Effect of Arylmethylene Substitutions on Molecular Structure,Optoelectronic Properties and Photovoltaic Performance of Dithienocyclopentafluorene-Based Small-Molecule Acceptors

Two dithienocyclopentafluorene-based small-molecule acceptors (SMAs) were developed that feature methylene-functionalized conjugated side chains, to study the effect of arylmethylene substitution and its number on structure, optoelectronic properties and device performance. Results showed that two SMAs have better absorption properties and planarity, lower bandgaps and higher LUMOs compared with the control SMA without conjugated side chains. The synthesized SMAs were tested in polymer solar cells for examples of their applicability. This work argues that the introduction of methylene-functionalized conjugated side chains has great potential in tuning molecular structure, optoelectronic properties, device physics and photovoltaic performance of SMAs.     

Spatial donor/acceptor architecture for intramolecular charge-transfer emitter

Charge transfer via electron hopping from an electron donor (D) to an acceptor (A) in nanoscale, plays a crucial role in optoelectronic materials, such as organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs). Here, we propose a strategy for binding D/A units in space, where intramolecular charge-transfer can take place. The resulted material DM-Me-B is able to give bright emission in this molecular architecture because of the good control of D/A interaction and conformational rigidity. Moreover, DM-Me-B presents small singlet-triplet splitting energy, enabling thermally activated delayed fluorescence. Therefore, the DM-Me-B exhibits ～20% maximum external quantum efficiency and low efficiency roll-off at 1000 cd/m², certifying an effective strategy in controlling D/A blocks through space.     

Removal of oxygen from silicon by electron beam melting

Small amounts of multicrystalline silicon were melted in an electron beam furnace in different experimental conditions in order to investigate the oxygen evaporation behavior during the electron beam melting (EBM) process. The oxygen content level before and after EBM was determined by secondary ion mass spectroscopy. The oxygen content was reduced from 6.177 to 1.629 ppmw when silicon was melted completely at 15 kW with removal efficiency up to 73.6 %. After that, it decreased continually to <0.0517 ppmw when the refining time exceeded 600 s with a removal efficiency of more than 99.08 %. During the melting process, the evaporation rate of silicon is 1.10 × 10^?5 kg/s. The loss of silicon could be reduced up to 1.7 % during oxygen removal process to a desirable figure, indicating EBM is an effective method to remove oxygen from silicon and decrease the loss of silicon.     

89Zr and 177Lu labeling of anti-DR5 monoclonal antibody for colorectal cancer targeting PET-imaging and radiotherapy

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - Death receptor 5 (DR5) is overexpressed in many tumors. Combination of the anti-DR5 antibody with radionuclides such as lutetium-177 (177Lu) could...     

Surface characterization of TEMPO‐oxidized bacterial cellulose

In this study, we focused on the surface character of bacterial cellulose (BC) before and after oxidation mediated by 2,2,6,6‐tetramethylpiperidine‐1‐oxyl (TEMPO).Solid‐state ¹³C NMR, XPS, SEM, contact angle and surface free energy analyses were performed to investigate the effects of various parameters (reaction time and oxidant and catalyst concentrations) on the surface composition, morphology and polarity of the BC. The results provided by the combined use of these techniques showed that hydrogen bonds were disrupted on the BC surface after carboxylation occurred; therefore, the surface of oxidized BC was rougher than that of the original BC, and the surface free energy, especially the polar components, increased after oxidation. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Investigation of the Interaction Between N-benzyl Piperidones and Bovine Serum Albumin by Spectroscopic Approaches

Fluorescence and ultraviolet spectroscopies were applied to investigate the interaction between five N-benzyl piperidones (NBP) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) under imitated physiological conditions. The experimental results show that these NBPs have a static fluorescence quenching effect on the endogenous fluorescence of BSA at the temperatures 302 and 310?K. According to the fluorescence quenching theory, the Stern?CVolmer quenching constant (K _SV), the binding constant (K _a), and the number of binding sites (n) were obtained. Also, the effect of substituents on the binding capacity between NBP and BSA is in the order: C₆H₅?<?4-CH₃OC₆H₄?<?4-CH₃C₆H₄?<?2,4-Cl₂C₆H₃?<?4-ClC₆H₄. The corresponding thermodynamic parameters (??G, ??H, and ??S) were obtained at two different temperatures and indicate that hydrogen bonding and van der Waals forces play main roles in stabilizing the BSA?CNBP complex. The binding distance between the tryptophan residue in BSA and NBP was found to be much <7?nm based on the F?rster theory of non-radiation energy transfer. The effect of NBP on the conformation of BSA was analyzed as well by synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy.     

Bogdanov–Takens bifurcation in a tri-neuron BAM neural network model with multiple delays

In this paper, a tri-neuron BAM neural network model with multiple delays is considered. We show that the connection topology of the network plays a fundamental role in classifying the rich dynamics and bifurcation phenomena. There is a wide range of different dynamical behaviors which can be produced by varying the coupling strength. By choosing the connected weights c ₂₁ and c ₃₁ (the connection weights through the neurons from J-layer to I-layer) as bifurcation parameters, the critical values where a Bogdanov–Takens bifurcation occurs are derived. Then, by computing the normal forms for the system, the bifurcation diagrams are obtained. Furthermore, some interesting phenomena, such as saddle-node bifurcation, pitchfork bifurcation, homoclinic bifurcation, heteroclinic bifurcation and double limit cycle bifurcation are found by choosing the different connection strengths. Some numerical simulations are given to support the analytic results.     

Stabilization of zeylenone in rat plasma by the presence of esterase inhibitors and its LC‐MS/MS assay for pharmacokinetic study

Six esterase inhibitors, namely EDTA·2Na⁺, NaF, phenylmethanesulfonyl fluoride, dichlorvos, bis‐nitrophenyl phosphate (BNPP) and thenoyltrifluoroacetone, and the mixture of NaF and BNPP, were evaluated for the stabilization of labile benzoate containing zeylenone in rat plasma. The mixture appeared to exhibit the most effectively stabilizing effect with the degraded content of zeylenone decreasing from >60% (in the absence of inhibitors) to <6%. Following the stabilization by the addition of NaF (5 mm ) and BNPP (5 mm ), the analytes in rat plasma were acidified by formic acid and extracted into ethyl acetate at 0°C. After chromatographic separation, the detection of zeylenone was performed on a 3200 Q‐Trap with positive ion electrospray mode, monitoring the ion transition m/z 383.2 → 105.0. The method was validated over the range from 2.68 to 1340 ng/mL with inter‐ and intra‐run precision for the quality control samples being less than 6.8%. The assay accuracy was within 100 ± 7.0%. The validated method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study in rats after the intratracheal administration of zeylenone in free drug or polymeric micellar solutions. The results showed that the pulmonary absorption of zeylenone loaded in micelles was significantly retarded compared with that of free drug solutions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.