Electrochemical synthesis of ZnO coatings from water–isopropanol mixed baths: control over oriented crystallization

Electroreduction of an aqueous solution of a soluble Zn salt results in the deposition of ZnO crystallites with hexagonal columnar morphology. The crystallites grow with their long axes normal to the substrate resulting in adherent coatings with a strong c-axis orientation. This phenomenon is on account of the polarity of the 001 crystal face combined with the high dielectric constant of water. When the dielectric constant of the solvent is changed by making a mixture of water and isopropanol, there is a change in the direction of orientation of the coating. The switch takes place in the sequence [001] → [102], [103] → unoriented → [100], [110] as the isopropanol concentration is raised in a step-wise manner to 60% (v/v). The switch in orientation is caused by the tilt of the long axes of the hexagonal columns of ZnO with respect to the normal to the substrate. Above 60% isopropanol concentration, ZnO deposition is suppressed. This work demonstrates solution-mediated control over oriented crystallization.     

Where on Earth has our water come from?

The presence of water in the Earth has long been an enigma. However, computer modelling techniques have shown that the adsorption of water onto the fractal surfaces of interplanetary dust particles, which are present in the planetary accretion disk, is sufficiently strong to provide a viable origin of terrestrial water.     

Is it possible to estimate the enantioselectivity of a chiral catalyst from its racemic mixture?

The evaluation of a racemic catalyst was investigated in the case of oxazaborolidine (OAB)-catalyzed borane reduction of 1,5-diphenyl-1,5-pentanedione, giving the corresponding diol. On the basis of the diastereoselectivity of the diols, it is possible to estimate the enantioselectivity (ee) of the first step, which correlates well with the ee in the reaction of the structurally similar phenyl n-pentyl ketone with enantiopure OAB catalyst. The measure of diastereoselectivity could be a tool for screening racemic catalysts without the need for resolving the individual enantiomers, if in the second step of the process there is no substrate control and no catalyst scrambling.     

Is it safe to have a laboratory test?

A recent US Institute of Medicine report indicated that up to 98,000 deaths and more than 1 million injuries occur each year in the United States due to medical errors. These include diagnostic errors, such as an error or delay in diagnosis, failure to employ indicated tests and the use of outmoded tests. Laboratory tests provide up to 80% of the information used by physicians to make important medical decisions, therefore it is important to determine how often laboratory testing mistakes occur, whether they cause patient harm, where they are most likely to occur in the testing process, and how to prevent them from occurring. A review of the literature and a US Quality Institute Conference in 2003 indicates that errors in laboratory medicine occur most often in the pre-analytical and post-analytical steps in the testing process, but most of the quality improvement efforts focus on improving the analytical process. Measures must be developed and employed to reduce the potential for mistakes in laboratory medicine, including better indicators for the quality of laboratory service. Users of laboratory services must be linked with the laboratorys information system to assist them with decisions about test ordering, patient preparation, and test interpretation. Quality assessment efforts need to be expanded beyond external quality assessment programs to encompass the detection of non-analytical mistakes and improving communication between the users of and providers of laboratory services. The actual number of mistakes in laboratory testing is not fully recognized, because no widespread process is in place to either determine how often mistakes occur or to systematically eliminate sources of error. We also tend to focus on mistakes that result in adverse events, not the near misses that cause no observable harm. The users of laboratory services must become aware of where testing mistakes can occur and actively participate in designing processes to prevent mistakes. Most importantly, healthcare institutions need to adopt a culture of safety, which is implemented at all levels of the organization. This includes establishing closer links between providers of laboratory services and others in the healthcare delivery system. This was the theme of a 2003 Quality Institute Conference aimed at making the laboratory a key partner in patient safety. Plans to create a permanent public–private partnership, called the Institute for Quality in Laboratory Medicine, whose mission is to promote improvements in the use of laboratory tests and laboratory services are underway.Presented at the 9th Conference on Quality in the Spotlight, 18–19 March 2004, Antwerp, Belgium.     

The magnetic concentration gradient force—Is it real?

There are suggestions in the electrochemical literature that a body force F _∇c acts when an electrolyte with a non-uniform concentration c of paramagnetic ions is subject to a uniform magnetic field. We demonstrate, experimentally and theoretically, that no such magnetic body force exists, to first order. A second-order correction associated with the demagnetizing field does lead to a very small concentration-dependent body force, which is not expected to produce any observable effect in electrochemistry. Contribution to special issue on Magnetic field effects in Electrochemistry.

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Is ammonia a better solvent than water for contact ion pairs?

