The effect of CTAB on Na2SO4 nucleation in mixed Na2SO4/CTAB aerosols by FTIR-ATR technology

FTIR-ATR technology is used to study the efflorescence kinetic of Na_2SO_4 and mixed Na_2SO_4/CTAB aerosols.As the RH decreased linearly,the v_3-SO_4~2 band shifts from 1094 cm~1 to 1132 cm~1,suggesting the phase transition of Na_2SO_4 from solution to crystal phase(Ⅲ).For pure Na_2SO_4 aerosols,the ERH is 75.1%RH,whereas the efflorescence point of mixed Na_2SO_4/CTAB aerosols(74.2%) is lower.By further analysis of IR differential spectra,the ratio of Na_2SO_4 crystals in mixed aerosols is only 62.7%and the heterogeneous nucleation rate of Na_2SO_4 in Na_2SO_4/CTAB mixed aerosols is lower than that in pure Na_2SO_4 aerosols.They showed that CTAB assembled into reversed micelle and part Na_2SO_4 droplets are in the core to form core-shell structure,and CTAB shell prevents core Na_2SO_4 solutions from crystallizing.However,the counter ion Br for CTAB reversed micelle can interact with Na~+ ions,which decreases the crystallization rate of free Na_2SO_4 droplets and ERH is delayed.     

An algorithm to identify the existence and reproducibly obtain single crystals of salts and mixed crystals of amino acids suitable for single crystal XRD and Raman spectroscopy experiments

An algorithm is proposed to reproducibly obtain single crystals of salts and mixed crystals of amino acids with dicarboxylic acids and other small organic molecules. The resulting crystals are of high quality and have good faceting, which makes them suitable for single crystal XRD and Raman spectroscopic (including polarized radiation) experiments. The ease of the implementation and the possibility to reproduce the crystallization using equipment and materials that are available at virtually every laboratory are the hallmarks of the proposed algorithm, which involves two stages of work. During the first stage, the original components are screened, quickly and easily, to find new phases. The aim of the second stage is to obtain single crystals that meet the requirements of different research methods. An ideal case is the one whereby it is possible to control the size of well-faceted spaced apart crystals that grow within a few hours and are easy to separate from the surface.     

Infrared spectroscopic properties of sodium bromide aerosols

The infrared extinction spectra of aqueous NaBr aerosols at ambient temperature have been measured as a function of relative humidity. Submicron-sized aerosol particles atomized from aqueous NaBr solutions at various concentrations are dried and/or mixed with nitrogen at different humidities and spectroscopically monitored as they flow through an infrared absorption cell. Estimated dry particle median diameters range from 0.24 to 0.15 microm, as calculated from Mie extinction theory. Measured deliquescence and efflorescence relative humidities (35-40% and 25-30%, respectively) are in accordance with previously reported ones. Our results show that NaBr particles take up water only moderately over the deliquescence point, with a significant increase at relative humidities above 70%. The effect of particle size onto water uptake properties has been studied, indicating that smaller particles take up lower amounts of water, and only increase their size significantly at relative humidities near saturation. Particle composition and diameter growth factors have been calculated from spectral data and are shown to be consistent with those predicted from thermodynamic data and Kohler theory. Band centers of liquid water in NaBr aerosols relative to pure water are blue-shifted up to 50 cm-1 at low humidities. Particle structure and phase, together with atmospheric implications, are also discussed.     

In-situ investigation of aerosol particles by atomic force microscopy

In-situ imaging of aerosol particles deposited on mica in the TM-AFM liquid cell has been performed in order to study their dissolution behavior. The results show that the implementation of in-situ experiments is very useful for obtaining information on the physical and chemical behavior of individual particles. Experiments were carried out using ammonium sulfate and soot-like particles as test aerosols. Water soluble fractions can be easily distinguished from insoluble fractions. This can also be utilized to proof the existence of internally mixed particles. These model experiments are an important basis for further investigations on airborne particles involving other solvent systems and time resolved measurements.     

