Preparation and characterization of rapid magnetic recyclable Fe<Subscript>3</Subscript>O<Subscript>4</Subscript>@SiO<Subscript>2</Subscript>@TiO<Subscript>2</Subscript>–Sn photocatalyst

Effective procedure to synthesize Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@TiO₂–Sn magnetically separable photocatalyst by a combination of co-precipitation, sol–gel and photodeposition methods was introduced. Products were characterized by XRD, SEM, VSM, EDS, DRS, TEM, ICP-OES and IR techniques. The dimensions of catalyst particle size were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy, and results approved nanoscale size for product. In addition, studying the magnetic nature by VSM analysis showed superparamagnetic properties for all samples. XRD pattern indicates that TiO₂ coated on Fe₃O₄@SiO₂ core well crystallized at 400 °C in anatase phase. Synthesized photocatalyst shows good photocatalytic performance in decolorization of rhodamine B aqueous solution. The composite nanoparticles showed high recycling efficiency and stability over five separation cycles.     

1-Vinyl-1,2,4-triazole in copolymerization reaction with 1-vinyl-4,5,6,7-tetrahydroindole: synthesis and properties of copolymers

A radical copolymerization of 1-vinyl-1,2,4-triazole (VTA) with 1-vinyl-4,5,6,7-tetrahy-droindole (VTHI) was studied. New thermally stable functional copolymers of different composition, well soluble in organic solvents were synthesized. It was found that VTA has higher reactivity as compared to VTHI. A new soluble polymeric nanocomposite with metallic silver nanoparticles encapsulated into the matrix of synthesized copolymer was obtained.     

Conjugation of pectin biopolymer with Au-nanoparticles as a drug delivery system: Experimental and DFT studies

In the present study, pectin-coated gold nanoparticles (GNPs) were used as a candidate for curcumin drug delivery. The effect of the size of synthesized GNPs was examined, as an important factor on the yield of drug delivery. For this purpose, three different sizes of GNPs were first synthesized using a chemical method. The synthesized nanoparticles were then coated with pectin biopolymer. Finally, curcumin drug was loaded in a pectin@GNPs complex. Various methods such as UV–vis spectrophotometry, dynamic light scattering, scanning electron microscopy and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy were used to characterize the synthesized GNPs and pectin@GNPs. The encapsulation efficiency and the release percentage of the drug were calculated for two different pH values. Further, an antibacterial study was conducted. The results revealed that 100 nm GNPs had the highest encapsulation efficiency. An investigation of the release rate of curcumin drug at 37°C for 48 h indicated that the amount of drug released was higher in acidic pH than at pH 7.4 with a slow release rate. The electronic structure and the adsorption properties of pectin–GNPs complex were examined using the density functional theory method.     

Acid-base properties of poly(1-vinylazoles) in aqueous solution

The interaction of poly(1-vinylimidazole) and poly(1-vinyl-1,2,4-triazole) with HCl and alkalies in aqueous and water-salt solutions was investigated by potentiometric titration, viscosimetry, ¹H and ¹³C NMR, and UV spectroscopy. The effect of the nature and concentration of low-molecular counterions was found. The interaction of poly(1-vinylazoles) with the acid results in the protonation of the azole cycle. The interaction of poly(1-vinylazoles) with alkalies is stipulated by the capability of the pyridine N atom of forming a coordination bond with the metal ion and that of the unsaturated pi-system of the heterocycle of coordinating with the anions.     

