Mesoporous Nanofibers from Dual Structure‐Directing Agents in AAO: Mesostructural Control and their Catalytic Applications

Control yourself! The mesoporous silica nanofibers (MSNFs) from dual structure‐directing agents were fabricated inside the pores of porous alumina (AAO, see figure) by using vapor phase synthesis. The pore structures could be controlled to form a range of structures from mesocellular foams to cylindrical mesopores with long‐range order by adding cationic cosurfactants.

     

Nonzero solutions for a system of variational inequalities in reflexive Banach spaces

In this paper, some existence theorems of nonzero solutions for a system of bilinear variational inequalities are proved by using the coincidence degree theory in reflexive Banach spaces. The results presented in this paper improve and extend some known results in the literature.     

载能离子辐照的ODS铁素体钢硬化效应的研究

研究了氧化物弥散强化(ODS) 的3 种铁素体钢,包括: 19Cr-3.5Al ODS钢(MA956),16Cr-0.1TiODS和16Cr-0.1Zr ODS铁素体钢,在多能量的氦离子和MeV能量级的Bi、Xe 离子辐照条件下的硬化效应。获得了辐照硬化与原子离位损伤水平(dpa)、He 注入浓度的关系。结果表明,材料的硬度在低剂量范围会随着辐照剂量迅速增加,而在高剂量范围材料的硬度逐渐趋于饱和,可以用1/2 次的幂函数拟合辐照硬化与离位损伤水平之间的关系。不同入射离子——Bi离子和Xe离子都会引起ODS 钢的硬化,而氦离子还会在材料中聚集导致氦泡的形成,造成更加明显的硬化。实验证明,Ti 或Zr 掺杂的16Cr-ODS 铁素体钢较19Cr-3.5AlODS钢具有更强的抗辐照硬化能力,原因可归于其含有更高数密度的细小氧化物粒子——能够有效俘获点缺陷和氦原子,从而有效抑制晶粒内部和晶界出缺陷的长大。The present work investigates the irradiation hardening of ODS ferritic steels after multi-energy Heion implantation, or energetic Bi-ion and Xe-ion irradiation, to get an understanding of dependence of irradiationhardening on atomic displacement damage and gas accumulation. Three kinds of high-Cr ODS ferritic steels including the commercial MA956 (19Cr-3.5Al), the 16Cr-0.1Ti and the 16Cr-0.1Zr ODS ferritic steels were used.The results show that the hardness increases rapidly at the lower doses but tends to saturate at the higher dose.An 1/2-power law dependence on dpa value is obtained. Helium implantation contributes significantly to the irradiation hardening, possibly due to the impediment of the motion dislocations by helium bubbles. 16Cr-ODS (Ti or Zr added) ferritic which contains finer oxide particles in higher number density shows higher resistance to irradiation hardening than the MA056.     

Spontaneous symmetry breaking of population in a nonadiabatically driven atomic trap: an Ising-class phase transition

We have observed spontaneous symmetry breaking of the population of Brownian particles between two moving potentials in the spatiotemporally symmetric system. Cold atoms preferentially occupy one of the dynamic double-well potentials, produced in the parametrically driven dissipative magneto-optical trap far from equilibrium, above a critical number of atoms. We find that the population asymmetry, which may be interpreted as the biased Brownian motion, can be qualitatively described by the mean-field Ising-class phase transition. This in situ study may be useful for investigation of dynamic phase transition or temporal behavior of critical phenomena.     

Environmentally-stable all-normal-dispersion picosecond Yb-doped fiber laser with an achromatic quarter-wave-plate

We present an environmentally-stable picosecond Yb-doped fiber laser by employing an achromatic quarter-wave-plate (AQWP) as a pulse stabilizer in the all-normal-dispersion and polarization-maintaining linear laser cavity. It is shown that the AQWP plays a critical role to control both the polarization state and spectral filtering of the proposed mode-locked laser. The demonstrated laser generates 2-ps-long pulses with pulse energies of 1 nJ at a repetition rate of 117 MHz and parabolic spectral width of 26 nm. The fundamental RF carrier frequency exhibits Allan deviation of 3.8 × 10⁻⁸ at 1-s averaging time and phase noise of −95 dBc/Hz at 10-Hz offset frequency.     

