Bactericidal performance of photocatalytic titanium dioxide particle mixture under ultraviolet and fluorescent light: an in vitro study

When ultraviolet (UV) light comes into contact with titanium dioxide (TiO₂), a variety of free radicals are released to provide a potent oxidizing power. Few reports are available, however, evaluating the bactericidal effects of TiO₂ particle under UV light and fluorescent light (FL) in the same line of research for clinical applications. In the present study, we set out to evaluate the in vitro photocatalytic bactericidal effects on Staphylococcus aureus, which is one of the most common pathogens of infectious disease, in an aqueous system of TiO₂ particles irradiated by UV and FL. A TiO₂ particle mixture containing 0.019 mg/ml of TiO₂ was prepared. A bacterial solution was added dropwise to the mixture, and the resulting product was irradiated by UV or FL light. The colony‐forming units were counted and the bacterial survival rate was calculated. Control samples maintained a relatively high bacterial survival rate. In the TiO₂ mixture group, however, the bacterial survival rate decreased steadily, reaching 9.4% after 60 min of exposure to UV light and 10.9% after 60 min of FL irradiation. Distributing the TiO₂ particles in a water mixture produces highly efficient light absorption and enables greater and more frequent adhesion with bacteria, allowing a high degree of photocatalytic antibacterial action. Although the quantity was inferior to UV, our TiO₂ particles were able to show effective bactericidal activity even under FL. The TiO₂ particle mixture is expected to prove effective in preventing postoperative infection. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spontaneous homeotropic alignment of nematic liquid crystals induced by a double-armed side chain liquid crystalline polymethacrylate

A liquid crystalline polymethacrylate having two cyclohexylphenyl mesogens on its side-chain (PMG0) was synthesized by the radical polymerization of the corresponding methacrylate monomer (MG0). PMG0 exhibited a smectic A phase around room temperature showing a focalconic fan texture in POM observations and a broad diffusion in a wide angle range of its WAXD profile. Upon slow cooling at ?1 °C min^?1 from the isotropic melt, PMG0 exhibited spontaneous homeotropic alignment between two native glass surfaces. A mixture of the commercial nematic liquid crystal (ZLI-4792) containing 1.0 wt% PMG0 also exhibited a homeotropic alignment, which easily covered hydrophilic surfaces such as glass or polyacrylamide.     

压电材料中椭圆片状裂纹问题精确解的一种方法

在线性压电陶瓷本构关系和裂纹边界绝缘的框架下,用超奇异积分方程的方法对椭圆类片状裂纹问题进行了重新研究．超奇异积分方程中的未知位移间断和电势间断近似地表示为基本密度函数与多项式之积,其中基本密度函数反映了椭圆片状裂纹前沿电弹性场的奇异性,而多项式在均布载荷作用下可用一个常数来表达．引入椭球坐标系后,得到了均布载荷作用下未知位移间断和电势间断的解析解．使用这些解析解和电弹性场强度的定义,得到了裂纹前沿Ⅰ型、Ⅱ型和Ⅲ型应力强度因子以及电位移强度因子的精确表达式．法向均布载荷作用下的结果与现有精确解完全一致,切向均布载荷作用下的结果则尚未见有其它报道．     

轴对称环形片状界面裂纹问题分析

讨论受拉伸载荷作用的轴对称环形片状界而裂纹问题．该问题归结为求解一组超奇异积分-微分方程．方程中的未知位移间断近似表示为基本密度函数与多项式之积,其中基本密度函数考虑到问题的对称性用二维界面裂纹精确解表示．在圆形片状裂纹的情况下,数值结果与现有理论解作比较的结果表明,数值结果与相应界面圆形片状裂纹和均质体圆形片状裂纹的精确解均吻合得很好．文中以图表形式给出应力强度因子与材料组合和几何条件之间的关系．     

A NOVEL METHOD FOR EXACT SOLUTIONS OF ELLIPTICAL CRACKS IN PIEZOELECTRICS

According to the constitutive relationship in linear piezoceramics, elliptical crack problems in the impermeable case are reconsidered with the hypersingular integral equation method. Unknown displacement and electric potential jumps in the integral equations are approximated with a product of the fundamental density function and polynomials, in which the fundamental density function reflects the singular behavior of electroelastic fields near the crack front and the polynomials can be reduced to a real constant under uniform loading. Ellipsoidal coordinates are cleverly introduced to solve the unknown displacement and electric potential jumps in the integral equations under uniform loading. With the help of these solutions and definitions of electroelastic field intensity factors, exact expressions for mode Ⅰ, mode Ⅱ and mode Ⅲ stress intensity factors as well as the mode Ⅳ electric displacement intensity factor are obtained. The present results under uniform normal loading are the same as the available exact solutions, but those under uniform shear loading have not been found in the literature as yet.     

