Plasmonic properties of single multispiked gold nanostars: correlating modeling with experiments

Gold nanostars, possessing multiple sharp spikes, have emerged as promising plasmonic particles in the field of ultrasensitive sensing. We have developed a water-based method for high-yield synthesis of size-tunable anisotropic gold nanoparticles with a varying number of spiky surface protrusions, and performed systematic experimental and theoretical analyses of the optical properties of the single gold nanostars by characterizing them simultaneously with scanning electron microscopy and dark-field scattering spectroscopy. The morphologies and corresponding scattering spectra of the individual gold nanostars have been compared with electromagnetic simulations of the plasmonic resonances utilizing the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The study provides a correlation between the experimental and calculated scattering spectra and charge distributions of the different plasmon modes in the individual gold nanostars with varying numbers and relative orientations of surface protrusions. Our results provide guidelines for choosing gold nanostars with a proper number of spikes and appropriate dimensions of the core and arms for particular plasmonic applications as well as for further developing preparation methods of multispiked metal nanoparticles.     

Visualization of In Situ Oxidation Process Between Plasma and Liquid Phase in Two Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Reactors Using Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence Technique

Cold atmospheric plasma is considered to be a promising approach for decontamination purposes, e.g. dyeing water decoloration. In order to better understand the complex mechanism of the plasma physics coupled with the plasma chemistry involved in the interaction of the polluted water with the discharge plasma, a novel approach was proposed to study the in situ oxidation process between the plasma and liquid phase in two dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma reactors with different bottom shape (concave vs. plane), by using the planar laser induced fluorescence technique to visualize the process dynamics. Rhodamine B was employed as the tracer dye, which was gradually decomposed by the combined effect of the chemically active radicals (OH, O, H₂O₂, etc.) as well as the intense UV radiation in the DBD plasma process. The results showed that the DBD plasma filaments induced certain fluctuation on the Rhodamine B liquid layer, which accordingly intensified the mass transfer to a large extent thus accelerated the oxidation process. The comparison of the measured concentration fields in the two DBD plasma reactors illustrated that the DBD reactor #1 with concave bottom showed higher oxidation efficiency than the DBD reactor #2 with plane bottom. Additionally, the experiments demonstrated that the oxidation efficiency in the DBD plasma water treatment was much better than that in the reactor with pure oxidation by ozone gas, which can be further improved by injecting the additional oxygen gas bubbles into the liquid phase in the plasma reactor.     

Enhancement of Sophorolipid Production of Wickerhamiella domercqiae var. sophorolipid CGMCC 1576 by Low-Energy Ion Beam Implantation

To meet the increasing demands of sophorolipids as biosurfactants and bioactive compounds, it is necessary to obtain higher and more specific sophorolipid-producing strains. One sophorolipid-producing strain, Wickerhamiella domercqiae var. sophorolipid CGMCC 1576 (Y_2A), was mutated by low-energy nitrogen ion beam implantation. Eighteen mutants produced 20?% more sophorolipids than the wild strain, and one mutant, N3-18, produced the highest yield of sophorolipids, 104?g/l, in a shaking flask, which increased by 84.71?% than the wild strain, and further elevated to 135?g/l in a 5-l bioreactor. High performance liquid chromatography analysis showed that the composition of every sophorolipid mixture from different strains was similar, while the contents of most components from mutants were higher than that from the wild strain. Two mutants, N1-32 and N3-18, produced more acidic sophorolipid components; three lactonic sophorolipid molecules with good anticancer activities were greatly enhanced in several mutants, especially monoacetylated lactonic sophorolipid with a C18 monounsaturated fatty acid, which were enhanced by 153 and 211?% in strains N1-32 and N3-18. Low-energy nitrogen ion beam implantation was efficient for obtaining a variety of high and specific sophorolipid-producing mutants to be applied in food, cosmetic, environmental, and pharmaceutical sectors.     

