A coin vibrational motor swimming at low Reynolds number

Low-cost coin vibrational motors, used in haptic feedback, exhibit rotational internal motion inside a rigid case. Because the motor case motion exhibits rotational symmetry, when placed into a fluid such as glycerin, the motor does not swim even though its oscillatory motions induce steady streaming in the fluid. However, a piece of rubber foam stuck to the curved case and giving the motor neutral buoyancy also breaks the rotational symmetry allowing it to swim. We measured a 1 cm diameter coin vibrational motor swimming in glycerin at a speed of a body length in 3 seconds or at 3 mm/s. The swim speed puts the vibrational motor in a low Reynolds number regime similar to bacterial motility, but because of the oscillations of the motor it is not analogous to biological organisms. Rather the swimming vibrational motor may inspire small inexpensive robotic swimmers that are robust as they contain no external moving parts. A time dependent Stokes equation planar sheet model suggests that the swim speed depends on a steady streaming velocity V _stream ~ Re _s ^1/2 U ₀ where U ₀ is the velocity of surface oscillations, and streaming Reynolds number Re _s = U ₀ ² /(ων) for motor angular frequency ω and fluid kinematic viscosity ν.     

Poly(dimethylsiloxane)-coated sensor devices for the formation of supported lipid bilayers and the subsequent study of membrane interactions

The development of smooth hydrophilic surfaces that act as substrates for supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) is important for membrane studies in biology and biotechnology. In this article, it is shown that thin films of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) formed on a sensor surface can be used as a substrate for the deposition of reproducible and homogeneous zwitterionic SLBs by the direct fusion of vesicles. Poly(dimethylsiloxane) solution (1% w/v) was spin coated on Love acoustic wave and surface plasmon resonance devices to form a thin PDMS layer. Acoustic, fluorescence, and contact angle measurements were used for the optimization of the PDMS film properties as a function of plasma etching time; parameters of interest involve the thickness and hydrophilicity of the film and the ability to induce the formation of homogeneous SLBs without adsorbed vesicles. The application of PDMS-coated sensor devices to the study membrane of interactions was demonstrated during the acoustic and fluorescence detection of the binding of melittin and defensin Crp4 peptides to model supported lipid bilayers.     

Mechanism of reaction of alkyl radicals with (Ni(II)L)2+ complexes in aqueous solutions

The reactions of methyl radicals, CH(3), with the macrocyclic complexes Ni(II)L(1-5) (L(1-5) = cyclam derivatives, vide infra) and Ni(II)edta in aqueous solutions were studied. Methyl radicals react with all these nickel complexes, forming intermediates with Ni(III)-C sigma-bonds. The L(m)Ni(III)-CH(3) complexes are formed in equilibria processes with relatively fast forward rate constants of k(f) > 1 x 10(8) M(-1) s(-1) (except in the case of NiL(2)-trans I cyclam, where the reaction is slower). In all cases the decomposition of the transient complexes occurs via the homolytic cleavage of the metal-carbon sigma-bond. When the homolysis is relatively slow, an isomerisation process of the transient is also observed with the exception of NiL(2), where no isomerisation was observed. The results suggest that the strength of the Ni(III)-CH(3)sigma-bond is mainly affected by steric hindrance.     

Challenges in distinguishing superexchange and hopping mechanisms of intramolecular charge transfer through fluorene oligomers

The temperature dependence of intramolecular charge separation in a series of donor-bridge-acceptor molecules having phenothiazine (PTZ) donors, 2,7-oligofluorene FL(n) (n = 1-4) bridges, and perylene-3,4:9,10-bis(dicarboximide) (PDI) acceptors was studied. Photoexcitation of PDI to its lowest excited singlet state results in oxidation of PTZ via the FL(n) bridge. In toluene, the temperature dependence of the charge separation rate constants for PTZ-FL(n)-PDI, (n = 1-4) is relatively weak and is successfully described by the semiclassical Marcus equation. The activation energies for charge separation suggest that bridge charge carrier injection is not the rate limiting step. The difficulty of using temperature and length dependence to differentiate hopping and superexchange is discussed, with difficulties in the latter topic explored via an extension of a kinetic model proposed by Bixon and Jortner.     

Formation of amphiphile self-assembly phases in protic ionic liquids

A range of protic ionic liquids (PILs) have been identified as being capable of supporting the self-assembly of the nonionic surfactants myverol 18-99 K (predominantly monoolein) and phytantriol. PIL-surfactant penetration scans have provided a high throughput technique to determine which lyotropic liquid crystalline phases were formed in the 40 PIL-surfactant systems investigated. Lamellar, inverse hexagonal, and bicontinuous cubic phases that are stable in excess PIL have been observed in surfactant-PIL systems. The studied PILs possess a wide range of solvent properties, including surface tension and viscosity. The nature of the formed amphiphile self-assembly phases is discussed in terms of the PIL structure and solvent properties.     

Inelastic insights for molecular tunneling pathways: bypassing the terminal groups

As an example of the use of inelastic transport to deduce structure in molecular transport junctions, we compute the orientation dependence of the Inelastic Electron Tunneling (IET) spectrum of the 1-pentane monothiolate. We find that upon increasing the tilting angle of the molecule with respect to the normal to the electrode the spectrum changes as the intensity of some vibrations is enhanced. These differences occur because for higher tilting angles the tunneling path that bypasses the terminal group grows in importance. IETS can therefore be used to establish the molecular orientation in junctions terminating with alkyl chains and to investigate experimentally the relative importance of the available tunneling paths.     

Some metrological aspects of ordinal measurements

Although some measurements can be made on any scale (including a continual scale), cost and speed considerations sometimes tip the scales toward using ordinal measurements. This paper presents a way to evaluate classical metrological characteristics, such as error, uncertainty and precision of single and repeated measurements based on the legitimate basic operations for ordinal data. The only legitimate measurement operations among ordinal variables are limited to equal or greater than/less than, the usual assessment measures such as average, standard deviation cannot be applied. Consequently, in order to receive reliable results and draw valid conclusions from ordinal measurements it is essential to develop and use only the appropriate methods.     

Cover Picture: Thiophene–Diazine Molecular Semiconductors: Synthesis,Structural, Electrochemical,Optical, and Electronic Structural Properties; Implementation in Organic Field‐Effect Transistors (Chem. Eur. J. 20/2009)

Molecular semiconductors in the guise of three diazine‐functionalized oligothiophenes have been synthesized and their structural, optical, vibrational, electrochemical, and semiconductor properties studied. In their Full Paper on page 5023 ff. , J. T. López Navarrete, A. Facchetti, T. J. Marks et al. describe how these diazine‐functionalized oligothiophenes are reasonably efficient hole transporters.