A molecular fluorophore in citric acid/ethylenediamine carbon dots identified and quantified by multinuclear solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance

The composition of fluorescent polymer nanoparticles, commonly referred to as carbon dots, synthesized by microwave-assisted reaction of citric acid and ethylenediamine was investigated by ¹³C, ¹³C{¹H}, ¹H─¹³C, ¹³C{¹⁴N}, and ¹⁵N solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments. ¹³C NMR with spectral editing provided no evidence for significant condensed aromatic or diamondoid carbon phases. ¹⁵N NMR showed that the nanoparticle matrix has been polymerized by amide and some imide formation. Five small, resolved ¹³C NMR peaks, including an unusual ═CH signal at 84 ppm (¹H chemical shift of 5.8 ppm) and ═CN₂ at 155 ppm, and two distinctive ¹⁵N NMR resonances near 80 and 160 ppm proved the presence of 5-oxo-1,2,3,5-tetrahydroimidazo[1,2-a]pyridine-7-carboxylic acid (IPCA) or its derivatives. This molecular fluorophore with conjugated double bonds, formed by a double cyclization reaction of citric acid and ethylenediamine as first shown by Y. Song, B. Yang, and coworkers in 2015, accounts for the fluorescence of the carbon dots. Cross-peaks in a ¹H─¹³C HETCOR spectrum with brief ¹H spin diffusion proved that IPCA is finely dispersed in the polyamide matrix. From quantitative ¹³C and ¹⁵N NMR spectra, a high concentration (18 ± 2 wt%) of IPCA in the carbon dots was determined. A pronounced gradient in ¹³C chemical-shift perturbations and peak widths, with the broadest lines near the COO group of IPCA, indicated at least partial transformation of the carboxylic acid of IPCA by amide or ester formation.     

An approach to triquinane synthesis using the Pauson-Khand reaction

Tricyclic skeletons have been generated from acyclic enyne precursors by using an intramolecular Pauson-Khand reaction in combination with aldol, Michael and alkylation reactions.     

Invariant Cocycles Have Abelian Ranges

 Let R be a discrete nonsingular equivalence relation on a standard probability space , and let V be an ergodic strongly asymptotically central automorphism of R. We prove that every V-invariant cocycle with values in a Polish group G takes values in an abelian subgroup of G. The hypotheses of this result are satisfied, for example, if A is a finite set, a closed, shift-invariant subset, V is the shift, μ a shift-invariant and ergodic probability measure on X, the two-sided tail-equivalence relation on X, a shift-invariant subrelation which is μ-nonsingular, and a shift-invariant cocycle.     

Solid-phase epitaxy of CaSi2 on Si(1 1 1) and the Schottky-barrier height of CaSi2/Si(1 1 1)

Thin Ca films were evaporated on Si(1 1 1) under UHV conditions and subsequently annealed in the temperature range 200–650 °C. The interdiffusion of Ca and Si was examined by ex situ Auger depth profiling. In situ monitoring of the Si 2p core-level shift by X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) was employed to study the silicide formation process. The formation temperature of CaSi₂ films on Si(1 1 1) was found to be about 350 °C. Epitaxial growth takes place at T≥400 °C. The morphology of the films, measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM), was correlated with their crystallinity as analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD). According to measurements of temperature-dependent I–V characteristics and internal photoemission the Schottky-barrier height of CaSi₂ on Si(1 1 1) amounts to qΦ_Bn=0.25 eV on n-type and to qΦ_Bp=0.82 eV on p-type silicon.     

Finite Element Solution of Conical Diffraction Problems

This paper is devoted to the numerical study of diffraction by periodic structures of plane waves under oblique incidence. For this situation Maxwell's equations can be reduced to a system of two Helmholtz equations in R ² coupled via quasiperiodic transmission conditions on the piecewise smooth interfaces between different materials. The numerical analysis is based on a strongly elliptic variational formulation of the differential problem in a bounded periodic cell involving nonlocal boundary operators. We obtain existence and uniqueness results for discrete solutions and provide the corresponding error analysis.     

In situ neutron diffraction study (300-1273 K) of non-stoichiometric strontium ferrite SrFeOx

The high-temperature cubic phase of non-stoichiometric strontium ferrite SrFeO_x (2.5≤x≤3.0) has been studied by in situ neutron powder diffraction in air over the temperature range 300-1273 K. The composition of SrFeO_x changes within the range 2.56≤x≤2.81 from 1273 to 673 K, respectively.Rietveld refinements of the diffraction patterns show that the high-temperature cubic phase of SrFeO_x is consistent with a face-centred Fm3c structure. This structure leads to agreement with previous density measurements. This cell allows the high-temperature structure of SrFeO_x to be described in terms of a solid solution of the composition end members. Cubic SrFeO_x at high temperature is found to closely obey Vegard's law. The density of cubic SrFeO_x is also found to exhibit a linear relationship with composition.