A facile photo-induced synthesis of COOH functionalized meso-macroporous carbon films and their excellent sensing capability for aromatic amines

A simple photo-induced approach is developed for the preparation of COOH functionalized meso-macroporous carbon films with tunable pores without using any inorganic mesoporous silica templates, which show excellent sensing selectivity for aniline and the selectivity can be enhanced upon increasing COOH functional groups.     

Strain-induced reversal of charge transfer in contact electrification

We have contact! Material strain can have a dominating effect on contact electrification. When a deflated (relaxed) balloon is rubbed against teflon, the teflon surface charges positively, but when the same balloon is inflated (strained), the teflon surface charges negatively. This result illustrates that material strain can control contact electrification and alter the driving force of some (yet unknown) charge-transfer species.     

Nonlinear optical properties of erbium doped zinc oxide (EZO) thin films

Undoped and Erbium (Er) doped zinc oxide (EZO) thin films were deposited on glass substrate by sol–gel method using spin coating technique with different doping concentration. EZO films were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), UV–VIS-NIR transmission and single beam z scan method under illumination of frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser. The deposited films were found to be well crystallized with hexagonal wurtzite structure having a preferential growth orientation along the ZnO (002) plane. A blue-shift was observed in the band gap of EZO films with increasing Er concentration. All the films exhibited a negative value of nonlinear refractive index (n₂) at 532 nm which is attributed to the two photon absorption and weak free carrier absorption. Third order nonlinear optical susceptibility, χ⁽³⁾ values of EZO films were observed in the remarkable range of 10^? 6 esu. EZO (0.4 at.%) sample was found to be the best optical limiter with limiting threshold of 1.95 KJ/cm².     

Infinite families of non‐embeddable quasi‐residual Menon designs

A Menon design of order h² is a symmetric (4h²,2h²‐h,h²‐h)‐design. Quasi‐residual and quasi‐derived designs of a Menon design have parameters 2‐(2h² + h,h²,h²‐h) and 2‐(2h²‐h,h²‐h,h²‐h‐1), respectively. In this article, regular Hadamard matrices are used to construct non‐embeddable quasi‐residual and quasi‐derived Menon designs. As applications, we construct the first two new infinite families of non‐embeddable quasi‐residual and quasi‐derived Menon designs. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 17: 53–62, 2009     

Impact of computational structure-based predictive toxicology in drug discovery

Computational tools for predicting toxicity have been envisioned to have the potential to broadly impact up on the attrition rate of compounds in pre-clinical drug discovery and development. An integrated approach of computer-assisted, predictive, and physico-chemical properties of a compound, along with its in vitro and in vivo analysis, needs to be routinely exercised in the lead identification and lead optimization processes. Starting with a good lead can save a lot of money and it can significantly reduce the entire drug discovery process. The journey towards triple R's- reduce, replace and refine, further proves to be successful in predicting adverse drug reactions in patients (or animals) enrolled in clinical trials. However, the impact of predictive toxicity analysis was modest and relatively narrow in scope, due to the limited domain knowledge in this field. It is important to note that advances within medical science and newer approaches in drug development will require predictive toxicology applications to be viable. The field of computational toxicology has been heading in a direction more relevant to human diseases by reducing the adverse drug reactions. Therefore, efforts must be directed to integrating these tools relevant to the goal of preventing undesired toxicity in pre-clinical trials followed by different phases of clinical trials.     

Polarization modulation spectroscopy of single fluorescent nanodiamonds with multiple nitrogen vacancy centers

A technique based on polarization modulation spectroscopy (PMS) has been developed to determine quantitatively the number of fluorophores in nanoparticles at the single-molecule level. The technique involves rotation of the polarization of the excitation laser on a millisecond time scale, leading to fluorescence intensity modulation. By taking account of the heterogeneous orientation among the dipoles of the fluorophores and simulating the modulation depth distribution with Monte Carlo calculations, we show that it is possible to deduce the ensemble average and number distribution of the fluorophores. We apply the technique to fluorescent nanodiamonds (FNDs) containing multiple nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers. Comparing the experimental and simulated modulation depth distributions of 11 nm FNDs, we deduce an average number of = 3, which is in good agreement with independent photon correlation measurements. The method is general, rapid, and applicable to other nanoparticles, polymers, and molecular complexes containing multiple and randomly orientated fluorophores as well.     

