Addition Reactions of Benzenesulfinic Acid with Glycals and 1,2-Dibromosugars

The addition of benzenesulfinic acid to glycals was investigated under various conditions, and optimized yields of the glycosyl phenylsulfone products were obtained in the presence of tin tetrachloride as a catalyst. Double bond shift (Ferrier rearrangement) occurred in all cases except amicetal, which lacks a substituent at the allylic carbon. Glycosylation of benzenesulfinic acid with 1,2-dibromides was carried out using silver triflate as the promoter, and gave sulfinate esters as products by reaction at oxygen rather than at sulfur. The sulfinate esters were obtained as mixtures of stereoisomers at the stereogenic sulfur atom. Trapping of the sulfinates with carboxylate nucleophiles was observed during attempted oxidation with MCPBA.     

Thermodynamic property values of selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons measured by differential scanning calorimetry

In this study, the use of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is demonstrated as a powerful technique that can provide accurate thermodynamic property values of environmental contaminants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In total, 47 high purity PAH certified reference materials were selected and analysed by DSC. Their onset melting temperature, enthalpy of fusion and eutectic purity were calculated from the obtained melting endotherms. In addition, the entropy of fusion, which was calculated from the onset melting temperature and enthalpy of fusion, is presented. All measurements were evaluated in a metrologically rigorous manner, including measurement uncertainties.     

Development and validation of a differential scanning calorimetry purity determination method for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Based on a standard test method for purity by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), ASTM E 928, a purity determination method for highly pure polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) has been developed and validated. The robustness of the developed method was investigated by determining, under varying measurement conditions, the purity of two PAH certified reference materials (CRMs), benzo[c]phenanthrene and dibenzo[a,h]anthracene. The repeatability and intermediate precision of the developed method was determined by analysing the purity of benzo[c]phenanthrene and dibenzo[a,h]anthracene and PAH candidate CRMs indeno[1,2,3-c,d]pyrene, 6-methylchrysene and benzo[a]pyrene. The trueness of the method was studied using the same (candidate) CRMs and a series of 42 other PAH CRMs. For each of the five (candidate) CRMs, a full measurement uncertainty budget was developed. Also for PAH materials for which the DSC purity determination method has not been explicitly validated, the relative expanded measurement uncertainty was estimated.     

Photobleaching on Photonic Crystal Enhanced Fluorescence Surfaces

The effect of resonant fluorescent enhancement from a photonic crystal surface upon the fluorescent photobleaching rate of Cyanine-5 labeled protein has been investigated. We show that the enhanced excitation mechanism for photonic crystal enhanced fluorescence, in which the device surface resonantly couples light from an excitation laser, accelerates photobleaching in proportion to the coupling efficiency of the laser to the photonic crystal. We also show that the enhanced extraction mechanism, in which the photonic crystal directs emitted photons approximately normal to the surface, does not play a role in the rate of photobleaching. We show that the photobleaching rate of dye molecules on the photonic crystal surface is accelerated by 30x compared to an ordinary glass surface, but substantial signal gain is still evident, even after extended periods of continuous illumination at the resonant condition.     

Dielectric relaxation studies in 5CB nematic liquid crystal at 9 GHz under the influence of external magnetic field using microwave cavity spectrometer

Resonance width, shift in resonance frequency, relaxation time and activation energy of 5CB nematic liquid crystal are measured using microwave cavity technique under the influence of an external magnetic field at 9 GHz and at different temperatures. The dielectric response in liquid crystal at different temperatures and the effects of applied magnetic field on transition temperatures are studied in the present work. The technique needs a small quantity (< 0.001 cm³) of the sample and provides fruitful information about the macroscopic structure of the liquid crystal.     

Magnetic behaviour of AuFe and NiMo alloys

We study the electronic structure and a mean-field phase analysis based on the pair–pair energies derived from first-principles electronic structure calculations of AuFe and NiMo alloys. We have used the tight-binding linear muffin-tin orbitals-based augmented space recursion (TB-LMTO-ASR) method to do so. We investigate different behaviours of the two alloy systems by mapping the problems onto equivalent Ising models and then discuss the magnetic phase diagrams using the calculated pair energies. All three phases: paramagnetic, random ferromagnetic and spin glass, have been studied.     

Accretion,primordial black holes and standard cosmology

Primordial black holes evaporate due to Hawking radiation. We find that the evaporation times of primordial black holes increase when accretion of radiation is included. Thus, depending on accretion efficiency, more primordial black holes are existing today, which strengthens the conjecture that the primordial black holes are the proper candidates for dark matter.     

Dynamics of excitable nodes on random graphs

We study the interplay of topology and dynamics of excitable nodes on random networks. Comparison is made between systems grown by purely random (Erdős–Rényi) rules and those grown by the Achlioptas process. For a given size, the growth mechanism affects both the thresholds for the emergence of different structural features as well as the level of dynamical activity supported on the network.     

The Ubiquity of the Orders of Fractional Semifields of Even Characteristic

To each non-square integer \(2^{2N+1}\ge 2^5\) there correspond semifields \(D\) of order of \(2^{2N+1}\) that contain \(\text{ GF}(4)\) . Hence there exist affine planes for each non-square order \(2^{2N+1}\ge 2^{5}\) that contain subaffine planes of order \(2^2\) . Moreover, there also exists semifields \(D_1\) and \(D_2\) , with \(|D_1|= |D_2| =|D|\) such that \(D_1\) is commutative and \(D_2\) is non-commutative but neither \(D_1\) nor \(D_2\) contains \(\text{ GF}(4)\) .