Vortex-pair dynamics in anisotropic bistable media: a kinematic approach

In isotropic bistable media, a vortex pair typically evolves into rotating spiral waves. In an anisotropic system, instead of spiral waves, the vortices can form wave fragments that propagate with a constant speed in a given direction determined by the system's anisotropy. The fragments may propagate invariably, shrink, or expand. We develop a kinematic approach for the study of vortex-pair dynamics in anisotropic bistable media and use it to capture the wave fragment dynamics.     

Evolution of the Fermi surface of d-wave superconductors in the presence of thermal phase fluctuations

One of the most puzzling aspects of the high Tc superconductors is the appearance of Fermi arcs in the normal state of the underdoped cuprate materials. These are loci of low energy excitations covering part of the Fermi surface that suddenly appear above Tc instead of the nodal quasiparticles. Based on a semiclassical theory, we argue that partial Fermi surfaces arise naturally in a d-wave superconductor that is destroyed by thermal phase fluctuations. Specifically, we show that the electron spectral function develops a square root singularity at low frequencies for wave vectors positioned on the bare Fermi surface. We predict a temperature dependence of the arc length that can partially account for the results of recent angle resolved photoemission experiments.     

Rhenium(VII) oxide catalyzed heteroacylative ring-opening dimerization of tetrahydrofuran

Re(2)O(7), which is known primarily as a strong oxidant, was found to be a highly selective Lewis acid catalyst that affects the heteroacylative dimerization of THF at room temperature. This multicomponent reaction, which involves THF, trifluoroacetic anhydride (TFAA), and a carboxylic acid, produces a nonsymmetrical diester, RCO(2)(CH(2))(4)O(CH(2))(4)OCOCF(3), in high yields. The reaction is quite general with respect to the carboxylic acid but is highly selective for unsubstituted THF in preference to other cyclic ethers. It is also highly selective for TFAA in preference to other anhydrides. Isotope labeling experiments indicate that two of the five oxygen atoms in the product originate from THF; one comes from rhenium oxide, and the two carbonyl oxygens originate from the carboxylic acid and from TFAA. The catalytic cycle, which is proposed on the basis of these experiments, involves a multistep sequence of nucleophilic attacks, starting with an attack of a rhenium oxo ligand on a coordinated THF, then attack of the resultant alkoxide ligand on a second coordinated THF, nucleophilic addition of the resultant alkoxide ligand to the coordinated carboxylic acid (an intramolecular metal-oxygen bond metathesis), and, finally, electrophilic cleavage of the other coordinated alkoxide by TFAA to produce the nonsymmetrical diester. This synthetically useful reaction highlights the unique, frequently avoided Lewis acidity of transition-metal oxides.     

Stability of noble-gas hydrocarbons in an organic liquid-like environment: HXeCCH in acetylene

Noble-gas hydrides such as HXeCCH are prepared in cryogenic noble-gas matrices where they are stable. Molecular dynamics simulations reported here predict that HXeCCH is chemically stable in clusters of acetylene, and that stability prevails for temperatures of at least 150 K, at which the clusters are liquid-like. The HXeCCH(C(2)H(2))(n) clusters are studied for sizes up to n = 7. Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics trajectories of 10 ps duration are computed using BLYP-D DFT potential. The liquid-like nature of the system at 150 K is reflected in large amplitude motion of intermolecular distances and orientations. In addition, structures, energetics, NBO charges and bonding analysis at equilibrium are also reported. Complexation is found to be energetically favorable, and to increase the stability of the HXeCCH molecule. The significance of the existence of stable liquid-like complexes of noble-gas hydrides is discussed.     

Communication: The phoretic drift of a charged particle animated by a direct ionic current

A charged colloidal particle which is suspended in an electrolyte solution drifts due to an external voltage application. For direct currents, particle motion is affected by two separate mechanisms: electro-osmotic slip associated with the electric field and chemi-osmotic slip associated with the inherent salt concentration gradient in the solution. These two mechanisms are interrelated and are of comparable magnitude. Their combined effect is demonstrated for cation-exchange electrodes using a weak-current approximation. The linkage between the two mechanisms results in an effectively modified mobility, whose dependence on the particle zeta potential is nonlinear. At small potentials, the electro-osmotic mechanism dominates and the particle migrates according to the familiar Smoluchowski mobility, linear in the electric field. At large zeta potentials, chemiosmosis becomes dominant: for positively charged particles, it tends to arrest motion, leading to mobility saturation; for negatively charged particles, it enhances the drift, effectively leading to a shifted linear dependence of the mobility on the zeta potential, with twice the Smoluchowski slope.     

Elementary building blocks of self-assembled peptide nanotubes

In the world of biology, "self-assembly" is the ability of biological entities to interact with one another to form supramolecular structures. One basic group of self-assembled structures is peptide nanotubes (PNTs). However, the self-assembly mechanism, with its special characteristics, is not yet fully understood. An exceptional quantum-confined approach is shown here for the self-assembly mechanism in bio-inspired materials. We found the elementary building block of the studied PNT, which is self-assembled from short peptides composed of two phenylalanine residues, to be 0D-quantum-confined (can be related to confinement in 3D), also called a quantum dot (QD). This elementary building block can further self-assemble to a PNT formation. It has been observed that the assembly process of dots to tubes and the disassembly process of tubes to dots are reversible. We further show that a similar dipeptide can also self-assemble to a QD-like structure, with different dimensions. The presented peptide QD structures are nanometer-sized structures, with pronounced exciton effects, which may promote the use of an entirely new kind of organic QDs.