Theoretical and experimental studies of electronic effects and second-order nonlinear optical properties of some benzenecarbothioates and benzenecarbodithioates

The relative nonlinear efficiency of some conjugated ester, thioester and dithioester molecules was investigated by quantum chemical semi-empirical methods. The results of calculations on ground and excited states properties and on finite-field hyperpolarizabilities allowed to select the best compounds for quadratic nonlinear optics. Some of these molecules were synthesized and the theoretical results were confronted with the experimental NLO response obtained by EFISH measurements. It was concluded from this analysis that the dithioester substituent represents an interesting electron-accepting group for applications in nonlinear optics and can be used instead of the nitro group. Correspondence to: A. Botrel     

Parabolic Differential Equations in Ordered Banach Spaces of Bounded Functions

Let A be a set, and let E be the Banach space of bounded functions : A R, equipped with its natural order. With a rectangle R = (a,b) × (0,T] let F(x,t,) : R × E E be a bounded, continuous function satisfying a local Hölder condition and being quasimonotone increasing with respect to . Then there exists a solution u: [a,b] × [0,T] E of the problem ut(x,t) – uxx(x,t) = F(x,t,u(x,t)) ((x,t) R), u(x,t) = 0 ((x,t) R R).     

Synthesis of Deuterium-Labeled Plant Sterols and Analysis of Their Side-Chain Mobility by Solid State Deuterium NMR

The plant sterols sitosterol and stigmasterol exert very different effects on plant model membranes, the first one being a "reinforcer" like cholesterol, the second one not. 25-(2)H-Stigmasterol has been synthesized by coupling of the 22-aldehyde derived from stigmasterol by ozonolysis, with the proper sulfone labeled in position 25. The configuration of the ethyl side chain at C-24 was controlled by separation of the diastereomers introduced via a chiral sulfoxide. This synthetic scheme allowed the introduction of a labeled side chain in plant sterols in eight steps for stigmasterol and nine for sitosterol (overall yield ca. 15%). Using both diastereomers, the 24-epimers of sitosterol (clionasterol) and stigmasterol (poriferasterol) have also been synthesized. Deuterium NMR on oriented lipid bilayers made of soybean phosphatidylcholine and containing these four labeled plant sterols clearly reveals the difference of orientation and mobility of the four side chains.     

Analysis of the major chiral compounds of Artemisia herba-alba essential oils (EOs) using reconstructed vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectra: En route to a VCD chiral signature of EOs

An unprecedented methodology was developed to simultaneously assign the relative percentages of the major chiral compounds and their prevailing enantiomeric form in crude essential oils (EOs). In a first step the infrared (IR) and vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectra of the crude essential oils were recorded and in a second step they were modelized as a linear weighted combination of the IR and VCD spectra of the individual spectra of pure enantiomer of the major chiral compounds present in the EOs. The VCD spectra of enantiomer of known enantiomeric excess shall be recorded if they are not yet available in a library of VCD spectra. For IR, the spectra of pure enantiomer or racemic mixture can be used. The full spectra modelizations were performed using a well known and powerful mathematical model (least square estimation: LSE) which resulted in a weighting of each contributing compound. For VCD modelization, the absolute value of each weighting represented the percentage of the associate compound while the attached sign addressed the correctness of the enantiomeric form used to build the model. As an example, a model built with the non-prevailing enantiomer will show a negative sign of the weighting value. For IR spectra modelization, the absolute value of each weighting represented the percentage of the compounds without of course accounting for the chirality of the prevailing enantiomers. Comparison of the weighting values issuing from IR and VCD spectra modelizations is a valuable source of information: if they are identical, the EOs are composed of nearly pure enantiomers, if they are different the chiral compounds of the EOs are not in an optically pure form. The method was applied on four samples of essential oil of Artemisia herba-alba in which the three major compounds namely (−)-α-thujone, (+)-β-thujone and (−)-camphor were found in different proportions as determined by GC–MS and chiral HPLC using polarimetric detector. In order to validate the methodology, the modelization of the VCD spectra was performed on purpose using the individual VCD spectra of (−)-α-thujone, (+)-β-thujone and (+)-camphor instead of (−)-camphor. During this work, the absolute configurations of (−)-α-thujone and (+)-β-thujone were confirmed by comparison of experimental and calculated VCD spectra as being (1S,4R,5R) and (1S,4S,5R) respectively.     

The Effect of Hydrophile Topology in RAFT‐Mediated Polymerization‐Induced Self‐Assembly

Polymerization‐induced self‐assembly (PISA) was employed to compare the self‐assembly of different amphiphilic block copolymers. They were obtained by emulsion polymerization of styrene in water using hydrophilic poly(N‐acryloylmorpholine) (PNAM)‐based macromolecular RAFT agents with different structures. An average of three poly (ethylene glycol acrylate) (PEGA) units were introduced either at the beginning, statistically, or at the end of a PNAM backbone, resulting in formation of nanometric vesicles and spheres from the two former macroRAFT architectures, and large vesicles from the latter. Compared to the spheres obtained with a pure PNAM macroRAFT agent, composite macroRAFT architectures promoted a dramatic morphological change. The change was induced by the presence of PEGA hydrophilic side‐chains close to the hydrophobic polystyrene segment.     

Influence of core materials on thermal properties of melamine-formaldehyde microcapsules

A series of melamine-formaldehyde microcapsules as an intrinsic intumescent system was prepared by an in situ polymerization. The structural and thermal properties of the resultant microcapsules were studied. The surface morphology and chemical structure of microcapsules were investigated using scanning electron microscope (SEM), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscope (FT-IR), respectively. The thermal properties of samples were investigated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The results showed that the thermo-physical properties are strongly dependant on the nature core content and the synthesis conditions. From the thermal analysis, it was concluded that microcapsules containing di-ammonium hydrogen phosphate exhibits characteristics of an intumescent system during their thermal degradation and could be interpreted due to the interaction between phosphate and melamine.     