Excited-state proton transfer via hydrogen-bonded acetic acid (AcOH) wire for 6-hydroxyquinoline

Spectroscopic studies on excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) of hydroxyquinoline (6HQ) have been performed in a previous paper. And a hydrogen-bonded network formed between 6HQ and acetic acid (AcOH) in nonpolar solvents has been characterized. In this work, a time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) method at the def-TZVP/B3LYP level was employed to investigate the excited-state proton transfer via hydrogen-bonded AcOH wire for 6HQ. A hydrogen-bonded wire containing three AcOH molecules at least for connecting the phenolic and quinolinic -N- group in 6HQ has been confirmed. The excited-state proton transfer via a hydrogen-bonded wire could result in a keto tautomer of 6HQ and lead to a large Stokes shift in the emission spectra. According to the results of calculated potential energy (PE) curves along different coordinates, a stepwise excited-state proton transfer has been proposed with two steps: first, an anionic hydrogen-bonded wire is generated by the protonation of -N- group in 6HQ upon excitation to the S(1) state, which increases the proton-capture ability of the AcOH wire; then, the proton of the phenolic group transfers via the anionic hydrogen-bonded wire, by an overall "concerted" process. Additionally, the formation of the anionic hydrogen-bonded wire as a preliminary step has been confirmed by the hydrogen-bonded parameters analysis of the ESPT process of 6HQ in several protic solvents. Therefore, the formation of anionic hydrogen-bonded wire due to the protonation of the -N- group is essential to strengthen the hydrogen bonding acceptance ability and capture the phenolic proton in the 6HQ chromophore.     

Synthesis, FTIR, FT-Raman, UV-visible, ab initio and DFT studies on benzohydrazide

A systematic vibrational spectroscopic assignment and analysis of benzohydrazide (BH) has been carried out by using FTIR and FT-Raman spectral data. The vibrational analysis were aided by electronic structure calculations--ab initio (RHF) and hybrid density functional methods (B3LYP and B3PW91) performed with 6-31G(d,p) and 6-311++G(d,p) basis sets. Molecular equilibrium geometries, electronic energies, IR intensities, harmonic vibrational frequencies, depolarization ratios and Raman activities have been computed. Potential energy distribution (PED) and normal mode analysis have also been performed. The assignments proposed based on the experimental IR and Raman spectra have been reviewed and complete assignment of the observed spectra have been proposed. UV-visible spectrum of the compound was also recorded and the electronic properties, such as HOMO and LUMO energies and λ(max) were determined by time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) method. The geometrical, thermodynamical parameters and absorption wavelengths were compared with the experimental data. The interactions of carbonyl and hydrazide groups on the benzene ring skeletal modes were investigated.     

Vibrational and electronic investigations, thermodynamic parameters, HOMO and LUMO analysis on crotonaldehyde by ab initio and DFT methods

The energy, geometrical parameters and vibrational wavenumbers of crotonaldehyde were calculated by using ab initio and B3LYP with 6-31G(d,p) and 6-311G(d,p) basis sets. The FT-IR and FT-Raman spectra for liquid state crotonaldehyde have been recorded in the region 3400-400 cm(-1) and 3400-100 cm(-1), respectively and compared with the theoretical spectrographs constructed from the scaled harmonic vibrational frequencies calculated at HF and DFT levels. The difference between the observed and scaled wavenumber values of most of the fundamentals is very small. Detailed interpretations on vibrational modes have been made on the observed and theoretical spectra and PED for each mode was also reported more precisely. HOMO and LUMO energy levels are constructed and the corresponding theoretical frontier energy gaps are calculated to realise the charge transfer occurring in the molecule. The thermodynamic properties of the title compound have been calculated at different temperatures and the results reveals the standard heat capacities (C(0)(p)), standard entropies (S(0)) and standard enthalpy changes (ΔH(0)) increases with rise in temperature.     

Spectroscopic (FTIR and FT Raman) analysis and vibrational study on 2,3-dimethyl naphthalene using ab-initio HF and DFT calculations

A combined experimental and theoretical study on molecular and vibrational structure of 2,3-dimethyl naphthalene (2,3-DMN) has been undertaken in the present work. The FTIR and FT Raman spectra of 2,3-DMN were recorded in the region 4000-100 cm(-1). The optimized geometries were calculated by HF and DFT (B3LYP) methods with 6-31++G (d, p), 6-311G (d, p) and 6-311++G (d, p) basis sets. The harmonic vibrational frequencies, infrared intensities and Raman activities of the 2,3-DMN were evaluated with these methods. After scaling the computational wave numbers are in very good agreement with the experimental values. A detailed interpretation of the infrared and Raman spectra of 2,3-DMN is presented. The effects of substitution of methyl group on the molecule have also been discussed.