Liquid-Repellent Metal Oxide Photocatalysts

Metal oxide photocatalysts (MOPCs) decompose organic molecules under illumination. However, the application of MOPCs in industry and research is currently limited by their intrinsic hydrophilicity because MOPCs can be wetted by most liquids. To achieve liquid repellency, the surface needs to possess a low surface energy, but most organic molecules with low surface energy are degraded by photocatalytic activity. Herein, current methods to achieve liquid repellency on MOPCs, while preventing degradation of hydrophobic coatings, are reviewed. Classically, composite materials containing MOPCs and hydrophobic organic compounds possess good liquid repellency. However, composites normally form irregular coatings and are hard to prepare on surfaces such as those that are mesoporous or nanostructured. In addition, the adhesion of composites to substrates is often weak, resulting in delamination. Recent studies have shown that the direct grafting reaction of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) from silicone oil (methyl-terminated PDMS) under illumination results in a stable polymer brush. This easy and simple grafting method allows us to create stable liquid-repellent surfaces on MOPCs of various types, structures, and sizes. In particular, super-liquid-repellent drops with an underlying air layer can be created on PDMS-grafted nano-/microstructured MOPCs. Potential applications of surfaces combining liquid repellency and photocatalytic activity are also discussed; thus offering new ways of using MOPCs in a wider range of applications.     

The catalytic performance study of polymerized ionic liquid synthesized in different conditions on alkylation of o‐Xylene with styrene

In this work, a series of novel acidic polymerized ionic liquids were used as heterogeneous catalyst for alkylation of o‐Xylene with styrene. And the effect of the amount of initiator and the type of acid used for ion exchange on catalyst structure and the catalytic performance of catalysts for alkylation were studied thoroughly. The experiment results show: when the percentage of the amount of initiator in the total material is 3%, the polymerized ionic liquid catalyst MPM‐SO₃H‐[C₃V][SO₃CF₃] has the most uniform with a specific surface area of 97.30 m²/g and a pore volume of 0.35 cm³/g. Benefiting from the unique structure features, MPM‐SO₃H‐[C₃V][SO₃CF₃] manifested an excellent catalytic performance for alkylation of o‐Xylene with styrene, along with the conversion of styrene was 96.8% and the yield of 1‐Phenyl‐1‐ortho‐xylene ethane was 94.7%. Therefore, this work provides a novel reference to the synthesis of polymerized ionic liquids and clearly explains the advantage of novel acidic polymerized ionic liquids on alkylation.     

Synthesis and Characterization of Hydrophilic Trityl Radical TFO for Biomedical and Biophysical Applications

Tetrathiatriarylmethyl (TAM, trityl) radicals have found wide applications as spin probes/labels for EPR spectroscopy and imaging, and as polarizing agents for dynamic nuclear polarization. The high hydrophilicity of TAM radicals is essential for their biomedical applications. However, the synthesis of hydrophilic TAM radicals (e.g., OX063) is extremely challenging and has only been reported in the patent literature, to date. Herein, an efficient synthesis of a highly water-soluble TAM radical bis(8-carboxyl-2,2,6,6-tetramethylbenzo[1,2-d:4,5-d′]bis([1,3]dithiol-4-yl)-mono-(8-carboxyl-2,2,6,6-tetrakis(2-hydroxyethyl)benzo[1,2-d:4,5-d′]bis([1,3]dithiol-4-yl)methyl (TFO), which contains four additional hydroxylethyl groups, relative to the Finland trityl radical CT-03, is reported. Similar to OX063, TFO exhibits excellent properties, including high water solubility in phosphate buffer, low log P, low pK_a, long relaxation times, and negligible binding with bovine serum albumin. On the other hand, TFO has a sharper EPR line and higher O₂ sensitivity than those of OX063. Therefore, in combination with its facile synthesis, TFO should find wide applications in magnetic resonance related fields and this synthetic approach would shed new light on the synthesis of other hydrophilic TAM radicals.     

The Effect of Viscosity on the Diffusion and Termination Reaction of Organic Radical Pairs

The effect of viscosity on the diffusion efficiency (F_dif) of an organic radical pair in a solvent cage and the termination mechanism, that is, the selectivity of disproportionation (Disp) and combination (Comb) of the geminated caged radical pair and the diffused radicals encountered, were investigated quantitatively by following the photolysis of dimethyl 2,2′-azobis(2-methylpropionate) (V-601) in the absence and presence of PhSD. F_dif and Disp/Comb selectivity outside the cage [Disp_(dif)/Comb_(dif)] are highly sensitive to the viscosity. In contrast, the Disp/Comb selectivity inside the cage [Disp_(cage)/Comb_(cage)] is rather insensitive. The difference in viscosity dependence between Disp_(cage)/Comb_(cage) and Disp_(dif)/Comb_(dif) is explained by the spin state of the radical pair inside and outside the cage and the spin state dependent configurational changes of the radical pair upon their collision. Given that the configurational change of the radicals associates the displacement and reorganization of solvents around the radicals, the termination outside the cage, which requires larger change than that inside the cage, is highly viscosity dependent. Furthermore, while the bulk viscosity of each solvent shows good correlation with F_dif and Disp/Comb selectivity, microviscosity is the better parameter predicting F_dif and Disp_(dif)/Comb_(dif) selectivity regardless of the solvents.     