Atomic Layer Deposition of Ternary Indium/Tin/Aluminum Oxide Thin Films,Their Characterization and Transistor Performance under Illumination.

Multilayered heterostructures comprising of In₂O₃, SnO₂, and Al₂O₃ were studied for their application in thin-film transistors (TFT). The compositional influence of tin oxide on the properties of the thin-film, as well as on the TFT characteristics is investigated. The heterostructures are fabricated by atomic layer deposition (ALD) at 200 °C, employing trimethylindium (TMI), tetrakis(dimethylamino)tin (TDMASn), trimethylaluminum (TMA), and water as precursors. After post-deposition annealing at 400 °C the thin-films are found to be amorphous, however, they show a discrete layer structure of the individual oxides of uniform film thickness and high optical transparency in the visible region. Incorporation of only two monolayers of Al₂O₃ in the active semiconducting layer the formation of oxygen vacancies can be effectively suppressed, resulting in an improved semiconducting and switching behavior. The heterostacks comprising of In₂O₃/SnO₂/Al₂O₃ are incorporated into TFT devices, exhibiting a saturation field-effect mobility (μ_sat) of 2.0 cm² ⋅ V⁻¹ s⁻¹, a threshold-voltage (V_th) of 8.6 V, a high current on/off ratio (I_On/I_Off) of 1.0×10⁷, and a subthreshold swing (SS) of 485 mV ⋅ dec⁻¹. The stability of the TFT under illumination is also altered to a significant extent. A change in the transfer characteristic towards conductive behavior is evident when illuminated with light of an energy of 3.1 eV (400 nm).     

Analysis of the structural and dynamic properties of human N-terminal domain of apolipoprotein E by molecular dynamics simulations

Whereas the lipid-free N-terminal domain of apolipoprotein E (apoE-NT) adopts a four-helix bundle, the lipid-bound form is believed to undergo a large conformational change likely to be characterized by the opening of the bundle. ApoE-NT in a water/alcohol mixture was also shown to experience conformational changes exhibiting similarities with those induced upon lipid binding. The structure and dynamics of apoE-NT have been here investigated by analyzing 40 ns and 60 ns molecular dynamics simulations performed in water and in a water/propanol mixture, respectively. The overall structural properties show alterations of the tertiary structure of apoE-NT in the water/alcohol system in agreement with those observed experimentally. In contrast, in the water simulation, the sampled conformations remain closer to the crystal structure that served as a starting point for both simulations. Interestingly, several propanol molecules are seen to penetrate two hydrophobic regions of the bundle interior. One of these regions is enclosed in part by the short helix (H1') connecting helices 1 and 2 of the bundle which has been experimentally shown to be important for modulating lipid binding activity of apoE-NT. Principal component analysis of the water/propanol trajectory confirms that the region including H1' is the locus of the largest motion. Another region involves the loop connecting helix 2 and helix 3 which has been hypothesized to play the role of a hinge in the opening of the bundle.     

Construction of a new interface for comprehensive supercritical fluid chromatography x reversed phase liquid chromatography (SFC x RPLC)

The design of a new interface to hyphen high efficiency supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) and fast RPLC in a comprehensive configuration is described. SFC x RPLC is a viable alternative to normal phase (NP) LC x RPLC and is characterized by high orthogonality. Compared to NPLC x RPLC an additional advantage is the expansion of supercritical carbon dioxide (CO(2)) when exposed to atmospheric pressure leading to fractions consisting of solvents that are miscible with the second dimension RPLC mobile phase. The interface consists of a two-position/ten-port switching valve equipped with two packed octadecyl silica (C(18)) loops for effective trapping and focusing of the analytes after elution from the SFC dimension. The addition of a water make-up flow to the SFC effluent prior to entering the loops is of fundamental importance to efficiently focus the solutes on the C(18) material and to reduce interferences of expanded CO(2) gas on the second dimension separation. The features of the system are illustrated with the analysis of a lemon oil sample.     

Evaluation of a combined fractionation and speciation approach for study of size-based distribution of organotin species on environmental colloids

Results relating to the first original application of an analytical approach combining asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation (As-Fl-FFF) with multi-detection and chemical speciation for determination of organotins in a landfill leachate sample are presented. The speciation analysis involved off-line head-space solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME)–gas chromatography with pulsed-flame photometric detection (GC–PFPD) performed after three consecutive collections of five different fractions of interest from the As-Fl-FFF system and cross-flow part (assumed to be representative of the <10 kDa phase). After 0.45 μm filtration and without preconcentration before fractionation and speciation analysis, limits of detection (LOD) were 4–45 ng (Sn) L⁻¹ in the sample, with relative standard deviations (RSD) of 3–23%. The As-Fl-FFF fractionation of this sample enables characterization of two distinct populations—organic-rich and inorganic colloids with gyration radius up to 120 nm. Total Sn and mono and dibutyltins (MBT and DBT) appear to be distributed over the whole colloidal phase. Tributyl, monomethyl, monooctyl, and diphenyltins (TBT, MMT, MOcT, and DPhT) were also detected. Quantitative speciation analysis performed on the two colloidal populations and in the <10 kDa phase revealed concentrations from 130 ± 10 (MMT) to 560 ± 50 ng (Sn) L⁻¹ (DPhT).