Surface plasmon resonance excited electron induction greatly extends H2 evolution and pollutant degradation activity of g-C3N4 under visible light irradiation

Energy crises and environmental pollution have sparked tremendous research work to handle their impacts. Herein, we fabricated Au/g-C₃N₄ nanocomposites to produce H₂ and degrade 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) under visible light and at different wavelengths. Interestingly, the optimized photocatalyst generated 114 μmol H₂ and degraded 25% 2,4-DCP in 1 hr as compared with 10 μmol H₂ generation and 8% 2,4-DCP degradation by pure g-C₃N₄. This improvement is credited to the extended light absorption and improved charge induction from gold to g-C₃N₄ even at 590 nm as confirmed from photoluminescence, surface photovoltage, and photoelectrochemical study of the samples. Moreover, the surface catalytic property of g-C₃N₄ was much improved after loading a proper amount of gold nanoparticles. We hope that this technique to photosensitize semiconductors with noble metal nanoparticles may provide a feasible way to construct surface plasmon resonance-assisted photocatalysts to cope with energy crises and environmental pollution simultaneously.     

Copper vanadate nanowires-based MIS capacitors: synthesis,characterization, and their electrical charge storage applications

Dielectric properties of porous glass nanocomposites with TGS crystals embedded into six porous matrices with average pore size from 5 to 312 nm were investigated in the temperature range from 280 to 380 K at selected frequencies. The results are discussed based on the effect of the particle size on the phase transition temperature of TGS nanocomposites. Temperature–size phase diagram of TGS composites was derived. Non-monotonic character of the temperature-driven phase transition (T _p) with the decreasing particle size was determined. The nature of the T _p variation can be ascribed to the size-effect theoretically predicted by Zhong et al. (Phys Rev B 50:698–703, 1994).     

Irradiation effects on copper

Copper, one of the most significant metals, is exposed to IR radiation. A Nd:YAG laser (1064 nm, 1.1 MW, 12 ns) has been used to irradiate fine polished and annealed samples (4 N, 1×1×0.3 cm³) with 100 laser shots under a vacuum of ～10^?6 torr. The laser focal spot size and power density on the target were 12 μm and 3×10¹² Wm^?2 respectively. The surface and structural studies were performed by analyzing scanning electron micrographs and X-ray diffractograms (XRDs), respectively. Laser ablation results in boiling, splashing, hydrodynamical sputtering and exfoliation along with other relevant phenomena. The XRD patterns of the exposed sample indicate a change in diffraction intensity and grain sizes. The atomic planes remain undisturbed for the irradiated target. The information collected is useful for investigating the complexities found in radiation–metal interactions.     

A new compound, jolynamine, from marine brown alga Jolyna laminarioides

A new compound, jolynamine (1), was isolated from the marine brown alga Jolyna laminarioides collected from the coast of Karachi, Pakistan. In addition, four known compounds, namely saringosterol (2), loliolide (3), methyl-4-hydroxybenzoate (4) and propyl-4-hydroxybenzoate (5), were isolated for the first time from the marine brown alga Iyengaria stellata, and two known compounds, namely 3,4,5-trimethylaniline (6) and harmine (7), were isolated for the first time from the marine brown alga Melanothamnus afaqhusainii. Compound 6 is synthetically known but was isolated for the first time from a natural source. The structures of these compounds were elucidated with the help of powerful spectroscopic techniques. Furthermore, the methanolic extracts of both algae showed anti-microbial activities against various bacteria and fungi.     

Error bounds on the SCISSORS approximation method

The SCISSORS method for approximating chemical similarities has shown excellent empirical performance on a number of real-world chemical data sets but lacks theoretically proven bounds on its worst-case error performance. This paper first proves reductions showing SCISSORS to be equivalent to two previous kernel methods: kernel principal components analysis and the rank-k Nystro?m approximation of a Gram matrix. These reductions allow the use of generalization bounds on these techniques to show that the expected error in SCISSORS approximations of molecular similarity kernels is bounded in expected pairwise inner product error, in matrix 2-norm and Frobenius norm for full kernel matrix approximations and in root-mean-square deviation for approximated matrices. Finally, we show that the actual performance of SCISSORS is significantly better than these worst-case bounds, indicating that chemical space is well-structured for chemical sampling algorithms.     