Nonequilibrium energy dissipation at the interface of sliding model hydroxylated alpha-alumina surfaces

Nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations were performed to study the dynamics of energy transfer at the interface of a small nanoscale hydroxylated alpha-alumina surface sliding across a much larger surface of the same material. Sliding velocities of 0.05, 0.5, 5, and 50 ms and loads of 0, 0.0625, 5, 15, 25, and 100 nN were considered. Nonequilibrium energy distributions were found at the interface for each of these conditions. The velocity distribution P(v) for the atoms in a sublayer of the smaller surface oscillates during the sliding, reflecting the periodicity of the interfacial intermolecular potential. When averaged over the sliding, this P(v) for each of the sublayers is bimodal with Boltzmann and non-Boltzmann components. The non-Boltzmann component, with temperatures in excess of 1000 K and as high as 2500 K, is most important for the interfacial H-atom sublayer and becomes less important in moving to a sublayer further from the interface. Similarly, the temperature of the Boltzmann component decreases for sublayers further from the interface and approaches the 300 K temperature of the boundary. The temperature of the Boltzmann component decreases, but the importance of the non-Boltzmann component increases, as the sliding velocity is decreased. The temperature of the non-Boltzmann component is relatively insensitive to the sliding velocity. Friction forces are determined by calculating the energy dissipation during the sliding, and different regimes are found for variation in the friction force versus sliding velocity v(s) and applied load. For v(s) of 0.05, 0.5, and 5 ms, the friction force is inversely proportional to v(s) reflecting the increased time for energy dissipation as v(s) is decreased.     

Spark-generated bubble collapse near or inside a circular aperture and the ensuing vortex ring and droplet formation

This paper aims to study the oscillation of a sparkgenerated submerged bubble located near or inside a circular aperture made in a flat plate using high-speed visualization technique. In the case of a bubble oscillating near an aperture the initial free surface of the water was set at the bottom surface of the plate. The effects of aperture size and bubblefree surface distance on the bubble behavior as well as on the ensuing droplet dynamics are investigated. It was found that the direction of the bubble reentrant jet was towards the aperture or away from it respectively when the normalized aperture size was smaller or greater than a certain critical value. In addition, a toroidal vortex ring was observed to form, which rotated inwards as it moved away from the aperture. It was also found that if the bubble was incepted at a distance sufficiently away from a supercritical size aperture a single droplet could be produced. In the case of a bub- ble initiated in the middle of a circular aperture submerged just beneath the water free surface, the bubble was found to take the shape of an ellipsoid during its expansion. Then a reentrant jet was initiated and pierced the bubble from its top side.     

Reference trajectory tracking for locally designed coherent quantum controls

Local time control methods are used in the simulation of quantum control phenomena because they conveniently ensure an increase of a predefined performance index and also avoid singularities associated with tracking procedures. However, the drawback of the existing implementations is that they only take into account one-photon, direct transitions and may stop at nonoptimal values of the index. We propose in this paper a modification of the currently used algorithms that addresses this issue and explain how the convergence is improved. Furthermore, when iterations are required, we show that this approach can be inserted into a monotonically convergent algorithm.     

Simultaneous spectrophotometric determination of metformin hydrochloride and glibenclamide in binary mixtures using combined discrete and continuous wavelet transforms

In this work, a combined discrete and continuous wavelet transform analysis was developed for simultaneous spectrophotometric determinations of metformin hydrochloride and glibenclamide, two antidiabetic drugs, in binary mixtures without any chemical pretreatment. Absorption spectra were subjected to the 4-level db4 discrete wavelet transform (DWT) for signal de-noising. Selected continuous wavelet transform (CWT) families (rbio3.1 with scaling factor, a = 80, and gaus2, a = 60) were applied on these de-noised signals. Finally, a zero-crossing technique was used for the construction of calibration curves for both drugs. The proposed method was validated by analyzing synthetic mixtures of the investigated drugs with various concentrations. The amount of metformin hydrochloride and glibenclamide were determined by using CWT amplitudes in zero-crossing points. The mean recovery values of metformin hydrochloride and glibenclamide were found between 98.6-102.0 and 97.9-102.4% for rbio3 and 98.3-101.2 and 97.1-101.4% for gaus2 families, respectively. The obtained results showed that the developed method is a simple, rapid and precise procedure for the simultaneous determination of metformin hydrochloride and glibenclamide in binary mixtures.