The influence of H2/(H2 + Ar) ratio on microstructure and optoelectronic properties of microcrystalline silicon films deposited by plasma-enhanced CVD

Hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon films were deposited by glow discharge decomposition of SiH₄ diluted in mixed gas of Ar and H₂. By investigating the dependence of the film crystallinity on the flow rates of Ar and H₂, we showed that the addition of Ar in diluted gas markedly improves the crystallinity due to an enhanced dissociation of SiH₄. The infrared-absorption spectrum reveals that the fraction of SiH bonding increases with increasing the rate ratio of H₂/(H₂ + Ar). The surface roughness of the films increases with increasing the flow rate ratio of H₂/(H₂ + Ar), which is attributed to the decrease of massive bombardment of Ar ions in the plasma. Refractive index and absorption coefficient of the films were obtained by simulating the optical transmission spectra using a modified envelope method. Electrical measurements of the films show that the dark conductivity increases and the activation energy decreases with the ratio of H₂/(H₂ + Ar). A reasonable explanation is presented for the dependence of the microstructure and optoelectronic properties on the flow rate ratio of H₂/(H₂ + Ar).     

A novel strategy for in situ maskless synthesis of biochips： Self-driving micro-fluid porous type printing （SMPTP）

A novel maskless technique,self-driving micro-fluid porous type printing(SMPTP),was reported to in situ synthesize oligonucleotide arrays on glass slide,which has the merits of low cost,high quality and simple craft.In SMPTP for fabricating gene- chips,porous fiber tubes with a number of nanometric or micron channels functioned as“active letters”and were assembled in designed patterns,which are identical to the distribution of monomers in each layer of the array,and four patterns were needed for each layer.By means of capillarity,the synthesis solution was automatically taken into porous tubes assembled in a printing plate and reached the surface.An oligonucleotide array of 160 features with four different 15-mer probes was in situ synthesized using this technique.The four specific oligonucleotide probes,including the matched and the mismatched by the fluorescent target sequence,gave obviously different hybridization fluorescent signals.     

Total synthesis of lobatoside E, a potent antitumor cyclic triterpene saponin

Lobatoside E, a novel and complex cyclic triterpene saponin showing potent antitumor activities, has been synthesized for the first time, employing a highly modular approach. The synthesis, starting with oleanolic acid, D-glucose, D-galactose, L-arabinose, and L-rhamnose, requires a total of 73 steps, with the longest linear sequence of 31 steps and in 1.2% overall yield.     

Dynamic thermal analysis of solid-state reactions

There are many reactions of interest in which one or more of the reactants belong to some solid phases. Modern thermoanalytical instruments can conveniently provide reaction kinetic data of high precision and accuracy, from which the underlying activation energyE may be derived in principle. Unfortunately, no best method yet exists for the derivation when the data have been collected with a programmed linear increase in sample temperature, unlike the case of isothermal measurements, which however suffer from experimental limitations [1]. Here we propose a method for extractingE from non-isothermal data, that promises general validity.     

High-performance thin-layer chromatographic analysis of selected organophosphorous pesticide residues in tea

The separation of 9 organophosphates (monocrotophos, quinalphos, triazophos, parathion-methyl, isofenphos-methyl, temephos, parathion, phoxim-ethyl, and chlorpyrifos) by high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) with automated multiple development was studied. The HPTLC method was developed and validated for analysis of residues of phoxim-ethyl and chlorpyrifos in tea. The sample was extracted with acetonitrile and cleaned up by ENVI-CARB solid-phase extraction. The extract was directly applied as bands to glass-backed silica gel 60F254 HPTLC plates. The plates were developed with dichloromethane-hexane (1 + 1, v/v) in a glass twin-trough chamber. Evaluation of the developed HPTLC plates was performed densitometrically. The results indicated that the detection limits of phoxim and chlorpyrifos were 5.0 x 10(-9) and 1.0 x 10(-8) g, respectively. Recoveries of the pesticides from tea by this analytical method were 90.7-105.5%, and relative standard deviations were 7.3-13.5%. The precision and accuracy of the method were generally satisfactory for analysis of pesticide residues in tea.     

Facile RAFT precipitation polymerization for the microwave-assisted synthesis of well-defined, double hydrophilic block copolymers and nanostructured hydrogels

Water-soluble macromolecular chain transfer agents (Macro-CTAs) were developed for the microwave-assisted precipitation polymerization of N-isopropylacrylamide. Two types of Macro-CTAs, amphiphilic (Macro-CTA1) and hydrophilic (Macro-CTA2), were investigated regarding their activity for the facile formation of nanoparticles and double hydrophilic block copolymers by RAFT processes. While both Macro-CTAs functioned as steric stabilization agents, the variation in their surface activity afforded different levels of control over the resulting nanoparticles in the presence of cross-linkers. The cross-linked nanoparticles produced using the amphiphilic Macro-CTA1 were less uniform than those produced using the fully hydrophilic Macro-CTA2. The nanoparticles spontaneously formed core-shell structures with surface functionalities derived from those of the Macro-CTAs. In the absence of cross-linkers, both types of Macro-CTAs showed excellent control over the RAFT precipitation polymerization process with well-defined, double hydrophilic block copolymers being obtained. The power of combining microwave irradiation with RAFT procedures was evident in the high efficiency and high solids content of the polymerization systems. In addition, the "living" nature of the nanoparticles allowed for further copolymerization leading to multiresponsive nanostructured hydrogels containing surface functional groups, which were used for surface bioconjugation.     

Structure analysis of polyether-based thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers by FTIR, 1H NMR and 13C NMR

One kind of unknown structure sequence and composition ratio of thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers were characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy, and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The results showed that the polyurethane (PU) was obtained from poly(tetramethylene glycol) (PTMG) as soft segment, 1,4-butanediol (BDO) as chain extender, and 4,4′-methylenediphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) as hard segment. Furthermore, the composition ratio of MDI:PTMG:BDO was 2.07:1.22:1.00. At last, the molecular weight of PU was determined by GPC, and the number average molecular weight (M_n) and weight average molecular weight (M_w) are 63,300 and 133,800?g?mol^?1, respectively.