Ag nanoparticles deposited onto silica,titania, and zirconia mesoporous films synthesized by sol–gel template method

A variety of Ag nanoparticles/oxide mesoporous films with templated silica, titania, and zirconia was synthesized by sol–gel method at glass, aluminum, and silicon substrates using metal alkoxides (tetraethoxysilane, titanium tetraisopropoxide, and zirconium tetrapropoxide) and AgNO₃ as precursors of oxide films and Ag nanoparticles, respectively, and Pluronic P123 as a template agent. Oxide films alone and Ag/oxide composites were characterized using hexane adsorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman and ultraviolet (UV)/vis spectroscopies, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) methods. The distribution of Ag nanoparticles within the films, their sizes, intensity, and position of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) absorbance band at λ = 400 nm, as well as the textural and structural characteristics of whole films depend on treatment temperature, types of substrates and oxide matrices, oxide crystallization, and Ag content. Ag nanoparticles form preferably on the outer surface of the films under lower sintering temperatures if the amount of loaded silver is low. Oxide crystallization (e.g., TiO₂) promotes silver embedding into the outer film layer. At higher silver content (≥10 at.%) and higher calcination temperature (873 K), silver nanoparticles could be entrapped more uniformly along the film profile because of more intensive evaporation of silver droplets from the outer surface of the films on heating.     

Optical activity of semiconductor nanocrystals with ionic impurities

The strength of the enantioselective interaction of chiral semiconductor nanocrystals with circularly polarized light can be varied over a wide range, which finds a series of important applications in modern nanophotonics. As a rule, this interaction is relatively weak, because the dimension of nanocrystals is much smaller than the wavelength of the optical radiation, and the optical activity of nanocrystals is rather low. In this work, we show theoretically that, by applying ion doping, one can significantly enhance the optical activity of nanocrystals and to vary its magnitude over a wide range of values and over a wide range of frequencies. We show that, by precisely arranging impurities inside nanocrystals, one can optimize the rotatory strengths of intraband transitions, making them 100 times stronger than typical rotatory strengths of small chiral molecules.     

Rubbery copolymer electrolytes containing polymerized ionic liquid for dye-sensitized solar cells

A novel type of random copolymer comprised of a polymerized ionic liquid, poly(1-((4-ethenylphenyl)methyl)-3-butyl-imidazolium iodide) (PEBII), and amorphous rubbery poly(oxyethylene methacrylate) (POEM) was synthesized and employed as a solid electrolyte in an I₂-free dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). The copolymer electrolytes deeply infiltrated into the nanopores of mesoporous TiO2 films, resulting in improved interfacial contact of electrode/electrolyte. The glass transition temperature (T _g) of the PEBII–POEM (?23 °C) was lower than that of PEBII homopolymer (?4 °C), indicating greater chain flexibility in the former. However, the DSSC efficiency of PEBII–POEM (4.5 % at 100 mW/cm²) was lower than that of PEBII (5.9 %), indicating that ion concentration is more important than chain flexibility. Interestingly, upon the introduction of ionic liquid, i.e., 1-methyl-3 propylimidazolium iodide, the efficiency of PEBII remained almost constant (5.8 %), whereas that of PEBII–POEM was significantly improved up to 7.0 % due to increased I^? ion concentration, which is one of the highest values for I₂-free DSSCs.     

Magnetically-actuated blood filter unit attachable to pre-made biochips

We present a novel blood filter unit that is designed to separate blood plasma from whole blood by simple magnetic actuation. A non-diluted blood sample is dropped into the filter unit and magnetic attraction is applied to squeeze out only blood plasma while blood particles are filtered by membranes stacked in the filter unit. The new filter device yields good filtering performance with nearly perfect filtering efficiency (～99.999%), high plasma recovery (～30%), low blood consumption (<50 μl), and fast operation (～1 min). Because it is simple to operate and is attachable to any kind of pre-made biochip, it has commercial potential in various lab-on-a-chip applications for blood tests.     

