Polymer nanoparticles with a sensitive CO2‐responsive hydrophilic/hydrophobic surface

Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) nanoparticles with a sensitive CO₂‐responsive hydrophilic/hydrophobic surface that confers controlled dispersion and aggregation in water were prepared by emulsion polymerization at 50 °C under CO₂ bubbling using amphiphilic diblock copolymers of 2‐dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) and N‐isopropyl acrylamide (NIPAAm) as an emulsifier. The amphiphilicity of the hydrophobic–hydrophilic diblock copolymer at 50 °C was triggered by CO₂ bubbling in water and enabled the copolymer to serve as an emulsifier. The resulting PMMA nanoparticles were spherical, approximately 100 nm in diameter and exhibited sensitive CO₂/N₂‐responsive dispersion/aggregation in water. Using copolymers with a longer PNIPAAm block length as an emulsifier resulted in smaller particles. A higher concentration of copolymer emulsifier led to particles with a stickier surface. Given its simple preparation and reversible CO₂‐triggered amphiphilic behavior, this newly developed block copolymer emulsifier offers a highly efficient route toward the fabrication of sensitive CO₂‐stimuli responsive polymeric nanoparticle dispersions. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2019, 57, 2149–2156     

Cytotoxicity of Shear Exfoliated Pnictogen (As,Sb, Bi) Nanosheets

The experimental achievement of phosphorene, which exhibits superior electronic, physical, and optical properties has spurred recent interest in other Group 15 elemental 2D nanomaterials such as arsenene, antimonene, and bismuthene. These unique and superior properties of the pnictogen nanosheets have spurred intensive research efforts and led to the discovery of their diversified potential applications; for instance, optical Kerr material, photonic devices, pnictogen-decorated microfibers, high-speed transistors, and flexible 2D electronics. Previous studies have mainly been dedicated to study the synthesis, properties, and applications of the heavy pnictogens nanosheets; however, the toxicological behaviour of these nanosheets has yet to be established. Herein, the cytotoxicity study of pnictogen nanosheets (As, Sb, and Bi) was conducted over 24 h of incubation with various concentrations of test materials and adenocarcinoma human lung epithelial A549 cells. After the treatment period, the remaining cell viabilities were obtained through absorbance measurements with WST-8 and MTT assays. These findings demonstrate that the toxicity of pnictogen nanosheets decreases down Group 15, whereby arsenic nanosheets are considered to be the most toxic, whereas bismuth nanosheets induce low cytotoxicity. The findings of this study constitute an important initial step towards enhancing our understanding of the toxicological effects of pnictogen nanosheets in light of their prospective commercial applications.     

Lipase‐Supported Metal–Organic Framework Bioreactor Catalyzes Warfarin Synthesis

A green and sustainable strategy synthesizes clinical medicine warfarin anticoagulant by using lipase‐supported metal–organic framework (MOF) bioreactors (see scheme). These findings may be beneficial for future studies in the industrial production of chemical, pharmaceutical, and agrochemical precursors.     

Two‐dimensional reactive scattering with transmitted quantum trajectories

A simple and easy‐to‐implement method is presented for the study of time‐dependent reaction dynamics by propagating an ensemble of transmitted quantum trajectories. During the trajectory evolution, reflected trajectories are gradually removed and all the remaining trajectories represent the transmitted subensemble. The removal process of reflected trajectories avoids numerical instabilities arising from node formation in the reactant region, and allows stable long‐time propagation of transmitted trajectories. This method is applied to a two‐dimensional model chemical reaction. Excellent computational results are obtained for the time‐dependent reaction probabilities evaluated by the time integration of the probability flux. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Silver‐Assisted Chemical Etching on Silicon with Polyvinylpyrrolidone‐Mediated Formation of Silver Dendrites

Metal‐assisted chemical etching (MaCE) on silicon (Si)—mediated by polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)—is systematically investigated herein. It is found that the morphologies and crystallographic natures of the grown silver (Ag) dendrites can be significantly modulated, with the presence of PVP in the MaCE process leading to the formation of faceted Ag dendrites preferentially along the (111) crystallographic phase, rather than along the (200) phase. Further explorations of the PVP‐mediated effect on Si etching are also revealed. In contrast to the aligned Si nanowires formed by MaCE without PVP addition, only distributed nanopores with sizes of 200 to 400 nm appear on the Si surfaces in the presence of PVP. The origin of surface polishing on Si in the PVP‐mediated MaCE process can be attributed to the distinct transport pathway of holes supplied by the Ag⁺ ions, where the holes are injected directly into the primary Ag seeds, rather than through Ag dendrites, thus leading to the isotropic etching of the Si surface.     

ZnO‐Coated Carbon Nanotubes: Inter‐Diffusion of Carboxyl Groups and Enhanced Photocurrent Generation

ZnO is a defect‐governed oxide and emits light at both visible and UV regimes. This work employs atomic layer deposition to produce oxide particles on oxygenated carbon nanotubes, and the composites only show emission profiles at short wavelengths. The quenching of defect‐related emissions at long wavelengths is verified, owing to carboxyl diffusion into oxygen vacancies, and doping is supported by ZnCO₃ formation in oxide lattice. Fully coated tubes display an increased photocurrent and the quantum efficiency increases by 22 % relative to the bare nanotubes.     

