Electron transport in self-assembled polymer molecular junctions

A molecular junction of a poly(p-phenyleneethynylene)s derivative with thioacetate end groups (TA-PPE) was fabricated by self-assembling. Nanogap electrodes made by electroplating technique was used to couple thiol end groups of TA-PPE molecules. Room temperature current-voltage characteristics of the molecular junction exhibited highly periodic, repeatable, and identical stepwise features. First-principles calculations suggest that one possibility for the equidistant step is due to the opening of different conducting channels that corresponds to the unoccupied molecular orbitals of the polymer in the junction. It is interesting to see that an 18 nm long polymer is of quantized electronic structures and behaves like a quantum transport device.     

Microchannel device using self-spreading lipid bilayer as molecule carrier

We propose a microchannel device that employs a surface-supported self-spreading lipid bilayer membrane as a molecule carrying medium. The device has a micropattern structure fabricated on a SiO2 surface by photolithography, into which a self-spreading lipid bilayer membrane is introduced as the carrier medium. This system corresponds to a microchannel with a single lipid bilayer membrane height of approximately 5 nm, compared with conventional micro-fluidic channels that have a section height and width of at least several microm. The device is beneficial for detecting intermolecular interactions when molecules carried by the self-spreading lipid bilayer collide with each other in the microchannel. The validity of the device was confirmed by observing the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between two dye molecules, coumarin and fluorescein.     

Copper hydroperoxo species activated by hydrogen-bonding interaction with its distal oxygen

A novel copper(II)[bond]OOH complex with functional ligand that can form a hydrogen bond with the distal oxygen of hydroperoxide has been designed and prepared as a structural/functional model of dopamine beta-hydroxylases, whose spectroscopic characterization and decomposition rates have indicated that the hydroperoxide is activated through the hydrogen-bonding interaction with the distal oxygen.     

Synthesis and reactivity of a (mu-1,1-hydroperoxo)(mu-hydroxo)dicopper(II) complex: ligand hydroxylation by a bridging hydroperoxo ligand

A new tetradentate tripodal ligand (L3) containing sterically bulky imidazolyl groups was synthesized, where L3 is tris(1-methyl-2-phenyl-4-imidazolylmethyl)amine. Reaction of a bis(mu-hydroxo)dicopper(II) complex, [Cu2(L3)2(OH)2]2+ (1), with H2O2 in acetonitrile at -40 degrees C generated a (mu-1,1-hydroperoxo)dicopper(II) complex [Cu2(L3)2(OOH)(OH)]2+ (2), which was characterized by various physicochemical measurements including X-ray crystallography. The crystal structure of 2 revealed that the complex cation has a Cu2(mu-1,1-OOH)(mu-OH) core and each copper has a square pyramidal structure having an N3O2 donor set with a weak ligation of a tertiary amine nitrogen in the apex. Consequently, one pendant arm of L3 in 2 is free from coordination, which produces a hydrophobic cavity around the Cu2(mu-1,1-OOH)(mu-OH) core. The hydrophobic cavity is preserved by hydrogen bondings between the hydroperoxide and the imidazole nitrogen of an uncoordinated pendant arm in one side and the hydroxide and the imidazole nitrogen of an uncoordinated pendant arm in the other side. The hydrophobic cavity significantly suppresses the H/D and 16O/18O exchange reactions in 2 compared to that in 1 and stabilizes the Cu2(mu-1,1-OOH)(mu-OH) core against decomposition. Decomposition of 2 in acetonitrile at 0 degrees C proceeded mainly via disproportionation of the hydroperoxo ligand and reduction of 2 to [Cu(L3)]+ by hydroperoxo ligand. In contrast, decomposition of a solid sample of 2 at 60 degrees C gave a complex having a hydroxylated ligand [Cu2(L3)(L3-OH)(OH)2]2+ (2-(L3-OH)) as a main product, where L3-OH is an oxidized ligand in which one of the methylene groups of the pendant arms is hydroxylated. ESI-TOF/MS measurement showed that complex 2-(L3-OH) is stable in acetonitrile at -40 degrees C, whereas warming 2-(L3-OH) at room temperature resulted in the N-dealkylation from L3-OH to give an N-dealkylated ligand, bis(1-methyl-2-phenyl-4-imidazolylmethyl)amine (L2) in approximately 80% yield based on 2, and 1-methyl-2-phenyl-4-formylimidazole (Phim-CHO). Isotope labeling experiments confirmed that the oxygen atom in both L3-OH and Phim-CHO come from OOH. This aliphatic hydroxylation performed by 2 is in marked contrast to the arene hydroxylation reported for some (mu-1,1-hydroperoxo)dicopper(II) complexes with a xylyl linker.     

