An investigation into causes and effects of high cyanide levels in the palladium-catalyzed cyanation reaction

[reaction: see text] The palladium-catalyzed cyanation reaction is known to be sensitive to dissolved cyanide. Investigation into some causes of high levels of dissolved cyanide is presented here, along with a robust solution to this problem.     

Entwurf zur Bodenanalyse

Ohne ZusammenfassungBegutachtet von den Commissionsmitgliedern: Dr. Bretschneider, Dr. Grouven, Professor Dr. Knop, Dr. Peters, Dr. Stohmann und Dr. Zöller.Bei der ersten Wanderversammlung deutscher Agriculturchemiker, welche im Mai 1863 zu Leipzig gehalten wurde, sind zum Behufe der Ausarbeitung gemeinsam zu befolgender Methoden und Untersuchungssysteme Commissionen ernannt worden. Als erste Frucht von deren Arbeiten ist in den Landw. Versuchs-Stationen, dem Organ für wissenschaftliche Forschungen auf dem Gebiete der Landwirthschaft, herausgegeben von Dr. Fr. Nobbe, Band VI, der Entwurf zurBodenanalyse von Dr. Emil Wolff, begutachtet von den andern Commissionsmitgliedern, veröffentlicht worden. Ich theile denselben im Einverständniss mit dem Herrn Verfasser auch an dieser Stelle mit, einerseits um den löblichen Zweck, welchen die Wanderversammlung der deutschen Agriculturchemiker im Auge hat, nach Kräften zu fördern, andererseits die mancherlei neuen Methoden, welche bei agriculturchemischen Untersuchungen in Gebrauch gekommen sind, auch in den Kreisen zu verbreiten, welchen die speciell agriculturchemischen Schriften nicht zu Gesicht kommen. Ich füge hinzu, dass die kleine Modification auf S. 94, sowie die Anmerkungen ebendaselbst in Folge brieflicher Mittheilung des Herrn Prof. Wolff aufgenommen worden sind. Dem Wunsche desselben, dass ich meinerseits Bemerkungen zufügen möchte, werde ich gerne entsprechen, so bald ich Zeit finde, betreffende Experimentaluntersuchungen vorzunehmen. R. F.     

Prediction and realisation of high mobility and degenerate p-type conductivity in CaCuP thin films

Phosphides are interesting candidates for hole transport materials and p-type transparent conducting applications, capable of achieving greater valence band dispersion than their oxide counterparts due to the higher lying energy and increased size of the P 3p orbital. After computational identification of the indirect-gap semiconductor CaCuP as a promising candidate, we now report reactive sputter deposition of phase-pure p-type CaCuP thin films. Their intrinsic hole concentration and hole mobility exceed 1 × 10²⁰ cm⁻³ and 35 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ at room temperature, respectively. Transport calculations indicate potential for even higher mobilities. Copper vacancies are identified as the main source of conductivity, displaying markedly different behaviour compared to typical p-type transparent conductors, leading to improved electronic properties. The optical transparency of CaCuP films is lower than expected from first principles calculations of phonon-mediated indirect transitions. This discrepancy could be partly attributed to crystalline imperfections within the films, increasing the strength of indirect transitions. We determine the transparent conductor figure of merit of CaCuP films as a function of composition, revealing links between stoichiometry, crystalline quality, and opto-electronic properties. These findings provide a promising initial assessment of the viability of CaCuP as a p-type transparent contact.

We synthesize air-stable, p-type CaCuP thin films with high hole concentration and high hole mobility as potential p-type transparent conductors. We study their optoelectronic properties in detail by advanced experimental and computational methods.     

Quantitative x-ray phase-contrast imaging using a single grating of comparable pitch to sample feature size

The ability to quantitatively retrieve transverse phase maps during imaging by using coherent x rays often requires a precise grating or analyzer-crystal-based setup. Imaging of live animals presents further challenges when these methods require multiple exposures for image reconstruction. We present a simple method of single-exposure, single-grating quantitative phase contrast for a regime in which the grating period is much greater than the effective pixel size. A grating is used to create a high-visibility reference pattern incident on the sample, which is distorted according to the complex refractive index and thickness of the sample. The resolution, along a line parallel to the grating, is not restricted by the grating spacing, and the detector resolution becomes the primary determinant of the spatial resolution. We present a method of analysis that maps the displacement of interrogation windows in order to retrieve a quantitative phase map. Application of this analysis to the imaging of known phantoms shows excellent correspondence.     

Planar imaging of a laboratory flame and of internal combustion in an automobile engine using UV rayleigh and fluorescence light

Rayleigh scattering of tunable excimer laser light (193 nm and 248 nm) is used to obtain 2-D images of the distribution of total densities in a laboratory flame and in a cylinder of an automobile engine. Because the UV light is very strongly scattered, there is ample signal and there is excellent contrast of Rayleigh light against surface scattered light, even in the small volume of the engine cylinder. The laboratory flame data are converted to an image of the temperature field. The Rayleigh images are compared with those from planar laser induced predissociative fluorescence, which yield state-specific densities of selected molecules. The experimental arrangement is the same except for the selection of laser wavelength and the filtering of the radiated light.     

Tracking extended mucociliary transport activity of individual deposited particles: longitudinal synchrotron X‐ray imaging in live mice

To assess potential therapies for respiratory diseases in which mucociliary transit (MCT) is impaired, such as cystic fibrosis and primary ciliary dyskinesia, a novel and non‐invasive MCT quantification method has been developed in which the transit rate and behaviour of individual micrometre‐sized deposited particles are measured in live mice using synchrotron phase‐contrast X‐ray imaging. Particle clearance by MCT is known to be a two‐phase process that occurs over a period of minutes to days. Previous studies have assessed MCT in the fast‐clearance phase, ～20 min after marker particle dosing. The aim of this study was to non‐invasively image changes in particle presence and MCT during the slow‐clearance phase, and simultaneously determine whether repeat synchrotron X‐ray imaging of mice was feasible over periods of 3, 9 and 25 h. All mice tolerated the repeat imaging procedure with no adverse effects. Quantitative image analysis revealed that the particle MCT rate and the number of particles present in the airway both decreased with time. This study successfully demonstrated for the first time that longitudinal synchrotron X‐ray imaging studies are possible in live small animals, provided appropriate animal handling techniques are used and care is taken to reduce the delivered radiation dose.     

Full utilization of a mass spectrometer using on-demand sharing with multiple LC units

The applicability of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC/MS) is often limited by throughput. The sharing of a mass spectrometer with multiple LCs significantly improves throughput; however, the reported systems have not been designed to fully utilize the MS duty cycle, and as a result to achieve maximum throughput. To fully utilize the mass spectrometer, the number of LC units that a MS will need to recruit is application dependent and could be significantly larger than the current commercial or published implementations. For the example of a single analyte, the number may approach the peak capacity to a first degree approximation. Here, the construction of a MS system that flexibly recruits any number of LC units demanded by the application is discussed, followed by the method to port a previously developed LC/MS method to the system to fully utilize a mass spectrometer. To demonstrate the performance and operation, a prototypical MS system of eight LC units was constructed. When 1-min chromatographic separations were performed in parallel on the eight LCs of the system, the average LC/MS analysis time per sample was 10.5 s when applied to the analysis of samples in 384-well plate format. This system has been successfully used to conduct large-volume biochemical assays with the analysis of a variety of molecular entities in support of drug discovery efforts. Allowing the recruitment of the number of LC units appropriate for a given application, this system has the potential to be a plug-and-play system to fully utilize a mass spectrometer. Copyright ? 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.