Chameleonlike metashells in microfluidics: A passive approach to adaptive responses

Heat energy can transfer via convection, conduction, and radiation. Based on convection and conduction in microfluidics, people have designed and fabricated many novel devices. However, almost none of them has adaptivity, thus restricting practical applications under different conditions. To solve this problem, here we propose a passive approach to adaptive responses. That is,we consider the thermal convection-conduction process in microfluidic structures where Darcy’s law and Fourier’s law are both valid. By carefully designing two key parameters(i.e., tensorial thermal conductivity and tensorial permeability) of a metashell,we theoretically reveal that its effective properties(i.e., effective thermal conductivity and effective permeability) can adaptively change according to the inside object, thus yielding the "chameleonlike metashell". Further, this metashell is passive since it requires no prior knowledge of the inside object. We also report that the chameleonlike behavior can occur for anisotropic inside objects, nonuniform external fields, or even complex shapes. All theoretical analyses agree well with finite-element simulations.The chameleonlike metashell can act as an intelligent metamaterial in microfluidics for its adaptive responses, and it can also benefit other physical fields where convection plays a role, such as mass diffusion.     

Practical synthesis of C1–8 fragment of autolytimycin via a chelation-controlled diastereoselective addition of diisopropenylzinc to α-methoxy aldehyde

The C1–8 fragment of autolytimycin was synthesized via a reliable 10-step route capable of delivering 41% overall yield at multi-gram scale. As a key step, a chelation-controlled isopropenylation of α-oxygenated aldehydes was established with a reagent combination of diisopropenylzinc, magnesium halide, and a dichloromethane/toluene mixed solvent. Cram-chelate isopropenylation products dominated for aldehydes with a small α-substituents, such as –OMe and –OBn groups, while the Felkin product could be obtained with a bulky –OTBS group.     

Uniaxial ratcheting and fatigue failure of tempered 42CrMo steel: Damage evolution and damage-coupled visco-plastic constitutive model

Uniaxial ratcheting and fatigue failure of tempered 42CrMo steel were observed by the tests under the uniaxial stress-controlled cyclic loading with non-zero mean stress [G.Z. Kang, Y.J. Liu, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 472 (2008) 258–268]. Based on the obtained experimental results, the evolution features of whole-life ratcheting behavior and low-cycle fatigue (LCF) damage of the material were discussed first. Then, in the framework of unified visco-plasticity and continuum damage mechanics, a damage-coupled visco-plastic cyclic constitutive model was proposed to simulate the whole-life ratcheting and predict the fatigue failure life of the material presented in the uniaxial stress cycling with non-zero mean stress. In the proposed model, the damage was divided into two parts, i.e., elastic damage and plastic damage, which were described by the evolution equations with the same form but different constants, since the maximum applied stresses in most of loading cases were lower than the nominal yielding strength of the material. The ratcheting of the material was still described by employing a nonlinear kinematic hardening rule based on the Abdel-Karim–Ohno combined kinematic hardening model [M. Abdel Karim, N. Ohno, Int. J. Plast. 16 (2000) 225–240] but extended by considering the effect of damage. The maximum strain criterion combined with an elastic damage threshold was employed to determine the failure life of the material caused by two different failure modes, i.e., fatigue failure (caused by low-cycle fatigue due to plastic shakedown) and ductile failure (caused by large ratcheting strain). The simulated whole-life ratcheting behavior and predicted failure life of tempered 42CrMo steel are in a fairly good agreement with the experimental ones.     

Improvement of optical sensing performances of a double-slot-waveguide-based ring resonator sensor on silicon-on-insulator platform

We demonstrate a label-free photonic biosensor with double slots based on micro-ring resonator. The footprint is less than 25 μm × 15 μm. Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method is used to analyze the influence of several key parameters on the performance of the double-slots micro-ring resonators. An asymmetric structure is considered for the ring waveguide in order to improve the sensor's bending efficiency. Our numerical analysis shows that the sensitivity of double-slot micro-ring resonator sensor with the radius of 5 μm reaches a value of 708 nm/RIU. The quality factor of 580 and the free spectral range (FSR) of 33 nm are achieved.     

Porous ceramic membrane with superhydrophobic and superoleophilic surface for reclaiming oil from oily water

A porous ceramic tube with superhydrophobic and superoleophilic surface was fabricated by sol-gel and then surface modification with polyurethane-polydimethysiloxane, and an oil-water separator based on the porous ceramic tube was erected to characterize superhydrophobic and superoleophilic surface's separation efficiency and velocity when being used to reclaim oil from oily water and complex oily water containing clay particle. The separator is fit for reclaiming oil from oily water.     

Control of crystallographic orientation in L10 FePt films by using Cr and CrW underlayers

The microstructure and magnetic properties of FePt films grown on Cr and CrW underlayers were investigated. The FePt films that deposited on Cr underlayer show (2 0 0) orientation and low coercivity because of the diffusion between FePt and Cr underlayer. The misfit between FePt magnetic layer and underlayer increases by small addition of W element in Cr underlayer or using a thin Mo intermediate layer, which is favorable for the formation of (0 0 1) orientation and the transformation of FePt from fcc to fct phase. A good FePt (0 0 1) texture was obtained in the films with Cr₈₅W₁₅ underlayer with substrate temperature of 400 °C. The FePt films deposited on Mo/Cr underlayer exhibit larger coercivity than that of the films grown on Pt/Cr₈₅W₁₅ because 5 nm Mo intermediate layer depressed the diffusion of Cr into magnetic layer.     

Stable isotope labeling – Liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry for quantitative analysis of androgenic and progestagenic steroids

Steroid hormones play important roles in mammal at very low concentrations and are associated with numerous endocrinology and oncology diseases. Therefore, quantitative analysis of steroid hormones can provide crucial information for uncovering underlying mechanisms of steroid hormones related diseases. In the current study, we developed a sensitive method for the detection of steroid hormones (progesterone, dehydroepiandrosterone, testosterone, pregnenolone, 17-hydroxyprogesterone, androstenedione and 17α-hydroxypregnenolone) in body fluids by stable isotope labeling coupled with liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) analysis. In this respect, a pair of isotopes labeling reagents, Girard reagent P (GP) and d₅-Girard reagent P (d₅-GP), were synthesized and utilized to label steroid hormones in follicular fluid samples and steroid hormone standards, respectively. The heavy labeled standards were used as internal standards for quantification to minimize quantitation deviation in MS analysis due to the matrix and ion suppression effects. The ionization efficiencies of steroid hormones were greatly improved by 4–504 folds through the introduction of a permanent charged moiety of quaternary ammonium from GP. Using the developed method, we successfully quantified steroid hormones in human follicular fluid. We found that the contents of testosterone and androstenedione exhibited significant increase while the content of pregnenolone had significant decrease in follicular fluid of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) patients compared with healthy controls, indicating that these steroid hormones with significant change may contribute to the pathogenesis of PCOS. Taken together, the developed stable isotope labeling coupled LC-ESI-MS/MS analysis demonstrated to be a promising method for the sensitive and accurate determination of steroid hormones, which may facilitate the in-depth investigation of steroid hormones related diseases.