Annealing effect on the structural and magnetic properties of nickel ferrite thin films

Nickel ferrite is a soft magnetic material with inverse spinel structure. Soft ferrite films are used in microwave devices, integrated planar circuits, etc., because of their high resistivity. In this work, thin films of nickel ferrite were deposited on Si (100) substrate by using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. The thickness of the film was measured by surface profilometer and also by X‐ray reflectivity (XRR). The films were annealed at three different temperatures to observe the effect on the structural and magnetic properties of the film. The films were characterised by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) to study the structural and magnetic properties. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Probing Electronic Symmetry Reduction during Charge Migration via Time-Resolved X-Ray Diffraction

The present work focuses on probing ultrafast charge migration after symmetry-breaking excitation using ultrashort laser pulses. LiCN is chosen as prototypical system because it can be oriented in the laboratory frame and it possesses optically-accessible charge transfer states at low energies. The charge migration is simulated within the hybrid time-dependent density functional theory/configuration interaction framework. Time-resolved electronic current densities and simulated time-resolved x-ray diffraction signals are used to unravel the mechanism of charge migration. Our simulations demonstrate that specific choices of laser polarization lead to a control over the symmetry of the induced charge migration. Moreover, time-resolved x-ray diffraction signals are shown to encode transient symmetry reduction at intermediate times.     

Synthesis,characterization and antimicrobial activities of new bis-hydrazonothioxothiazolidinone derivatives

New bis-hydrazonothioxothiazolidinone derivatives based on 2-thioxothiazolidin-4-one were synthesized in good yields using a simplified experimental condition. The structure of synthesized compounds was established with the help of common physico-chemical analysis and various spectroscopic techniques like FT-IR, mass and ¹H NMR. The results of characterizations are in good agreement with the proposed structure of all the synthesized compounds. Further, the antimicrobial (antibacterial and antifungal) activities of all the synthesized derivatives were carried out against various species like Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Aspergillous niger and Aspergillous flavus by using agar-cup method. The results of antimicrobial screening showed that all the compounds have mild to moderate activity. However, some of the compounds (3a, 3b, 3d, 3e, 3f, 3g, 3i and 3j) have shown better activity than the other.     

Validated LC–MS/MS method for quantitation of a selective JAK1 inhibitor,filgotinib in rat plasma,and its application to a pharmacokinetic study in rats

Filgotinib is a selective JAK1 (Janus kinase) inhibitor, filed in Japan for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. In this paper, we report a validated liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry for the quantification of filgotinib in rat plasma using tofacitinib as an internal standard (IS) as per the Food and Drug Administration regulatory guidelines. Filgotinib and the IS were extracted from rat plasma using ethyl acetate as an extraction solvent and chromatographed using an isocratic mobile phase (0.2% formic acid:acetonitrile; 20:80, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.9 mL/min on a Gemini C₁₈ column. Filgotinib and the IS were eluted at ~1.31 and 0.89 min, respectively. The MS/MS ion transitions monitored were m/z 426.3 → 291.3 and m/z 313.2 → 149.2 for filgotinib and the IS, respectively. The calibration range was 0.78–1924 ng/mL. No matrix effect and carryover were observed. Intra- and inter-day accuracies and precisions were within the acceptance range. Filgotinib was stable for three freeze–thaw cycles: on bench-top up to 6 h, in an autosampler up to 21 h, and at −80 ° C for 1 month. This novel method has been applied to a pharmacokinetic study in rats.     

Enantioselective LC–ESI–MS/MS method for quantitation of (−)-lumefantrine and (+)-lumefantrine in mice plasma and application to a pharmacokinetic study

We developed and validated a simple, sensitive, selective, and reliable LC–MS/MS–ESI method for the direct quantitation of lumefantrine (LFN) enantiomers [(−)-LFN and (+)-LFN] in mice plasma as per regulatory guideline. LFN enantiomers and carbamazepine (internal standard) were extracted from mice plasma using Strata X SPE (solid-phase extraction) cartridges. Good resolution between enantiomers was achieved on a Chiralpak IA-3 column using an isocratic mobile phase (0.1% of diethyl amine in methanol), which was delivered at a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min. Detection and quantitation were performed using multiple reaction monitoring mode following the transitions m/z 530.27 → 512.30 and 237.00 → 194.00 for LFN enantiomers and the internal standard, respectively, in the positive-ionization mode. The proposed method provided accurate and reproducible results over the linearity range of 2.39–895 ng/mL for each enantiomer. The intra- and inter-day precisions were in the range of 1.03–6.14 and 6.36–8.70 and 2.03–4.88 and 5.82–11.5 for (−)-LFN and (+)-LFN, respectively. Both (−)-LFN and (+)-LFN were found to be stable under different stability conditions. The method was successfully used to delineate stereoselective pharmacokinetics of LFN enantiomers in mice after an oral administration of rac-LFN (20 mg/kg). The pharmacokinetic results indicated that the disposition of LFN enantiomers was stereoselective in mice.     

