Physical Characterization of Blends Based on Liquid Crystalline Polyesters and Amorphous Polymers

In this work the effect of the inclusion of low percentages of theliquid crystal polymer PET/PHBGO on the rheological and mechanical behaviour of Polycarbonate is described.     

WS2/MoS2 Heterostructures through Thermal Treatment of MoS2 Layers Electrostatically Functionalized with W3S4 Molecular Clusters

The preparation of 2D stacked layers combining flakes of different nature gives rise to countless numbers of heterostructures where new band alignments, defined at the interfaces, control the electronic properties of the system. Among the large family of 2D/2D heterostructures, the one formed by the combination of the most common semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides, WS₂/MoS₂, has awakened great interest owing to its photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical properties. Solution as well as dry physical methods have been developed to optimize the synthesis of these heterostructures. Here, a suspension of negatively charged MoS₂ flakes is mixed with a methanolic solution of a cationic W₃S₄-core cluster, giving rise to a homogeneous distribution of the clusters over the layers. In a second step, a calcination of this molecular/2D heterostructure under N₂ leads to the formation of clean WS₂/MoS₂ heterostructures, where the photoluminescence of both counterparts is quenched, proving an efficient interlayer coupling. Thus, this chemical method combines the advantages of a solution approach (simple, scalable, and low-cost) with the good quality interfaces reached by using more complicated traditional physical methods.     

Rocking bidirectional lasers

We study the emission properties of a class A bidirectional laser under the action of an amplitude modulated injected signal, i.e. a rocked bidirectional laser. We derive two coupled autonomous amplitude equations valid close to the emission threshold and study their solutions. The most relevant result is that while in the absence of rocking the laser can only emit in either of the two unidirectional solutions, under suitable rocking conditions cw bidirectional emission appears and, moreover, it coexist bistably with unidirectional emission.     

Patterning of magnetic bimetallic coordination nanoparticles of Prussian blue derivatives by the Langmuir-Blodgett technique

We report a novel method to prepare patterns of nanoparticles over large areas of the substrate. This method is based on the adsorption of the negatively charged nanoparticles dispersed in an aqueous subphase onto a monolayer of the phospholipid dipalmitoyl-l-α-phosphatidylcholine (DPPC) at the air-water interface. It has been used to prepare patterns of nanoparticles of Prussian blue analogues (PBA) of different size (K(0.25)Ni[Fe(CN)(6)](0.75) (NiFe), K(0.25)Ni[Cr(CN)(6)](0.75) (NiCr), K(0.25)Ni[Co(CN)(6)](0.75) (NiCo), Cs(0.4)Co[Cr(CN)(6)](0.8) (CsCoCr), and Cs(0.4)Co[Fe(CN)(6)](0.9) (CsCoFe)). The behavior of DPPC monolayer at the air-water interface in the presence of the subphase of PBA nanoparticles has been studied by the compression isotherms and Brewster angle microscopy (BAM) images. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) of the transferred films on mica substrates shows that patterns of the nanoparticles are observed for a 10(-4) M concentration of the subphase, based on the nanoparticle precursors, at surface pressures between 1 and 6 mN/m and transfer velocities from 10 to 80 mm/min. Vertical, horizontal, or tilted fringes of the nanoparticles with respect to the transfer direction can be obtained depending on the transfer velocity and surface pressure.     

Proof of a McKean conjecture on the rate of convergence of Boltzmann-equation solutions

The present work provides a definitive answer to the problem of quantifying relaxation to equilibrium of the solution to the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation for Maxwellian molecules. Under really mild conditions on the initial datum and a weak, physically consistent, angular cutoff hypothesis, our main result (Theorem 1) contains the first precise statement that the total variation distance between the solution and the limiting Maxwellian distribution admits an upper bound of the form \(C e^{\varLambda _b t}\) , \(\varLambda _b\) being the least negative eigenvalue of the linearized collision operator and \(C\) a constant depending only on the initial datum. The validity of this quantification was conjectured, about fifty years ago, by Henry P. McKean. As to the proof of our results, we have taken as point of reference an analogy between the problem of convergence to equilibrium and the central limit theorem of probability theory, highlighted by McKean.     

Democracy functions and optimal embeddings for approximation spaces

We prove optimal embeddings for nonlinear approximation spaces $\mathcal{A}^{\alpha}_q$ , in terms of weighted Lorentz sequence spaces, with the weights depending on the democracy functions of the basis. As applications we recover known embeddings for N-term wavelet approximation in L ^p , Orlicz, and Lorentz norms. We also study the ??greedy classes?? ${\mathcal{G}_{q}^{\alpha}}$ introduced by Gribonval and Nielsen, obtaining new counterexamples which show that ${\mathcal{G}_{q}^{\alpha}}\not=\mathcal{A}^{\alpha}_q$ for most non-democratic unconditional bases.     

End-to-End Thiocyanato-Bridged Helical Chain Polymer and Dichlorido-Bridged Copper(II) Complexes with a Hydrazone Ligand: Synthesis,Characterisation by Electron Paramagnetic Resonance and Variable-Temperature Magnetic Studies,and Inhibitory Effects on Human Colorectal Carcinoma Cells

The reactions of the tridentate hydrazone ligand, N′-[1-(pyridin-2-yl)ethylidene]acetohydrazide (HL), obtained by condensation of 2-acetylpyridine with acetic hyadrazide, with copper nitrate trihydrate in the presence of thiocyanate, or with CuCl₂ produce two distinct coordination compounds, namely a one-dimensional helical coordination chain of [CuL(NCS)]_n (1) units, and a doubly chlorido-bridged dinuclear complex [Cu₂L₂Cl₂] (2) (where L=CH₃C(O)=N–N=CCH₃C₅H₄N). Single-crystal X-ray structural determination studies reveal that in complex 1, a deprotonated hydrazone ligand L⁻ coordinates a copper(II) ion that is bridged to two neighbouring metal centres by SCN⁻ anions, generating a one-dimensional helical coordination chain. In complex 2, two symmetry-related, adjacent copper(II) coordination entities are doubly chlorido-bridged, producing a dicopper entity with a Cu⋅⋅⋅Cu distance of 3.402 (1) Å. The two coordination compounds have been fully characterised by elemental analysis, spectroscopic techniques including IR, UV–vis and electron paramagnetic resonance, and variable-temperature magnetic studies. The biological effects of 1 and 2 on the viability of human colorectal carcinoma cells (COLO-205 and HT-29) were evaluated using an MTT assay, and the results indicate that these complexes induce a decrease in cell-population growth of human colorectal carcinoma cells with apoptosis.     

Micro-X-Ray Fluorescence and the Old Masters Non-destructive in situ characterisation of the varnish of historical Low Countries stringed musical instruments

In recent years, a growing attention has been addressed to the study of the varnish from early musical instruments. The surfaces of nine historical Low Countries stringed musical instruments from the collection of the “Musical Instruments Museum” in Brussels were non-destructively analysed by in situ micro-X-Ray Fluorescence spectroscopy in dispersive mode. It was found that the main pigments dispersed in the varnish were iron- and manganese-based earths. The presence of a chromium-based pigment in one of the analysed instruments makes it appreciably different from the others. Other findings were discussed and compared with previously published results. The collection of such information plays a relevant role in the recovery of the applied formulations that is an interesting issue for conservators, luthiers and art historians.