Piezochromic fluorescence in liquid crystalline conjugated polymers

Liquid crystalline diphenylacetylene polymer derivatives showed piezochromic fluorescence via order-to-disorder phase transition.     

Conductivity‐Dependent Completion of Oxygen Reduction on Oxide Catalysts

The electric conductivity‐dependence of the number of electrons transferred during the oxygen reduction reaction is presented. Intensive properties, such as the number of electrons transferred, are difficult to be considered conductivity‐dependent. Four different perovskite oxide catalysts of different conductivities were investigated with varying carbon contents. More conductive environments surrounding active sites, achieved by more conductive catalysts (providing internal electric pathways) or higher carbon content (providing external electric pathways), resulted in higher number of electrons transferred toward more complete 4e reduction of oxygen, and also changed the rate‐determining steps from two‐step 2e process to a single‐step 1e process. Experimental evidence of the conductivity dependency was described by a microscopic ohmic polarization model based on effective potential localized nearby the active sites.     

Metal-directed supramolecular assembly of metal(II) benzoates (M = Co,Ni, Cu,Zn, Mn,and Cd) with 4,4′-bipyridine: Effects of metal coordination modes and novel catalytic activities

Six polymeric metal(II)-benzoate complexes of formula [Co₂(O₂CPh)₄(4,4′-bpy)₂]_n (1-Co), [Ni(O₂CPh)₄(H₂O)₂(4,4′-bpy)]_n (2-Ni), [Cu₂(O₂CPh)₄(4,4′-bpy)]_n (3-Cu), [Zn₂(O₂CPh)₂(OH)₂(4,4′-bpy)₂]_n (4-Zn), [Zn₃(O₂CPh)₄(μ-OH)₂(4,4′-bpy)₂]_n (5-Zn), and [Cd₂(O₂CPh)₄(4,4′-bpy)₂]_n (6-Cd) have been synthesized and characterized (4,4′-bpy = 4,4′-bipyridine). 1-Co and 6-Cd show ladder-type double chains, 2-Ni does a helical structure, 3-Cu does a one-dimensional chain containing paddle-wheel units, 4-Zn does a zigzag chain, and 5-Zn does two-dimensional sheets. Since different structures provide different coordination geometry of each metal ion, it is clear that selection of appropriate metal ions can control the coordination geometry of each metal ion to form different crystal structures. Reactivity study of the compounds 1–7 for the transesterification of a variety of esters has shown that 4-Zn and 5-Zn are very efficient and the best among them. The catalyst 6-Cd containing Cd ion, well known as an inert metal ion for the ligand substitution, also catalyzed efficiently the transesterification of a variety of esters, and its reactivity is comparable to 4-Zn and 5-Zn. Moreover, the redox-active metal-containing polymers, 1-Co, 3-Cu, and 7-Mn, have shown efficient catalytic reactivities for the transesterification reactions, while 2-Ni has displayed a very slow conversion. The reactivities of the compounds used in this study are in the order of 5-Zn > 4-Zn > 6-Cd > 7-Mn ∼ 3-Cu > 1-Co > 2-Ni, indicating that the non-redox metal-containing compounds (5-Zn, 4-Zn, and 6-Cd) show better activity than the redox-active metal-containing compounds (7-Mn, 3-Cu, 1-Co, and 2-Ni). These results suggest that it is possible to tune the catalytic activities by changing from Zn to those metals such as Cd, a kinetically inert metal, or Cu, Mn, and Co, the redox-active metals.     

Label-free aptasensor for platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) protein

A label-free aptasensor for platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) protein is reported. The aptasensor uses mixed self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) composed of a thiol-modified PDGF binding aptamer and 6-mercaptohexanol (MCH) on a gold electrode. The SAMs were characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) before and after binding of the protein using [Fe(CN)₆]^3−/4−, a redox marker ion as an indicator for the formation of a protein-aptamer complex. The CVs at the PDGF modified electrode showed significant differences, such as changes in the peak currents and peak-to-peak separation, before and after binding of the target protein. The EIS spectra, in the form of Nyquist plots, were analyzed with a Randles circuit while the electron transfer resistance R_ct was used to monitor the binding of the target protein. The results showed that, without any modification to the aptamer, the target protein can be recognized effectively at the PDGF binding aptamer SAMs at the electrode surface. Control experiments using non-binding oligonucleotides assembled at the electrode surfaces also confirmed the results and showed that there was no formation of an aptamer-protein complex. The DPV signal at the aptamer functionalized electrode showed a linearly decreased marker ion peak current in a protein concentrations range of 1-40 nM. Thus, label-free detection of PDGF protein at an aptamer modified electrode has been demonstrated.     

Angular multiplexed holographic memory system based on moving window on liquid crystal display and its crosstalk analysis

We suggested a new non-mechanical angular multiplexed holographic memory system using a moving window, which was fabricated by controlling the pixels of a liquid crystal display (LCD) electronically. If we use light passed through the window left and right, and up and down, each window makes a reference wave with a different incidence angle and we can store angular-multiplexed holograms. The feasibility of the proposed method was demonstrated through optical experiments and its crosstalk noise analysis was also presented.     

Heat capacity measurements in carboxylic polyelectrolyte solutions

Apparent molal heat capacities as a function of the degree of neutralization have been determined for dilute aqueous solutions of poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), poly(methacrylic acid) (PMA), copoly(maleic acid-ethylene) (MAEt), and copoly(maleic acid-styrene) (MASt) using direct flow microcalorimetry. Apparent molal volumes were measured as well. Both molal heat capacity and molal volume decrease with increasing ionization of the polymer. The effect of the hydrophobic interactions of the methyl group or phenyl group was obtained from the difference in the molal quantities of PMA and PAA, or MASt and MAEt. No evidence of hydrophobic effects, as determined from the heat capacity, was found for the conformational transition of PMA, but the hydration of the phenyl groups in MASt was found to be changed significantly at a degree of neutralization of 0.4.     

Photogating effects of HgTe nanoparticles on a single ZnO nanowire

In this study, we demonstrate the photogating effects of p-type HgTe nanoparticles (NPs) on an n-type ZnO nanowire (NW). The photogating effects are due to the charge separation of the charge carriers photogenerated in the NPs under illumination and the subsequent accumulation of the photogenerated electrons in the pn junction of the NPs and the NW. The presence of the electrons in the junction reduces the current in the ZnO NW. The photogating effects are proved by the different photocurrent behavior of the ZnO NW to which the HgTe NPs are attached from that of a bare ZnO NW. In addition, the dependence of the photogating effects on the power of the incident light is discussed.     

Dependence structure of the Korean stock market in high frequency data

This paper analyzes the evolution of the dependence structure for various time window intervals, known as Epps effect, using the Trade and Quote data of 663 actively traded stocks in Korean stock market. It is found that the random matrix theory analysis could not represent the dependence structure of the stock market in the microstructure regime. The Cook-Johnson copula is introduced as a parsimonious alternative method to handle this problem, and the existence of the Epps effect is confirmed for the 663 stocks using high frequency data. It was also found that large capitalization companies tend to have a stronger dependence structure, except for the largest capitalization group, since the phenomenon of price level resistance leads to the weak dependence structure in the largest capitalization group. In addition, grouping the industry as a sub-portfolio is an appropriate approach for hour interval traders, whereas this approach is not a strategy recommended for high frequency traders.