the cell suspension obtained from mouse thymus. CD4 counts were determined under an optical microscope in a rapid and simple format. In order to acquire the maximum efficiency of cell capture, relative parameters were investigated, including section area of the reaction chamber and injection flow rate of the cell suspension. The enlarged reaction chamber with two symmetrical cone-shaped ends was helpful for cell capture, and the maximum capability of captured CD4⁺ T lymphocytes was about 700 cells μL⁻¹. Our investigations avoided the complex sample pre-treatment, and the entire analysis time was significantly reduced to 15 min. This CD4 counting microdevice had the potential to reduce the cost for HIV diagnosis in resource-limited settings.     

Testing the performance of density functionals for the calculation of energetic properties of complex-forming radical-molecule reactions

The performance of some popular and some more recent density functional methods for the calculation of energies of stationary points on the potential surfaces of radical-molecule reactions was examined. The functionals studied are B3-LYP, BH&H, BH&H-LYP, MPW1K, MPWB1K, TPSS, TPSSh, BB1K, M05 and M05-2X, in conjunction with nine different AO basis sets. The reaction energies, barrier heights and the relative energies of the pre-and post-reaction complexes were compared with those obtained at the CCSD(T)/CBS limit for the reactions of OH radicals with HOOH and CH₃OOH. Very poor barrier heights are provided by the B3-LYP, TPSS and TPSSh functionals. The best overall performance was obtained with the BB1K, MPW1K and MPWB1K functionals. In these reactions all of the studied functionals provide converged results only if they are used with large basis sets like aug-cc-pVTZ and def2-TZVP. The data show that before relying on a functional for a specific reaction, it is desirable to make some test calculations on the performance. The same functional can predict some relative energies very well and some others very poorly even in systems including chemically similar reactants.     

Boron-doped a-SiOx:H films prepared by photo-CVD technique

The optoelectronic and structural properties of p-type a-SiO_x:H films have been studied. The deposition parameters e.g. chamber pressure and diborane to silane ratio are optimized to get a film with dark conductivity (σ_d) 7.9×10⁻⁶ S cm⁻¹ and photoconductivity 9.3×10⁻⁶ S cm⁻¹ for an optical gap (E₀₄) of 1.94 eV. The decrease of optical gap accompanied by the increase of conductivity is due to less oxygen incorporation in the film, which is substantiated by the decrease of the intensity of SiO absorption spectra. The properties are very much effected by the chamber pressure and diborane to silane ratio.     

The effect of implanting nitrogen on the optical absorption and electron paramagnetic resonance spectra of silica

Silica samples (type III, Corning 7940) were implanted with N using multiple energies to produce a layer ∼600 nm thick in which the concentration of N was constant to within ±5%. The optical absorption spectra of the samples were measured from 1.8 to 6.5 eV. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) measurements were made at ∼20.3 and 33 GHz for sample temperatures ranging from 77 K to 100 K for most measurements. The components identified in the EPR spectra, based on comparison with reported parameters, were due to E′ centers and peroxy radicals. By comparing the changes in the optical absorption at 5.85 eV with the changes in the concentrations of the various EPR components and with the reports in the literature, we conclude that there is an additional band at 5.7-5.9 eV other than the E′ center band. We conclude that the bands between 2 and 6.5 eV and the EPR spectral components produced by implantation of N are due to radiation damage processes; neither optical bands nor EPR components related to N are detected.     

Thermodynamics of formation of aluminum-iron-germanium amorphous alloys

Thermodynamic properties of ternary liquid Al-Fe-Ge alloys were studied by electromotive force method at 1050-1250 K and by high-temperature isobasic calorimetry at 1740 ± 5 K. The heat capacity change at ternary alloy formation (Δ_mixC_p) was estimated using the temperature dependence of integral enthalpy of mixing. Thermodynamics of the formation of Al-Fe-Ge amorphous alloys was evaluated by extrapolation of thermodynamic functions of mixing to the temperature of amorphization. The process of glass forming is preferable by both enthalpy and entropy for compositions of (0.1<x_Fe<0.6, x_Ge<0.5). The area with most negative integral Gibbs free energy and enthalpy of amorphous alloy formation corresponds well to the area of amorphization estimated by a glass-forming tendency (GFT) criterion.     

