Enthalpic determinations of aliphatic ester-solvent systems with correlations

Calorimetric measurements were carried out on ester-solvent systems where the esters were H(CH₂)_xCOO(CH₂)_yH, with x and y varying from 1 to 5, and the solvents were n-hexane and 1,2-dichloroethane. Calculation of the enthalpies of cavity formation enabled the enthalpies of interaction to be determined. Both enthalpies correlated with number of carbon atoms N, equal to x+y in the esters, giving for 1,2-dichloroethane

Correlation between the structure of water in the vicinity of carboxybetaine polymers and their blood-compatibility

The structure and hydrogen bonding of water in the vicinity of carboxybetaine homopolymer (poly[1-carboxy-N,N-dimethyl-N-(2'-methacryloyloxyethyl)methanaminium inner salt] (PolyCMB), and a random copolymer of CMB and n-butyl methacrylate, Poly(CMB-r-BMA), with various molecular weights were analyzed in their aqueous solutions and thin film with contours of O-H stretching of Raman and attenuated total reflection infrared (ATR-IR) spectra, respectively. The relative intensity of the collective band (C value) corresponding to a long-range coupling of O-H stretchings of the Raman spectra for aqueous solution of Poly(CMB-r-BMA) was very close to that for pure water, which is in contrast with the smaller C value in aqueous solution of ordinary polyelectrolytes. The number of hydrogen bonds collapsed by the presence of one monomer residue (N(corr) value) of PolyCMB and Poly(CMB-r-BMA) (CMB, 45 mol %) (M(w), 1.14 x 10(4) and 1.78 x 10(4), respectively) could be calculated from the C value. The N(corr) values were much smaller than those for ordinary polyelectrolytes and close to those for nonionic water-soluble polymers such as poly(ethylene glycol) and poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone). Furthermore, a water-insoluble Poly(CMB-r-BMA) with a large BMA content (M(w) = 347 kD, CMB 27 mol %) could be cast as a thin film (thickness, ca. 10 microm) on a ZnSe crystal for the ATR-IR analyses. At an early stage of sorption of water into the Poly(CMB-r-BMA) film, the O-H stretching band of IR spectra for the water incorporated in the film was similar to that for free water, which is in contrast with the drastic change in the O-H stretching band of water incorporated in polymer films such as poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and poly(n-butyl methacrylate) (PBMA). The theoretical vibrational frequency for water molecules hydrating a betaine molecule calculated by using a density functional method supported the experimental results. The adhesion of human platelets to Poly(CMB-r-BMA) films was much less than that to PMMA and PBMA. With an increase in the content of CMB residue, the number of platelets adhered to the Poly(CMB-r-BMA) film drastically decreased and then gradually increased, probably due to the increase in the roughness of the film surface. These results suggest that the carboxybetaine monomer residues with a zwitterionic structure do not significantly disturb the hydrogen bonding between water molecules in both aqueous solution and thin film systems, resulting in the excellent blood-compatibility of the carboxybetaine polymers.     

Wavy graphene sheets from electrochemical sewing of corannulene

The presence of non-hexagonal rings in the honeycomb carbon arrangement of graphene produces rippled graphene layers with valuable chemical and physical properties. In principle, a bottom-up approach to introducing distortion from planarity of a graphene sheet can be achieved by careful insertion of curved polyaromatic hydrocarbons during the growth of the lattice. Corannulene, the archetype of such non-planar polyaromatic hydrocarbons, can act as an ideal wrinkling motif in 2D carbon nanostructures. Herein we report an electrochemical bottom-up method to obtain egg-box shaped nanographene structures through a polycondensation of corannulene that produces a new conducting layered material. Characterization of this new polymeric material by electrochemistry, spectroscopy, electron microscopy (SEM and TEM), scanning probe microscopy, and laser desorption-ionization time of flight mass spectrometry provides strong evidence that the anodic polymerization of corannulene, combined with electrochemically induced oxidative cyclodehydrogenations (Scholl reactions), leads to polycorannulene with a wavy graphene-like structure.

A bottom-up synthesis of wavy graphene structures obtained through an anodic polymerization process, combined with an electrochemically triggered oxidative cyclodehydrogenation, of the bowl-shaped polyaromatic hydrocarbon corannulene.     