Nonisothermal crystallization and melting behavior of mPE/LLDPE/LDPE ternary blends

Nonisothermal crystallization kinetics of ternary blends of the metallocence polyethylene (mPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) were studied using DSC at various scanning rates. The Ozawa theory and a method developed by Mo were employed to describe the nonisothermal crystallization process of the two selected ternary blends. The results speak that Mo method is successful in describing the nonisothermal crystallization process of mPE/LLDPE/LDPE ternary blends, while Ozawa theory is not accurate to interpret the whole process of nonisothermal crystallization. Each ternary blend in this study shows different crystallization and melting behavior due to its different mPE content. The crystallinity of the ternary blends rises with increasing mPE content, and mPE improve the crystallization of the blends at low temperature. The crystallization activation energy of the five ternary blends that had been calculated from Vyazovkin method was increased with mPE content, indicating that the more mPE in the blends, the easier the nucleus or microcrystallites form at the primary stage of nonisothermal crystallization. LLDPE and mPE may form mixed crystals due to none separated-peaks were observed around the main melting or crystallization peak when the ternary blends were heating or cooling. The fixed small content of LDPE made little influence on the main crystallization behavior of the ternary blends and the crystallization behavior was mainly determined by the content of mPE and LLDPE.     

Phase, morphology, and hygroscopicity of mixed oleic acid/sodium chloride/water aerosol particles before and after ozonolysis

Aerosol optical tweezers are used to probe the phase, morphology, and hygroscopicity of single aerosol particles consisting of an inorganic component, sodium chloride, and a water insoluble organic component, oleic acid. Coagulation of oleic acid aerosol with an optically trapped aqueous sodium chloride droplet leads to formation of a phase-separated particle with two partially engulfed liquid phases. The dependence of the phase and morphology of the trapped particle with variation in relative humidity (RH) is investigated by cavity enhanced Raman spectroscopy over the RH range <5% to >95%. The efflorescence and deliquescence behavior of the inorganic component is shown to be unaffected by the presence of the organic phase. Whereas efflorescence occurs promptly (<1 s), the deliquescence process requires both dissolution of the inorganic component and the adoption of an equilibrium morphology for the resulting two phase particle, occurring on a time-scale of <20 s. Comparative measurements of the hygroscopicity of mixed aqueous sodium chloride/oleic acid droplets with undoped aqueous sodium chloride droplets show that the oleic acid does not impact on the equilibration partitioning of water between the inorganic component and the gas phase or the time response of evaporation/condensation. The oxidative aging of the particles through reaction with ozone is shown to increase the hygroscopicity of the organic component.     

Deliquescence and Efflorescence Processes of Aerosol Particles Studied by in situ FTIR and Raman Spectroscopy

Deliquescence and efflorescence are the two most important physicochemical processes of aerosol particles. In deliquescence and efflorescence cycles of aerosol particles, many fundamental problems need to be investigated in detail on the molecular level, including ion and molecule interactions in supersaturated aerosols, metastable solid phases that may be formed, and microscopic structures and deliquescence mechanisms of aerosol particles. This paper presents a summary of the progress made in recent investigations of deliquescence and e2orescence processes of aerosol particles by four common spectral techniques, which are known as Raman/electrodynamic balance, Fourier transform infrared/aerosol flow tube, Fourier transforminfrared/attenuated total reflection, and confocal Raman on a quartz substrate.     

Der Chemische Transport von Mischkristallen im System CoO/NiO

Chemical Vapor Transport of Solid Solutions. 1 Chemical Transport of CoO/NiO‐Mixed Crystals CVT‐methods are a suitable pathway to prepare single crystals of ionic mixed‐crystals with variable composition. This is shown in the case of CoO/NiO‐mixed crystals. The composition of the product is mainly determined by the composition of the starting material. Homogeneous single crystals of a well defined composition can be prepared in a foreseeable manner. The experiments can be understood by thermochemical calculations.     