Novel carbazole/fluorene hybrids: host materials for blue phosphorescent OLEDs

[reaction: see text] A series of carbazole/fluorene (CBZm-Fn) hybrids were effectively synthesized through Friedel-Crafts-type substitution of the carbazole rings. These compounds were thermally and morphologically stable host materials for OLED applications. Efficient blue phosphorescent OLEDs were obtained when employing CBZ1-F2 as the host and FIrpic as the guest.     

Complexation behaviour of benzilmono(Iepidyl)hydrazone (BLH) toward bivalent metal ions: A potentiometric study

Potentiometric investigations on metal complexes of various bivalent metal ions, viz. UO₂(II), Cu(II), Ni(II), Co(II), Cd(II), Pb(II), Zn(II) and Mn(II) with benzilmonol(lepidy!)hydrazone (BLH) have been carried out at different ionic strengths and at different temperatures in order to determine stability constants of the complexes. Thermodynamic parameters ΔC, ΔH and ΔS have also been evaluated from temperature coefficient data. The effect of varying the dielectric constant of the medium on the stability constants of complexes has also been investigated at 30±0.5°C and μ = 0.1MNaCl. Thermodynamic stability constants and thermodynamic stabilization energies for the first transition metals have also been discussed.     

Ion-water clusters, bulk medium effects, and ion hydration

Thermochemistry of gas-phase ion-water clusters together with estimates of the hydration free energy of the clusters and the water ligands are used to calculate the hydration free energy of the ion. Often the hydration calculations use a continuum model of the solvent. The primitive quasichemical approximation to the quasichemical theory provides a transparent framework to anchor such efforts. Here we evaluate the approximations inherent in the primitive quasichemical approach and elucidate the different roles of the bulk medium. We find that the bulk medium can stabilize configurations of the cluster that are usually not observed in the gas phase, while also simultaneously lowering the excess chemical potential of the ion. This effect is more pronounced for soft ions. Since the coordination number that minimizes the excess chemical potential of the ion is identified as the optimal or most probable coordination number, for such soft ions the optimum cluster size and the hydration thermodynamics obtained with and without account of the bulk medium on the ion-water clustering reaction can be different. The ideas presented in this work are expected to be relevant to experimental studies that translate thermochemistry of ion-water clusters to the thermodynamics of the hydrated ion and to evolving theoretical approaches that combine high-level calculations on clusters with coarse-grained models of the medium.     

A simple method for simultaneous determination of basic dyes encountered in food preparations by reversed-phase HPLC

The present method utilizes a simple pretreatment step, cleanup on polyamide SPE cartridges, and HPLC resolution on reversed-phase C18 for the detection of the three basic nonpermitted dyes encountered in food matrixes. Polyamide cartridges were chosen because both acidic and basic dyes can be cleaned up due to their amphoteric nature. Analysis was performed on a reversed-phase C18 micro-Bondapak column using the isocratic mixture of acetonitrile-sodium acetate with a flow rate of 1.5 mL/min and a programmable lambda(max) specific visible detection to monitor colors, achieving higher sensitivity and expanded scope to test multicolor blends. All the colors showed linearity with the regression coefficient, from 0.9983 to 0.9995. The LOD and LOQ ranged between 0.107 and 0.754 mg/L and 0.371 and 2.27 mg/L or mg/kg, respectively. The intraday and interday precision gave good RSDs, and percentage recoveries in different food matrixes ranged from 75 to 96.5%. The study demonstrates that the use of a combination of a simple SPE cleanup and HPLC resolution with UV-Vis end point detection was successful in screening the presence of these three basic nonpermitted dyes individually or in blend, in a variety of food matrixes.