Effect of surface modification with various thiol compounds on colloidal stability of gold nanoparticles

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are attractive materials due to their special optical and electronic properties. However, they tend to aggregate particularly in the presence of thiol‐containing compounds. In this study, to investigate the effect of surface conjugation with thiol‐containing compounds on colloidal stability, thiol compounds with various structures as modifying agents were used. To this end, AuNPs were synthesized and stabilized by trisodium citrate in aqueous solution, and then modified with thiol‐containing compounds, namely cysteamine hydrochloride (MEA, containing primary amine groups), 2‐mercaptoethanol (BME, containing hydroxyl groups), 1‐dodecanthiol (LCA, containing long‐chain alkyl groups) and thioglycolic acid (TGA, containing carboxylic acid groups). We studied the effect of thiol ligands on solution stability of colloidal AuNPs and on the formation of aggregates originating from the modification process using UV–visible spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, field emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Results showed that surface modification with MEA, BME and LCA led to the formation of aggregates. However, conjugation with TGA showed a concentration‐dependent behaviour: surface modification with low concentration resulted in the formation of aggregates whereas that with high concentration of TGA did not disturb the colloidal stability of AuNPs. Finally, the effect of surface modification on temperature increase of solutions originating from infrared light irradiation was studied, where the temperature increase depends on the surface‐modifying compound.     

Observation and interpretation of the Tm<Superscript> 3+</Superscript> free ion spectrum

The emission spectrum of thulium produced by a vacuum spark source was observed in the wavelength range from 700 to 2320 ? on the 10.7 m normal-incidence vacuum ultraviolet spectrograph at the Paris-Meudon observatory. In the unknown spectrum of Tm IV, more than 760 lines have been identified for the first time as transitions between 157 levels of 4f¹¹5d, 33 levels of 4f¹¹6p, 9 levels of 4f¹¹6s and 10 levels of the 4f¹² ground configuration. A parametric interpretation of the levels has been carried out using the Cowan codes. Configuration interaction effects are discussed, in particular with the core-excited configurations 5p⁵4f¹³ and 5p⁵4f¹²5d. Radial Slater parameters derived from 4f¹² levels are larger than those pertaining to trivalent Tm ions in compounds. A selection of 105 prominent lines is given.     

Simultaneous Investigation of the Laser Intensity and Magnetic Field Effects on Laser-Induced Plasma Spectroscopy

Journal of Russian Laser Research - In this paper, we use laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to investigate the laser-induced copper plasma with and without an external magnetic field,...     

n-Bit Quantum Secret Sharing Protocol Using Quantum Secure Direct Communication

International Journal of Theoretical Physics - The proposed quantum secret sharing protocol in this article conveys n bit secret messages from the sender to the n receivers making use of a secure...     

Carbon–carbon coupling reactions catalyzed by supported Pd porphyrins

The tetrakis(4‐N‐methylpyridinium)porphyrinatopalladium(II) iodide, [Pd(TMPyP)]I₄, supported on Dowex 50WX8 and Amberlite IR‐120 ion‐exchange resins, was used as heterogeneous, recyclable and active catalyst for the Suzuki–Miyaura and Heck cross‐coupling reactions. These catalysts were applied to coupling of various aryl halides with phenylboronic acid and styrene in Suzuki and Heck reactions, respectively, and the corresponding products were obtained in excellent yields and short reaction times. The catalysts could be recovered easily by simple filtration and reused several times without significant loss of their catalytic activity. The catalysts were characterized by diffuse‐reflectance UV–visible spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy, and their stability was confirmed by TGA. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finding the shortest path with honey-bee mating optimization algorithm in project management problems with constrained/unconstrained resources

Effective project management requires the development of a realistic plan and a clear communication of the plan from the beginning to the end of the project. The critical path method (CPM) of scheduling is the fundamental tool used to develop and interconnect project plans. Ensuring the integrity and transparency of those schedules is paramount for project success. The complex and discrete nature of the solution domain for such problems causes failing of traditional and gradient-based methods in finding the optimal or even feasible solution in some cases. The difficulties encountered in scheduling construction projects with resource constraints are highlighted by means of a simplified bridge construction problem and a basic masonry construction problem. The honey-bee mating optimization (HBMO) algorithm has been previously adopted to solve mathematical and engineering problems and has proven to be efficient for searching optimal solutions in large-problem domains. This paper presents the HBMO algorithm for scheduling projects with both constrained and unconstrained resources. Results show that the HBMO algorithm is applicable to projects with or without resource constraints. Furthermore, results obtained are promising and compare well with those of well-known heuristic approaches and gradient-based methods.     

Quasinormal and Hyponormal Weighted Composition Operators on $$H^2$$ and $$A^2_{\alpha }$$Aα2 with Linear Fractional Compositional Symbol

In this paper, we study quasinormal and hyponormal composition operators \(W_{\psi ,\varphi }\)  with linear fractional compositional symbol \(\varphi \) on the Hardy and weighted Bergman spaces. We characterize the quasinormal composition operators induced on \(H^{2}\) and \(A_{\alpha }^{2}\) by these maps and many such weighted composition operators, showing that they are necessarily normal in all known cases. We eliminate several possibilities for hyponormal weighted composition operators but also give new examples of hyponormal weighted composition operators on \(H^2\) which are not quasinormal.