The existence of a charge-transfer-to-solvent process when a KI contact ion pair (CIP) dissolved in supercritical water (SCW) is excited by UV light was confirmed by use of electronic structure calculations applied to molecular dynamics trajectories. We observed similar behavior with fluid density as that found for the KI-CIP in supercritical ammonia (SCA); nevertheless, there are some distinct features in the two supercritical solvents. First, the effect of the solvent field due to the molecules lying beyond the first solvation shell is very different in SCW compared with that observed in SCA; in SCW it actually has a destabilizing effect over the ground and excited states. Second, our results for the thermodynamic behavior of the CIP indicate that SCA is better solvent than SCW for this species. The differences found can be attributed to the solvent molecules surrounding the CIP and bridging the two ions; they shield more efficiently the ion pair from long-range solvent effects in SCA. The different behavior is partially attributed to a stronger solvent-solvent interaction in SCW than in SCA.     

Is FapyG Mutagenic?: Evidence from the DFT Study

2,6‐diamino‐4‐oxo‐5‐formamidopyrimidine (FapyG) is an oxidatively damaged product of guanine (G), which is mainly formed through metabolic processes that produce OH radicals. It has been proposed that in bacterial cells, FapyG retains the coding properties of G, and is, therefore, not mutagenic. However, in mammalian cells, FapyG induces G to thymine (T) mutation more dominantly than another ubiquitous oxidative lesion, that is, 8‐oxoguanine (8‐oxoG). The exact reasons for these coding properties of FapyG are not properly understood. In order to rationalize the cause of FapyG‐mediated mutagenesis, all of the possible base‐pair interactions of FapyG with cytosine (C), adenine (A), and T, in both anti‐ and syn‐ conformations, are studied in detail by using density functional theory (DFT). The effects of solvation on the coding properties of FapyG are also evaluated. We demonstrate that the anti‐FapyG:C base pair has the highest binding energy, and that the base‐pair alignment is similar to that of the normal G:C base pair. Therefore, insertion of C opposite anti‐FapyG is preferred over the other DNA bases. This could be the reason for the non‐mutagenic behavior of FapyG in bacterial cells. However, as the binding patterns and energies of anti‐FpyG:A and syn‐FapyG:A base pairs are similar, and these are also similar to those of the T:A base pair, mammalian polymerases may not distinguish between FapyG and T. As a result, A would be mistakenly inserted opposite either anti‐FapyG or syn‐FapyG, resulting in G to T transverse mutation.     

Ion spectroscopy: Where did it come from; where is it now; and where is it going?

The ASMS conference on ion spectroscopy brought together at Asilomar on October 16–20, 2009 a large group of mass spectrometrists working in the area of ion spectroscopy. In this introduction to the field, we provide a brief history, its current state, and where it is going. Ion spectroscopy of intermediate size molecules began with photoelectron spectroscopy in the 1960s, while electronic spectroscopy of ions using the photodissociation “action spectroscopic” mode became active in the next decade. These approaches remained for many years the main source of information about ionization energies, electronic states, and electronic transitions of ions. In recent years, high-resolution laser techniques coupled with pulsed field ionization and sample cooling in molecular beams have provided high precision ionization energies and vibrational frequencies of small to intermediate sized molecules, including a number of radicals. More recently, optical parametric oscillator (OPO) IR lasers and free electron lasers have been developed and employed to record the IR spectra of molecular ions in either molecular beams or ion traps. These results, in combination with theoretical ab initio molecular orbital (MO) methods, are providing unprecedented structural and energetic information about gas-phase ions.     

Is it universal that the layered-spinel structure can improve electrochemical performance?

The introduction of spinel phase to form the layered-spinel structure(LSS) is an effective way to improve the electrochemical performance of Li-and Mn-rich layered oxides(LMR).But is this structure universal for all LMR systems?In this work,different Mn/Ni ratio systems with the LSS are discussed in detail.It is found that,high discharge capacity(200.8 mA h g^-1 at 1 C rate;1 C=250 mA h g^-1) as well as high capacity-retention(94% at 1 C rate after 100 cycles) can be achieved...     

Bacteria encapsulation in colloidal inorganic matrices: Is it a general method?

Zirconium oxyhydroxide nanoparticles prepared by an aqueous route were evaluated for Escherichia coli bacteria encapsulation. A low viability rate was measured 24 hours after immobilization that could be attributed to nanoparticle cytotoxicity. Moreover, the presence of glycerol, a long-term cell-preserving molecule, hindered gel formation, probably due to its adsorption on the nanoparticle surface. A comparison with boehmite and ferrihydrite gels previously synthesized following a similar aqueous colloidal route suggests that the generalization of this method will rely on a careful control of the nanoparticle surface reactivity and may require surface chemical modification.     

Stabilization of HHeF by Complexation: Is it a Really Viable Strategy?

