An Air‐Stable Na3SbS4 Superionic Conductor Prepared by a Rapid and Economic Synthetic Procedure

All‐solid‐state sodium batteries, using solid electrolyte and abundant sodium resources, show great promise for safe, low‐cost, and large‐scale energy storage applications. The exploration of novel solid electrolytes is critical for the room temperature operation of all‐solid‐state Na batteries. An ideal solid electrolyte must have high ionic conductivity, hold outstanding chemical and electrochemical stability, and employ low‐cost synthetic methods. Achieving the combination of these properties is a grand challenge for the synthesis of sulfide‐based solid electrolytes. Design of the solid electrolyte Na₃SbS₄ is described, realizing excellent air stability and an economic synthesis based on hard and soft acid and base (HSAB) theory. This new solid electrolyte also exhibits a remarkably high ionic conductivity of 1 mS cm^?1 at 25 °C and ideal compatibility with a metallic sodium anode.     

Functional Convergence of Linear Processes with Heavy-Tailed Innovations

We study convergence in law of partial sums of linear processes with heavy-tailed innovations. In the case of summable coefficients, necessary and sufficient conditions for the finite dimensional convergence to an \(\alpha \)-stable Lévy Motion are given. The conditions lead to new, tractable sufficient conditions in the case \(\alpha \le 1\). In the functional setting, we complement the existing results on \(M_1\)-convergence, obtained for linear processes with nonnegative coefficients by Avram and Taqqu (Ann Probab 20:483–503, 1992) and improved by Louhichi and Rio (Electr J Probab 16(89), 2011), by proving that in the general setting partial sums of linear processes are convergent on the Skorokhod space equipped with the \(S\) topology, introduced by Jakubowski (Electr J Probab 2(4), 1997).     

Interaction of pyromellitic diimide derivatives with beta-cyclodextrin and anthracene-appended beta-cyclodextrin: rim binding vs inclusion complexation

Complex formation of pyromellitic diimide derivatives with beta-cyclodextrin and anthracene-appended beta-cyclodextrin was studied with use of induced circular dichroism and 1H NMR spectroscopies. It is revealed that pyromellitic diimides form rim-binding type complexes with beta-CD and in these complexes the pyromellitic diimides lie just outside of the narrow rim of the CD. With anthracene-appended beta-CD the pyromellitic diimides form true inclusion complexes. Implications of the formation of rim-binding type complexes are also discussed.     

Application of Emissive Probes for Plasma Potential Measurements in Fusion Devices

In experimental fusion devices, up to now, only cold probes were used to determine the plasma potential in the s crape‐ o ff l ayer (SOL), and their floating potential was assumed to be proportional to the plasma potential. However, drifting electrons or beams shift the current‐voltage characteristic of a cold probe by a voltage, which corresponds to the mean kinetic energy of the drifting electrons. This problem can be avoided by the use of electron emissive probes, since an electron emission current is independent of electron drifts in the surrounding plasma. In addition emissive probes are insensitive to electron temperature fluctuations in the plasma. We have used an arrangement of three emissive probes in the edge plasma region of ISTTOK (Instituto Superior Técnico tokamak) at Lisbon. The probes have been mounted in such a way that the tips are positioned on the same poloidal meridian but on different minor radii in the SOL. With this arrangement, the plasma potential has been measured in the edge region of the ISTTOK, and first results are presented in this contribution.     

Synthesis of novel indole based cyclophanes and cylindrical cyclophanes by tandem alkylation methodology using NaH

Treatment of 1 equiv of 1,3-bis(bromomethyl)benzene and 2,6-bis(bromomethyl)pyridine with 1 equiv of indole in the presence of NaH in THF afforded the symmetrical cyclophanes 1 and 2. Using similar methodology, cylindrical cyclophanes 3 and 4 were obtained from 2 equiv of 1,3,5-trimethyl-2,4,6-tris(bromomethyl)benzene and 1,3,5-tris(bromomethyl)benzene with 3 equiv of indole.     

A highly regioselective synthesis of 1‐n‐methyl‐spiro‐[2,3′“]‐oxindole‐spiro‐[3,2”]indane‐1“, 3”‐dione‐4‐arylpyrrolidines through 1,3‐dipolar cycloaddition protocol

2‐Arylidene‐1,3‐indanediones undergo a regioselective 1,3‐dipolar cycloaddition reaction with the azomethine ylide derived from isatin and sarcosine by decarboxylative route affording a series of 1‐N‐methyl — spiro[2.3′“]oxindole‐spiro[3.2”]indane‐1“,3”‐diones‐4‐aryl pyrrolidines. The structures were established by spectroscopic techniques as well as single crystal X‐ray analysis. Density functional theory at B3L YP/6‐31G^* and the semi empirical AM₁ calculations were employed to rationalize the observed results. The experimental regioselectivity of 1,3‐dipolar cycloadditions could be corroborated nicely with the computed Fukui frontier orbital energies and reaction energies.     

The effect of an atomically deposited layer of alumina on NiO in P-type dye-sensitized solar cells

We present a systematic investigation of the fundamental effects of an atomically deposited alumina (AlO(x)H(y)) onto the NiO films in p-type dye-sensitized solar cells (p-DSCs). With P1 as the sensitizing dye and 0.1 M I(2) and 1.0 M LiI in 3-methoxypropionitrile as the electrolyte, one atomic layer deposition (ALD) cycle of alumina was used to achieve a 74% increase in the overall conversion efficiency of a NiO-based DSC. The open circuit voltage of the cells increased from 0.11 to 0.15 V, and the short circuit current density increased from 0.83 to 0.95 mA/cm(2). Adsorption isotherm studies were performed to show that the amount of dye adsorbed on the NiO-alumina film is slightly lower than the amount adsorbed on the nontreated NiO film. The increased J(sc) was therefore assigned to the increased efficiency of carrier collection at the semiconductor-FTO interface. Our study of the photocurrent onset potentials of NiO and NiO-alumina films with the chopped light measurement technique showed no definitive difference in the onset potential values. However, the DSCs based on NiO-alumina showed a higher recombination resistance value from the electrochemical impedance studies and a higher diode ideality factor from the V(oc) versus ln(light intensity) plots as compared to the DSCs based on untreated NiO. It has thus been established that the increase in V(oc) upon alumina treatment arises due to a higher resistance for electron-hole recombination across NiO surface locally.     

Biotinylated chitosan-based SPIONs with potential in blood-contacting applications

Haemocompatible biotinylated superparamagnetic nanoparticles (size range 300–700 nm) have been obtained by coating magnetite through ionic gelation with a mixture of chitosan and sodium tripolyphosphate, followed by subsequent functionalisation with biotin. The evaluations of their magnetic properties together with haemocompatibility tests have shown that these nanoparticles exhibit the prerequisite behaviour for use in magnetic field–assisted separations within biological systems.     

Unusual room temperature CO(2) uptake in a fluoro-functionalized MOF: insight from Raman spectroscopy and theoretical studies

We herein report an unusual CO(2) adsorption behavior in a fluoro-functionalized MOF {[Zn(SiF(6))(pyz)(2)]·2MeOH}(n) (1) with a 1D channel system, which is made up of pyrazine and SiF(6)(2-) moieties. Surprisingly, desolvated 1 (1') adsorbs higher amounts of CO(2) at 298 K than at 195 K, which is in contrast to the usual trend. Combined Raman spectroscopic and theoretical studies reveal that slanted pyrazine rings in 1' with an angle of 17.2° with respect to the (200) Zn(ii)-Si plane at low temperature block the channel windows and thus reduce the uptake amount.