Computer‐aided prediction of toxicity with substructure pattern and random forest

Toxicity of chemicals induced by different factors is an important consideration, especially during the drug research and development process. Thus, there is urgent need to develop computationally effective models that can predict the toxicity or adverse effects of chemicals for a specific class of chemicals. In this study, random forest (RF) was used to classify five toxicity data sets from Distributed Structure‐Searchable Toxicity database network, using substructure fingerprints calculated directly from simple molecular structure. Three model validation approaches, out‐of‐bag validation incorporated in RF, fivefold cross‐validation, and an independent validation set, were used for assessing the prediction capability of our models. The chemical space analysis of data sets was explored by multidimensional scaling plots, and outlying molecules were also detected by the proximity measure in RF. At the same time, the important substructure fingerprints, recognized by the RF technique, gave some insights into the structure features related to toxicity of chemicals. The results obtained showed that these in silico classification models with substructure patterns and RF are applicable for potential toxicity prediction of chemical compounds. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

风浪因素对海洋波导雷达回波作用机理的研究

采用文氏谱模型描述近海海洋动力环境海面的粗糙特征, 并运用海浪谱理论得到风速和均方根高度偏差的关系. 进而应用修正的离散混合傅里叶变换方法和改进的雷达散射系数模型分别计算了电磁波传输损耗和雷达散射系数. 在此基础上, 通过数值计算分析了风浪因素对海洋波导环境雷达回波功率值的影响. 结果表明, 风浪因素对不同观测高度处的传输损耗的影响均不大; 风浪因素对雷达回波功率有显著影响, 并且相对于传输损耗, 雷达散射系数项受风浪因素影响较大因而导致较大的雷达回波功率的变化.     

重复频率纳秒脉冲源程控脉冲发生器

介绍了一种可以完成脉宽、幅值、频率可调、十路脉冲输出且延时可调功能的程控脉冲发生器。硬件主要包括主电源和辅助电源、功率放大电路、控制系统处理器、数字键盘和液晶显示屏。该脉冲发生器输出脉冲宽度可在1~30 s间调节,脉冲幅值在1~15 V间调节,输出脉冲频率范围为1 Hz~30 kHz,十路脉冲输出中每路脉冲之间可以在0~1 ms范围内精确调节。该脉冲发生器可为多个脉冲源的并联运行提供延时触发,为多个绝缘栅双极型晶体管(IGBT)开关串联提供同步触发。     

小孔等离子体运动实验方法

在间接驱动惯性约束聚变的黑腔中,辐射烧蚀的高Z等离子体的流体力学运动过程对激光注入黑腔的效率、辐射场均匀性和通过诊断口的黑腔辐射温度诊断都有显著影响。为研究诊断口在黑腔辐射场中的等离子体缩口过程,用激光产生X光辐射加热低Z泡沫填充的金黑腔诊断口,以激光辐照钛平面靶产生的2～5 keV高能段窄能区X光作为背光源,用X光分幅相机获得了源靶和小孔靶两种靶型的小孔等离子体运动过程图像,研究了X光烧蚀的小孔等离子体的流体力学运动过程,探索了定量测量小孔等离子体面密度的空间分布与时间演化过程的实验诊断方法,初步给出小孔等离子体的面密度。     

Thermolysis kinetics of diethyl 2,3‐dicyano‐2,3‐di(p‐substituted phenyl)succinates

An experimental approach was developed to determine the intrinsic thermolysis rate constants of the central carbon–carbon bond during the dl/meso isomerization of diethyl 2,3‐dicyano‐2,3‐di(p‐substituted phenyl)succinates (G=H, Me, OMe, Cl, and NO₂) at temperatures ranging from 80 to 120 °C. The obtained rate constants are significantly affected by the polarity of the para substituents, in sharp contrast to their negligible effects on the dl/meso isomerization equilibrium constants. Moreover, the substituent effects on the activation enthalpies can be linearly correlated with the Hammett substituent resonance constants and the homolytic dissociation enthalpies (bond dissociation energies) of the benzylic C–H bonds of ethyl 2‐cyano‐2‐(p‐substituted phenyl)acetates. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Photon-counting chip-interleaved iterative PIC detector over atmospheric turbulence channels

A photon-counting-based iterative parallel interference cancellation (PIC) scheme for free-space optical communications in the presence of multiple-access interference,shot noise,background radiation,and turbulence fading is designed.An efficient chip-level iterative equivalent noise estimation algorithm is also derived.Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can achieve a single-user performance,bound with the fast convergence property.More importantly,it can eliminate the bit-error rate floor of the conventional optical code-division multiple-access system with the aid of a relatively short spreading code length.     

Sequential over-barrier ionization of multi-electron atoms in the tens-to-hundreds keV/u energy range

Our previous work on the classical over-barrier ionization model for helium double ionization is extended to the complex multi-electron system of Ne.The total and q-fold ionization cross sections are calculated at energies ranging from a few tens to several hundred keV/u.The calculation results are in good agreement with the experimental data,and the energy dependence of the cross sections suggests that the multi-ionization of a strong perturbated complex atom is probably the sequential over-barrier ionization process.