Structural Studies and Anticancer Activity of a Novel Class of β‐Peptides

Functionalized oligomeric organic compounds with well‐defined β‐proline scaffold have been synthesized by a cycloadditive oligomerization approach in racemic and enantiopure forms. The structure of the novel β‐peptides was investigated by NMR spectroscopic and X‐ray methods determining the conformational shapes of the β‐proline oligomers in solution and solid states. The main structural elements subject to conformational switches are β‐peptide bonds between 5‐arylpyrrolidine‐2‐carboxylic acid units existing in Z/E configurations. The whole library of short β‐peptides and intermediate acrylamides has been tested on antiproliferative activity towards the hormone‐refractory prostate cancer cell line PC‐3 revealing several oligomeric compounds with low micromolar and submicromolar activities. Bromine‐substituted dimeric and trimeric acrylamides induced caspase‐dependent apoptosis of PC‐3 cells through cell‐cycle arrest and mitochondrial damage.     

Nonlinear bending of rectangular orthotropic plate with two free edges and the other edges having nonuniform rotational flexibility

this paper presents a series solution to von Kármán nonlinear equations of a rectilinearly orthotropic rectangular plate under the combined action of lateral load and in-plane tension with the titled edge restraints. In the formulation the edge moments are replaced by an equivalent pressure near the edges. Using generalized double Fourier series for the deflection and stress function, governing equations are reduced to an infinite set of algebraic equations for coefficients in these series. Numerical results for deflections, bending moments and in-plane forces are graphically presented for various values of aspect ratio and material properties and for different edge conditions.     

Postbuckling of angle-ply and anisotropic plates

Summary An analysis based on the von Kármán-type large-deflection equations of plates is presented for the postbuckling behavior of homogeneous and symmetrically laminated anisotropic rectangular plates. Boundary conditions for both simply supported and clamped edges are considered. A solution is obtained by expressing the force function and transverse deflection as double series involving the appropriate beam eigen-functions. Numerical results are presented for graphite-epoxy angle-ply laminates and homogeneous anisotropic plates. In the cases of buckling of anisotropic plates and postbuckling of isotropic and orthotropic plates, the present solution is in good agreement with existing solutions.

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Übersicht Es wird das Nachbeulverhalten von homogenen, symmetrisch geschichteten, anisotropen Rechteckplatten auf der Grundlage der von Kármán angegebenen Platten-Gleichungen für große Auslenkungen untersucht. Dabei werden sowohl einfach aufliegende, wie auch eingespannte Ränder als Randbedingungen berücksichtigt. Lösungen werden dadurch gewonnen, daß die Belastungsfunktion und die Querauslenkung als doppelte Reihen von geeigneten Balken-Eigenfunktionen angesetzt werden. Für Graphit-Epoxid-Schichtplatten und anisotrope homogene Platten werden numerische Ergebnisse mitgeteilt. Die erhaltenen Lösungen stimmen in den Fällen des Beulens von anisotropen Platten sowie des Nachbeulens von isotropen und orthotropen Platten gut mit bekannten Lösungen überein.

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The results presented in this paper were obtained in the course of research sponsored by the National Research Council of Canada.     

Multi-mode nonlinear vibration and postbuckling of antisymmetrically laminated imperfect angle-ply cylindrical panel with free straight edges

Summary A multi-mode solution to nonlinear vibration and postbuckling of the titled problem is presented for two straight edges free from forces and bending moments and the other edges subjected to identical variation of rotational stiffness and normal boundary forces. The dynamic Marguerre-type nonlinear equations are adopted. The transverse deflection and stress function are expanded into two series with timedependent coefficients. The Galerkin procedure furnishes an infinite system of ordinary differential equations for these time functions. The method of harmonic balance is used for a solution of a finite number of these equations. The postbuckling behavior is treated as a special case. Numerical results in nonlinear vibration and postbuckling of antisymmetrically laminated angle-ply panel are presented graphically for different panel parameters and also compared with available data.

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Nichtlineare Schwingung und Nachbeulen einer antisymmetrisch geschichteten, imperfekten zylindrischen Schale mit freien geraden Rändern

Übersicht Für das im Titel genannte Problem wird bei Normalkraftbelastung und Verdrehsteifigkeit der kreisbogenförmigen Ränder eine Lösung der dynamischen, nichtlinearen Marguerre-Gleichungen in Form verallgemeinerter Fourier-Reihen für die Durchbiegung und Spannungsfunktion mit zeitabhängigen Koeffizienten vorgestellt. Das Galerkin-Verfahren liefert ein System unendlich vieler gewöhnlicher Differentialgleichungen für diese Zeitfunktionen. Zur Lösung einer endlichen Zahl der Gleichungen wird die Methode der harmonischen Balance benutzt. Für verschiedene Schalenparameter werden numerische Resultate zur Schwingung und zum Nachbeulen in graphischer Form dargestellt und mit fremden Ergebnissen verglichen.