Infrared laser ablation sample transfer for on‐line liquid chromatography electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

We have demonstrated an on‐line laser ablation sampling system and coupling of the system to liquid chromatography (LC) using an infrared (IR) laser to ablate and transfer materials into a flowing solvent stream. With this approach, samples are deposited on a microscope slide mounted on a translation stage and ablated in transmission geometry using a pulsed mid‐IR laser. The ablated material is captured in an exposed flowing solvent stream that carries the ablated material to the electrospray source. Post‐ablation separation is accomplished using a capillary column downstream of the capture zone. The performance of the system was assessed using peptide and protein mixtures ablated from the target and analyzed with and without LC separation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Prediction of normal stresses under large amplitude oscillatory shear flow

The dynamic response of viscoelastic fluids under large amplitude oscillatory shear (LAOS) has been a subject of long history. In the LAOS flow, the analysis has been mostly focused on shear stress, possibly due to the lack of accurate measurement of normal stress. However, the normal stress may become larger than shear stress at high-strain amplitudes, and thus it is important that we have a good understanding of the normal stress behavior. Furthermore, with the advancement in the instrumentation, it has become possible to get more reliable data. The purpose of this paper is to develop a research platform to analyze and to understand the normal stress behavior of complex fluids under LAOS flow. In this study, we utilized the Giesekus model as a representative constitutive model, and investigated its diverse responses. We defined the dynamic properties corresponding to normal stress, in a similar way to define dynamic moduli from shear stress, and examine their behavior with various analyzing tools. Experimental data were also compared with model predictions. Despite the fact that it is not yet possible to compare all of the predictions because of instrumental limitation, the prediction has been found to fit well with the experimental data. This study is expected to provide a useful framework for further understanding the nonlinear behavior of complex fluids at large deformation.     

欧式复合期权的定价公式

本文根据风险中性定价原理,用较简单的数学方法推导出了股票欧式复合期权的定价公式。该公式和求解B lack-Scho les微分方程所得结果一致。     

三维荧光与紫外光谱联合表征样品中猝灭剂赋存状态:以胡敏酸与Fe(Ⅲ)相互作用为例

利用三维荧光-紫外光谱表征了荧光猝灭剂的赋存状态,当样品体系中存在Fe(Ⅲ)的情况下,胡敏酸会发生荧光猝灭现象,而其紫外光谱基本不受影响。考察了胡敏酸荧光强度I值(Ex/Em=300 nm/510nm)和紫外吸光度A值(UV300)的变化,I/A比值越小,说明水样中猝灭剂Fe(Ⅲ)浓度越高。当胡敏酸为10,15和20 mg·L~(-1)时,根据Stern-Volmer公式I/I_0=1-f_c×K_c×[c]/(1+K_c×[c])以及拟合函数I/A=f×[k/(CFe~(3+)+c)+b],拟合得到荧光猝灭常数K_c=1.08~1.15,比例系数f_c=1.10~1.14之间,胡敏酸荧光强度值与吸光度比值(I/A)及铁离子浓度(C_(Fe~(3+))相关曲线系数f=0.83~1.19,k=587.19~612.19,c=0.87~0.92,b=-87.09~-46.36,拟合曲线相关性R~2均为0.99。Stern-Volmer公式描述了Fe(Ⅲ)对胡敏酸荧光的猝灭作用,但实际样品测定时难以获得无猝灭剂时的荧光强度I_0。基于荧光强度I_0与紫外吸光度A之间的内在联系,两者比值I/A与Fe(Ⅲ)浓度c的拟合函数亦可以反映Fe(Ⅲ)对胡敏酸荧光的影响。利用拟合公式预测城市污水厂及纳污河流样品的树脂分离富集液中铁离子浓度,与电感耦合等离子体发射光谱仪实际测量值相比,铁离子浓度较高的情况下(铁离子浓度大于0.4 mg·L~(-1)时)预测结果较好,可以判断猝灭剂的存在及相应浓度。     

Synthesis and properties of water-soluble derivatives of fullerene C60

Procedures for synthesized of water-soluble forms of fullerene C₆₀ and its derivatives were developed.     

Synthesis and catalytic properties of barium hexaaluminates incorporated with chromium and lanthanum

Summary Barium hexaaluminates incorporated with chromium and lanthanum (Ba_1-xLa_xCrAl₁₁O_19-a) were synthesized from aqueous metal nitrates and sulfates through the precipitation, and then followed by crystallization at 1300^oC for 2 h. They had the ability to maintain heat resistance and high conversion of CH₄in methane combustion at elevated temperature.