Ab initio calculations at the MP2 and CCSD(T) levels of theory have disclosed the conceivable existence of fluorine‐coordinated complexes of HHeF with alkali‐metal ions and molecules M⁺ (M⁺=Li⁺–Cs⁺), M⁺–OH₂, M⁺–NH₃ (M⁺=Li⁺, Na⁺), and MX (M=Li, Na; X=F, Cl, Br). All these ligands L induce a shortening of the H? He distance and a lengthening of the He? F distance accompanied by consistent blue‐ and redshifts, respectively, of the H? He and He? F stretching modes. These structural effects are qualitatively similar to those predicted for other investigated complexes of the noble gas hydrides HNgY, but are quantitatively more pronounced. For example, the blueshifts of the H? He stretching mode are exceptionally large, ranging between around 750 and 1000 cm^?1. The interactions of HHeF with the ligands investigated herein also enhance the (HHe)⁺F^? dipole character and produce large complexation energies of around 20–60 kcal mol^?1. Most of the HHeF–L complexes are indeed so stable that the three‐body dissociation of HHeF into H+He+F, exothermic by around 25–30 kcal mol^?1, becomes endothermic. This effect is, however, accompanied by a strong decrease in the H? He? F bending barrier. The complexation energies, ΔE, and the bending barriers, E*, are, in particular, related by the inverse relationship E*(kcal mol^?1)=6.9exp[?0.041ΔE(kcal mol^?1)]. Therefore the HHeF? L complexes, which are definitely stable with respect to H+He+F+L (ΔE≈25–30 kcal mol^?1), are predicted to have bending barriers of only 0.5–2 kcal mol^?1. Overall, our calculations cast doubt on the conceivable stabilization of HHeF by complexation.     

Is it common for charge recombination to be faster than charge separation?

Attaining long-lived charge-transfer (CT) states is of the utmost importance for energy science, photocatalysis, and materials engineering. When charge separation (CS) is slower than consequent charge recombination (CR), formation of a CT state is not apparent, yet the CT process provides parallel pathways for deactivation of electronically excited systems. The nuclear, or Franck-Condon (FC), contributions to the CT kinetics, as implemented by various formalisms based on the Marcus transition-state theory, provide an excellent platform for designing systems that produce long-lived CT states. Such approaches, however, tend to underestimate the complexity of alternative parameters that govern CT kinetics. Here we show a comparative analysis of two systems that have quite similar FC CT characteristics but manifest distinctly different CT kinetics. A decrease in the donor-acceptor electronic coupling during the charge-separation step provides an alternative route for slowing down undesired charge recombination. These examples suggest that, while infrequently reported and discussed, cases where CR is faster than CS are not necessarily rare occurrences.     

A water soluble tetramethyl-substituted cucurbit[8]uril obtained from larger intermediates?

A new water soluble tetramethyl-substituted cucurbit[8]uril (Me₄Q[8]) was easily isolated from cucurbit[n]uril product mixture which was synthesized by using the dimer of glycoluril and diether of dimethyl substituted glycoluril. Crystal structure analysis shows that Me₄Q[8] is constructed of building blocks: three dimmers and two dimethyl glycolurils, the two dimethyl glycolurils are separated by a dimer of glycoluril. It is speculated that Me₄Q[8] is degraded by a larger hexamethyl substituted Q[9] or larger intermediates.     

How does the urea dynamics differ from water dynamics inside the reverse micelle?

In this study, the urea dynamics inside AOT reverse micelle (RM) has been monitored without intervention of water using time-resolved fluorescence techniques from the picosecond to nanosecond time regime. It has been observed that urea dynamics inside the reverse micelle is severely retarded compared to water RM due to the formation of highly networked urea cluster inside the RM. Time-resolved fluorescence anisotropy study also confirms the existence of a confined environment around the dye at higher concentrations of urea inside the reverse micelle. The dynamics of urea-water mixtures inside AOT reverse micelle has also been monitored with increasing urea concentration to get insight about the effect of urea on the overall solvation dynamics feature. It has been observed that with the increase in urea concentration, the overall dynamics becomes slower, and it infers the presence of few water or urea molecules, those strongly associated with surrounding urea and (or) water by hydrogen bonds.     

Homochiral crystallization of helical coordination chains bridged by achiral ligands: can it be controlled by the ligand structure?

Homochiral/heterochiral crystallizations of helical chiral polymer chains bridged by achiral poly-pyridyl ligands dependent on the structures of the bridging ligands and independent on the solvent are described, implying a possible strategy to design achiral crystals of helical chains using chiral bridging ligands.     

High-resolution continuum source graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry: Is it as good as it sounds? A critical review

The recent arrival of high-resolution continuum source atomic absorption spectrometry represents a potential revolution in this field, in particular for direct analysis of complex samples. This review tries to illustrate the main advantages of this technology, paying particular attention to the development of direct solid sampling methods. Three solid sampling applications will be discussed, each one of them highlighting one of the main advantages of this technique. The review also intends to clarify some misconceptions on the true potential of the instrumentation that is currently commercially available, such as its performance for multielemental analysis.