In Situ Formation of Gold Nanoparticles within a Polymer Particle and Their Catalytic Activities in Various Chemical Reactions

Composite materials consisting of nanoscale gold particles and protective polymer shells were designed and tested as catalysts in various chemical reactions. Initially, the systematic incorporation of multiple gold nanoparticles into a poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) particle was achieved by an in situ method under light irradiation. The degree of gold nanoparticle loading, along with the structural and morphological properties, was examined as a function of the amount of initial gold ions and reducing agent. As these gold nanoparticles were physically-embedded within the polymer particle in the absence of strong interfacial interactions between the gold nanoparticles and polymer matrix, the readily-accessible surface of the gold nanoparticles with a highly increased stability allowed for their use as recyclable catalysts in oxidation, reduction, and coupling reactions. Overall, the ability to integrate catalytically-active metal nanoparticles within polymer particles in situ allows for designing novel composite materials for multi-purpose catalytic systems.     

Multiple Quantum Coherences Hyperpolarized at Ultra-Low Fields

The development of hyperpolarization technologies enabled several yet exotic NMR applications at low and ultra-low fields (ULF), where without hyperpolarization even the detection of a signal from analytes is a challenge. Herein, we present a method for the simultaneous excitation and observation of homo- and heteronuclear multiple quantum coherences (from zero up to the third-order), which give an additional degree of freedom for ULF NMR experiments, where the chemical shift variation is negligible. The approach is based on heteronuclear correlated spectroscopy (COSY); its combination with a phase-cycling scheme allows the selective observation of multiple quantum coherences of different orders. The nonequilibrium spin state and multiple spin orders are generated by signal amplification by reversible exchange (SABRE) and detected at ULF with a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID)-based NMR system.     

Cytotoxic triterpene saponins from the mangrove Aegiceras corniculatum

Using various chromatographic separations, sixteen compounds, including one new triterpene saponin named aegicoroside A (1), were isolated from the leaves of the Vietnamese mangrove Aegiceras corniculatum. Their structures were determined by spectroscopic methods such as 1D and 2D NMR and HR-ESI-MS. The cytotoxic activities of the isolated compounds against MCF7 (breast), HCT116 (colon), B16F10 (melanoma), and A549 (adenocarcinoma) cancer cell lines were also evaluated. Strong cytotoxicity was observed for sakurasosaponin (2) against all four cancer cell lines and for sakurasosaponin methyl ester (3) against MCF7, A549, and HCT116 cell lines with IC₅₀ values ranging from 2.89 ± 0.02 to 9.86 ± 0.21 μM.     

Validation of analytical method for furan determination in eight food matrices and its levels in various foods

In this study, an automated solid‐phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography and mass spectrometry method was developed and validated for the determination of furan in eight matrices including ham, milk, apple juice, rice porridge, peanut butter, flatfish, tuna (canned) and seaweed. The calibration curves were highly linear (r² > 0.990) and the limit of detection and limit of quantification ranged from 0.01?0.02 and 0.04?0.06 ng/g, respectively. The recovery ranged from 77.81?111.47%. The validated method was used to analyse the furan levels in 120 foods. The highest levels of furan were detected in black tea (172.05 ng/g) and red ginseng extract (89.27 ng/g). Whelk (canned) contained a high furan content (21.34 ng/g) among the seafood samples.     

Antimony‐Based Composites Loaded on Phosphorus‐Doped Carbon for Boosting Faradaic Efficiency of the Electrochemical Nitrogen Reduction Reaction

A nanocomposite of PC/Sb/SbPO₄ (PC, phosphorus‐doped carbon) exhibits a high activity and an excellent selectivity for efficient electrocatalytic conversion of N₂ to NH₃ in both acidic and neutral electrolytes under ambient conditions. At a low reductive potential of ?0.15 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), the PC/Sb/SbPO₄ catalyst achieves a high Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 31 % for ammonia production in 0.1 m HCl under mild conditions. In particular, a remarkably high FE value of 34 % is achieved at a lower reductive potential of ?0.1 V (vs. RHE) in a 0.1 m Na₂SO₄ solution, which is better than most reported electrocatalysts towards the nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) in neutral electrolyte under mild conditions. The change in surface species and electrocatalytic performance before and after N₂ reduction is explored by an ex situ method. PC and SbPO₄ are both considered as the active species that enhanced the performance of NRR.