A Boosted Critical Temperature of 166 K in Superconducting D3S Synthesized from Elemental Sulfur and Hydrogen

The discovery of superconductivity in H₃S at 203 K marked an advance towards room-temperature superconductivity and demonstrated the potential of H-dominated compounds to possess a high critical temperature (T_c). There have been numerous reports of the H-S system over the last five years, but important questions remain unanswered. It is crucial to verify whether the T_c was determined correctly for samples prepared from compressed H₂S, since they are inevitably contaminated with H-depleted byproducts. Here, we prepare stoichiometric H₃S by direct in situ synthesis from elemental S and excess H₂. The Im m phase of D₃S samples exhibits a T_c significantly higher than previously reported values (ca. 150 K), reaching a maximum T_c of 166 K at 157 GPa. Furthermore, we confirm that the sharp decrease in T_c below 150 GPa is accompanied by continuous rhombohedral structural distortions and demonstrate that the Cccm phase is non-metallic, with molecular H₂ units in the crystal structure.     

Gold nanoparticle decoration of DNA on silicon

Electrostatic assembly of cationic nanoparticles onto the negatively charged backbone of double-stranded DNA has been shown to produce one-dimensional chains with potential use as nanoelectronic components. In this paper, micron long DNA templates stretched on aminosilane- and hexamethyldisilazane-modified silicon surfaces are used to assemble 3.5 nm gold nanoparticles passivated with cationic thiocholine. Atomic force microscopy is used to analyze the density and defects along the approximately 5 nm high structures, with comparison between positively charged and neutral surfaces. Low background adsorption of nanoparticles is facilitated by both these surface chemistries, while the neutral surface yields a more densely packed assembly.     

EDTA titration of tellurium, based on the formation of copper(I) telluride

An indirect EDTA titrimetric method is described for the determination of tellurium in thermoelectric materials and synthetic mixtures. Stoichiometric copper(I) telluride is precipitated from a hot acidic solution in the presence of excess of copper(II) chloride and sodium hypophosphite. The method is accurate (mean relative error 0.5%) and selective.     

Eigenvalue independent partitioning and direct minimization in self-consistent field theory

It is pointed out that the matrix elements of a partitioning operator, f, introduced previously for constructing effective hamiltonians, provide natural sets of unconstrained and non-redundant variables in which to formulate self-consistent field theory. The elements of f are complementary to corresponding elements of the density matrix, the relation being essentially that between covariant and contravariant vectors. Some consequences for direct minimization SCF techniques are considered.     

A Geometric Lower Bound Theorem

We resolve a conjecture of Kalai relating approximation theory of convex bodies by simplicial polytopes to the face numbers and primitive Betti numbers of these polytopes and their toric varieties. The proof uses higher notions of chordality. Further, for C ²-convex bodies, asymptotically tight lower bounds on the g-numbers of the approximating polytopes are given, in terms of their Hausdorff distance from the convex body.     

Element-organic frameworks with high permanent porosity

Microporous hydrophobic polysilanes with high specific surface areas (700-1100 m2 g(-1)) for applications in gas adsorption are obtained using an organolithiation route.     

Chromium(III)-imprinted silica gel for speciation analysis of chromium in environmental water samples with ICP-MS detection

A new chromium(III)-imprinted 3-(2-aminoethylamino) propyltrimethoxysilane (AAPTS)-functionalized silica gel sorbent was synthesized by a surface imprinting technique and was employed as a selective solid-phase extraction material for speciation analysis of chromium in environmental water samples prior to its determination by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The prepared Cr(III)-imprinted silica gel shows the selectivity coefficient of more than 700 for Cr(III) in the presence of Mn(II). The static adsorption capacity of the ion-imprinted and non-imprinted sorbent for Cr(III) were 30.5 mg g(-1) and 13.4 mg g(-1). It was also found that Cr(VI) could be adsorbed at low pH by the prepared imprinted silica gel, and this finding makes it feasible to enrich and determine Cr(VI) at low pH without adding reducing reagents. The imprinted silica gel sorbent offered a fast kinetics for the adsorption and desorption of both chromium species. Under the optimized conditions, the detection limits of 4.43 pg mL(-1) and 8.30 pg mL(-1) with the relative standard deviations (R.S.D.s) of 4.44% and 4.41% (C=0.5 ng mL(-1), n=7) for Cr(III) and Cr(VI) were obtained, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied to the speciation of trace chromium in environmental water samples. To validate the proposed method, two certified reference materials were analyzed and the determined values were in a good agreement with the certified values. The developed method is rapid, selective, sensitive and applicable for the speciation of trace chromium in environmental water samples.