托卡马克中局域磁扰动引起的高能量离子损失研究

基于单粒子导心运动代码ORBIT，采用测试粒子模拟方法，研究了托卡马克等离子体内部不同径向位置处局域磁场扰动对高能量离子的损失的影响。研究表明，在局域磁扰动主要分布在某磁面附近、其环向具有类似纹波场形式下，可造成一些靠近等离子体中心区域的高能量离子损失，但对靠近等离子边界的离子损失影响相对不大。这些损失的高能量离子均为捕获离子，离子的投掷角越大就越容易损失。此外，造成高能量离子最大损失率的局域场径向位置与这些损失离子的初始径向位置通常存在一定的偏移，而且这个偏移与这些离子的能量密切相关。当局域场出现在某些位置时，能量较低的离子会有一定的损失，能量较高的离子反而不会损失。     

级联光栅结合Sagnac环的可调谐光纤激光器

提出并验证了一种单-双波长可调谐掺铒光纤激光器。利用级联光纤布拉格光栅(Cascaded Fiber Bragg gratings,Cascaded FBGs)结合Sagnac环结构所产生的复合滤波效应,实现较高精细度滤波,并通过调节环内偏振控制器(Polarization Controller,PC),引入双折射效应,得到波长可调谐的光纤激光器。基于耦合模理论并使用传输矩阵法对该结构的传输特性进行了分析,在此基础上搭建实验系统,验证了理论分析的正确性。实验结果表明:通过调节PC,激光器输出激光的波长范围约为1 555.644～1 556.112 nm,双波长间隔的可调范围约为0.108～0.452 nm,单-双波长的边模抑制比(SMSR)均高于40 dB;在稳定性测试中,输出单-双波长激光的波长最大漂移量小于0.008 nm。该方法具有结构简单、调谐方便、易于实现且精细度较高的优点,可应用于密集波分复用及全光通信系统等领域。     

Effect of rotation in magneto-thermoelastic transversely isotropic hollow cylinder with three-phase-lag model

This article deals with the various heat source responses in a transversely isotropic hollow cylinder under the purview of three-phase-lag (TPL) generalized thermoelasticity theory. In presence of magnetic field and due to the rotating behavior of the cylinder, the governing equations are redefined for generalized thermoelasticity with thermal time delay. In order to obtain the stress, displacement and temperature field, the field functions are expressed in terms of modified Bessel functions in Laplace transformed domain. When the outer radius of hollow cylinder tends to infinity, the corresponding results are discussed. Finally an appropriate Laplace transform inversion technique is adopted.     

Photodeposition of CoOx nanoparticles on BiFeO3 nanodisk for efficiently piezocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B by utilizing ultrasonic vibration energy

Piezoelectric materials have received much attention due to their great potential in environmental remediation by utilizing vibrational energy. In this paper, a novel piezoelectric catalyst, CoO_x nanoparticles anchored BiFeO₃ nanodisk composite, was intentionally synthesized via a photodeposition method and applied in piezocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) under ultrasonic vibration. The as-synthesized CoO_x/BiFeO₃ composite presents high piezocatalytic efficiency and stability. The RhB degradation rate is determined to be 1.29 h⁻¹, which is 2.38 folds higher than that of pure BiFeO₃. Via optimizing the reaction conditions, the piezocatalytic degradation rate of the CoO_x/BiFeO₃ can be further increased to 3.20 h⁻¹. A thorough characterization was implemented to investigate the structure, piezoelectric property, and charge separation efficiency of the CoO_x/BiFeO₃ to reveal the nature behind the high piezocatalytic activity. It is found that the CoO_x nanoparticles are tightly adhered and uniformly dispersed on the surface of the BiFeO₃ nanodisks. Strong interaction between CoO_x and BiFeO₃ triggers the formation of a heterojunction structure, which further induces the migration of the piezoinduced holes on the BiFeO₃ to CoO_x nanoparticles. The recombination of electron-hole pairs is retarded, thereby increasing the piezocatalytic performance greatly. This work may offer a new paradigm for the design of high-efficiency piezoelectric catalysts.     

Optomechanical-organized multipulse dynamics in ultrafast fiber laser

A novel organized multipulse pattern and its birth dynamics under strong optomechanical effect in microfiber-assisted ultrafast fiber laser are investigated in this work. The background pulses are observed to obviously exhibit selectively amplifying self-organized process of evolving into quasi-stable equidistant clusters. The radio frequency spectrum of the multipulse pattern displays a harmonic mode-locking-like behavior with a repetition rate of 2.0138 GHz, corresponding to the frequency of torsional-radial (TR_2m) acoustic mode in microfiber. The results show the evidence of optomechanical effect in dominating the birth dynamics and pattern of multipulse.     

In vitro antioxidant/prooxidant effects of combined use of flavonoids

The present study was undertaken to investigate the individual and combined antioxidant or prooxidant effects of genistein, daidzein and quercetin in human erythrocytes and rat microsomes in vitro. Their reducing potential against oxidation of a redox sensitive fluorescent probe, their protective effect against H₂O₂-induced membrane lipid peroxidation and their inhibitory effect on AAPH-induced hemolysis were evaluated. Genistein and daidzein were prooxidant in erythrocytes but antioxidant in microsomes where their metabolites might have been formed which suggests the importance of metabolic capacity in in vitro models to predict the physiological situation. Quercetin showed antioxidant effects in all models and conditions. Prooxidant effect of ‘genistein–daidzein mixture’, at their concentrations reflecting the real life, was suppressed by addition of quercetin to the mixture. Our study shows that flavonoids can exert prooxidant effects depending on the conditions, but the mixture effect should be considered while assessing their effects and safety in humans.