Optical behavior of antibiofouling additives in environment‐friendly coverglass materials for bio‐sensors and solar panels

Solar panels and bio‐optical sensors play a significant and growing role in a number of applications that are of importance to many organizations. Many of these instruments require a high transmission of radiation into the device for it to work properly. A major issue faced is that harsh marine environments often aid in the growth or development of fouling on the coverglass used to protect the instruments. Over a period of time in an ocean environment, some plant or animal may attach itself to the coverglass, ultimately obscuring the glass and rendering the instrument useless. As such, an antifouling mechanism is needed for these instruments that is inexpensive, long‐lasting, and environment friendly. The approach discussed herein involves the use of known antifouling chemicals which have been incorporated into the polymer matrix. Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), bisphenol A polycarbonate (Bis A PC), and a co‐polyterephthalate (CPTE) were examined. The plaques are optically transparent and previous work has shown that, for most samples, the materials display a minimal decrease in mechanical behavior upon the addition of the algaecides. This paper will discuss the effects on the materials' optical properties when exposed to both harsh marine conditions as well as high intensity UV light. Specifically, the decrease in transmission of visible light was examined over a 6 month period of time. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Microbore liquid chromatography and refractive index gradient detection of low-nanogram and low-ppm quantities of carbohydrates

A refractive index gradient detector is presented as a universal detector in the microbore high-performance liquid chromatography analysis of carbohydrates. Simultaneously, low-ng and low-ppm injected quantities of carbohydrates were detected at the 3 x root-mean-square baseline noise level. A typical microbore high-performance liquid chromatography chromatogram separating fructose from sucrose followed by refractive index gradient (RIG) detection is reported. Use of a position sensitive detector (PSD) in the RIG detector design is reported and experimental considerations discussed. Optimization of the PSD-based RIG detector is addressed. Potential for the device in industrial and clinical applications is considered.     

Two-color particle-imaging velocimetry using a single argon-ion laser

A swept-beam, two-color particle-imaging velocimetry (PIV) technique has been developed which utilizes a single argon-ion laser for illuminating the seed particles in a flowfield. In previous two-color PIV techniques two pulsed lasers were employed as the different-color light sources. In the present experiment the particles in a two-dimensional shear-layer flow were illuminated using arotating mirror to sweep the 488.0-nm (blue) and 514·5-nm (green) lines of the argon-ion laser through a test section. The blue- and greenparticle positions were recorded on color film with a 35-mm camera. The unique color coding eliminates the directional ambiguities associated with single-color techniques because the order in which the particle images are produced is known. Analysis of these two-color PIV images involved digitizing the exposed film to obtain the blue and green-particle image fields and processing the digitized images with velocity-displacement software. Argon-ion lasers are available in many laboratories; with the addition of a rotating mirror and a few optical components, it is possible to conduct flow-visualization experiments and make quantitative velocity measurements in many flow facilities.List of symbols d length of displacement vector - d _m distance between rotating mirror and concave mirror - n _f number of facets on rotating mirror - R seed-particle radius - v velocity in x, y plane - v _s sweep velocity of laser beams, assumed to be in y direction from top to bottom of field of view - v _x, v _y, v _z x, y, and z components of velocity - x ₁, y ₁ color-1 particle coordinates - x ₂, y ₂ color-2 particle coordinates - y _max y dimension of field of view, assumed to be the long dimension - s spatial separation of beams as they approach rotating mirror - t time separation of laser sheets or of swept beams passing fixed point - t _b time between successive sweeps through test section by same beam - t _s time required for both beams to sweep through test section - angular separation of beams reflecting from rotating mirror - fluid viscosity - v angular velocity of rotating mirror in cycles per second - seed-particle density - seed-particle response time - _v, _d, _t standard deviation of velocity, displacement, and time - vorticity This work was supported, in part, by the Aero Propulsion and Power Directorate of Wright Laboratory under Contract No. F33615-90-C-2033.     

Direct observation of spin-forbidden formation of O(D) in the near-UV photolysis of ozone

Time-of-flight measurements have been made of the O(¹D) fragment following the photolysis of ozone in the near-UV. At 321.9 nm fragments are seen with kinetic energies the values of which are those expected from spin-forbidden dissociation with ground state O₂(X³Σ_g⁻) molecules as the co-product. Spin-allowed dissociation of internally excited ozone molecules is also seen to produce translationally cold O(¹D) and O₂(a¹Δ_g) products. The implications for the dissociation of tropospheric ozone are briefly discussed.     

