Ag‐CNT Architectures for Attomolar Dopamine Detection and 100‐Fold Fluorescence Enhancements with Cellphone‐Based Surface Plasmon‐Coupled Emission Platform

We report cellphone‐based detection of dopamine with attomolar sensitivity in clinical samples with the use of a surface plasmon‐coupled emission (SPCE) platform. To this end, silver‐coated carbon nanotubes were used as spacer and cavity materials on SPCE substrates to obtain up to 100‐fold fluorescence enhancements. The presence of silver on the carbon nanotubes helped to overcome fluorescence quenching arising due to π–π interactions between the carbon nanotube and rhodamine 6G. The competing adsorption of dopamine versus rhodamine 6G on graphene oxide was utilized to develop this sensing platform.     

Synthesis,spectral, crystal structure,drug-likeness,in silico,and in vitro biological screening of halogen [Cl,Br] substituted N-phenylbenzo[g]indazole derivatives as antimicrobial agents

The N-phenylbenzo[g]indazole derivatives, 3-(4-chlorophenyl)-3,3a,4,5-tetrahydro-N-phenylbenzo[g]indazole-2-carbothioamide (4CLPBIC), 3-(4-bromophenyl)-3,3a,4,5-tetrahydro-N-phenylbenzo[g]indazole-2-carbothioamide (4BRPBIC), and 3-(3-bromophenyl)-3,3a,4,5-tetrahydro-N-phenylbenzo[g]indazole-2-carbothioamide (3BRPBIC), were synthesized by the one-pot green amalgamation of solvent-free granulating methodology procedure at room temperature. The synthesized crystals were characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SC-XRD), FT-IR, FT-Raman, NMR, and UV–Vis techniques. The molecular geometries from XRD experimental values of synthesized compounds 4CLPBIC, 4BRPBIC, and 3BRPBIC in the ground state are compared theoretically by applying the density functional theory (DFT), a method with the B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) basis set using Gaussian 09 software. The vibrational assignments of the synthesized compounds were studied based on potential energy distribution (PED) by the VEDA4 program. The scaled DFT/B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) results show the best agreement with the experimental values. Computational ¹H and ¹³C NMR were acquired by utilizing gauge-independent atomic orbital (GIAO) procedure, and chemical shift results are in good agreement with the experimental values. A web-based theoretical investigation was performed to understand the drug-likeness and ADMET properties of the compounds. Molecular docking studies were carried out against bacterial cholesterol inhibitor block and inhibitor of lanosterol-14α-demethylase CYP51 used in the treatment of topical and systemic mycoses in fungal to understand the inhibitory activity of synthesized compounds. The synthesized molecules were also tested for antibacterial and antifungal activities.     

Impurity States in Semimagnetic Quantum Well Wire with Anisotropic Confinement along In-Plane Directions

Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics - The effect of shape of the confining potential along two different confined directions in Quantum Well Wire (QWW) on the heavy hole binding energy...     

An improvement to double-step Newton method and its multi-step version for solving system of nonlinear equations and its applications

In this work, we have improved the order of the double-step Newton method from four to five using the same number of evaluation of two functions and two first order Fréchet derivatives for each iteration. The multi-step version requires one more function evaluation for each step. The multi-step version converges with order 3r+5, r≥1. Numerical experiments are done comparing the new methods with some existing methods. Our methods are also tested on Chandrasekhar’s problem and the 2-D Bratu problem to illustrate the applications.     

Effect of digestion time and alkali addition rate on physical properties of magnetite nanoparticles

We investigate the effect of digestion time and alkali addition rate on the size and magnetic properties of precipitated magnetite nanoparticles. It is observed that the time required to complete the growth process for magnetite nanocrystals is very short (approximately 300 s), compared to long digestion times (20-190 min) required for MnO and CdSe nanocrystals. The rapid growth of magnetite nanoparticles suggests that Oswald ripening is insignificant during the precipitation stage, due to the low solubility of the oxides and the domination of a solid-state reaction where high electron mobility between Fe2+ and Fe3+ ions drives a local cubic close-packed ordering. During the growth stage (0-300 s), the increase in the particle size is nominal (6.7-8.2 nm). The effect of alkali addition rate on particle size reveals that the nanocrystal size decreases with increasing alkali addition rate. The particle size decreases from 11 to 6.8 nm as the alkali addition rate is increased from 1 to 80 mL/s. During the size decrease, the lattice parameter decreases from 0.838 to 0.835 nm, which is attributed to an increase in the amount of Fe3+ atoms at the surface due to oxidation. As the alkali addition rate increases, the solution reaches supersaturation state rapidly leading to the formation of large number of initial nuclei at the nucleation stage, resulting in large number of particles with smaller size. When alkali addition rate is increased from 1 to 80 mL/s, the saturation magnetization of the particles decreases from 60 to 46 emu/g due to the reduced particle size.     

Evolution and characterization of dynamically recrystallized microstructure in a titanium-modified austenitic stainless steel using ultrasonic and EBSD techniques

A C-scan ultrasonic imaging system was used to investigate the microstructural evolution during dynamic recrystallization (DRX) of a 15Cr–15Ni–2.2Mo–Ti modified austenitic stainless steel (alloy D9). Four specimens were forged at 1273 K to different strains in the range 0.1–0.5. Specimens with true strains of 0.2 or lower did not show any variation in the amplitude of the first back-wall echo. However, a visible variation in the C-scan image was observed at and above the 0.3 strain level. This variation was attributed to the evolution of fine grains. The formation of fine grains was related to DRX, as indicated by electron backscattered diffraction. This study also revealed the characteristics of the DRX or ‘necklace grains’, as opposed to the so-called parent grains or rest of the microstructure.     

Size distribution of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles using Warren–Averbach XRD analysis

We use the Fourier transform based Warren–Averbach (WA) analysis to separate the contributions of X-ray diffraction (XRD) profile broadening due to crystallite size and microstrain for magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. The profile shape of the column length distribution, obtained from WA analysis, is used to analyze the shape of the magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. From the column length distribution, the crystallite size and its distribution are estimated for these nanoparticles which are compared with size distribution obtained from dynamic light scattering measurements. The crystallite size and size distribution of crystallites obtained from WA analysis are explained based on the experimental parameters employed in preparation of these magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. The variation of volume weighted diameter (D_v, from WA analysis) with saturation magnetization (M_s) fits well to a core shell model wherein it is known that M_s=M_bulk(1?6g/D_v) with M_bulk as bulk magnetization of iron oxide and g as magnetic shell disorder thickness.     

Ru(II)-catalyzed C-H bond activation for the synthesis of substituted isoquinolinium salts from benzaldehydes, amines, and alkynes

An efficient method for the synthesis of substituted isoquinolinium salts from benzaldehydes, amines, and alkynes via ruthenium-catalyzed C-H bond activation and annulation in one pot is described.