Underwater adhesive using solid–liquid polymer mixes

Instantaneous adhesion between different materials is a requirement for several applications ranging from electronics to biomedicine. Approaches such as surface patterning, chemical cross-linking, surface modification, and chemical synthesis have been adopted to generate temporary adhesion between various materials and surfaces. Because of the lack of curing times, temporary adhesives are instantaneous, a useful property for specific applications that need quick bonding. However, to this day, temporary adhesives have been mainly demonstrated under dry conditions and do not work well in submerged or humid environments. Furthermore, most rely on chemical bonds resulting from strong interactions with the substrate such as acrylate based. This work demonstrates the synthesis of a universal amphibious adhesive solely by combining solid polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and liquid polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) polymers. While the dipole-dipole interactions are induced by a large electronegativity difference between fluorine atoms in PTFE and hydrogen atoms in PDMS, strong surface wetting allows the proposed adhesive to fully coat both substrates and PTFE particles, thereby maximizing the interfacial chemistry. The two-phase solid–liquid polymer system displays adhesive characteristics applicable both in air and water, and enables joining of a wide range of similar and dissimilar materials (glasses, metals, ceramics, papers, and biomaterials). The adhesive exhibits excellent mechanical properties for the joints between various surfaces as observed in lap shear testing, T-peel testing, and tensile testing. The proposed biocompatible adhesive can also be reused multiple times in different dry and wet environments. Additionally, we have developed a new reactive force field parameterization and used it in our molecular dynamics simulations to validate the adhesive nature of the mixed polymer system with different surfaces. This simple amphibious adhesive could meet the need for a universal glue that performs well with a number of materials for a wide range of conditions.     

Glycopeptide and Oligosaccharide Libraries

Despite the burgeoning interest in the various biological functions and consequent therapeutic potential of the vast number of oligosaccharides found in nature on glycoproteins and cell surfaces, the development of combinatorial carbohydrate chemistry has not progressed as rapidly as expected. The reason for this imbalance is rooted in the difficulty of oligosaccharide assembly and analysis that renders synthesis a rather cumbersome endeavor. Parallel approaches that generate series of analogous compounds rather than real libraries have therefore typically been used. Since generally low affinity is obtained for interactions between carbohydrate receptors and modified oligosaccharides designed as mimetics of natural carbohydrate ligands, glycopeptides have been explored as alternative mimics. Glycopeptides have been proven in many cases to be superior ligands with higher affinity for a receptor than the natural carbohydrate ligand. High-affinity glycopeptide ligands have been found for several types of receptors including the E-, P-, and L-selectins, toxins, glycohydrolases, bacterial adhesins, and the mannose-6-phosphate receptor. Furthermore, the assembly of glycopeptides is considerably more facile than that of oligosaccharides and the process can be adapted to combinatorial synthesis with either glycosylated amino acid building blocks or by direct glycosylation of peptide templates. The application of the split and combine approach using ladder synthesis has allowed the generation of very large numbers of compounds which could be analyzed and screened for binding of receptors on solid phase. This powerful technique can be used generally for the identification and analysis of the complex interaction between the carbohydrates and their receptors.     

Organoplatinum(IV) compounds : II. Preparation and characterization of trimethylplatinum(IV) compounds with chelating nitrogen donor ligands. The crystal and molecular structure of iodotrimethyl[bis(3,5-dimethyl-1-pyrazolyl)methane]platinum(IV)

Compounds of the types Me₃PtX(NN) (where X = Cl, I, OAc, NO₃; NN = bis(1-pyrazolyl)methane (pz₂CH₂), bis(3,5-dimethyl-1-pyrazolyl)methane ((Me₂pz)₂CH₂), or bis(2-pyridyl)methane (py₂CH₂)), [Me₃Pt(NNN)][PF₆] (where NNN=tris(1-pyrazolyl)methane (pz₃CH), or tris(2-pyridyl)methane (py₃CH)), and [Me₃Pt((Me₂pz)₂CH₂(py)][PF₆] have been prepared and characterized by elemental analyses and ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy; the structure of Me₆PtI[(Me₂pz)₂CH₂] (1) has also been determined by X-ray crystallography. Crystals of 1 are orthorhombic, space group Pcmn with four molecules in a unit cell of dimensions a 11.936(5), b 14.462(4), c 10.138(5) Å. The structure was solved by the heavy-atom method and refined by full-matrix least-squares calculations to R = 0.022 for 1719 observed data. The molecule has crystallographic mirror symmetry. The Pt atom has octahedral geometry with one methyl group trans to iodine and two methyl groups trans to the N atoms of the bidentate ligand (Pt---I 2.843(1), Pt---N, 2.236(4), Pt---C 2.077(6) (trans to I) and 2.032(5) Å (trans to N)).     

