规整中孔TiO2微球的均相沉淀合成及其在环戊烯氧化反应中的应用

TiO2作为重要的功能性环保无机材料, 因具有特殊的光电性质和物化性能而广泛应用于介(压)电材料、涂料及催化等领域[1～3]. 戊二醛(Glutaraldehyde)是一种重要的精细化学品, 但其生产工艺复杂、条件苛刻. 邓景发等[4]成功开发了以环戊烯为原料, 双氧水为氧化剂, 均相钨酸为催化剂的新型一步法合成路线, 工艺操作简单, 降低了生产成本. 但由于均相催化剂分离复杂, 其固载化方法正在研究中[5～7]. 本文以TiCl4为前驱体, 在均相醇-水热体系中首次合成了高比表面积和规整中孔结构的TiO2微球(约3.6 μm), 其外壳约100 nm, 空隙壳层约300 nm. 考察了制备条件对TiO2微球结构的影响, 并采用孔分布, XRD, SEM及TEM等手段对该TiO2微球进行了表征, 同时考察了TiO2微球负载的WO3催化剂在环戊烯催化氧化合成戊二醛中的反应行为, 并与其它载体进行了比较.     

Inversion of visible optical extinction data for spheroid particle size distribution based on PCA

The problem of light scattering properties of spheroid particles is studied, and a general approach is presented for calculating the single particle light scattering of spheroids. In this approach, the extinction efficiency of spheroid particles can be calculated by combining the spline interpolation of T matrix method and ADA (anomalous diffraction approximation) theory. Furthermore, the retrieval of spheroid particle size distribution is performed in the dependent mode and a selection method about the optical extinction data is proposed based on PCA (principle component analysis) of first derivative corresponding to the raw optical extinction. By calculating the contribution rate of first derivative corresponding to the raw optical extinction, the optical extinction with more significant features can be selected as the inversion optical extinction data. In this way, the selected optical extinction has less information redundancy and higher capacity of resisting noise disturbance. Simulation experiments indicate that the spheroid particle size distributions obtained with the proposed method coincide fairly well with the given distributions, which provides a simple, reliable and efficient method to retrieve the spheroid particle size distribution using the optical extinction data.     

Convenient formulæ for the drag on a prolate ellipsoid moving along its axis of symmetry perpendicular to a plane surface

The drag coefficients for a prolate ellipsoid moving along its axis of symmetry, in the creeping flow regime, either towards or away from a plane surface are calculated. The plane surface may have either a no-slip boundary condition, corresponding to a solid wall, or a perfect slip condition, corresponding to a free surface.First the analytical solutions are employed to obtain exact values for the full range of feasible particle–plane gaps. Next, simple exact formulæ for the asymptotes at small and large gaps are presented. Finally, some convenient approximate formulæ are obtained that may be used across the full range of gaps.     

Algorithms to retrieve optical properties of three component aerosols from two-wavelength backscatter and one-wavelength polarization lidar measurements considering nonsphericity of dust

We developed backward and forward types of algorithms for estimating the vertical profiles of extinction coefficients at 532 nm for three component aerosols (water-soluble, dust, and sea salt) using three-channel Mie-scattering lidar data of the backscatter (β) at 532 and 1064 nm and the depolarization ratio (δ) at 532 nm. While the water-soluble and sea-salt particles were reasonably assumed to be spherical, the dust particles were treated as randomly oriented spheroids to account for their nonsphericity. The introduction of spheroid models enabled us to more effectively use the three-channel data (i.e., 2β+1δ data) and to reduce the uncertainties caused by the assumption of spherical dust particles in our previously developed algorithms. We also performed an extensive sensitivity study to estimate retrieval errors, which showed that the errors in the extinction coefficient for each aerosol component were smaller than 30% (60%) for the backward (forward) algorithm when the measurement errors were ±5%. We demonstrated the ability of the algorithms to partition aerosol layers consisting of three aerosol components by applying them to shipborne lidar data. Comparisons with sky radiometer measurements revealed that the retrieved optical thickness and angstrom exponent of aerosols using the algorithms developed in this paper agreed well with the sky radiometer measurements (within 6%).     

