An alternative thermal method for identification of pozzolanic activity in Ca(OH)2/pozzolan pastes

Pozzolans play an important role in the industry of cement and concrete. They increase the mechanical strength of cement matrices and can be used to decrease the amount of cement in concrete mixtures, thus decreasing the final economic and environmental cost of production; also, as some of them are byproducts of industrial processes (such as silica fume and fly ash) and their use can be seen as a solution for some residues, that otherwise would be disposed as a waste. Pozzolans fixate the Ca(OH)₂ generated during cement’s hydration reactions to form calcium silicate hydrates (C–S–H), calcium aluminate hydrates (C–A–H), or calcium aluminosilicate hydrates (C–A–S–H), depending on the nature of the pozzolan. Traditionally, the pozzolanic activity is identified using the Ca(OH)₂ fixation percentage which is quantified by thermogravimetric (TG) analysis, using the mass loss due to the Ca(OH)₂ dehydroxylation around 500 °C. An alternative method to identify pozzolanic activity at lower temperatures using a standard issue moisture analyzer (MA) is presented in this paper, using the mass loss due to hydrate’s dehydration generated by pozzolans in the pozzolanic reaction. Samples of Ca(OH)₂ blended with different pozzolans were prepared and tested at different hydration ages. Using TG analysis and an MA, a good correlation was found between the total mass loss of the same sample, using the two methods at the same temperature. It was concluded that the MA method can be considered a less expensive and less time-consuming alternative to identify pozzolanic activity of siliceous or aluminosiliceous materials.     

Rheological behavior of surfactant-based precursors of silica mesoporous materials

The linear and non-linear viscoelastic behaviors of polymer-like micellar solutions of cetyltrimethylammonium tosilate (CTAT) with added NaOH and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) to produce precursors of mesoporous materials are studied. The effect of TEOS/CTAT (T/C) ratio at fixed CTAT concentration, CTAT concentration at fixed T/C and aging time are reported. The systems show increasingly larger deviations from near-Maxwell behavior upon increasing T/C ratio, CTAT concentration and aging. Moreover, in steady and unsteady shear-flow, shear banding develops between two critical shear rates, which tend to fade as the T/C ratio and aging increase. The Granek-Cates model is employed to analyze linear viscoelastic behavior. The Bautista-Manero-Puig (BMP) model is used here to reproduce the steady and transient nonlinear rheology of these systems. We explain these results in terms of the changes in inter-macromolecular interactions that arise out of the presence of colloidal additives in the viscoelastic gel. The ordered mesoporous materials were identified by X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy.     

Two-photon microscopy study of the intracellular compartmentalisation of emissive terbium complexes and their oligo-arginine and oligo-guanidinium conjugates

An emissive terbium complex has been conjugated to a C12 chain, Lys-Arg7, Arg7, a tetraguanidinium cation and human serum albumin; two-photon excitation at 720 nm facilitated microscopy studies revealing cell localisation profiles with the oligo-guanidinium conjugate localising in mitochondria but causing apoptotic cell death (IC(50)12 microM), the C12-amide complex giving rise to necrotic cell death in skin fibroblasts (IC50 8 microM) and the peptide conjugates and the methyl ester generating punctuate cytosolic intracellular distributions.     

Non-peptidic cell-penetrating agents: synthesis of oligomeric chiral bicyclic guanidinium vectors

Polycationic oligo(chiral bicyclic guanidines) constitute useful non-peptidic penetrating agents for cell uptake and protein surface recognition. We report herein improved and selective procedures for the preparation of oligoguanidinium scaffolds linked through thioether bonds, with similar or different groups and functions at both ends of the chain. Two synthetic strategies were developed to obtain these compounds in relatively good yields from a common thioacetate precursor: generation of a disulfide intermediate or thiolate formation. Thus, tetraguanidinium intermediates 8 and 22 are best synthesized by the disulfide route, whereas hexamer 29, octamer 31, and trimer 37 arise from a combination of both the disulfide and the thioacetate routes. Finally, tetramer 28 can be readily obtained from either strategy.     

Polarization and readout of coupled single spins in diamond

We study the coupling of a single nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond to a nearby single nitrogen defect at room temperature. The magnetic dipolar coupling leads to a splitting in the electron spin resonance frequency of the nitrogen-vacancy center, allowing readout of the state of a single nitrogen electron spin. At magnetic fields where the spin splitting of the two centers is the same, we observe a strong polarization of the nitrogen electron spin. The amount of polarization can be controlled by the optical excitation power. We combine the polarization and the readout in time-resolved pump-probe measurements to determine the spin relaxation time of a single nitrogen electron spin. Finally, we discuss indications for hyperfine-induced polarization of the nitrogen nuclear spin.     

Zeros and logarithmic asymptotics of Sobolev orthogonal polynomials for exponential weights

We obtain the (contracted) weak zero asymptotics for orthogonal polynomials with respect to Sobolev inner products with exponential weights in the real semiaxis, of the form , with γ>0, which include as particular cases the counterparts of the so-called Freud (i.e., when φ has a polynomial growth at infinity) and Erdös (when φ grows faster than any polynomial at infinity) weights. In addition, the boundness of the distance of the zeros of these Sobolev orthogonal polynomials to the convex hull of the support and, as a consequence, a result on logarithmic asymptotics are derived.     

Magnetic binary nanofillers

Magnetic binary nanofillers containing multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and hercynite were synthesized by Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) on Fe/AlOOH prepared by the sol–gel method. The catalyst precursor was fired at 450 °C, ground and sifted through different meshes. Two powders were obtained with different particle sizes: sample A (50–75 μm) and sample B (smaller than 50 μm). These powders are composed of iron oxide particles widely dispersed in the non-crystalline matrix of aluminum oxide and they are not ferromagnetic. After reduction process the powders are composed of α-Fe nanoparticles inside hercynite matrix. These nanofillers are composed of hercynite containing α-Fe nanoparticles and MWCNT. The binary magnetic nanofillers were slightly ferromagnetic. The saturation magnetization of the nanofillers depended on the powder particle size. The nanofiller obtained from powder particles in the range 50–75 μm showed a saturation magnetization 36% higher than the one formed from powder particles smaller than 50 μm. The phenomenon is explained in terms of changes in the magnetic environment of the particles as consequence of the presence of MWCNT.