The application of homotopy analysis method to solve nonlinear differential equation governing Jeffery–Hamel flow

In this paper Jeffery–Hamel flow has been studied and its nonlinear ordinary differential equation has been solved through homotopy analysis method (HAM). The obtained solution in comparison with the numerical ones represents a remarkable accuracy. The results also indicate that HAM can provide us with a convenient way to control and adjust the convergence region.     

Infrared spectra of CHD2Cl and CHD2CCH and the geometries of methyl chloride and propyne

Five type B or type C bands in the gas phase infrared spectrum of CHD₂Cl and two type C bands of CHD₂CCH have been analyzed with a resolution of 0.2 cm^?1. All other fundamental vibrations have been located. Accurate determinations of ($\text{A}{}_0\text{-}\text{B}{}_0$) for each molecule are obtained from ground state combination differences, from which A₀ values are derived using microwave estimates of B₀ and C₀. The combination of one A₀ rotational constant with B₀ and C₀ constants for all other isotopic species enables the ground state molecular geometry to be fixed within narrow limits, assuming that zero-point energy effects cause a shortening of the CH bond length by 0.002 Å on deuteration. The CH bond lengths are in almost precise agreement with the values predicted from the position of the sole CH stretching vibration frequency for each molecule.     

Diazaisoindigo bithiophene and terthiophene copolymers for application in field‐effect transistors and solar cells

Two donor–acceptor conjugated polymers with azaisoindigo as acceptor units and bithiophene and terthiophene as donor units have been synthesized by Stille polymerization. These two polymers have been successfully applied in field‐effect transistors and polymer solar cells. By changing the donor component of the conjugated polymer backbone from bithiophene to terthiophene, the density of thiophene in the backbone is increased, manifesting as a decrease in both ionization potential and in electron affinity. Therefore, the charge transport in field‐effect transistors switches from ambipolar to predominantly hole transport behavior. PAIIDTT exhibits hole mobility up to 0.40 cm²/Vs and electron mobility of 0.02 cm²/Vs, whereas PAIIDTTT exhibits hole mobility of 0.62 cm²/Vs. Polymer solar cells were fabricated based on these two polymers as donors with PC₆₁BM and PC₇₁BM as acceptor where PAIIDTT shows a modest efficiency of 2.57% with a very low energy loss of 0.55 eV, while PAIIDTTT shows a higher efficiency of 6.16% with a higher energy loss of 0.74 eV. Our results suggest that azaisoindgo is a useful building block for the development of efficient polymer solar cells with further improvement possibility by tuning the alternative units on the polymer backbone. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017 , 55, 2691–2699     

Neuromodulation by soy diets or equol: Anti-depressive &; anti-obesity-like influences,age- &; hormone-dependent effects

Background  

Soy-derived isoflavones potentially protect against obesity and depression. In five different studies we examined the influence of soy-containing diets or equol injections on depression, serotonin levels, body weight gain (BW) and white adipose tissue (WAT) deposition in female Long-Evans rats at various stages of life [rats were intact, ovariectomized or experienced natural ovarian failure (NOF)].     

Thieno[3,2-b]thiophene-diketopyrrolopyrrole-containing polymers for high-performance organic field-effect transistors and organic photovoltaic devices

We report the synthesis and polymerization of a novel thieno[3,2-b]thiophene-diketopyrrolopyrrole-based monomer. Copolymerization with thiophene afforded a polymer with a maximum hole mobility of 1.95 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1), which is the highest mobility from a polymer-based OFET reported to date. Bulk-heterojunction solar cells comprising this polymer and PC(71)BM gave a power conversion efficiency of 5.4%.     

Charge carrier formation in polythiophene/fullerene blend films studied by transient absorption spectroscopy