Acoustic scattering of a Bessel vortex beam by a rigid fixed spheroid

Partial-wave series representation of the acoustic scattering field of high-order Bessel vortex beams by rigid oblate and prolate spheroids using the modal matching method is developed. The method, which is applicable to slightly elongated objects at low-to-moderate frequencies, requires solving a system of linear equations which depends on the partial-wave index n$n$ and the order of the Bessel vortex beam m$m$ using truncated partial-wave series expansions (PWSEs), and satisfying the Neumann boundary condition for a rigid immovable surface in the least-squares sense. This original semi-analytical approach developed for Bessel vortex beams is demonstrated for finite oblate and prolate spheroids, where the mathematical functions describing the spheroidal geometry are written in a form involving single angular (polar) integrals that are numerically computed. The transverse (θ=π/2$\theta =\pi /2$) and 3D scattering directivity patterns are evaluated in the far-field for both prolate and oblate spheroids, with particular emphasis on the aspect ratio (i.e., the ratio of the major axis over the minor axis of the spheroid) not exceeding 3:1, the half-cone angle β$\beta$ and order m$m$ of the Bessel vortex beam, as well as the dimensionless size parameter kr₀$k{r}_0$. Periodic oscillations in the magnitude plots of the far-field scattering form function are observed, which result from the interference of the reflected waves with the circumferential (Franz’) waves circumnavigating the surface of the spheroid in the surrounding fluid. Moreover, the 3D directivity patterns illustrate the far-field scattering from the spheroid, that vanishes in the forward (θ=0$\theta =0$) and backward (θ=π$\theta =\pi$) directions. Particular applications in underwater acoustics and scattering, acoustic levitation and the detection of submerged elongated objects using Bessel vortex waves to name a few, would benefit from the results of the present investigation.     

Anisotropic buckling patterns in spheroidal film/substrate systems and their implications in some natural and biological systems

We establish a quantitative mechanics framework of elastic buckling of a spheroidal thin film/substrate system, which is highly relevant to the morphologies of quite a few natural and biological systems. The anisotropic stress-driven bifurcation is governed by the ratios between the effective size/thickness, the equatorial/polar radii, and the substrate/film moduli. The possibilities of manipulating the undulations through external constraints, anisotropic growth/material properties, and substrate geometry/structure are discussed. Analytical equations correlating the undulation characteristics with the geometry/material properties are derived. The quantitative mechanics framework established herein not only has important implications on the morphogenesis of various fruits, vegetables, nuts, eggs, tissues, and animal body parts, but also could guide the three-dimensional micro-fabrications via controlled self-assembly on curved substrate surfaces.     

Uniform asymptotic formulae for the spheroidal angular function

The problem of wave scattering by a spheroid is treated. Special interest is paid to the solution of the differential wave equation related to the angular spheroidal functions. A solution is obtained using uniform asymptotic formulae along with semiclassical methods. The developed method shows that it is possible to interpolate uniformly the spheroidal angular function with Weber's parabolic cylindric functions and Legendre's functions.     

Studies of anticancer drug cytotoxicity based on long‐term HepG2 spheroid culture in a microfluidic system

Cell‐on‐a‐chip systems have become promising devices to study the effectiveness of new anticancer drugs recently. Several microdevices for liver cancer culture and evaluation of the drug cytotoxicity have been reported. However, there are still no proven reports about high‐throughput and simple methods for the evaluation of drug cytotoxicity on liver cancer cells. The paper presents the results of the effects of the anticancer drug (5‐fluorouracil, 5‐FU) on the HepG2 spheroids as a model of liver cancer. The experiments were based on the long‐term 3D spheroid culture in the microfluidic system and monitoring of the effect of 5‐FU at two selected concentrations (0.5 mM and 1.0 mM). Our investigations have shown that the initial size of the spheroids has influence on the drug effect. With the increase of the spheroids diameter, the drug resistance (for the two tested 5‐FU concentrations) decreases. This phenomenon was observed both through cells metabolism analysis, as well as changes in spheroids sizes. In our research, we have shown that the lower 5‐FU (0.5 mM) concentration causes higher decrease in HepG2 spheroids viability. Moreover, due to the microsystem construction, we observe the drug resistance effect (10th day of culture) regardless of the initial size of the created spheroids and the drug concentration.     

The feasibility of using dielectrophoresis for isolation of glioblastoma subpopulations with increased stemness

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are aggressive subpopulations with increased stem‐like properties. CSCs are usually resistant to most standard therapies and are responsible for tumor repropagation. Similar to normal stem cells, isolation of CSCs is challenging due to the lack of reliable markers. Antigen‐based sorting of CSCs usually requires staining with multiple markers, making the experiments complicated, expensive, and sometimes unreliable. Here, we study the feasibility of using dielectrophoresis (DEP) for isolation of glioblastoma cells with increased stemness. We culture a glioblastoma cell line in the form of neurospheres as an in vitro model for glioblastoma stem cells. We demonstrate that spheroid forming cells have higher expression of stem cell marker, nestin. Next, we show that dielectric properties of neurospheres change as a result of changing culture conditions. Our results indicate that spheroid forming cells need higher voltages to experience the same DEP force magnitude compared to normal monolayer cultures of glioblastoma cell line. This study confirms the possibility of using DEP to isolate glioblastoma stem cells.     

Characteristics of light scattering by smoke particles based on spheroid models

Light scattering models of smoke particles play an important role on the development of photoelectric smoke detection. Aiming at the influence of morphology of smoke particles, spheroid models are introduced to analyze the Stokes scattering matrix of smoke particles, which are lognormal size distributions. Under the condition of random orientations, the effects of refractive indexes and mean size of smoke particles are considered. The results show that after averaging of the orientation and size, the nonsphericity of smoke particles has a considerable effect on their light scattering. Additionally, the nonsphericity of gray smoke particles generated from smoldering fires is more important than soot from flaming fires for analyzing the light scattering.