Synthesis of silicon doped SrMO3 (M = Mn, Co): stabilization of the cubic perovskite and enhancement in conductivity

In this paper we report the successful incorporation of silicon into SrMO(3) (M = Co, Mn) leading to a structural change from a hexagonal to a cubic perovskite. For M = Co, the cubic phase was observed for low doping levels (3%), and these doped phases showed very high conductivities (up to ≈350 Scm(-1) at room temperature). However, annealing studies at intermediate temperatures (700-800 °C), indicated that the cubic phase was metastable with a gradual transformation to a hexagonal cell on annealing. Further work showed that co-doping with Fe resulted in improved stability of the cubic phase; a composition SrCo(0.85)Fe(0.1)Si(0.05)O(3-y) displayed good stability at intermediate temperatures and a high conductivity (≈150 Scm(-1) at room temperature). For M = Mn, the work showed that higher substitution levels were required to form the cubic perovskite (≈15% Si doping), although in these cases the phases were shown to be stable to annealing at intermediate temperatures. Conductivity measurements again showed an enhancement in the conductivity on Si doping, although the conductivities were lower (≈0.3-14 Scm(-1) in the range 20-800 °C) than the cobalt containing systems. The conductivities of both systems suggest potential for use as cathode materials in solid oxide fuel cells.     

Unusual metal ion selectivities of the highly preorganized tetradentrate ligand 1,10-phenanthroline-2,9-dicarboxamide: a thermodynamic and fluorescence study

Some metal ion complexing properties of the ligand PDAM (1,10-phenanthroline-2,9-dicarboxamide) in aqueous solution are reported. Using UV-visible spectroscopy to follow the intense π-π* transitions of PDAM as a function of metal ion concentration, log K(1) values in 0.1 M NaClO(4) and at 25 °C are, for Cu(II), 3.56(5); Ni(II), 3.06(5); Zn(II), 3.77(5); Co(II), 3.8(1); Mg(II), 0.1(1); Ca(II), 1.94(4); and Ba(II), 0.7(1). For more strongly bound metal ions, competition reactions between PDAM and EDTA (ethylenedinitrilo-tetraacetic acid) or tetren (1,4,7,10,13-pentaazatridecane), monitored following the UV spectrum of PDAM, gave the following log K(1) values in 0.1 M NaClO(4) and at 25 °C: Cd(II), 7.1(1); Pb(II), 5.82(5); In(III), 9.4(1); and Bi(III), 9.4(1). The very low log K(1)(PDAM) values for small metal ions such as Cu(II) or Zn(II) are unprecedented for a phen-based ligand (phen = 1,10-phenanthroline), which is rationalized in terms of the low basicity of the N donors of the ligand (pK(a) = 0.6) and the fact that PDAM has a best-fit size corresponding to large metal ions of ionic radius ~1.0 ?. Large metal ions with ionic radius ≥1.0 ? show large increases in log K(1) relative to their phen complexes, which in turn produces unparalleled selectivities, such as a 3.5 log units greater log K(1)(PDAM) for Cd(II) than for Cu(II). PDAM shows strong fluorescence in aqueous solution, suggesting that its carboxamide groups do not produce a fluorescence-quenching photon-induced electron transfer (PET) effect. Only Ca(II) produces a weak CHEF (chelation enhanced fluorescence) effect with PDAM, while all other metal ions tested produce a decrease in fluorescence, a CHEQ (chelation enhanced quenching effect). The production of the CHEQ effect is rationalized in terms of the idea that coordination of metal ions to PDAM stabilizes a canonical form of the carboxamide groups that promotes a PET effect.     

Metal ion complexing properties of dipyridoacridine, a highly preorganized tridentate homologue of 1,10-phenanthroline

DPA (dipyrido[4,3-b;5,6-b]acridine) may be considered as a tridentate homologue of phen (1,10-phenanthroline). In this paper some of the metal ion complexing properties of DPA in aqueous solution are reported. Using UV-visible spectroscopy to follow the intense π-π* transitions of DPA as a function of pH gave protonation constants at ionic strength (μ) = 0 and 25 °C of pK(1) = 4.57(3) and pK(2) = 2.90(3). Titration of 10(-5) M solutions of DPA with a variety of metal ions gave log K(1) values as follows: Zn(II), 7.9(1); Cd(II), 8.1(1); Pb(II), 8.3(1); La(III), 5.23(7); Gd(III), 5.7(1); Ca(II), 3.68; all at 25 °C and μ = 0. Log K(1) values at μ = 0.1 were obtained for Mg(II), 0.7(1); Sr(II), 2.20(1); Ba(II), 1.5(1). The log K(1) values show that the high level of preorganization of DPA leads to complexes 3 log units more stable than the corresponding terpyridyl complexes for large metal ions such as La(III) or Ca(II), but that for small metal ions such as Mg(II) and Zn(II) such stabilization is minimal. Molecular mechanics calculations (MM) are used to show that the best-fit M-N length for coordination with DPA is 2.60 ?, accounting for the high stability of Ca(II) or La(III) complexes of DPA, which are found to have close to this M-N bond length in their phen complexes.