Computational insights into octyl-D-xyloside isomers towards understanding the liquid crystalline structure: physico-chemical features

We applied density functional theory to study octyl-D-xyloside isomers in order to explain the features responsible for the liquid crystal mesophases. Compared to a glucoside, the xylose headgroup has a proton instead of the hydroxymethyl group on C5. Thus, a xyloside has a reduced headgroup volume that renders it less hydrophilic. Our results have shown that the xylose headgroup may adopt stable pyranose and furanose conformations, which may lead to different effective headgroup hydrophilicities. These features are probably responsible for forming two non-equivalent inverse micelles, which are self-assembled into a cubic discontinuous phase with a space group of Fd3m commonly found for xylosides. While different factors are responsible for controlling the relative stability of each isomer, the role of intramolecular hydrogen bonding was highlighted for the investigated single molecule. The polarisable continuum model was used to take into account the solvent effect in order to understand the molecular behaviour in very polar systems. Results from calculations carried out in gas phase were used for comparative purposes. The molecular electrostatic potential calculations for these xylolipids demonstrate sugar amphoterism, which is implicated in the heterogeneity nature of lipid self-assembly.     

Insight into the Interfacial Process and Mechanism in Lithium–Sulfur Batteries: An In Situ AFM Study

Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries are highly appealing for large‐scale energy storage. However, performance deterioration issues remain, which are highly related to interfacial properties. Herein, we present a direct visualization of the interfacial structure and dynamics of the Li–S discharge/charge processes at the nanoscale. In situ atomic force microscopy and ex situ spectroscopic methods directly distinguish the morphology and growth processes of insoluble products Li₂S₂ and Li₂S. The monitored interfacial dynamics show that Li₂S₂ nanoparticle nuclei begin to grow at 2 V followed by a fast deposition of lamellar Li₂S at 1.83 V on discharge. Upon charging, only Li₂S depletes from the interface, leaving some Li₂S₂ undissolved, which accumulates during cycling. The galvanostatic precipitation of Li₂S₂ and/or Li₂S is correlated to current rates and affects the specific capacity. These findings reveal a straightforward structure–reactivity correlation and performance fading mechanism in Li–S batteries.     

Effect of adding artificial reverberation to speech-like masking sound

Time-reversed speech has been known to effectively mask information for speech privacy applications. However, the annoyance and distraction caused by the time-reversed speech-like masking sound is higher than other masking sound. This study investigates the effects of adding artificial reverberation to the time-reversed speech. Subjective listening tests have been conducted to measure the intelligibility of target speech, annoyance and distraction caused by the masking sound. The experimental results suggest that adding artificial reverberation to a speech-like masking sound has a significant effect to reduce the annoyance level while maintaining the masking effectiveness of the original masking sound. A trend was also observed that the addition of artificial reverberation could reduce the level of distraction caused by the masking sound.     

Fullerene‐Structural Carbon‐Based Dots from C60 Molecules and their Optical Properties

Fullerene‐structural carbon‐based dots (f‐CDs) are synthesized for the first time by chemically oxidizing fullerene molecules (C₆₀) using concentrated HNO₃. The lateral sizes of the f‐CDs distribute in the range of 7–20 nm, and the heights mainly range from 0.4 to 1.3 nm with an average value of 0.7 nm. The presence of massive pentagonal carbon units makes the f‐CDs different from most of graphitic‐CDs in structure and morphology. The f‐CDs exhibit unique luminescent properties such as photoluminescence (PL) and electrochemiluminescence. Based on the investigation of the UV–vis absorption and luminescent properties, a novel and reasonable model is proposed for the PL mechanism of f‐CDs. Furthermore, the obtained f‐CDs show low cytotoxicity and have potential application in cell imaging.     

Insights into the synergy of zero-valent iron and copper oxide in persulfate oxidation of Orange G solutions

The degradation of Orange G (OG) by persulfate (PS, S₂O₈ ^2?) activated with dual catalysts that combined zero-valent iron (ZVI) and copper oxide (CuO) was investigated through batch experiments. Effects of pH, initial OG concentration, persulfate dosages, and dosages of dual catalysts on OG degradation were also examined. Higher persulfate concentration and catalysts dosages resulted in higher OG degrading rates. The OG degradation was higher under acidic conditions (pH 3.0 and 5.0) when compared to alkaline conditions. The constituents and the morphology of the catalysts coating before and after reaction were also investigated with X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Radical mechanism was studied and three radical scavengers [methanol (MA), tert-butanol (TBA), phenol] were used to determine the type of major active species taking part in the degradation of OG. It was assumed that the \({\text{SO}}_{4}^{ \cdot - }\) or \({\text{HO}} \cdot\) played a major role in the OG degradation. In conclusion, the ZVI/CuO/PS system is a good candidate for use in detoxifying water contaminants.     

Recent advances in phenothiazine-based dyes for dye-sensitized solar cells

Dye-sensitized solar cells(DSSCs) have attracted significant attention as alternatives to conventional silicon-based solar cells owing to their low-cost production,facile fabrication,excellent stability and high power conversion efficiency(PCE).The dye molecule is one of the key components in DSSCs since it significant influence on the PCE,charge separation,light-harvesting,as well as the device stability.Among various dyes,easily tunable phenothiazine-based dyes hold a large proportion and achieve impressive photovoltaic performances.This class of dyes not only has superiorly non-planar butterfly structure but also possesses excellent electron donating ability and large π conjugated system.This review summarized recent developments in the phenothiazine dyes,including small molecule phenothiazine dyes,polymer phenothiazine dyes and phenothiazine dyes for co-sensitization,especially focused on the developments and design concepts of small molecule phenothiazine dyes,as well as the correlation between molecular structures and the photovoltaic performances.     

Fast and effective low‐temperature freezing extraction technique to determine organotin compounds in edible vegetable oil

Most organotin compounds that have been widely used in food packaging materials and production process show serious toxicity effects to human health. In this study, a simple and low‐cost method based on high‐performance liquid chromatography with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry for the simultaneous determination of four organotins in edible vegetable oil samples was developed. Four organotins including dibutyltin dichloride, tributyltin chloride, diphenyltin dichloride, and triphenyltin chloride were simultaneously extracted with methanol using the low‐temperature precipitation process. After being concentrated, the extracts were purified by matrix solid‐phase dispersion using graphitized carbon black. The experimental parameters such as extraction solvent and clean‐up material were optimized. To evaluate the accuracy of the new method, the recoveries were investigated. In addition, a liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry method was also proposed for comparison. The procedures of extracting and purifying samples for the analysis were simple and easy to perform batch operations, also showed good efficiency with lower relative standard deviation. The limits of detection of the four organotins were 0.28–0.59 μg/L, and the limits of quantification of the four organotins were 0.93–1.8 μg/L, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied to the simultaneous analysis of the four organotins in edible vegetable oil. Some analytes were detected at the level of 2.5–28.8 μg/kg.