Der Chemische Transport von Mischkristallen im System NiO/ZnO

Chemical Vapor Transport of Solid Solutions. 2 Chemical Transport of NiO/ZnO‐Mixed Crystals By means of chemical vapor transport using HCl as transport agent (900 → 750 °C) it is possible to prepare ZnO‐rich and NiO‐rich mixed crystals in the system Zn/Ni/O. The mixed‐crystals are homogeneous. Thermodynamic calculations allow to understand the experiments.     

Molecular content and structure of aqueous organic nanodroplets from the vapor-liquid nucleation study of the water/n-nonane/1-alcohol series

Prompted by a previous finding of unusual mixing behavior for the critical clusters involved in the vapor-liquid nucleation of the ternary water/n-nonane/1-butanol mixture, atomistic simulations employing the AVUS-HR technique were carried out to extend such investigations to include both shorter and longer alcohols, namely, the water/n-nonane/CiH2i+1OH mixture with i = 2, 4, 6, and 8. It is clear from this extensive investigation that the miscibility between water and n-nonane can be further improved by increasing the chain length of the alcohol (surfactant). In fact, for the water/n-nonane/1-octanol mixture at an intermediate gas-phase activity composition, the nucleation can proceed via fully mixed critical nuclei containing a roughly equal amount of all three components, which is in contrast to the dominantly binary-like nucleation channels observed for such mixtures involving shorter alcohols. Structural analysis revealed that these mixed nuclei take on a multilayered structural motif of the core-shell (water-alcohol) type with n-nonane distributed outside, forming an additional layer, more or less uniformly, compared to the one-sided deposition found for systems involving shorter alcohols. This structure provides a microscopic origin for the enhanced miscibility of water with n-nonane observed in the presence of 1-alcohol. These results may also have important implications for atmospheric organic aerosols.     

Aerosol chamber study of optical constants and N2O5 uptake on supercooled H2SO4/H2O/HNO3 solution droplets at polar stratospheric cloud temperatures

The mechanism of the formation of supercooled ternary H(2)SO(4)/H(2)O/HNO(3) solution (STS) droplets in the polar winter stratosphere, i.e., the uptake of nitric acid and water onto background sulfate aerosols at T < 195 K, was successfully mimicked during a simulation experiment at the large coolable aerosol chamber AIDA of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe. Supercooled sulfuric acid droplets, acting as background aerosol, were added to the cooled AIDA vessel at T = 193.6 K, followed by the addition of ozone and nitrogen dioxide. N(2)O(5), the product of the gas phase reaction between O(3) and NO(2), was then hydrolyzed in the liquid phase with an uptake coefficient gamma(N(2)O(5)). From this experiment, a series of FTIR extinction spectra of STS droplets was obtained, covering a broad range of different STS compositions. This infrared spectra sequence was used for a quantitative test of the accuracy of published infrared optical constants for STS aerosols, needed, for example, as input in remote sensing applications. The present findings indicate that the implementation of a mixing rule approach, i.e., calculating the refractive indices of ternary H(2)SO(4)/H(2)O/HNO(3) solution droplets based on accurate reference data sets for the two binary H(2)SO(4)/H(2)O and HNO(3)/H(2)O systems, is justified. Additional model calculations revealed that the uptake coefficient gamma(N(2)O(5)) on STS aerosols strongly decreases with increasing nitrate concentration in the particles, demonstrating that this so-called nitrate effect, already well-established from uptake experiments conducted at room temperature, is also dominant at stratospheric temperatures.     

Mixed vesicle formation on a ternary surfactant system: didodecyldimethylammonium bromide/dodecylethyldimethylammonium bromide/water

The formation of mixed aggregates has been investigated on a ternary system consisting of two cationic surfactants with similar polar heads and two and/or one 12 carbon atom hydrophobic tail, respectively, didodecyldimethylammonium bromide and dodecylethyldimethylammonium bromide and water. The study has been carried out by means of conductivity, zeta potential, and cryogenic transmission electronic microscopy (cryo-TEM) experiments on the very diluted region. A variety of mixed aggregates, microaggregates, vesicles, and micelles has been found, depending on system composition and total surfactant concentration. Mixed critical microaggregate concentration and mixed critical vesicle concentration have been determined from conductivity data. Furthermore, zeta potential and cryo-TEM experiments allow for the characterization of the aggregates/solution interface and of the shape and size of the aggregates. This experimental evidence has also been analyzed in terms of the theoretical packing parameter, P.     

