Optical and field emission properties of thin single-crystalline GaN nanowires

Thin high-quality gallium nitride (GaN) nanowires were synthesized by a catalytic chemical vapor deposition method. The synthesized GaN nanowires with hexagonal single-crystalline structure had thin diameters of 10-50 nm and lengths of tens of micrometers. The thin GaN nanowires revealed UV bands at 3.481 and 3.285 eV in low-temperature PL measurements due to the recombination of donor-bound excitons and donor-acceptor pairs, respectively. The blue shifts of UV bands in the low-temperature PL measurement were observed, indicating quantum confinement effects in the thin GaN nanowires which have smaller diameters than the exciton Bohr radius, 11 nm. For field emission properties of GaN nanowires, the turn-on field of GaN nanowires was 8.5 V/microm and the current density was about 0.2 mA/cm(2) at 17.5 V/microm, which is sufficient for the applications of field emission displays and vacuum microelectronic devices. Moreover, the GaN nanowires indicated stronger emission stability compared with carbon nanotubes.     

Paradoxical effects of elastase inhibitor guamerin on the tissue repair of two different wound models: sealed cutaneous and exposed tongue wounds

Innate elastase inhibitors are known to be putatively involved in the regulation of tissue inflammation by inhibiting polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN) derived proteinases. The aim of this study was to evaluate affects of leukocyte elastase suppression and PMN infiltration on wound healing in mouse by administering the recombinant elastase inhibitor guamerin (rEIG) in two different wound models; 1) impaired pin-punctured dorsal mucosa of anterior tongue wound, 60 mice, treated with saline containing rEIG that were fed ad libitum and 2) stable linear excisional cutaneous wound, 40 mice, covered with fibrin sealant containing rEIG. The progress of healing was analyzed by histological methods. The tongue wounds treated with rEIG became edematous around the pin-punctured tongue wound, and influx of inflammatory cells and PMN into the underlying stromal tissue were seen rapidly after wounding and peaked between 2-4 days. Whereas the control mice showed almost no wheal formation in the pin-punctured wound, a far lesser levels of PMN infiltration, and almost complete wound closure in 4 days. In the other model, the liner excisional cutaneous wound treated with fibrin sealant containing rEIG showed early wound constriction, lesser degree of inflammatory cells influx, and complete reepithelialization in 4-5 days, whereas the wound of control mice with the fibrin sealant alone showed contrary delayed reepithelialization, greater degree of inflammatory cell infiltration, and consequencial formation of greater granulation tissue at wound site. Taken together, these data suggest paradoxical effects of rEIG on the wound healing where in the wound exposed to infiltrating milieu of microorganisms in the oral cavity, the rEIG aggravates the wound healing by interfering with other innate defensive factors and extended greater flux of PMNs to inflamed wound site, while in the wound enclosed by fibrin, the rEIG accelerated wound healing by inhibiting the inflammation-generated proteases and the acute inflammatory reaction.     

Tri-component reaction of 2-alkyl-4,5-dichloropyridazin-3(2H)-ones: synthesis of 5-cyano-5-(pyrimidin-2-yl)-2,7-dialkyl-5H-dipyridazino-[4,5-b:4,5-e]-4H-thiopyran-1,6-dione and 2-(4-cyanophenoxy) pyrimidine

Reaction of 2-alkyl-4,5-dichloropyridazin-3(2H)-ones with p-cyanophenol and 2-mercaptopyrimidine in the presence of base gave 2,4,5-trisubstituted-pyridazin-3(2H)-ones 4-9, 2-(4-cyanophenoxy)pyrimidine (10) and 5-cyano-5-(pyrimidin-2-yl)-2,7-dialkyl-5H-dipyridazino[4,5-b:4,5-e]-4H-thiopyran-1,6-diones 11 as a novel heterocycle.     

Photodissociation of singly protonated peptides at 193 nm investigated with tandem time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Photodissociation at 193 nm of some singly protonated peptides generated by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization was investigated using tandem time-of-flight mass spectrometry. For peptides with arginine at the C-terminus, x, upsilon, and w fragment ions were generated preferentially while a and d fragment ions dominated for peptides with arginine at the N-terminus. These are the same characteristics as photodissociation at 157 nm reported previously. Overall, the photodissociation spectra obtained at 157 and 193 nm were strikingly similar.     

In vivo magnetic resonance detection of cancer by using multifunctional magnetic nanocrystals

The unique properties of magnetic nanocrystals provide them with high potential as key probes and vectors in the next generation of biomedical applications. Although superparamagnetic iron oxide nanocrystals have been extensively studied as excellent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) probes for various cell trafficking, gene expression, and cancer diagnosis, further development of in vivo MRI applications has been very limited. Here, we describe in vivo diagnosis of cancer, utilizing a well-defined magnetic nanocrystal probe system with multiple capabilities, such as small size, strong magnetism, high biocompatibility, and the possession of active functionality for desired receptors. Our magnetic nanocrystals are conjugated to a cancer-targeting antibody, Herceptin, and subsequent utilization of these conjugates as MRI probes has been successfully demonstrated for the monitoring of in vivo selective targeting events of human cancer cells implanted in live mice. Further conjugation of these nanocrystal probes with fluorescent dye-labeled antibodies enables both in vitro and ex vivo optical detection of cancer as well as in vivo MRI, which are potentially applicable for an advanced multimodal detection system. Our study finds that high performance in vivo MR diagnosis of cancer is achievable by utilizing improved and multifunctional material properties of iron oxide nanocrystal probes.     