We report herein a comparison of the photophysics of a series of polythiophenes with ionization potentials ranging from 4.8 to 5.6 eV as pristine films and when blended with 5 wt % 1-(3-methoxycarbonyl)propyl-1-phenyl-[6,6]C61 (PCBM). Three polymers are observed to give amorphous films, attributed to a nonplanar geometry of their backbone while the other five polymers, including poly(3-hexylthiophene), give more crystalline films. Optical excitation of the pristine films of the amorphous polymers is observed by transient absorption spectroscopy to give rise to polymer triplet formation. For the more crystalline pristine polymers, no triplet formation is observed, but rather a short-lived (approximately 100 ns), broad photoinduced absorption feature assigned to polymer polarons. For all polymers, the addition of 5 wt % PCBM resulted in 70-90% quenching of polymer photoluminescence (PL), indicative of efficient quenching of polythiophene excitons. Remarkably, despite this efficient exciton quenching, the yield of dissociated polymer+ and PCBM- polarons, assayed by the appearance of a long-lived, power-law decay phase assigned to bimolecular recombination of these polarons, was observed to vary by over 2 orders of magnitude depending upon the polymer employed. In addition to this power-law decay phase, the blend films exhibited short-lived decays assigned, for the amorphous polymers, to neutral triplet states generated by geminate recombination of bound radical pairs and, for the more crystalline polymers, to the direct observation of the geminate recombination of these bound radical pairs to ground. These observations are discussed in terms of a two-step kinetic model for charge generation in polythiophene/PCBM blend films analogous to that reported to explain the observation of exciplex-like emission in poly(p-phenylenevinylene)-based blend films. Remarkably, we find an excellent correlation between the free energy difference for charge separation (deltaG(CS)rel) and yield of the long-lived charge generation, with efficient charge generation requiring a much larger deltaG(CS)rel than that required to achieve efficient PL quenching. We suggest that this observation is consistent with a model where the excess thermal energy of the initially formed polaron pairs is necessary to overcome their Coulombic binding energy. This observation has important implications for synthetic strategies to optimize organic solar cell performance, as it implies that, at least devices based on polythiophene/PCBM blend films, a large deltaG(CS)rel (or LUMO level offset) is required to achieve efficient charge dissociation.     

Electrochemical doping in electrolyte-gated polymer transistors

By comparing the changes in pi-pi* absorption with the transconductance in PEO-LiClO4 electrolyte-gated FETs, we have demonstrated that the high channel currents obtained at low gate voltages result from reversible electrochemical doping of the semiconducting polymer film. At low temperatures, the conductivity of the electrochemically doped poly(2,5-bis(3-tetradecylthiophen-2-yl)thieno[3,2-b]thiophene), PBTTT-C14, is nonlinear with a crossover from dsigma(T)/dT > 0 to dsigma(T)/dT approximately 0 as a function of the source-drain voltage. High current densities, up to 10(6) A/cm2 at 4.2 K, can be sustained in the electrochemically doped PBTTT-C14 films.     

Competition between the charge transfer state and the singlet states of donor or acceptor limiting the efficiency in polymer:fullerene solar cells

We study the appearance and energy of the charge transfer (CT) state using measurements of electroluminescence (EL) and photoluminescence (PL) in blend films of high-performance polymers with fullerene acceptors. EL spectroscopy provides a direct probe of the energy of the interfacial states without the need to rely on the LUMO and HOMO energies as estimated in pristine materials. For each polymer, we use different fullerenes with varying LUMO levels as electron acceptors, in order to vary the energy of the CT state relative to the blend with [6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM). As the energy of the CT state emission approaches the absorption onset of the blend component with the smaller optical bandgap, E(opt,min) ≡ min{E(opt,donor); E(opt,acceptor)}, we observe a transition in the EL spectrum from CT emission to singlet emission from the component with the smaller bandgap. The appearance of component singlet emission coincides with reduced photocurrent and fill factor. We conclude that the open circuit voltage V(OC) is limited by the smaller bandgap of the two blend components. From the losses of the studied materials, we derive an empirical limit for the open circuit voltage: V(OC) ? E(opt,min)/e - (0.66 ± 0.08)eV.     

Exploring local quantum many-body relaxation by atoms in optical superlattices

We establish a setting-atoms in optical superlattices with period 2-in which one can experimentally probe signatures of the process of local relaxation and apparent thermalization in nonequilibrium dynamics without the need of addressing single sites. This opens up a way to explore the convergence of subsystems to maximum entropy states in quenched quantum many-body systems with present technology. Remarkably, the emergence of thermal states does not follow from a coupling to an environment but is a result of the complex nonequilibrium dynamics in closed systems. We explore ways of measuring the relevant signatures of thermalization in this analogue quantum simulation of a relaxation process, exploiting the possibilities offered by optical superlattices.     

Hexyl‐Substituted Oligoselenophenes with Central Tetrafluorophenylene Units: Synthesis,Characterisation and Application in Organic Field Effect Transistors

A series of selenophene oligomers incorporating conjugated fluorinated phenylene units have been synthesised as potential semiconductor materials for organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs). X‐ray crystallography shows that the molecules are held in close proximity by several short intermolecular contacts, making them ideal candidates for OFET applications.