Investigations on Chemical Vapour Transport of Intermetallic Phases in the System Co/Fe/Si

The ternary phases existing on the quasi binary section CoSi/FeSi and CoSi₂/β‐FeSi₂ have been investigated by solid state reactions and chemical transport. The solid solution serie Co_xFe_1‐xSi can be described as a regular solution. The transport behaviour calculated is in good agreement with the experiments. The phases have been characterized by X‐ray powder diffraction, EDX and ICP‐OES. The temperature dependence of the resistivity has been measured from 20 K up to room temperature on single crystals.     

Phase diagrams and water activities of aqueous ammonium salts of malonic acid

Malonic acid has been observed in the free troposphere and as a component of tropospheric aerosol, among other dicarboxylic acids. These aerosols can uptake ammonia, which partially or completely neutralizes the acids. Therefore, the impact of ammoniated dicarboxylic acids on the phases that can exist in aerosols at atmospheric temperatures needs investigation. To that end, the low temperature, solid/liquid phase diagrams of ammonium hydrogen malonate/water, ammonium malonate/water, and triammonium hydrogen malonate/water have been investigated with differential scanning calorimetry and infrared spectroscopy of thin films. Results show that the order of increasing solubility is triammonium hydrogen malonate, ammonium hydrogen malonate, malonic acid, and ammonium malonate. We have also determined a hydrate may form in the ammonium malonate system and decompose below 240 K. We report water activities at the ice melting points for each system up to the respective eutectic concentrations, and find for a given mole fraction of water, increasing ammonium content leads to decreasing water activity coefficients.     

Crystallization of short aliphatic polymer chains. I. General chain-folding behavior

Short aliphatic polymer chains of different lengths were prepared by degrading polyethylene samples of appropriately chosen initial fold lengths to the chain lengths which correspond to a single chain traverse through the lamella. The resulting dicarboxylic acids were either used as such for further crystallization experiments or were first converted into diiodides to remove polar endgroups. The resulting short polymers all crystallized by chain folding even if the chains (peak of distribution) were only 1.5–4 times the length of a traverse through the lamella. In the diiodides the fold length varied continuously with crystallization temperature, as is usual in high molecular weight material, but with the dicarboxylic acids such variation, while observable, was only small. The effect of the molecular weight on the fold length due to its influence on supercooling at a given crystallization temperature has become apparent. Renewed degradation with nitric acid and subsequent GPC analysis of the degradation products confirmed the folded nature of the chains in the above crystals. This analysis combined with experiments on the reactivity of chain ends has led to the picture that each chain folds completely, once, twice etc. so that both folds and ends are in the surface zone but are located at varying heights, as appropriate to the overall layer thickness for the molecular weight distribution in question. This picture is consistent with other concurrent work.     

Der Chemische Transport ternärer intermetallischer Phasen in den Systemen Cr/Co/Ge und Co/Ta/Ge

Chemical Vapor Transport of Intermetallic Systems. 11 Chemical Vapor Transport of Ternary Intermetallic Phases in the Systems Cr/Co/Ge and Co/Ta/Ge By means of chemical vapor transport using iodine as transport agent it is possible to prepare a number of ternary intermetallic compounds in the system Co/Cr/Ge as single crystals. The transport behaviour in this ternary system is related to that in the binary systems. Some informations are given about transport phenomena in the systems Co/Cr and Co/Ta/Ge.     

