Drying dissipative structures of colloidal crystals of silica spheres coated with polymer brushes of poly(carboxymethyl betaine)

Drying patterns of colloidal crystals of colloidal silica spheres coated with the brushes of zwitterionic poly(carboxymethyl betaine) (SiP-PCMB) and their parent silica spheres (SiP) were studied on a cover glass, a watch glass, and a Petri glass dish. Crystal structures kept the whole process of dryness of the suspensions of SiP-PCMB and SiP. Crystal structures of the dried films of SiP-PCMB were kept stable even when the initial suspensions contained 5 mM of sodium chloride, which is the important role of the excluded volume effects of the shells of the polymer brushes. On the other hand, crystal structures of SiP spheres in the dried films were much unstable and melted in the presence of 5 mM sodium chloride. In the suspension state, colloidal crystallization of SiP-PCMB took place stably by the contribution of the excluded volume effects besides the extended electrical double layers compared with that of SiP spheres, where only the double layer effect contributes to the crystallization. The fractal patterns of the complexation of SiP-PCMB or SiP spheres with sodium chloride were observed microscopically in the dried films. Several kinds of dissipative crystallization such as array and/or accumulation of the crystallites were observed, and the importance of the convectional and sedimentation processes during the course of dryness was demonstrated.     

Predictions of cation and anion effects on solubilities,selectivities and permeabilities for CO2 in ionic liquid using COSMO based activity coefficient model

The solubilities and selectivities for CO₂, N₂ and CH₄ in ionic liquid were predicted using a COSMO based activity coefficient model, COSMO-SAC method. The 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium cations were focused in this work. The anion species include tetrafluoroborate [BF₄], hexafluorophosphate [PF₆], triflate [OTf], dicyanamide [dca] and bis(trifluoromethane)-sulfonimide [Tf₂N]. The predicted results of the solubilities of CO₂ in the ionic liquids by COSMO-SAC method are in agreement with the experimental data within the averaged deviation of 0.0017 in mole fraction. The predicted results of selectivities for CO₂/N₂ and CO₂/CH₄ represent the effects of anion species qualitatively. Permeability through supported liquid membrane can be presented by solubility and diffusion coefficients in the liquid. The permeabilities of CO₂ through the ionic liquid membranes were also predicted by a solution-diffusion model with COSMO-SAC method. The predicted results of the CO₂ permeabilities through the ionic liquids represent the experimental data within the order of the permeabilities.     

Thermal change of organic light-emitting ALQ3 thin films

A series of Alq3 thin films with the thicknesses of 50, 100, and 200 nm was deposited on Si substrates at room temperature using the thermal evaporation method. The thermal crystallization process of Alq3 thin films, especially 50 nm thick films, was successfully examined using high-temperature X-ray diffraction (HT-XRD) with the in-plane scan mode. Film thickness, density, and changes in surface roughness while heating were determined using X-ray reflectometry (XRR). The decreased density and increased surface roughness, which were accompanied by sublimation, indicate the instability of the Alq3 film. Thus, thermal instability is a major factor for device failure.     

Self-compensation of third-order dispersion for ultrashort pulse generation demonstrated in an Yb fiber oscillator

Compensation of the intracavity dispersion in the mode-locked oscillator is known to be one of the most important factors for ultrashort pulse generation. However, recent investigations of a Yb-doped fiber mode-locked oscillator revealed that precise third-order dispersion (TOD) compensation is not always necessary for ultrashort pulse generation, owing to the strong nonlinearity that compensates residual TOD without reducing its spectral bandwidth. The origin of the nonlinear TOD compensation has remained unclear. To investigate the process in detail, we studied the pulse evolution inside a 30 fs Yb-doped fiber mode-locked oscillator both experimentally and numerically, and we found that the nonlinear phase shift with a temporally asymmetric pulse shape introduces an appropriate amount of TOD that exactly cancels the residual cavity dispersion.     

Combining Living Anionic Polymerization with Branching Reactions in an Iterative Fashion to Design Branched Polymers

This paper reviews the precise synthesis of many‐armed and multi‐compositional star‐branched polymers, exact graft (co)polymers, and structurally well‐defined dendrimer‐like star‐branched polymers, which are synthetically difficult, by a commonly‐featured iterative methodology combining living anionic polymerization with branched reactions to design branched polymers. The methodology basically involves only two synthetic steps; (a) preparation of a polymeric building block corresponding to each branched polymer and (b) connection of the resulting building unit to another unit. The synthetic steps were repeated in a stepwise fashion several times to successively synthesize a series of well‐defined target branched polymers.

