Core-shell H-ZSM-5/silicalite-1 composites: Brønsted acidity and catalyst deactivation at the individual particle level

A combination of in situ UV-Vis and confocal fluorescence micro-spectroscopy is applied to investigate the influence of an external silicalite-1 shell on the Br?nsted acidity and coke formation process of individual H-ZSM-5 zeolite crystals. Three probe reactions were used: oligomerization of styrene, methanol-to-olefin (MTO) conversion and aromatization of light naphtha (LNA) derivatives. Oligomerization of styrene leads to the formation of optically active carbocationic oligomers. Different styrene substitutions indicate the conversion ability of the catalyst acid core, a preferred alignment of the oligomers within the straight zeolite channels and a Br?nsted acidity gradient throughout the zeolite crystal. Both the MTO conversion and the LNA process lead to limited carbonaceous deposition within the external silicalite-1 layer. This outer shell furthermore prevents the growth of extended coke species at the zeolite external surface. During MTO, the formation of carbonaceous compounds initiates at the center of the H-ZSM-5 zeolite core and expands towards the zeolite exterior. This coke build-up starts with a 420 nm UV-Vis absorption band, assigned to methyl-substituted aromatic carbocations, and a second band around 550 nm, which is indicative of their growth towards larger conjugated systems. Aromatization of linear and branched C5 paraffins causes negligible darkening of the zeolite crystals though it forms fluorescent coke deposits and their precursors within the H-ZSM-5 catalyst. Olefin homologues on the contrary cause pronounced darkening of the zeolite composite. Methyl-branching of these reactants slows down the coke formation rate and produces carbonaceous species that are more restricted in their molecular size.     

Non-existence of vortices in the small density region of a condensate

In this paper, we answer a question raised by Lev Pitaevskii and prove that the ground state of the Gross-Pitaevskii energy describing a Bose-Einstein condensate in a rotationally symmetric trap at low rotation does not have vortices in the low density region. Therefore, the first ground state with vortices has its vortices in the bulk. In fact we prove something stronger, which is that the ground state for the model at low and moderate rotations is equal to the ground state in a condensate with no rotation. This is obtained by proving that for small rotational velocities, the ground state is multiple of the ground state with zero rotation. We rely on sharp bounds of the decay of the wave function combined with weighted Jacobian estimates.     

Microspheres Used in Liver Radioembolization: From Conception to Clinical Effects

Inert microspheres, labeled with several radionuclides, have been developed during the last two decades for the intra-arterial treatment of liver tumors, generally called Selective Intrahepatic radiotherapy (SIRT). The aim is to embolize microspheres into the hepatic capillaries, accessible through the hepatic artery, to deliver high levels of local radiation to primary (such as hepatocarcinoma, HCC) or secondary (metastases from several primary cancers, e.g., colorectal, melanoma, neuro-endocrine tumors) liver tumors. Several types of microspheres were designed as medical devices, using different vehicles (glass, resin, poly-lactic acid) and labeled with different radionuclides, ⁹⁰Y and ¹⁶⁶Ho. The relationship between the microspheres’ properties and the internal dosimetry parameters have been well studied over the last decade. This includes data derived from the clinics, but also computational data with various millimetric dosimetry and radiobiology models. The main purpose of this paper is to define the characteristics of these radiolabeled microspheres and explain their association with the microsphere distribution in the tissues and with the clinical efficacy and toxicity. This review focuses on avenues to follow in the future to optimize such particle therapy and benefit to patients.     

Properties of a single vortex solution in a rotating Bose Einstein condensate

In this Note, we study the properties of the line energy for a vortex γ in a Bose Einstein condensate rotating at velocity $\text{Ω}$. The global minimizer is either the vortex free solution or U vortices which exist only for $\text{Ω}$ bigger than a critical value. For all values of $\text{Ω}$, we prove the existence of an S type vortex, which is a critical point of the line energy, observed in the experiments. We also prove uniqueness of the minimizer for almost every $\text{Ω}$ and a monotonicity property of the curve γ with respect to $\text{Ω}$. The proofs rely on a related isoperimetric problem. To cite this article: A. Aftalion, R.L. Jerrard, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 336 (2003).     

A rapid fluorescence based method for the quantitative analysis of cell culture media photo-degradation

Cell culture media are very complex chemical mixtures that are one of the most important aspects in biopharmaceutical manufacturing. The complex composition of many media leads to materials that are inherently unstable and of particular concern, is media photo-damage which can adversely affect cell culture performance. This can be significant particularly with small scale transparent bioreactors and media containers are used for process development or research. Chromatographic and/or mass spectrometry based analyses are often time-consuming and expensive for routine high-throughput media analysis particularly during scale up or development processes.     

GaSb/GaAs heteroepitaxy characterized as a stress-free system

Thin layers of GaSb grown on GaAs by molecular beam epitaxy have been studied by Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. In spite of the high value of the lattice mismatch (8%), these systems reveal a good crystalline quality: as a matter of fact, the lattice dynamics analysed through the resonant Raman scattering lead to a large correlation length for the optical modes. Moreover, they evidence the unstrained nature of the epilayers. The absence of the residual strain is connected to the highly regular network of Lomer dislocations observed by TEM. Obtaining such a perfect array of dislocations is a consequence of both the characteristic of the system (high lattice mismatch, same cationic sites) and the peculiar growth conditions (ideal surface preparation due to the buffer layer, adequate temperature allowing the direct relaxation of GaSb by island growth).     

Uniqueness and nondegeneracy for some nonlinear elliptic problems in a ball

In this paper we study the uniqueness and nondegeneracy of positive solutions of nonlinear problems of the type Δ_pu+f(r,u)=0 in the unit ball B, u=0 on ∂B. Here Δ_p denotes the p Laplace operator Δ_p=div(|∇u|^p−2∇u), p>1. The main ideas rely on the Maximum Principle and an implicit function theorem that we derive in a suitable weighted space. This space is essential to deal with the case p≠2.