Formation and Structures of the μ4-Oxygen-Bridged High-Nuclearity Lead(II) Clusters from a Lead Propane-2-thiolate Complex

Journal of Cluster Science - Interaction of [Pb(SiPr)2]n with 1.5 equiv. of AgNO3 in DMF under aerobic conditions at room temperature gave a cationic lead-centered thiolate cluster...     

Theoretical study of the structural and energetic properties of platinum clusters with up to 60 atoms

Structural Chemistry - Applying a theoretical approach that combines an efficient and fast global optimization based on genetic algorithms (GA) to search in structure space and the parameterized...     

Kinetics of glass transition,crystallization and soft magnetic properties of the Fe76.5Nb3B20Cu0.5 glassy alloys

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - Differential scanning calorimetry was used to investigate the non-isothermal crystallization kinetics of the Fe76.5Nb3B20Cu0.5 glassy alloys. The...     

Comparative thermal decomposition characteristics and fire behaviors of commercial cables

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - The decomposition and fire behaviors of two commonly used cables were studied by a calorimeter. The effects of the cable type, the incident heat flux,...     

A highly sensitive dopamine sensor based on a polyaniline/reduced graphene oxide/Nafion nanocomposite

A nanocomposite of polyaniline/reduced graphene oxide (PANI-rGO) was synthesized using a hydrothermal method. The product was characterized by FT-IR, Raman spectra, XRD, SEM and TEM. Then the hybrid material of PANI-rGO and Nafion (PANI-rGO-NF) was prepared and used to modify glassy carbon electrode for the trace determination of dopamine (DA) employing differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). It was found that the hybrid material showed good catalytic activity toward the oxidation of DA, and no response to ascorbic acid (AA) and uric acid (UA) was observed, suggesting a high selectivity of the sensor toward DA. The peak currents were linearly correlated with the concentration of DA in the range from 0.05 μmol/L to 60.0 μmol/L (R=0.996) and 60.0 μmol/L to 180.0 μmol/L (R=0.996) with a detection limit of 0.024 μmol/L (S/N=3). The modified electrode also exhibited excellent repeatability and stability.     

Hydrothermal Syntheses and Crystal Structure of a New Organic Hybrid Holmium–Germanate Oxo-Cluster

A new organic hybrid holmium–germanate oxo-cluster [Ho₈(phen)₂Ge₁₂(μ ₃-O)₂₄(CH₂CH₂COO)₁₂(H₂O)₁₆]·2H₂O (1, phen = 1,10-phenanthroline) was prepared under mild hydrothermal conditions and structurally characterized by elemental analysis, UV/Vis, IR spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and powder X-ray diffraction. Compounds 1 contains cage clusters [Ho₈(phen)₂Ge₁₂(μ ₃-O)₂₄(CH₂CH₂COO)₁₂(H₂O)₁₆] and free H₂O molecules. The cage cluster is constructed by the combination of two [Ho(phen)(H₂O)₂] units, two [Ge₆O₁₂(CH₂CH₂COO)₆] rings and one circular [Ho₆O₃₆] fragment via sharing O atoms. 1 is the rare example of organic hybrid holmium–germanate oxo-cluster decorated by phen ligands.     

Dynamic Modulation of Enzyme Activity by Near-Infrared Light

Engineering near-infrared (NIR) light-sensitive enzymes remains a huge challenge. A photothermal effect-associated method is developed for tailoring the enzymatic activity of enzymes by exposure to NIR light. An ultrasmall platinum nanoparticle was anchored in an enzyme to generate local heating upon NIR irradiation, which enhanced the enzyme activity without increasing bulk temperature. Following NIR irradiation, the enzyme activity was tailored rapidly and reversibly, and was modulated by varying laser power density and irradiation time. Four enzymes were engineered, including glucoamylase, glucose oxidase, catalase, and proteinase K with NIR-light sensitivity, and demonstrated their utility in practical applications such as photolithography and NIR light-responsive antibacterial or anticancer actions. Our investigation suggests that this approach could be broadly used to engineer enzymes with NIR-light sensitivity for many biological applications.     

A multi-detector integrated automation system of routine INAA

An integrated automation system of routine instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) with three HPGe detectors has been built at China Institute of Atomic Energy. This system is mainly composed of sample counting system, pneumatic transfer system, software control and analysis systems, etc. The characteristics include more than 200 samples can be controlled for a batch of INAA with three detectors simultaneously, sample counting position can be optimized automatically according to the counting dead time, the real-time tracking and the high consistency between the spectrum and counting sample are possible to be realized through radio frequency identification tag.

     

Experimental Study on Purification of Diesel Particulate Matter by Non-thermal Plasma Technology

In order to investigate the effects of non-thermal plasma (NTP) on diesel particulate matter (PM), an engine test bench was built up. An engine exhaust particle sizer (EEPS) was introduced to analyze the emission concentration and size distribution of PM and a thermo-gravimetric analyzer was used to analyze the effects of NTP on the composition of the particulate matter in the exhaust gas. The results show that the size distribution interval of the particle mass concentration falls behind that of the quantity concentration under various loads. When the diesel engine operating speed is 2400 rpm and the load is 25%, after NTP, the proportions of the nucleation mode particles and the accumulative mode particles exhibit a small fluctuation while the proportion of ultrafine particles decreases by 10% due to their large quantity concentration. Under the dual effect of DPF and NTP, the particle quantity concentration decreases by 98%. In order to investigate the effect of NTP on the composition of the PM, a thermo-gravimetric analysis of the particles obtained before and after NTP was carried out. The results show that the proportion of volatile matter falls by 16.05% and solid carbon accounts for an increase of 7.29%. NTP has the ability to improve reduction activity of particles and make particles easier to be oxidized at a lower temperature.     

Experimental and Theoretical Optimization of Radio Frequency Hollow Cathode Discharge

Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing - In this paper, the electron density in radio frequency (RF) hollow cathode discharge (HCD) is investigated in experiments and in simulation based on...