The 1,3-Dipolar Cycloadditions of Nitrile Oxides and Nitrile Imines to Alkyl Dicyanoacetates

The readily available alkyl dicyanoacetates 1 reacted with the 1,3-dipolar reagents arenecarbonitrile oxides 2 ′ and arenecarbonitrile imines 5 ′ to afford 1,2,4-oxadiazol and 1,2,4-triazol derivatives. The arenecarbonitrile oxides 2 ′ with electron-donating groups on the arene ring gave products 3a – d resulting from addition on both CN groups of 1 , and those with electron-withdrawing groups provided mono-adducts 4a – e (Scheme 1). Arylnitrile imines 5 ′ reacted with 1 to offer both bis- and mono-addition products (Scheme 2); the bis-adducts 8a , b possess an ester structure, whereas the mono-adducts 6a – d present a ketene-hemiacetal structure.     

Rapid Detection of Five Estrogens Added Illegally to Dietary Supplements by Combining TLC with Raman Imaging Microscope

Estrogens added illegally to dietary supplements are hazardous to human health. Traditional detection and analysis methods have many limitations, and we have developed an assay that combines thin-layer chromatography with Raman imaging microscopy (TLC-RIM). The five estrogens (estrone, estradiol, estriol, ethinyl estradiol, and diethylstilbestrol) were initially separated by TLC, then detected by area scanning Raman imaging with a 532 nm laser under a microscope. Raman spectra were obtained for each estrogen, which were used for detecting estrogen illegally added to botanical dietary supplements. The LOD of each estrogen was 0.4, 1.0, 0.8, 0.2, and 0.2 mg/mL, respectively. The matrix in the real sample did not interfere with the detection of estrogens. The method was fast, sensitive, stable, specific, and reliable.     

The invariant of the stiffness filter function with the weight filter function of the power function form

Based on the independent, continuous and mapping (ICM) method and homogenization method, a research model is constructed to propose and deduce a theorem and corollary from the invariant between the weight filter function and the corresponding stiffness filter function of the form of power function. The efficiency in searching for optimum solution will be raised via the choice of rational filter functions, so the above mentioned results are very important to the further study of structural topology optimization.     

Optimization of mobile phase for the determination of Esomeprazole and related compounds and investigation of stress degradation by LC–MS

In this study, the objective was to investigate the degradation behavior of Esomeprazole under different recommended stress conditions according to International Conference on Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use [1] by HPLC. Our research showed that the effect of mobile phase species on separation was significant for the determination of Esomeprazole and its related compounds. Successful separation of the drug from its related impurities and degradation products formed under different stress conditions was achieved using ammonium acetate buffer/ACN by a gradient elution. Compared with phosphate buffer/ACN, ammonium acetate buffer/ACN under same pH and gradient showed a great improvement in resolution due to the change of elution order. The drug was subjected to stress conditions including acidic, alkaline, oxidative, photolytic, and thermal conditions. Extensive degradation occurred in acidic and oxidative conditions, while mild degradation was observed in alkaline and photolytic conditions. Besides, it turned out the drug was extremely stable under thermal condition. The stability‐indicating LC–UV method was validated with respect to linearity, precision, accuracy, specificity, and robustness. The LC–MS method was also adopted for the characterization of degradation products. Based on the m/z values and fragmentation patterns, the degradation pathway of the drug has been proposed.     

Microalgae separation by inertia-enhanced pinched flow fractionation

To improve the accuracy and efficiency of ships’ ballast water detection, the separation of microalgae according to size is significant. In this article, a method to separate microalgae based on inertia-enhanced pinched flow fractionation (iPFF) was reported. The method utilized the inertial lift force induced by flow to separate microalgae according to size continuously. The experimental results show that, as the Reynolds number increases, the separation effect becomes better at first, but then stays unchanged. The best separation effect can be obtained when the Reynolds number is 12.3. In addition, with the increase of the flow rate ratio between sheath fluid and microalgae mixture, the separation effect becomes better and the best separation effect can be obtained when the flow rate ratio reaches 10. In this case, the recovery rate of Tetraselmis sp. is about 90%, and the purity is about 86%; the recovery rate of Chlorella sp. is as high as 99%, and the purity is about 99%. After that, the separation effect keeps getting better but very slowly. In general, this study provides a simple method for the separation of microalgae with different sizes, and lays a foundation for the accurate detection of microalgae in the ballast water.     

Polyimide separators for rechargeable batteries

Separators are indispensable components of modern electrochemical energy storage devices such as lithium-ion batteries (LIBs).They perform the critical function...     

Superheating of confined Pb thin films

In this work we report, for the first time, an experimental observation of a superheating phenomenon in metal thin films. By means of cold rolling, Pb thin films of about 20 nm thick were sandwiched by Al layers, and between them semicoherent epitaxial Pb/Al interfaces were formed. In situ x-ray diffraction analysis indicated that the confined Pb thin films could be superheated for at least 6 degrees C. Thermodynamic analysis indicated that such a substantial superheating in the confined two-dimensional thin films may originate from suppression of growth of the molten droplets by the epitaxial Al/Pb/Al confinement, instead of suppression of melt nucleation for the confined particle superheating.     

Luminescent molecular hybrid system derived from 2-furancarboxylic acid and silylated monomer coordinated to rare earth ions

In this study, silica-based organic-inorganic hybrids were prepared by the sol-gel method. Tetraethoxysilane (abbreviated as TEOS) and a kind of monomer (abbreviated as FA-APES) derived from modified 2-furancarboxylic acid (abbreviated as FA) with (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (abbreviated as APES) were used as the inorganic and organic fragments, respectively. Coordination reaction between lanthanides (europium and terbium ions) and CO group of the monomer happened simultaneously. And after days of aging process the resultant materials showed characteristic luminescence of lanthanides. The enhancement of luminescence can be seen by the comparison with simply doped lanthanide hybrid systems. And it can be explained by the coordination ability of the organic counterpart. IR, NMR, UV-vis absorption, low-temperature phosphorescence spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy were applied to characterize and the above spectroscopic data revealed that the triplet state energy of organic ligand matches with the emissive energy level of lanthanides (especially of Tb³⁺).     

Single-channel color image encryption using phase retrieve algorithm in fractional Fourier domain

A single-channel color image encryption is proposed based on a phase retrieve algorithm and a two-coupled logistic map. Firstly, a gray scale image is constituted with three channels of the color image, and then permuted by a sequence of chaotic pairs generated by the two-coupled logistic map. Secondly, the permutation image is decomposed into three new components, where each component is encoded into a phase-only function in the fractional Fourier domain with a phase retrieve algorithm that is proposed based on the iterative fractional Fourier transform. Finally, an interim image is formed by the combination of these phase-only functions and encrypted into the final gray scale ciphertext with stationary white noise distribution by using chaotic diffusion, which has camouflage property to some extent. In the process of encryption and decryption, chaotic permutation and diffusion makes the resultant image nonlinear and disorder both in spatial domain and frequency domain, and the proposed phase iterative algorithm has faster convergent speed. Additionally, the encryption scheme enlarges the key space of the cryptosystem. Simulation results and security analysis verify the feasibility and effectiveness of this method.