Determination of hexavalent chromium by on-line dialysis ion chromatography in a matrix of strong colourants and trivalent chromium

Hexavalent chromium detection in the presence of a high load of colourants without any false positive and in-procedure oxidation of Cr(III) is an important area of study. Colourants are a class of interfering substances in many spectroscopic analyses and chromatographic separations and detection. A purification method using an on-line dialysis technique for ion chromatography (IC) has been developed to remove water-soluble anionic dyes and particulate colourants and other substances to facilitate Cr(VI) quantification and the method is discussed. The dialysis was optimized with Cr(VI) standard solutions for quantification. The efficacy of the procedure for the removal of anionic dyes and detection of Cr(VI) was checked with a Cr(VI) spiked synthetic preparation containing a water-soluble dye and trivalent chromium. Soluble Cr(VI) extracted with organic dyes from environmental samples was analyzed. The method has a detection limit of 5 microg/l, recovery rate of 100% and analysis time less than 20 min.     

Detection of phase transitions in liquid crystals using the mirage effect

Abstract

We describe here a novel technique which makes use of the photothermal mirage effect to study phase transition in liquid crystals. Results of the measurements done with two nematic liquid crystals are given to illustrate this technique. We observe an enhancement in the signal amplitude during phase change which is due to the large magnitude of the refractive index gradient developing at the transition temperature.     

DMF As a Formate Anion Equivalent: Formolysis of Tosylates in Aqueous DMF1

Treatment of tosylates with aqueous dimethylformamide furnish mainly formates     

Electron Impact Mass Spectra of Phenol Blocked Isocyanates

Abstract

The electron impact mass spectra of a series of substituted phenol blocked toluene diisocyanate crosslinkers were analyzed and a suitable dissociative pathway proposed.     

Kinetics of the oxidation of 1-phenyl ethanols with phase-transferred monochromate in organic solvents

Kinetic studies on the oxidation of 1-phenyl ethanol and its para-methyl, para-methoxy and para chloro derivatives have been carried out using phase transferred chromate as oxidant in pure organic solvents. The inorganic oxidant was transferred to the non polar media using the phase transfer catalyst, tetrabutyl phosphonium bromide (TB PB). The electronic effects of the substituents, effect of varying the temperature on the rate, as well as the effect of varying the dielectric constant of the medium on the rate have been investigated. The rate data fitted well with the Hammett equation.     

Characterization of a hybrid Li-ion anode system from pulsed laser deposited silicon on CVD-grown multilayer graphene

A hybrid anode system for lithium (Li) ion battery applications based on pulsed laser deposited silicon films on chemical vapor deposited multilayer graphene (MLG) layers on a nickel foam substrate was electrochemically characterized. The as-grown material was directly fabricated into an anode without a binder, and tested in a half-cell configuration. There is evidence of the participation of both the multilayer graphene and the Si in the transport of Li ions. Even when cycled under stressful voltage limits that accelerate degradation, the MLG–Si films displayed higher stability than Si-only anodes, especially at higher cycling rates. Unlike the Si cells that display capacity fade even within the first few cycles, the MLG–Si cells show a very narrow spread in capacity, indicative of the role of the graphene layers in improving adhesion of the Si and acting as a compliant buffer for its volume expansion. Stable average specific capacities of ~1,200 mAh/g per total weight of MLG + Si, over 80 cycles at C/5 rate, were obtained for the MLG–Si anode. Pre- and post-cycling characterization of the anode materials revealed the differences between the two systems.