A novel synthesis of tolunitriles by selective ammoxidation

A new approach to synthesize tolunitriles is reported. Tolunitriles can be prepared by selective ammoxidation of methylbenzyl chlorides prepared by chloromethylation of toluene. The total yields can reach 83% and the selectivity of tolunitriles is almost 100%. This approach provides a new path for preparing alkylbenzonitriles and other aromatic nitriles.     

Electromagnetically induced phase grating controlled by spontaneous emission

Electromagnetically induced phase grating controlled by spontaneous emission is studied. The results show that the diffraction efficiency of phase grating is strikingly enhanced due to the existence of spontaneously generated coherence (SGC), and the diffraction efficiency of 35% can be obtained in optimal SGC parameter case. Furthermore, at large SGC parameter, the high efficiency of phase grating can be maintained by the application of weak coupled and relatively strong probe fields, and choosing the proper length of atomic sample. At the same time, in such an atomic system, the SGC effect depends on incoherent pump.     

Developing a novel alkaline anion exchange membrane derived from poly(ether‐imide) for improved ionic conductivity

We have developed a novel alkaline anion exchange membrane derived from poly(ether‐imide) for improved ionic conductivity. The effects of several important parameters on the chloromethylation of the membrane were investigated. These parameters included reaction temperature, reaction time, concentration of chloromethylation agent, concentration of polymer, and the amount of catalyst. The quaternization of the synthesized chloromethylated polymer was studied as well. The results show that all the studied parameters exhibited significant impacts on chloromethylation. Among them, the concentration of the chloromethylation agent played a key role in increasing the chloromethyl functional group attachment onto the polymer. It was found that the gelation could be avoided if these reaction parameters were controlled. It was also found that using an appropriate quaternization approach could significantly improve the ionic conductivity and optimize the conductivity of the membrane even though the functional chloromethyl groups attached to the polymer are limited. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence of annealing process on conductive properties of Nb-doped TiO2 polycrystalline films prepared by sol-gel method

Nb-doped TiO₂ (TNO) thin films were prepared by sol-gel dip-coating method with Nb content in a wide range of 0-20 at.%. The prepared films were preheated at 400 °C and then undertaken by two different post-annealing processes: (a) three times vacuum annealing and (b) multi-round annealing. The designed multi-round annealing was shown to be an effective way to improve the conductive properties of the films, compared to the traditional vacuum annealing process. The minimum resistivity reached approximately 0.5 Ω cm with Nb doping concentration around 12 at.%, and the carrier density increased with Nb-doping concentration until the critical point of 12 at.%, which might be the optimal doping content for our TNO films prepared by sol-gel method.     

Method to eliminate the damage aroused by intrinsic prepulse of Blumlein transmission line in capillary discharge soft X-ray laser system

To raise the utilization ratio of the energy power, and meanwhile, guarantee the waveform of the main discharge current to obtain X-ray laser, our capillary discharged Ne-like Ar soft X-ray laser system adopts Blumleim transmission line (BTL) and a 300 kV-Marx generator; and by using our self-developed intrinsic-prepulse elimination device and extrinsic-prepulse generator, we successfully removed the intrinsic prepulse of BTL, and thus eliminated its deteriorative effect towards Z-pinch plasma. By this means, we obtained stable X-ray laser output; and the voltage transmission rate of our system nearly reaches 122%, which provides a guarantee for the miniaturization of the power source and the whole system.     

The synthesis and molecular recognization of the polyamine transporter of hydrazine-modified diamine conjugates

A series of four novel hydrazine-modified diamine conjugates （7a-b, 8a-b） were synthesized and evaluated for cytotoxicity against Melanoma B 16, α-difluoromethylornithine （DFMO）-treated B 16, spermidine （SPD）-treated B 16, Mouse leukemia L 1210 and Hela cell lines. Both the DFMO-B 16 and SPD-B 16 experiments indicated that conjugates 7a-b and 8a-b could recognize the polyamine transporter （PAT） and enter the cells in part or in whole via PAT, although they were not as efficient as the reference, 9- anthracenemethyl homospermidine （1）. 2007 Chao Jie Wang. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Chemical Society. All rights reserved.     

First‐principles calculations of the stability and electronic properties of the PbTiO3 (110) polar surface

The structural and electronic properties of five terminations of cubic lead titanate (PbTiO₃) (110) polar surface were investigated by first‐principles total‐energy calculations using a periodic slab model. On the PbTiO termination, an anomalous filling of conduction band was observed, whereas on the O₂ termination, two surface oxygen atoms formed a peroxo group, demonstrating that the electronic structures of the two stoichiometric terminations undergo significant changes with respect to bulk materials. However, for the three nonstoichiometric TiO‐, Pb‐, and O‐terminated surfaces, their electronic structures are very similar to bulk. Charge redistribution results for the five terminations confirmed that electronic structure and surface composition changes are responsible for their polarity compensation. However, which mechanism actually dominates the stabilization process depends upon energetic considerations. A thermodynamic stability diagram suggested that the two stoichiometric terminations are unstable; however, the three nonstoichiometric terminations can be stabilized in some given regions. Furthermore, this study indicates that the very different stabilities and surface states filling behaviors of the PbTiO₃ (110) polar surface with respect to SrTiO₃ and BaTiO₃ ones seem to originate from the partially covalent characteristics of Pb O pairs. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem 2009     

An efficient ghost fluid method for compressible multifluids in Lagrangian coordinate

In this paper, we present an extended ghost fluid method (GFM) for computations of inviscid compressible multifluids in Lagrangian coordinate. That is, we capture the appropriate interface conditions by defining a fluid that has the velocity and the pressure of the real fluid at each point, but the entropy or the internal energy of some other fluid. Meanwhile, a single-fluid solver, CWENO-type central-upwind scheme, is developed in Lagrangian coordinate. The high resolution and the non-oscillatory quality of the scheme can be verified by solving several numerical experiments.