Three-dimensional centimeter-sized colloidal silica crystals formed by addition of base

Three-dimensional (3D) centimeter-sized colloidal crystals can be spontaneously formed simply by dropping a NaOH solution (10 mM, approximately 10 microL) into an aqueous dispersion of dilute charged colloidal silica (particle diameter 110 nm, particle volume fraction phi = 0.023, 3-4 mL). The charge number of the silica particle increases with pH. Upon adding the NaOH solution, first, sub-millimeter-sized polycrystals are formed in the upper part of the sample due to charge-induced crystallization. The local phi value in the crystal region becomes nonuniform. The crystals with a high phi value accumulate at the bottom of the cell and then grow upward as columnar crystals. The crystal widths increase discontinuously with the growth, and in some cases, 3D centimeter-sized crystals are formed. The centimeter-sized crystals are also obtainable by the controlled diffusion of the base from its dilute reservoir. The present findings may prove valuable in the fabrication of large 3D single-crystalline photonic materials.     

3-D measurement of 2-D jet by 3-D 3-C SPIV

Journal of Visualization - The stereo PIV, commonly known as the SPIV, is capable of measuring all the three velocity components in a two-dimensional measurement plane and thus classified as 2-D...     

Conditions for a class of dimensional dual hyperovals to be of polar type

A d-dimensional dual hyperoval with monomial is of polar type if and only if d is even, Gal(GF(2^d+1)/GF(2)) and σ²=id_GF(2^d+1).     

A sandwich structure of cobalt pyrophosphate/nickel phosphite@C: one step synthesis and its good electrocatalytic performance

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is the basic reaction to achieve water decomposition and hydrogen production. Here, an OER catalyst material, carbon-coated...     

Syntheses of 3‐arm and 4‐arm star‐branched polystyrene Ru(II) complexes by the click‐to‐chelate approach

Metal template synthesis is a useful methodology to make sophisticated macromolecular architectures because of the variety of metal ion coordination. To use metal template methodology, chelating functionalities should be introduced to macromolecules before complexation. In this article, we demonstrate the click‐to‐chelate approach to install chelating functionality to polystyrene (PS) and complexation with Ru(II) ions to form 3‐arm and 4‐arm star‐branched PS Ru(II) complexes. Azide‐terminated PS (PS‐N₃) was readily prepared by atom transfer radical polymerization using 1‐bromoethylbenzene as an initiator followed by substitution of bromine by an azide group. The Cu(I)‐catalyzed 1,3‐dipolar cycloaddition of PS‐N₃ with 2‐ethynylpyridine or 2,6‐diethynylpyridine affords 2‐(1H‐1,2,3‐triazol‐4‐yl)pyridine (PS‐tapy) or 2,6‐bis(1H‐1,2,3‐triazol‐4‐yl)pyridine (PS‐bitapy) ligands bearing one or two PS chains at the first‐position of the triazole rings. Ru(II) complexes of PS‐tapy and PS‐bitapy were prepared by conventional procedure. The number‐averaged molecular weights (M_ns) of these complexes were determined to be 6740 and 10,400, respectively, by size exclusion chromatography using PS standards. These M_n values indicated the formation of 3‐arm and 4‐arm star‐branched PS Ru(II) complexes [Ru(PS‐tapy)₃](PF₆)₂ and [Ru(PS‐bitapy)₂](PF₆)₂ on the basis of the M_n values of PS‐tapy (2090) and PS‐bitapy (4970). The structures of these complexes were also confirmed by UV–vis spectroscopy and X‐ray crystallography of the Ru(II) complexes [Ru(Bn‐tapy)₃](PF₆)₂ and [Ru(Bn‐bitapy)₂](PF₆)₂, which bear a benzyl group instead of a PS chain. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2011