Dark Energy with Phantom Crossing and the H0 Tension

We investigate the possibility of phantom crossing in the dark energy sector and the solution for the Hubble tension between early and late universe observations. We use robust combinations of different cosmological observations, namely the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), local measurement of Hubble constant (H0), Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) and SnIa for this purpose. For a combination of CMB+BAO data that is related to early universe physics, phantom crossing in the dark energy sector was confirmed at a 95% confidence level and we obtained the constraint H0=71.0−3.8+2.9 km/s/Mpc at a 68% confidence level, which is in perfect agreement with the local measurement by Riess et al. We show that constraints from different combinations of data are consistent with each other and all of them are consistent with phantom crossing in the dark energy sector. For the combination of all data considered, we obtained the constraint H0=70.25±0.78 km/s/Mpc at a 68% confidence level and the phantom crossing happening at the scale factor am=0.851−0.031+0.048 at a 68% confidence level.     

Processing of lignocellulosic polymer wastes using microwave irradiation

Lignin and mixed lignocellulosic natural polymer wastes have been accumulated in landfills over the past hundred years. These wastes should be processed to produce added- value chemicals and materials. This mini-review presents a brief literature survey related to state-of-the-art methods developed recently by the world research community to solve the problem of rational conversion of lignocellulosic polymer wastes, including production of hydrogen, synthesis gas, phenols, and monomers. The focus is made on microwave and plasma technologies used for lignocellulosic wastes processing.     

微波瑞利散射法测定空气电火花激波等离子体射流的时变电子密度

大气压空气电火花激波等离子体射流的电子密度在亚微秒时间尺度上瞬变,其电子密度的测定很难.基于微波瑞利散射原理,本文测量了空气电火花冲击波流注放电等离子体射流的时变电子密度.实验结果表明:测量系统的标定参数A为1.04 × 105 V·Ω·m–2;空气流注放电等离子体射流的电子密度与等离子体射流的半径和长度有关,结合高速放电影像展示的等离子体射流的等效半径和等效长度,测定的电子密度在1020 m–3的量级,且随时间先快速增长至峰值再成指数衰减.此外,本文还探讨了等离子体射流的不同等效尺度对测定结果的影响;分析结果表明,采用时变等效半径和时变等效长度的计算结果最有效,且第1个快速波峰是由光电离的电离波导致的.     

Preparation and Characterization of Activated Carbon from Microwave and Conventional Heated Almond Shells Using Phosphoric Acid Activation

Activated carbon production from almond shells using phosphoric acid activation agent was achieved by applying both conventional heating and microwave heating in succession. The morphology and surface properties of activated carbon were studied using thermogravimetric and differential gravimetric analysis, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller analysis. A surface area of 1128 m²/g was achieved by optimizing the microwave power (500?W), microwave application time (15?minutes), conventional heating time (45?minutes), conventional heating temperature (500?°C), and the phosphoric acid:sample ratio (0.7:1). An adsorption capacity of methylene blue of 148?mg/g and an iodine value of 791?mg/g was obtained for the prepared activated carbon.     

等离子体光谱光源技术的进展

光谱光源是光谱仪器和光谱技术的核心,等离子体光源是原子发射光谱技术的活跃领域之一,电感耦合等离子体(ICP)已成功地应用于原子发射光谱和无机质谱仪器。由于ICP光源采用氩气作为工作气体,耗量较大,降低氩气用量成为近些年来原子光谱技术研究和改进的重要目标。为此目的,已研究过各种低耗氩ICP光源,非氩气ICP光源,微波等离子体光源,射频电容耦合等离子体光源等。综述了近年这些等离子体发射光源的结构,分析性能及特点,以及它们所用工作气体情况。并归纳总结出,评价各种等离子体发射光谱光源应包括:等离子体温度(激发温度,气体温度),电子密度,工作气体种类及用量,元素检出限,光源的稳健性及经济方面等。     

Practical and Scalable Organic Reactions with Flow Microwave Apparatus

Microwave irradiation has been used for accelerating organic reactions as a heating method and has been proven to be useful in laboratory scale organic synthesis. The major drawback of microwave chemistry is the difficulty in scaling up, mainly because of the low penetration depth of microwaves. The combination of microwave chemistry and flow chemistry is considered to overcome the problem in scaling up of microwave‐assisted organic reactions, and some flow microwave systems have been developed in both academic and industrial communities. In this context, we have demonstrated the scale‐up of fundamental organic reactions using a novel flow microwave system developed by the academic‐industrial alliance between the University of Shizuoka, Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, and SAIDA FDS. In this Personal Account, we summarize the recent progress of our scalable microwave‐assisted continuous synthesis using the SAIDA flow microwave apparatus.     

