Tuning the Functionality of a Carbon Nanofiber-Pt-RuO(2) System from Charge Storage to Electrocatalysis

Chemical-functionalization-induced switching in the property of a hybrid system composed of a hollow carbon nanofiber (CNF) and Pt and RuO(2) nanoparticles from charge storage to electrocatalysis is presented. The results of this study show how important it is to have a clear understanding of the nature of surface functionalities in the processes involving dispersion of more than one component on various substrates including carbon nanomorphologies. When pristine CNF is used to decorate Pt and RuO(2) nanoparticles, random dispersion occurs on the CNF surface (C-PtRuO(2)). This results in mainly phase-separated nanoparticles rich in RuO(2) characteristics. In contrast to this, upon moving from the pristine CNF to those activated by a simple H(2)O(2) treatment to create oxygen-containing surface functional groups, a material rich in Pt features on the surface is obtained (F-PtRuO(2)). This is achieved because of the preferential adsorption of RuO(2) by the functionalized surface of CNF. A better affinity of the oxygen-containing functional groups on CNF toward RuO(2) mobilizes relatively faster adsorption of this moiety, leading to a well-controlled segregation of Pt nanoparticles toward the surface. Further reorganization of Pt nanoparticles leads to the formation of a Pt nanosheet structure on the surface. The electrochemical properties of these materials are initially evaluated using cyclic voltammetric analysis. The cyclic voltammetric results indicate that C-PtRuO(2) shows a charge storage property, a typical characteristic of hydrous RuO(2), whereas F-PtRuO(2) shows an oxygen reduction property, which is the characteristic feature of Pt. This clear switch in the behavior from charge storage to electrocatalysis is further confirmed by galvanostatic charge-discharge and rotating-disk-electrode studies.     

Light-assisted synthesis and functionalization of silver nanoparticles with thiol derivative thioxanthones: new insights into the engineering of metal/chromophore nanoassemblies

Nanofluids are suspensions of nanometer-sized particles which significantly modify the properties of the base fluids. Nanofluids exhibit attractive properties, such as high thermal conductivity, tunable surface tension, viscosity, and rheology. Various attempts have been made to understand the mechanisms for these property modifications caused by adding nanoparticles; however, due to the lack of direct nanoscale evidence, these explanations are still controversial. This work calculated the surface tension, viscosity, and rheology of gold–water nanofluids using molecular dynamics simulations which provide a microscopic interpretation for the modified properties on the molecular level. The gold–water interaction potential parameters were changed to mimic various nanoparticle types. The results show that the nanoparticle wettability is responsible for the modified surface tension. Hydrophobic nanoparticles always tend to stay on the free surface so they behave like a surfactant to reduce the surface tension. Hydrophilic nanoparticles immersed into the bulk fluid impose strong attractive forces on the water molecules at the free surface which reduces the free surface thickness and increases the surface tension of the nanofluid. Solid-like absorbed water layers were observed around the nanoparticles which increase the equivalent nanoparticle radius and reduce the mobility of the nanoparticles within the base fluid which increases the nanofluid viscosity. The results show the water molecule solidification between two or many nanoparticles at high nanoparticle loadings, but the solidification effect is suppressed for shear rates greater than a critical shear rate; thus Newtonian nanofluids can present shear-thinning non-Newtonian behavior.     

One-dimensional confinement of a nanosized metal organic framework in carbon nanofibers for improved gas adsorption

The loading of a Zn-terephthalate based MOF in the inner cavity as well as on the outer walls of a hollow carbon nanofiber (CNF) creates MOF@CNF hybrids. This hybrid 'MOF@CNF' displayed improved thermal stability as well as gas adsorption compared to the individual counterparts.     

