Carbon nanotube–polybithiophene photovoltaic devices with high open‐circuit voltage

We report the preparation of photovoltaic devices using modified single wall carbon nanotubes, SWNTs. Devices are produced stacking on top of fluorine‐doped tin‐oxide, an electrochemically deposited polybithiophene layer, a layer of SWNT blended with poly(3‐octylthiophene) and an evaporated top metal contact, Ca/Al or Al. Ca/Al‐top‐electrode devices achieve open‐circuit voltages of 1.81 V and average power conversion efficiency of 1.48% at irradiance of 15.5 W m^–2, spectrally distributed following AM1.5. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Liquefying Flavonoids with Terpenoids through Deep Eutectic Solvent Formation

The formation of deep eutectic solvents (DES) is tied to negative deviations to ideality caused by the establishment of stronger interactions in the mixture than in the pure DES precursors. This work tested thymol and menthol as hydrogen bond donors when combined with different flavonoids. Negative deviations from ideality were observed upon mixing thymol with either flavone or flavanone, two parent flavonoids that only have hydrogen bond acceptor (HBA) groups, thus forming non-ionic DES (Type V). On the other hand, the menthol systems with the same compounds generally showed positive deviations from ideality. That was also the case with the mixtures containing the more complex hydroxylated flavonoid, hesperetin, which resulted in positive deviations when mixed with either thymol or menthol. COSMO-RS successfully predicted the behavior of the solid-liquid phase diagram of the studied systems, allowing for evaluation of the impact of the different contributions to the intermolecular interactions, and proving to be a good tool for the design of DES.     

Novel subjet observables for jet quenching in heavy-ion collisions

Using a novel observable that relies on the momentum difference of the two most energetic subjets within a jet \(\varDelta S_{12}\) we study the internal structure of high-energy jets simulated by several Monte Carlo event generators that implement the partonic energy-loss in a dense partonic medium. Based on inclusive jet and dijet production we demonstrate that \(\varDelta S_{12}\) is an effective tool to discriminate between different models of jet modifications over a broad kinematic range. The new quantity, while preserving the collinear and infrared safety of modern jet algorithms, it is experimentally attractive because of its inherent resilience against backgrounds of heavy-ion collisions.     

Synthesis,Characterization and Evaluation of Antimicrobial and Antituberculosis Activities of New N‐(Substituted‐thioureido)aminobicyclo Dicarboximide and 3,4‐Disubstituted 1,2,4‐Triazolino‐5‐thione

The novel N‐(substituted‐thioureido)aminobicyclo dicarboximide and 3,4‐disubstituted 1,2,4‐triazolino‐5‐thione were synthesized and their antimicrobial and antituberculosis activities were examined. Selected dicarboxylic acid anhydrides were used to obtain derivatives of thiosemicarbazide and dicarboximide. Dicarboximides were also cyclized in the presence of an alkaline solution giving 1,2,4‐triazolino‐5‐thione. The chemical structure of all compounds was confirmed by IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, the X‐ray crystallography ( 6 , 11 ) and elemental analysis. Antimicrobial and antituberculosis activities of the derivatives were measured.     

Novel N-heterocyclic ylideneamine gold(I) complexes: synthesis, characterisation and screening for antitumour and antimalarial activity

Ylideneamine functionalised heterocyclic ligands, 1,3-dimethyl-1,3-dihydro-benzimidazol-2-ylideneamine (I), 3-methyl-3H-benzothiazol-2-ylideneamine (II) or 3,4-dimethyl-3H-thiazol-2-ylideneamine (III), were employed in the preparation of a series of both charged and neutral gold(I) complexes consisting either of a Au(C(6)F(5)) fragment (1-3), a [Au(PPh(3))](+) unit (4-6) or a [Au(NHC)](+) unit (7) coordinated to the imine nitrogen of the neutral ylideneamine ligand. These complexes were fully characterised by various techniques including X-ray diffraction. In addition, the antitumour and antimalarial potential of selected compounds were assessed in a preliminary study aimed at determining the medicinal value of such compounds. Complexation of the azol-2-ylideneamine ligands with [Au(PPh(3))](+) increases their antitumour as well as antimalarial activity.     

PLS-DA - Docking Optimized Combined Energetic Terms (PLSDA-DOCET) protocol: a brief evaluation

Docking studies have become popular approaches in drug design, where the binding energy of the ligand in the active site of the protein is estimated by a scoring function. Many promising techniques were developed to enhance the performance of scoring functions including the fusion of multiple scoring functions outcomes into a so-called consensus scoring function. Hereby, we evaluated the target oriented consensus technique using the energetic terms of several scoring functions. The approach was denoted PLSDA-DOCET. Optimization strategies for consensus energetic terms and scoring functions based on ROC metric were compared to classical rigid docking and to ligand-based similarity search methods comprising 2D fingerprints and ROCS. The ROCS results indicate large performance variations depending on the biological target. The AUC-based strategy of PLSDA-DOCET outperformed the other docking approaches regarding simple retrieval and scaffold-hopping. The superior performance of PLSDA-DOCET protocol relative to single and combined scoring functions was validated on an external test set. We found a relative low mean correlation of the ranks of the chemotypes retrieved by the PLSDA-DOCET protocol and all the other methods employed here.     

Remote environmental monitoring employing a potentiometric electronic tongue

This work investigates the use of electronic tongues for environmental monitoring. Electronic tongues were based on arrays of potentiometric sensors plus a complex data processing by artificial neural networks and data transmission by radiofrequency. A first application, intended for a system simulating real conditions in surface water, performed a simultaneous monitoring of ammonium, potassium, sodium, chloride, and nitrate ions. The proposed system allowed us to assess the effect of natural biodegradation stages for these species. A second application was used to monitor concentrations of ammonium, potassium, and sodium in the ‘Ignacio Ramírez’ dam (Mexico). The electronic tongue used here allowed us to determine the content of the three cations in real water samples, although a high matrix effect was encountered for sodium determination. The implemented radio transmission worked robustly during all the experiments, thus demonstrating the viability of the proposed systems for automated remote applications.