Structure and non-linear optical performance of TeO2-Nb2O5-ZnO glasses

The non-linear optical performance and structure of TeO₂-Nb₂O₅-ZnO glasses was investigated as a function of ZnO content. The third-order non-linear optical susceptibility (χ⁽³⁾) as measured by a Degenerate Four Wave Mixing (DFWM) method, initially increased with increasing ZnO content to about 8.2 × 10⁻¹³ esu for a glass containing 2.5 wt% ZnO, and then decreased to 5.9 × 10⁻¹³ esu as the ZnO content increased to 10 wt%. There was no noticeable change as the ZnO content increased from 10 to 15 wt%. The non-linear optical response time, which caused electron cloud deformation, was from 450 to 500 fs. The structure of these glasses as analyzed by Raman spectroscopy and FT-IR spectra, was affected by the addition of ZnO up to 5 wt%, when, it is believed, the Zn²⁺ ions occupied the interstitial positions in the glass network by replacing the Nb⁵⁺ ions. The replaced Nb⁵⁺ ions occupied the network forming positions as the Te⁴⁺ ions. Increasing ZnO > 5 wt% did not have any further effect on the glass structure.     

Spin-Spin Relaxation Process of 23Na-NMR in Na-Loaded NaY

Abstract

Spin-spin relaxation of ²³Na-NMR is observed by the spin echo method at room temperature for Y-type zeolite loaded with Na metal without hydration. For saturated and no levels of loading, the echo decay is well fitted by single exponential function. T ₂ decreases to be 0.25 times smaller by loading. This decrease of T ₂ is explained semiquantitatively with assuming nuclear dipole-dipole interaction between neighboring Na.     

Correlations between electronic structure of transition metal atoms and performance of high-k gate dielectrics in advanced Si devices

This paper develops a classification scheme for non-crystalline dielectrics that separates them into three groups with different amorphous morphologies, and identifies a linear scaling relationship between average bond ionicity and oxygen atom coordination. The classification scheme is applied to transition metal silicate and aluminate alloys and provides a structural model for molecular orbital, MO, calculations that are based on the coordination and symmetry of transition metal atoms and the orbital energies of their oxygen neighbors. The MO calculations show that conduction band offset energies with respect to Si scale inversely with the energy difference between transition metal atomic n+1 s- and n d-states providing an important insight into the choice of alternative gate dielectrics for advanced Si devices.     

Nanocrystalline TiO2 films studied by optical, XRD and FTIR spectroscopy

We report the deposition of thin titanium dioxide films on Si(1 0 0) and silica glass at low temperatures between 200 and 350 °C by a technique of ultraviolet-assisted injection liquid source chemical vapor deposition (UVILS-CVD) with 222 nm radiation. The composition and optical properties of the films deposited have been studied using a variety of standard characterisation methods. A strong absorption peak around 438 cm⁻¹, corresponding to Ti-O stretching vibration, was observed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy for different deposition temperatures. Nanostructured films on Si wafers were observed by atomic force microscopy while X-ray diffraction results showed that crystalline TiO₂ layers could be formed at deposition temperatures as low as 210 °C. The deposition kinetics and influence of the substrate temperature on the film are discussed. The activation energy for this photo-CVD process at temperatures between 200 and 350 °C was found to be 0.435 eV. This is much lower than the value (E_a=5.64 eV) obtained by conventional thermal CVD. The thicknesses of the films grown, from several nanometers to micrometers can be accurately controlled by changing the number of drops introduced by the injection liquid source. Under optimum deposition conditions, refractive index values as high as 2.5 and optical transmittance of between 85% and 90% in the visible region of the spectrum can be obtained.