Influence of Polarity and Activation Energy in Microwave–Assisted Organic Synthesis (MAOS)

The aim of this work was to determine the parameters that have decisive roles in microwave-assisted reactions and to develop a model, using computational chemistry, to predict a priori the type of reactions that can be improved under microwaves. For this purpose, a computational study was carried out on a variety of reactions, which have been reported to be improved under microwave irradiation. This comprises six types of reactions. The outcomes obtained in this study indicate that the most influential parameters are activation energy, enthalpy, and the polarity of all the species that participate. In addition to this, in most cases, slower reacting systems observe a much greater improvement under microwave irradiation. Furthermore, for these reactions, the presence of a polar component in the reaction (solvent, reagent, susceptor, etc.) is necessary for strong coupling with the electromagnetic radiation. We also quantified that an activation energy of 20–30 kcal mol⁻¹ and a polarity (μ) between 7–20 D of the species involved in the process is required to obtain significant improvements under microwave irradiation.     

Yolk‐Shell Porous Microspheres of Calcium Phosphate Prepared by Using Calcium L‐Lactate and Adenosine 5′‐Triphosphate Disodium Salt: Application in Protein/Drug Delivery

A facile and environmentally friendly approach has been developed to prepare yolk‐shell porous microspheres of calcium phosphate by using calcium L ‐lactate pentahydrate (CL) as the calcium source and adenosine 5′‐triphosphate disodium salt (ATP) as the phosphate source through the microwave‐assisted hydrothermal method. The effects of the concentration of CL, the microwave hydrothermal temperature, and the time on the morphology and crystal phase of the product are investigated. The possible formation mechanism of yolk‐shell porous microspheres of calcium phosphate is proposed. Hemoglobin from bovine red cells (Hb) and ibuprofen (IBU) are used to explore the application potential of yolk‐shell porous microspheres of calcium phosphate in protein/drug loading and delivery. The experimental results indicate that the as‐prepared yolk‐shell porous microspheres of calcium phosphate have relatively high protein/drug loading capacity, sustained protein/drug release, favorable pH‐responsive release behavior, and a high biocompatibility in the cytotoxicity test. Therefore, the yolk‐shell porous microspheres of calcium phosphate have promising applications in various biomedical fields such as protein/drug delivery.     

Microwave‐assisted polycondensation of 4‐octylaniline with dibromoarylene

The Pd‐catalyzed polycondensation of 4‐octylaniline with various dibromoarylenes was carried out under microwave heating. Microwave heating led to a decrease in the reaction time and an increase in the molecular weight of the polymers as compared to conventional heating. Microwave heating also allowed the catalyst loading to be reduced to 1 mol %, yielding polymerization results that were comparable to those under conventional heating and 5 mol % catalyst. Investigations regarding field‐effect transistors and organic photovoltaic cells using the obtained poly(arylamine) with azobenzene units revealed that increasing the molecular weight of the polymer led to improved device performance, including hole mobility and power conversion efficiency. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015 , 53, 536–542     

Development and Optimization of Pre-Concentration Procedure of Rare-Earth Elements (REEs) in Their Minerals,Using Microwave - Assisted Sample Dissolution for ICP-Atomic Emission Spectrometric Detection

The aim of this research was to develop and optimize a procedure for determination of REEs in xenotime and monazite samples collected from Bangka Island, which were compared to Standard Monazite (71 AG) of Bureau of Analyzed Samples, London. ICP-OES method was used for the determination. The samples were dried and sterilized by heating for a week at 110 °C, before digesting with nitric acid and hydrofluoric acid, using a microwave-assisted digestion system. After a careful line selection, at the detection limits for all REEs in the ng/mL the REEs were reliably obtained at the 0.09 – 38% level.