Ten marker compounds-based comparative study of green tea and guava leaf by HPTLC densitometry methods: antioxidant activity profiling

High-performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) method for the separation and quantitative determination of ten markers (catechins, flavonoids, and phenolics) in different extracts of green tea and guava leaf has been developed and the antioxidant activity profiles of the two plant extracts have been determined. Ten marker compounds have been resolved using silica gel 60 F(254) plates, toluene/acetone/formic acid (5:4:1 v/v/v) for markers 1-6, and toluene/ethyl acetate/formic acid/methanol (3:3:0.8:0.2 v/v/v/v) for markers 7-10 as the mobile phases. The high-performance thin layer chromatography densitometry was performed at wavelengths of 282 and 285 nm for the markers 1-6 and 7-10, respectively. Potent antioxidant activity and the presence of phenolics and flavan-3-ols has been observed for the guava leaf extracts suggestive of its use as an alternate economical source of antioxidants over green tea--the well-established food additive/nutraceutical agent.     

Two new prenylflavanones from Erythrina sigmoidea

Two new prenylflavanones named sigmone and sigmotriol have been isolated from the stem bark of Erythrina sigmoidea along with two known constituents 8-(3"-methylbut-2"-enyl)-7,3',4'-trihydroxyflavanone and 7,3',4'-trihydroxyflavanone. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic methods.     

Metric Dimension and R-Sets of Connected Graphs

The R-set relative to a pair of distinct vertices of a connected graph G is the set of vertices whose distances to these vertices are distinct. This paper deduces some properties of R-sets of connected graphs. It is shown that for a connected graph G of order n and diameter 2 the number of R-sets equal to V(G) is bounded above by ?n²/4?{\lfloor n^{2}/4\rfloor} . It is conjectured that this bound holds for every connected graph of order n. A lower bound for the metric dimension dim(G) of G is proposed in terms of a family of R-sets of G having the property that every subfamily containing at least r ≥ 2 members has an empty intersection. Three sufficient conditions, which guarantee that a family F=(G_n)_{n 3 1}{\mathcal{F}=(G_{n})_{n\geq 1}} of graphs with unbounded order has unbounded metric dimension, are also proposed.     

Planar triazinium cations from VO(2+)-assisted ring cyclizations: a remarkably efficient thiazole species for nuclear staining, PDT and anaerobic photocleavage of DNA

Planar triazinium cationic species, from VO(2+)-assisted cyclization of 1-(2-thiazolylazo)-2-naphthol, shows efficient DNA intercalative binding, visible light-induced anaerobic plasmid DNA photocleavage activity and photocytotoxicity in HeLa and MCF-7 cancer cells by an apoptotic pathway with selective localization of the compound in the nucleus as evidenced from the nuclear staining and confocal imaging.     

Lensless imaging for simultaneous microfluidic sperm monitoring and sorting

5.3 million American couples of reproductive age (9%) are affected by infertility, among which male factors account for up to 50% of cases, which necessitates the identification of parameters defining sperm quality, including sperm count and motility. In vitro fertilization (IVF) with or without intra cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) has become the most widely used assisted reproductive technology (ART) in modern clinical practice to overcome male infertility challenges. One of the obstacles of IVF and ICSI lies in identifying and isolating the most motile and presumably healthiest sperm from semen samples that have low sperm counts (oligozoospermia) and/or low sperm motility (oligospermaesthenia). Microfluidic systems have shown potential to sort sperm with flow systems. However, the small field of view (FOV) of conventional microscopes commonly used to image sperm motion presents challenges in tracking a large number of sperm cells simultaneously. To address this challenge, we have integrated a lensless charge-coupled device (CCD) with a microfluidic chip to enable wide FOV and automatic recording as the sperm move inside a microfluidic channel. The integrated system enables the sorting and tracking of a population of sperm that have been placed in a microfluidic channel. This channel can be monitored in both horizontal and vertical configuration similar to a swim-up column method used clinically. Sperm motilities can be quantified by tracing the shadow paths for individual sperm. Moreover, as the sperm are sorted by swimming from the inlet towards the outlet of a microfluidic channel, motile sperm that reach the outlet can be extracted from the channel at the end of the process. This technology can lead to methods to evaluate each sperm individually in terms of motility response in a wide field of view, which could prove especially useful, when working with oligozoospermic or oligospermaesthenic samples, in which the most motile sperm need to be isolated from a pool of small number of sperm.