Auto-inhibition of hydrogen gas evolution on gold in aqueous acid solution

It was demonstrated recently that dramatic changes in the redox behaviour of gold/aqueous solution interfaces may be observed following either cathodic or thermal electrode pretreatment. Further work on the cathodic pretreatment of gold in acid solution revealed that as the activity of the gold surface was increased, its performance as a substrate for hydrogen gas evolution under constant potential conditions deteriorated. The change in activity of the gold atoms at the interface, which was attributed to a hydrogen embrittlement process (the occurrence of the latter was subsequently checked by surface microscopy), was confirmed, as in earlier work, by the appearance of a substantial anodic peak at ca. 0.5 V (RHE) in a post-activation positive sweep. Changes in the catalytic activity of a metal surface reflect the fact that the structure (or topography), thermodynamic activity and electronic properties of a surface are dependent not only on pretreatment but also, in the case of the hydrogen evolution reaction, vary with time during the course of reaction. As will be reported shortly, similar (and often more dramatic) time-dependent behaviour was observed for hydrogen gas evolution on other metal electrodes. Electronic Publication     

The effect of severe thermal pretreatment on the redox behaviour of gold in aqueous acid solution

Severe thermal pretreatment of gold wire electrodes in an inert gas atmosphere resulted in the appearance of dramatic premonolayer oxidation responses, which in some instances commenced at 0.25 V (RHE), for the resulting active gold electrodes in aqueous acid media. Similar behaviour was reported earlier for platinum and gold activated by cathodic pretreatment in acid solution; these active noble metal surfaces are evidently more susceptible to oxidation than bulk copper. Such behaviour was attributed to the effect of surface disorder; many of the metal atoms at the interface are assumed to be in a very active, metastable state possessing quite low lattice stabilization energy. Premonolayer oxidation responses are again correlated with electrocatalytic behaviour and the existence of unusual chemisorption behaviour for molecules reacting at highly active states of metals is outlined. Electronic Publication     

Thin tantalum pentoxide films deposited by photo-induced chemical vapor deposition using an injection liquid source

We report the growth of thin tantalum pentoxide films on Si (100) by ultraviolet-assisted injection liquid source (UVILS) chemical vapor deposition (CVD) at low temperatures (200-350 °C). This new technique combines the intense radiation from an excimer lamp (5=222 nm) with a novel injection liquid source capable of delivering precisely controllable quantities of a liquid metalorganic precursor into the CVD chamber. The composition and optical properties of the oxides were determined using a variety of standard characterization methods. After optimization of the deposition parameters, the best layers were incorporated into simple MOS test structures to enable electrical characterization. Refractive index values of 2.09ǂ.07, fixed oxide charge content of <5᎒¹⁰ cm^-2, breakdown fields higher than 2 MV/cm and dielectric constant values of 18-24 were readily achievable in the as-deposited films. These properties compare favorably with those for layers prepared by conventional thermal-CVD at significantly higher temperatures of 500 °C.     

Ordered Compactifications of Products of Two Totally Ordered Spaces

We describe the semilattice of ordered compactifications of X × Y smaller than _o X × _o Y where X and Y are certain totally ordered topological spaces, and where _o Z denotes the Stone–ech ordered- or Nachbin-compactification of Z. These basic cases are used to illustrate techniques for describing the semilattice of ordered compactifications of X × Y smaller than _o X × _o Y for arbitrary totally ordered topological spaces X and Y. Such products X × Y provide many counterexamples in the theory of ordered compactifications.     

Electrophoretic deposition of poly(3-decylthiophene) onto gold-mounted cadmium selenide nanorods

Molecular mechanisms of electrophoretic deposition (EPD) of poly(3-decylthiophene) (P3DT) molecules onto vertically aligned cadmium selenide arrays have been studied using large-scale, nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (MD), in the absence and presence of static external electric fields. The field application and larger polymer charges accelerated EPD. Placement of multiple polymers at the same lateral displacement from the surface reduced average deposition times due to "crowding", giving monolayer coverage. These findings were used to develop and validate Brownian dynamics simulations of multilayer polymer EPD in scaled-up systems with larger inter-rod spacings, presenting a generalized picture in qualitative agreement with random sequential adsorption.     

A tandem mass spectrometric investigation of N-(3-ferrocenyl-2-naphthoyl) dipeptide ethyl esters and N-(6-ferrocenyl-2-naphthoyl) dipeptide ethyl esters

N‐(3‐Ferrocenyl‐2‐naphthoyl) dipeptide ethyl esters 1–4 and N‐(6‐ferrocenyl‐2‐naphthoyl) dipeptide ethyl esters 5–8 were prepared by coupling either 3‐ferrocenylnaphthalene‐2‐carboxylic acid or 6‐ferrocenylnaphthalene‐2‐carboxylic acid to the dipeptide ethyl esters GlyGly(OEt) (1, 5), AlaGly(OEt) (2, 6), GlyPhe(OEt) (3, 7) and GlyLeu(OEt) (4, 8), using the standard N‐(3‐dimethylaminopropyl)‐N'‐ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride, 1‐hydroxybenzotriazole protocol. Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI‐MS) and laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry (LDI‐MS) were employed in conjunction with tandem mass spectrometry in the analysis of N‐(3‐ferrocenyl‐2‐naphthoyl) dipeptide ethyl esters 1–4 and N‐(6‐ferrocenyl‐2‐naphthoyl) dipeptide ethyl esters 5–8. Radical cations, [M]^+? and [M + H]⁺ species were both observed in the mass spectra. Intense sodium [M + Na]⁺ and potassium [M + K]⁺ adducts were also present. An important diagnostic ion at m/z [M–65]⁺ was observed in both the MS and MS/MS spectra of the N‐(3‐ferrocenyl‐2‐naphthoyl) dipeptide derivatives. Sequence‐specific ions were generally not observed in the MS/MS spectra of the N‐(3‐ferrocenyl‐2‐naphthoyl) series due to formation of the diagnostic [M–65]⁺ ion. Sequence‐specific ions were observed in the MS/MS spectra of the N‐(6‐ferrocenyl‐2‐naphthoyl) dipeptide esters with charge retention on the derivatized N‐terminal of the dipeptide. Both series of compounds could be successfully analyzed by MALDI without the use of a matrix (LDI). Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.