Neutral additives enhance the metal-chelate affinity adsorption of nucleic acids: role of water activity

Immobilized metal-chelate affinity chromatography has been widely used in the purification of proteins, and we have recently found that it can also be applied to purification of nucleic acids through interactions involving exposed bases, especially purines. Here we report that the inclusion of moderate quantities of neutral solutes in the buffer substantially enhances the binding affinity of nucleic acids for immobilized metal-chelate affinity adsorbents. Addition of 20% (v/v) of solutes such as ethanol, methanol, isopropanol, n-propanol, and dimethyl sulfoxide enhances the initial affinity of binding of total yeast RNA by 4.4-, 3.8-, 3.7-, 3.0-, and 2.8-fold, respectively for Cu(II)-iminodiacetic acid (IDA) agarose adsorbent, and the weaker adsorption by Cu(II)-nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) agarose was even more strongly enhanced. The adsorption affinities of the smaller oligodeoxynucleotide molecules A20, G20, C20 and T20 also increase with the addition of ethanol, suggesting that the effect is not significantly mediated by conformational changes. Binding enhancement generally correlates with reduction of water activity by the various solutes, as predicted by several models of solution thermodynamics, consistent with an entropic contribution by displacement of waters from the metal-chelate. Interestingly, the enhancement was not seen with the proteins bovine serum albumin and lysozyme.     

Synthesis, complexation studies and biological applications of some novel stilbenophanes, indolophanes and bisindolostilbenophanes via McMurry coupling

Various types of stilbenophanes, indolophanes and bisindolostilbenophanes were synthesized by intra-, inter- and tandem intra-, intermolecular McMurry coupling. Some of the indolophanes and bisindolostilbenophanes exhibited significant activity against the growth of various bacteria. Complexation of some of the cyclophanes with TCNQ has also been studied.     

Distinguished geodesics and jacobi fields on first order jet spaces

In the framework of jet spaces endowed with a non-linear connection, the special curves of these spaces (h-paths, v-paths, stationary curves and geodesics) which extend the corresponding notions from Riemannian geometry are characterized. The main geometric objects and the paths are described and, in the case when the vertical metric is independent of fiber coordinates, the first two variations of energy and the extended Jacobi field equations are derived.     

Paclitaxel-Loaded Magnetic Nanoparticles Based on Biotinylated N-Palmitoyl Chitosan: Synthesis,Characterization and Preliminary In Vitro Studies

A considerable interest in cancer research is represented by the development of magnetic nanoparticles based on biofunctionalized polymers for controlled-release systems of hydrophobic chemotherapeutic drugs targeted only to the tumor sites, without affecting normal cells. The objective of the paper is to present the synthesis and in vitro evaluation of the nanocomposites that include a magnetic core able to direct the systems to the target, a polymeric surface shell that provides stabilization and multi-functionality, a chemotherapeutic agent, Paclitaxel (PTX), and a biotin tumor recognition layer. To our best knowledge, there are no studies concerning development of magnetic nanoparticles obtained by partial oxidation, based on biotinylated N-palmitoyl chitosan loaded with PTX. The structure, external morphology, size distribution, colloidal and magnetic properties analyses confirmed the formation of well-defined crystalline magnetite conjugates, with broad distribution, relatively high saturation magnetization and irregular shape. Even if the ability of the nanoparticles to release the drug in 72 h was demonstrated, further complex in vitro and in vivo studies will be performed in order to validate the magnetic nanoparticles as PTX delivery system.     

Synthesis of nanoscale antimony particles

For the search of new negative electrodes of Li-ion batteries, a low-temperature method has been developed for the preparation of nanoscale antimony particles which uses an alkoxide-activated sodium hydride as reducing agent of antimony pentachloride. X-ray diffraction and TEM studies confirm the obtaining of amorphous Sb nanoparticles dispersed in an organic matrix. ¹²¹Sb Mössbauer spectroscopy gives evidence for the occurrence of interactions between antimony and the matrix. These interactions are modified by the washing treatments.     

On signal reconstruction without phase

We will construct new classes of Parseval frames for a Hilbert space which allow signal reconstruction from the absolute value of the frame coefficients. As a consequence, signal reconstruction can be done without using phase or its estimation. This verifies a longstanding conjecture of the speech processing community.     

Stability theorems for Fourier frames and wavelet Riesz bases

In this paper we present two applications of a Stability Theorem of Hilbert frames to nonharmonic Fourier series and wavelet Riesz basis. The first result is an enhancement of the Paley-Wiener type constant for nonharmonic series given by Duffin and Schaefer in [6] and used recently in some applications (see [3]). In the case of an orthonormal basis, our estimate reduces to Kadec’ optimal 1/4 result. The second application proves that a phenomenon discovered by Daubechies and Tchamitchian [4] for the orthonormal Meyer wavelet basis (stability of the Riesz basis property under small changes of the translation parameter) actually holds for a large class of wavelet Riesz bases.