In situ synchrotron SAXS/WAXD studies during melt spinning of modified carbon nanofiber and isotactic polypropylene nanocomposite

The structural development of a nanocomposite, containing 95 wt% isotactic polypropylene (iPP) and 5 wt% modified carbon nanofiber (MCNF), during fiber spinning was investigated by in situ synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) techniques. The modification of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) was accomplished by a chemical surface treatment using in situ polymerization of olefin segments to enhance its compatibility with iPP, where the iPP/MCNF nanocomposite was prepared by twostep blending to ensure the dispersion of MCNF. X-ray results showed that at low spin-draw ratios, the iPP/MCNF nanocomposite fiber exhibited much higher iPP crystalline orientation than the control iPP fiber. At higher spin-draw ratios, the crystalline orientation of the nanocomposite fiber and that of the pure iPP fiber was about the same. The crystallinity of the composite fiber was higher than that of the control iPP fiber, indicating the nucleating effect of the modified carbon nanofibers. The nanocomposite fiber also showed larger long periods at low spin-draw ratios. Measurements of mechanical properties indicated that the nanocomposite fiber with 5 wt% MCNF had much higher tensile strength, modulus and longer elongation to break. The mechanical enhancement can be attributed to the dispersion of MCNF in the matrix, which was confirmed by SEM results.Dedicated to Prof. E D. Fischer on his 75th birthday.     

Chemoselective synthesis of 1-alkyl-4-(4-amino-2,6-dichlorophenoxy)-5-halopyridazin-6-ones

Some 1-alkyl-4-(4-amino-2,6-dichlorophenoxy)-5-halopyridazin-6-ones were synthesized chemoselectively from 1-alkyl-4,5-dihalopyridazin-6-ones and 4-amino-2,6-dichlorophenol via a fluoride ion-assisted reaction.     

Iodide-to-cation charge-transfer bands as a novel probe for evaluation of actual acceptor strengths of cations in zeolites and cation-dependent pore volume change

Iodide-to-cation charge-transfer (ITC-CT) bands have been measured for the first time in zeolites X and Y exchanged with a series of alkali metal ions and the results show that the ITC-CT band progressively red shifts with increasing the size and the number of site III cations in the supercage, which indicates that the actual acceptor strength of the cation toward iodide increases with increasing the degree of protrusion of the cation into supercages and the number of cations, and overall, with decrease in supercage volume.     

A pilot plant study on reclamation of sewage effluent by radiation treatment

A pilot plant was developed for the reclamation and reuse of secondary effluent from a sewage treatment plant. The plant system consists of sand filtration, gamma-irradiation, ozonation and ion-exchange. Gamma-irradiation showed effective organic contaminant decomposition and this resulted in the reduction of 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD₅), color, chemical oxygen demand (COD_Cr) and total organic carbon (TOC). Ion-exchange significantly removed inorganic ions, and thus reduced total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP). The average reduction in color, COD_Cr, BOD₅, TOC, TN and TP, which was obtained after 12 operations, was 64, 52, 67, 61, 95 and 92%, respectively. Irrespective of applied radiation dose, the treated water fully satisfied the quality requirements of household water that can be used for all home uses except for drinking and human contact uses. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Adsorption of organic matter at mineral/water interfaces: 5. Effects of adsorbed natural organic matter analogues on mineral dissolution

The effects of the adsorption of pyromellitate, an analogue for natural organic matter, on the dissolution behavior of corundum (alpha-Al2O3) have been examined over a wide range of pyromellitate concentrations (0-2.5 mM) and pH conditions (2-10). The adsorption modes of pyromellitate on corundum have first been examined using in situ attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy and are shown to be dominated by a fully deprotonated, outer-sphere pyromellitate species ([triple bond]AlOH2+. . .Pyr4-) at pH >/= 5.0. At lower pH conditions, however, an additional protonated outer-sphere species ([triple bond]AlOH2+. . .H2Pyr2-) and an inner-sphere species are also evident. In accordance with the ATR-FTIR findings, modeling of macroscopic pyromellitate adsorption data using an extended constant capacitance treatment was possible using two outer-sphere ([triple bond]AlOH2+. . .Pyr4- and [triple bond]AlOH2+. . .H2Pyr2-) and one inner-sphere ([triple bond]AlPyr3-) adsorbed pyromellitate species. The presence of adsorbed pyromellitate strongly inhibited the dissolution of corundum under acidic (pH < 5) conditions, consistent with a mechanism previously proposed by Johnson et al. whereby outer-spherically adsorbed Pyr4- species sterically protect dissolution-active surface sites from attack by dissolution-promoting species such as protons. A reduction in the protolytic dissolution rate of corundum results. A reference Suwannee River fulvic acid, which also adsorbs to aluminum (oxyhydr)oxide surfaces in a predominantly outer-sphere manner, was similarly shown to strongly inhibit the dissolution of corundum at pH = 3.