Steric effects of substituted quinolines on lithium coordination geometry

The X-ray crystal structures of a series of lithium quinolates – lithium 8-hydroxyquinolinate (Liq), lithium 2-methyl-8-hydroxyquinolinate (MeLiq), and 2-phenyl-8-hydroxquinolinate (PhLiq), are compared. The substitution at the 2-position of the 8-hydroxyquinoline ligand has significant impact on the aggregation of the lithium complex in the crystalline state. Liq and MeLiq molecules crystallize as hexamers, whereas PhLiq crystallizes as a tetramer. The possible influence of crystal-packing forces on the preferred cluster structure was probed using density functional theory calculations on a systematically varied set of Liq, MeLiq, and PhLiq clusters. For Liq and MeLiq, the observed structures match the most stable computed structures. In the PhLiq case, the observed tetrameric structure is computed to be less stable (+1.2 kcal/mol/monomer) than the lowest energy structure, a hexamer. In this case, solid-state effects probably outweigh small differences in cluster stability.     

Phenothiazine-based covalent organic frameworks with low exciton binding energies for photocatalysis

Designing delocalized excitons with low binding energy (E_b) in organic semiconductors is urgently required for efficient photochemistry because the excitons in most organic materials are localized with a high E_b of >300 meV. In this work, we report the achievement of a low E_b of ∼50 meV by constructing phenothiazine-based covalent organic frameworks (COFs) with inherent crystallinity, porosity, chemical robustness, and feasibility of bandgap engineering. The low E_b facilitates effective exciton dissociation and thus promotes photocatalysis by using these COFs. As a demonstration, we subject these COFs to photocatalytic polymerization to synthesize polymers with remarkably high molecular weight without any requirement of the metal catalyst. Our results can facilitate the rational design of porous materials with low E_b for efficient photocatalysis.

We report the construction of phenothiazine-based covalent organic frameworks, which exhibited diverse structures, the feasibility of bandgap engineering, and unprecedented ultralow exciton binding energy of ∼50 meV for photocatalytic polymerization.     

A Simple Hydrothermal Method for the Growth of ZnO Crystals

ZnO microstructures have been grown from zinc chloride (ZnCl₂) and ammonia solution at 100 °C for 1 – 24 hours. X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope and field‐emission scanning microscope were utilized to investigate the structural properties and morphology of the ZnO crystals. Structural investigations show that phase‐pure hexagonal structure ZnO has been successfully synthesized, and the hexagonal structure ZnO can be achieved in solutions with an appropriate range of concentrations. Under our experimental conditions, several different morphologies of ZnO structures were obtained, including flower‐like and bar flower‐like. The relationship between the morphology and experimental conditions are discussed.     

Recent advances in theoretical models of respiratory mechanics

As an important branch of biomedical engineering, respiratory mechanics helps to understand the physiology of the respiratory system and provides fundamental data for developing such clinical technologies as ventilators. To solve different clinical problems, researchers have developed numerous models at various scales that describe biological and mechanical properties of the respiratory system. During the past decade, benefiting from the continuous accumulation of clinical data and the dramatic progress of biomedical technologies (e.g. biomedical imaging), the theoretical modeling of respiratory mechanics has made remarkable progress regarding the macroscopic properties of the respiratory process, complexities of the respiratory system, gas exchange within the lungs, and the coupling interaction between lung and heart. The present paper reviews the advances in the above fields and proposes potential future projects.     

A new solution of reducing polymer optical fiber losses

Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) is one of the most commonly used optical materials. However, the application of it in the area of optical communication is strongly limited by the intrinsic absorption loss of carbon-hydrogen stretching vibration. In this paper, we present a method to solve the problem by adopting the hollow-core fibers with cobweb cladding structure. The fibers use a single dielectric material and may solve the problem of structural support. Thus the feasibility of the “OmniGuide” fibers is improved, while a series of advantages of the “OmniGuide” hollow-core fiber are retained. It is promising that a fiber with low transmission loss, high bandwidth, large-core, and low costs can be designed and fabricated using PMMA. At the same time, a very broad range of the wavelengths (from visible to near infrared region, for instance, wavelengths at 0.65-1.12 μm, and even 1.30 μm, 1.54 μm and their neighbors) may be adopted for signal wavelength.     

Improved DOSY NMR data processing by data enhancement and combination of multivariate curve resolution with non-linear least square fitting

The quality of DOSY NMR data can be improved by careful pre-processing techniques. Baseline drift, peak shift, and phase shift commonly exist in real-world DOSY NMR data. These phenomena seriously hinder the data analysis and should be removed as much as possible. In this paper, a series of preprocessing operations are proposed so that the subsequent multivariate curve resolution can yield optimal results. First, the baseline is corrected according to a method by Golotvin and Williams. Next, frequency and phase shift are removed by a new combination of reference deconvolution (FIDDLE), and a method presented by Witjes et al. that can correct several spectra simultaneously. The corrected data are analysed by the combination of multivariate curve resolution with non-linear least square regression (MCR-NLR). The MCR-NLR method turns out to be more robust and leads to better resolution of the pure components than classic MCR.     

Laser diode pumped LNYAB self-frequency-doubling lasers

The LNYAB self-doubling laser pumped by (LD) has been developed for the first time. The properties of the lasers are much better than those of NYAB self-doubling lasers pumped by LD. The LNYAB self-doubling laser pumped by LD can be operated in TEM_(00) mode with threshold pumping power of 3.6mW which is lower than that of LD pumped NYAB self-doubling lasers by 74%. The output power is 29mW at 0.531μm in green region with optical-to-optical efficiency of 4.8% which is higher than that of NYAB self-doubling laser by 20%.     

热压制备(AgSbTe2)100-x-(GeTe)x合金的热电性能

以Pb粉、Te粉、Ag粉、Ge粉为原材料,在真空气氛下合成(AgSbTe₂)_100-x-(GeTe)_x (x=80---90) (TAGS)合金热电材料, X射线衍射(XRD)分析表明,热压烧结后合金具有低温菱形结构. 通过热压烧结法将TAGS粉末制备成块体材料,运用XRD和扫描电子显微镜对材料的物相成分、 晶体结构和形貌进行了表征.采用直流四探针法测定样品的电导率,当样品两端的温差为1---4℃ 的情况下测量Seebeck系数.通过材料热电性能测试,研究了30---500℃温度范围内不同组分 样品性能参数的变化.结果表明,所制备的TAGS热电材料具有纳米结构, 其性能随着组分的变化而变化, TAGS-80具有较好的热电性能,在530℃时具有最高热电优值(ZT=1.80).     

碳纤维复合材料内部缺陷深度的定量红外检测

利用脉冲红外热成像技术对碳纤维复合材料试件内部的模拟脱黏缺陷的深度进行测量, 研究在被测物热属性参数未知情况下,碳纤维增强塑料中缺陷深度的测量方法. 分析了平板材料在脉冲热源激励下的一维热传导模型;给出了内部缺陷深度的红外测量原理; 选用对数温度二阶微分峰值时刻作为特征时间测量缺陷深度; 考虑单点标定测量深度可能产生较大的随机误差,提出利用最小二乘法多项式拟合建立阶梯件中阶梯深度与其对应的对数温度时间二阶微分曲线峰值时间两者之间的标定关系式的方法, 选择在相对误差平方和最小情形下的拟合关系式作为脱黏缺陷深度测量的标定关系式. 实验结果表明,利用该方法测量脱黏缺陷深度的精度优于单点法标定测量结果, 实现了在被检测材料热属性参数未知的情况下仍能较准确地测量脱黏缺陷深度.