Preparation and spectral characteristics of anthracene/tetracene mixed crystals

A series of tetracene-doped anthracene crystals with different doping concentrations (the highest molar ratio 100 1) are grown from solution. Crystal structures and optical characteristics of the above mixed crystals are investigated at room temperature. By changing the doping concentrations, the fluorescence can be adjusted from blue-green to green and even to yellow-green. The emission spectra of anthracene/tetracene (An/Te) mixed crystals reveal the sensitized fluorescence of tetracene and the partial quenching of anthracene emission. The data of transient photoluminescence (PL) decays illustrate that in An/Te mixed crystals, the decay of anthracene becomes faster, while the PL lifetime of tetracene is longer than that of the tetracene single crystals. All above experimental results suggest that there is excitation energy transfer from anthracene to tetracene in the mixed crystals. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 5057 3039) and the National Key Basic Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2006CB806200)     

Molecular recognition controls the organization of mixed self-organized bis-urea-based mineralization templates for CaCO(3)

To investigate the role and importance of nondirectional electrostatic interactions in mineralization, we explored the use of Langmuir monolayers in which the charge density can be tuned using supramolecular interactions. It is demonstrated that, in mixed Langmuir monolayers of bis-ureido surfactants containing oligo(ethylene oxide) and ammonium head groups associated with matching or nonmatching spacers between the two urea groups, the organization is controlled by molecular recognition. These different organizations of the molecules lead to different nucleation behavior in the mineralization of calcium carbonate. The formation of modified calcite and vaterite crystals was induced selectively by different phases of mixed monolayers, and they were characterized by SEM, TEM, and SAED. To understand the influence of the mixed Langmuir monolayers on the crystallization process, we studied the mixtures by means of (pi-A) isotherms and Brewster angle microscopy observations. Infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy experiments were also performed on Langmuir-Schaefer films. From these results, we conclude that the local organization of the two systems discussed here gives rise to differences in both charge density and flexibility that together determine not only polymorph selection and the nucleation face but also the morphology of the resulting crystals.     

Polyesterification of aromatic dicarboxylic acids and bisphenols with tosyl chloride/dimethylformamide/pyridine promoted by the improvement of the difficult solubility of the activated diacids with lithium chloride

The solution polyesterification of dicarboxylic acids in pyridine, the activated intermediates of which were difficult to dissolve in tosyl chloride/dimethylformamide/pyridine, was investigated in the presence of lithium chloride. The solubility of the activated dicarboxylic acids was largely improved by the presence of the salt, and the polycondensation with bisphenols was greatly facilitated. The salt was more effectively added to a pyridine solution of dicarboxylic acids than to the activated dicarboxylic acids in pyridine. The favorable additive effect on the improved solubility was attributed to a lowered degree of association of the activated dicarboxylic acids, which led to distributions of the resulting oligomers from bisphenols at an earlier stage closer to the theoretical ones and yielded better polycondensation results. The reaction, which proceeded through favorable distributions of the co‐oligomers, produced copolymers of higher inherent viscosities and slightly block sequence distributions determined by NMR. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 2725–2733, 2004     

Abstandsvergleich M–H/M–D aus Röntgen‐ und Neutronenbeugungsdaten am Beispiel von Na3Rh(H/D)6

Comparison of the Distances M–H/M–D from X‐Ray and Powder Neutron Scattering Data on the Example of Na₃Rh(H/D)₆ Mixtures of NaNH₂, NaN₃ and Rh heated to 600 °C in autoclaves for salt melts show no indication of formation of ternary nitrides, but unexpectedly single crystals of a ternary hydride, Na₃RhH₆, were obtained. These crystals were isolated by washing the reaction product with liquid ammonia at room temperature. During this procedure metallic sodium – formed by decomposition of both the amide and the azide at elevated temperatures – is removed. X‐ray diffraction measurements on single crystals of Na₃RhH₆ allowed to even refine the displacement parameters of the hydrogen atoms and to compare the obtained results with data from powder neutron scattering of Na₃RhD₆ published by Bronger, Gehlen and Auffermann [1]. Only little differences are found between the lattice parameters, atomic positions and, noteworthy, the resulting distances Rh–H and Rh–D, respectively.