Catalytic determination of nanogram amounts of Mn(II) by the aerial oxidative coupling reaction of 3-methyl-2-benzothiazolinone hydrazone with N,N-dimethylaniline

Summary A new catalytic method for the determination of nanogram level of Mn(II) is developed, which is based on its catalytic effect on the aerial oxidative coupling reaction of 3-methyl-2-benzothiazolinone hydrazone (MBTH) withN, N-dimethylaniline (DMA) to form an indamine dye (_max=590 nm) in the presence of 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) as an activator. A detection limit of <0.05 ng Mn(II)/ml can be achieved and as low as 10^–9 M Mn(II) can easily be determined by measuring the absorbance of the dye at a fixed time (50 min at 30° C). The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of manganese in natural waters by using 0.02–4 ml of water samples without preconcentration and separation.     

Ion-exchange separation of proteins by polyallylamine-grafted cellulose gel

A cellulose-based anion exchanger bearing water-soluble polycation was tested for separation of proteins. The exchanger was obtained by partial oxidation of cellulose gel by aq. NaIO4 followed by Schiff base formation with polyallylamine (PAA, molecular mass 5000). The retention behavior of proteins for three grades of PAA-cellulose gels, with amino group contents of 0.35, 0.59 and 0.96 mmol/g cellulose, was examined at several pH values and compared with that for conventional DEAE-cellulose gel with amino group content of 1.07 mmol/g cellulose. The retention of proteins by PAA-cellulose gels was remarkably greater than that for the DEAE-cellulose gel. Pairs of proteins having close isoelectric points and molecular masses (human and bovine serum albumins; beta-lactoglobulin A and B) could be separated by the PAA-cellulose gel columns. Such efficiency can be ascribed to high local density of grafted polyallylamine, in contrast to the random and sparse charge distribution in DEAE-cellulose.     

First-principles energy band calculation for undoped and S-doped TiO2 with anatase structure

The electronic structure of S-doped TiO₂ with an optimized anatase structure was calculated within the framework of the density functional theory (DFT). For the calculation we built four kinds of supercells; type-A and B supercells consist of 12 and 48 atoms and a centered Ti atom is substituted for an S atom, while type-C and D supercells consist of 12 and 48 atoms and a centered O atom is substituted for an S atom. The supercells (type-B and D) were employed to adjust the S-concentration in TiO₂ to an experimental value of a few %. The changes of the lattice parameters are not significant in the type-A and B supercells. The phase transition from the tetragonal to the orthorhombic occurs in the type-C and D supercells. In the small supercell (type-A), S-related states are located in the range of −1.6 to 0 eV, and the S-states are band-like. In contrast, in the large supercell (type-B), S-related states appeared at about 0.9 eV above the top of the valence band, and the S-states are atomic-like. The localization of the S-related states is remarkable in the type-B supercell. In the type-D supercell, the S-related states were merged with the top of the valence band, and as a result the band-gap energy is narrowed by 0.7 eV. Despite a low S-concentration (3%) in the type-D supercell, the S-related states are somewhat band-like.     

100 W, single-frequency operation of an injection-locked Nd:YAG laser

We have built a single-frequency Nd:YAG laser capable of producing an output power of 101 W by injection locking a slave laser that can emit an output power of 121 W in the free-running state to a 2-W master laser. We confirmed that the output mode was diffraction limited and linearly polarized.