     

Self‐Assembly of One‐ and Two‐Dimensional Hemoprotein Systems by Polymerization through Heme–Heme Pocket Interactions

Supramolecular protein polymers : When a heme moiety was introduced to the surface of an apo‐cytochrome b₅₆₂(H63C) mutant, supramolecular polymers formed through noncovalent heme–heme pocket interactions. The incorporation of a heme triad as a pivot molecule in the protein polymer further led to a two‐dimensional protein network structure, which was visualized by tapping‐mode atomic force microscopy (see picture).

     

Out-of-plane deformation of the azulene ring in crystal structures of simply substituted azulene derivatives

The crystal structures of 1,3-bis(4-bromophenyl)- and 1,3-di(2-thienyl)azulenes (5 and 6) were elucidated by X-ray analysis. Two aryl groups connect to the azulenyl core with dihedral angles of 34.9-41.6° and the two aryl planes of the groups slant against the azulene ring toward different ways in their crystal structures. It was also found that the azulene rings of 5 and 6 showed a slight out-of-plane deformation in the way that the hydrogen atoms at the 4- and 8-positions are apart from the neighboring aryl ortho-hydrogen atoms to fill in the vacant space made by the slanting aryl planes.     

Studies of an Fe9 tridiminished icosahedron

The synthesis and structural characterization of a nonanuclear FeIII cage complex is reported. The nine iron centers in [Fe9(mu3-O)4(O3PPh)3(O2CCMe3)13] lie on the vertices of an incomplete icosahedron, with the P atoms of triphenylphosphonate at the other three vertices. The paramagnetic core therefore describes a tridiminished icosahedron. Magnetic studies suggest an S=1/2 ground state for the molecule. Analysis of exchange paths and the susceptibility data point to the interpretation that the cluster can be divided into two nearly decoupled sections: an {Fe6O3} section, with an S=0 ground state, in which three oxo-centered triangles bound a central triangle that is not oxo-centered; and an {Fe3O} triangle with S=1/2. The analysis of the susceptibility data leads to a Heisenberg model based on three significant antiferromagnetic exchange interactions, with values of 173.7 cm-1 in the {Fe3O} triangle, and 30.9 and 19.1 cm-1 within the {Fe6O3} section, while the exchange between them is <1 cm-1. With these assignments, the theoretical low-temperature differential susceptibility is also in very good agreement with measurements up to 50 T. Magnetic measurements in the milli-kelvin range reveal striking hysteresis loops and magnetization reversals associated with a Landau-Zener-Stückelberg (LZS) transition as enhanced by the occurrence of a phonon bottleneck.     

Determination of 1-nitropyrene metabolites by high-performance liquid chromatography with chemiluminescence detection

Three metabolites of 1-nitropyrene, i.e., 3-hydoxy-1-nitropyrene (3-OHNP), 6-hydoxy-1-nitropyrene (6-OHNP) and 8-hydoxy-1-nitropyrene (8-OHNP), were sensitively and selectively detected by HPLC with peroxyoxalate chemiluminescence (CL) detection. In the system, the three OHNPs were reduced to their corresponding amino derivatives through a reduction column packed with Pt/Rh-coated alumina and then concentrated on a concentrator column. By rotating a switching valve, the analytes were eluted into a separator column (ODS), separated and then detected by the bis(2,4,6-trichlorphenyl)oxalate-H(2)O(2) CL system. The detection limits (signal-to-noise ratio=3) were in the range from 5fmol (6-OHNP and 8-OHNP) to 12fmol (3-OHNP) per injection. To demonstrate the proposed method, it was used to determine three compounds in the incubation mixture of 1-nitropyrene and rat S9 mix.     

Investigation of charge transfer and structural distortions during photo-inducted excitation of cuprous bis-2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline complex by density functional theory

This work reported the investigation of the structural distortions and charge-transfer processes that occurred in the complex of cuprous(I) bis-2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline upon oxidation to copper(II), , through a excited state of by density functional theory. The intramolecular electronic transfer from central metal-to-ligand (MLCT) upon the irradiation of light energy is confirmed. Due to this MLCT excitation, the structure of the excited state of is distorted and reorganized to adapt with the change of charge in central metal. As a result, the excited state of is formed, which has the similar electronic and structural properties with . The bulky substituents in 2- and 9-positions of the phenanthroline ligands can restrain the structural distort and decrease nonradiative decay rate. Thus, the electronic and steric effects of the ligands in the cuprous photo-sensitive complexes have important consequences in the behavior of their excited state.