Insights into the Structure and Energy of DNA Nanoassemblies

Since the pioneering work of Ned Seeman in the early 1980s, the use of the DNA molecule as a construction material experienced a rapid growth and led to the establishment of a new field of science, nowadays called structural DNA nanotechnology. Here, the self-recognition properties of DNA are employed to build micrometer-large molecular objects with nanometer-sized features, thus bridging the nano- to the microscopic world in a programmable fashion. Distinct design strategies and experimental procedures have been developed over the years, enabling the realization of extremely sophisticated structures with a level of control that approaches that of natural macromolecular assemblies. Nevertheless, our understanding of the building process, i.e., what defines the route that goes from the initial mixture of DNA strands to the final intertwined superstructure, is, in some cases, still limited. In this review, we describe the main structural and energetic features of DNA nanoconstructs, from the simple Holliday junction to more complicated DNA architectures, and present the theoretical frameworks that have been formulated until now to explain their self-assembly. Deeper insights into the underlying principles of DNA self-assembly may certainly help us to overcome current experimental challenges and foster the development of original strategies inspired to dissipative and evolutive assembly processes occurring in nature.     

Study of spatial inhomogeneity in inverted all‐polymer solar cells: Effect of solvent and annealing

The efficiency optimization of bulk heterojunction solar cells requires the control of the local active materials arrangement in order to obtain the best compromise between efficient charge generation and charge collection. Here, we investigate the large scale (10–100 μm) inhomogeneity of the photoluminescence (PL) and the external quantum efficiency (EQE) in inverted all‐polymer solar cells (APSC) with regioregular poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT):poly(9,9‐dioctylfluorene‐co‐benzothiadiazole) (F8BT) active blends. The morphology and the local active polymer mixing are changed by depositing the active layer from four different solvents and by thermal annealing. The simultaneous PL and EQE mapping allowed us to inspect the effects of local irregularities of active layer thickness, polymer mixing, polymer aggregation on the charge generation and collection efficiencies. In particular, we show that the increase of the solvent boiling point affects the EQE non‐uniformity due to thickness fluctuations, the density non‐uniformity of rrP3HT aggregate phase, and the blend components clustering. The thermal annealing leads to a general improvement of EQE and to an F8BT clustering in all the samples with locally decrease of the EQE. We estimate that the film uniformity optimization can lead to a total EQE improvement between 2.7 and 6.3 times. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2015 , 53, 804–813     

Facile non‐lithographic route to highly aligned silica nanopatterns using unidirectionally aligned polystyrene‐block‐polydimethylsiloxane films

Thin films (monolayer and bilayer) of cylinder forming polystyrene‐block‐polydimethylsiloxane (PS‐b‐PDMS) were shear aligned by the swelling and deswelling of a crosslinked PDMS pad that was physically adhered to the film during solvent vapor annealing. The nanostructures formed by self‐assembly were exposed to ultraviolet‐ozone to partially oxidize the PDMS, followed by calcination in air at 500 °C. In this process, the PS segments were fully decomposed, while the PDMS yielded silica nanostructures. The highly aligned PDMS cylinders were thus deposited as silica nanolines on the silicon substrate. Using a bilayer film, the center‐to‐center distance of these features were effectively halved from 38 to 19 nm. Similarly, by sequential shear‐alignment of two distinct layers, a rhombic array of silica nanolines was fabricated. This methodology provides a facile route to fabricating complex topographically patterned nanostructures. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2015 , 53, 1058–1064     

Compaction of nanosilicon pellets and sol-deposited films via high-vacuum annealing

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基于图像的二维剪纸自动生成方法

中国剪纸的设计极具挑战性, 要求画面简洁、直观, 还需要表达特定的文化内涵, 且整张剪纸须整体连通。提出了一种基于图像的二维剪纸自动生成方法, 能够将任意数码照片自动转化为剪纸图形。首先，利用图像分割方法建立区域连接图; 接着, 基于该连接图对颜色、边界对比度和区域连通性进行数学建模, 并获得优化目标函数; 最后, 通过模拟退火算法求解目标方程, 自动生成保持图像内容的剪纸图形。还开发了连通性后处理和区域指定等用户交互工具, 允许用户在自动生成的剪纸图形中方便地加入个人设计。实验表明, 所生成的剪纸图形画面简洁、整体连通。 本方法在降低剪纸设计难度的同时还可满足个性化的设计需求, 有助于传播和传承我国的民间剪纸艺术。     

Introducing voids around the interlayer of AlN by high temperature annealing

Introducing voids into AlN layer at a certain height using a simple method is meaningful but challenging. In this work, the AlN/sapphire template with AlN interlayer structure was designed and grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. Then, the AlN template was annealed at 1700 ℃ for an hour to introduce the voids. It was found that voids were formed in the AlN layer after high-temperature annealing and they were mainly distributed around the AlN interlayer. Meanwhile, the dislocation density of the AlN template decreased from 5.26×10⁹ cm^-2 to 5.10×10⁸ cm^-2. This work provides a possible method to introduce voids into AlN layer at a designated height, which will benefit the design of AlN-based devices.     

基于实际路网情境的配送车辆调度优化

在实际路网情境下结合车道数、车道宽度、路口信号灯设置等路网物理特性,构建了考虑综合交通阻抗的多车型车辆调度模型,提出了两阶段求解策略:第1阶段设计了改进A-star精确解算法用于计算客户时间距离矩阵;第2阶段针对实际路网的特征设计了混合模拟退火算法求解调度方案。以大连市某配送中心运营实例进行路网情境仿真试验,结果表明:改进A-star算法较改进Dijkstra算法具有更短的路径搜索时间;混合模拟退火算法求解结果较实际调度方案优化了13.1% 的综合成本;路网增流、区域拥堵和路段禁行三类路网情境均能对配送方案的车辆配置、路径选择、客户服务次序、作业时间和违约费用等5方面内容产生干扰,调度计划的制定需要详细考虑这些因素的变化。     

In Situ Anchoring of Pyrrhotite on Graphitic Carbon Nitride Nanosheet for Efficient Immobilization of Uranium

Enrichment of U^VI is an urgent project for nuclear energy development. Herein, magnetic graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets were successfully prepared by in situ anchoring of pyrrhotite (Fe₇S₈) on the graphitic carbon nitride nanosheet (CNNS), which were used for capturing U^VI. The structural characterizations of Fe₇S₈/CNNS-1 indicated that the CNNS could prevent the aggregation of Fe₇S₈ and the saturation magnetization was 4.69 emu g⁻¹, which meant that it was easy to separate the adsorbent from the solution. Adsorption experiments were performed to investigate the sorption properties. The results disclosed that the sorption data conformed to the Langmuir isotherm model with the maximum adsorption capacity of 572.78 mg g⁻¹ at 298 K. The results of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) demonstrated that the main adsorption mechanism are as follows: U^VI is adsorbed on the surface of Fe₇S₈/CNNS-1 through surface complexation initially, then it was reduced to insoluble U^IV. Thereby, this work provided an efficient and easy to handle sorbent material for extraction of U^VI.