The Dold-Lashof-Fuchs construction revisited

Sia dato uno spazio topologicoE con azione di un monoide topologicoH e siaE→B una funzione continue che, su ogni apertoU di una partizione dell'unità diB, sia, a meno di omotopia, la proiezioneU×H→U (ovvero una fibrazione numerabile). Un classico risultato di A. Dold e R. Lashof (1959) permette di costruire, a partire daE→B, una funzione continuaE _∞→B_∞, conE _∞ debolmente contraibile e munito di azione diH: laH-fibrazione universale associata daH. Tale funzione, in generale, non è purtroppo numerabile e quindi non si presta alla classificazione delleH-fibrazioni numerabili. Successivamente (1971), M. Fuchs ha trovato un modo di modificare la costruzione di Dold-Lashof per recuperare la numerabilità. La costruzione di Dold-Lashof-Fuchs è, da allora, uno dei principali strumenti nella teoria degli spazi classificanti di monoidi topologici, anche se vi è un uso di topologie alquanto complesse e quindi poco maneggevoli. In questo lavoro ci proponiamo di mostrare come, lavorando nella categoria conveniente deik-spazi, sia possibile descrivere la costruzione di Dold-Lashof-Fuchs in modo estremamente semplificato ed adattarla anche alla classificazione delleF-fibrazioni numerabili.

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Conferenza tenuta da R. Piccinini il 15 maggio 1995     

A goldstone mode in the Kawasaki-Ising model

The hydrodynamic regime of superfluids is dominated by a Goldstone mode corresponding to a spontaneously brokenU(1) symmetry. In this article we map the Kawasaki-Ising model for a classical lattice gas into a quantum model for a superfluid and establish a connection between the normal density fluctuations of the first and the Goldstone mode of the second. The fact that the quantum model we obtain describes a superfluid derives from an inequality by Penrose and Onsager which gives a lower bound to the Bose-Einstein condensate density. Mathematically, the Goldstone mode can be described by means of a quantum extension of the local algebra of the Ising model. The classification of its irreducible representations requires an additionalU(1) phase factor and the correspondingU(1) gauge symmetry is spontaneously broken for all finite values of the temperature and of the density.     

Multivoice Littlewood-Paley-Meyer wavelets and diagonal dominated pseudodifferential operators

Given a pseudodifferential operator (p) satisfying certain growth and smoothness conditions in momentum space, we construct a wavelet basis ofL ²( ^d ) in which the corresponding matrix is diagonal dominated with arbitrarily small prefactor.     

Dual-oriented thin crystals of molybdenum grown under Ar+ ion bombardment

Ar⁺ sputtering of an Cu(111) surface while simultaneously supplying Mo atoms is known to induce an oriented growth of Mo thin crystals, or seed-layers, on evolving conical Cu protrusions. The seed-layers thus formed are shown to be dual-oriented, or bicrystalline, consisting of columnar crystallites grown homo-epitaxially. The orientation relationship between the two types of crystallites was (100)_I (111)_II with [001]_I [110]_II, and this bicrystallinity probably resulted from a non-uniform charge-up of the layers' growth front. As concluded from high-resolution electron microscopy, the Mo(100) stacking is elastically converted into the Mo(111) stacking and vice versa, under the influence of tensile stress. The homo-epitaxy that the seed-layers exhibited is believed to reflect the mutual convertibility of the Mo(100) and (111) stackings.     

The adiabatic approximation for quantum spin systems with a spectral gap

Summary We estimate the accuracy of the adiabatic approximation in predicting the time evolution of local observables for an XY quantum magnet with a slowly variable external magnetic field. The system evolves according to the natural Hamiltonian dynamics and the spectral gap produced by the magnetic field is assumed to be large with respect to the term inducing quantum fluctutions. The proof is based on a finite order truncation of a time dependent cluster expansion in inverse powers of the time scale . In the analytic case, we show that the accuracy of this truncated expansion is of order for any >1. If the time dependent perturbation is suddenly switched on at time zero and switched off at time , the accuracy of the adiabatic approximation is proven to be of orderO( ^–1.