Flame-retardant effect of cross-linked phosphazene derivatives and pentaerythritol derivatives on polypropylene

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - A phosphazene-based flame retardant (PBFA) was synthesized by hexachlorocyclotriphosphazene and N-aminoethylpiperazine. To improve the flame retardancy...     

Origins of Boosted Charge Storage on Heteroatom-Doped Carbons

Although tremendous efforts have been devoted to understanding the origin of boosted charge storage on heteroatom-doped carbons, none of the present studies has shown a whole landscape. Herein, by both experimental evidence and theoretical simulation, it is demonstrated that heteroatom doping not only results in a broadened operating voltage, but also successfully promotes the specific capacitance in aqueous supercapacitors. In particular, the electrolyte cations adsorbed on heteroatom-doped carbon can effectively inhibit hydrogen evolution reaction, a key step of water decomposition during the charging process, which broadens the voltage window of aqueous electrolytes even beyond the thermodynamic limit of water (1.23 V). Furthermore, the reduced adsorption energy of heteroatom-doped carbon consequently leads to more stored cations on the heteroatom-doped carbon surface, thus yielding a boosted charge storage performance.     

Measured and Predicted Solubility Phase Diagrams of Quaternary Systems LiBr-NaBr-MgBr2-H2O and LiBr-KBr-MgBr2-H2O at 298.15 K

The stable phase equilibria of quaternary systems LiBr-NaBr-MgBr₂-H₂O and LiBr-KBr-MgBr₂-H₂O at 298.15 K were studied by both experimental measurement(isothermal solution saturation method) and theoretical prediction(Pitzer model). The solubilities of the saturated solution have been determined experimentally and two stable phase diagrams and relevant water diagrams of the two quaternary systems were obtained. Results show that quaternary system LiBr-NaBr-MgBr₂-H₂O is hydrate II type as NaBr and NaBr·2H₂O coexistence. Its phase diagram consists of only one invariant point, four univariant curves, and five crystallization fields. The quaternary system LiBr-KBr-MgBr₂-H₂O is a complex type as the double salt KBr·MgBr₂·6H₂O formed. In addition to this double salt, the three single salts LiBr·2H₂O, KBr and MgBr₂·6H₂O also crystallize. In this paper, the solubilities of phase equilibria in above quaternary systems were also calculated by the Pitzer's electrolyte solution model. All the needed parameters can be obtained from the literature or be fitted by experimental data. On the Basis of the experimental and calculated results, the phase diagram of the quaternary system was plotted for comparison. It shows that the calculation results are consistent with the experimental ones.     

Detecting nonclassicality of light via Lieb's concavity

Nonclassical light states are important for both conceptual and practical reasons: they are basic ingredients in testing and exploring quantum foundations, and are crucial resources in quantum technologies. Various useful criteria have been developed to detect nonclassicality in the literature, and several meaningful measures of nonclassicality have been introduced and measured experimentally. In this work, by use of a non-Hermitian generalization of the Wigner-Yanase-Dyson skew information and playing with operator ordering in evaluating average photon number, we develop a novel family of criteria for detecting nonclassicality of light based on Lieb's concavity, which is a deep and powerful result concerning interaction between quantum states and observables. We elucidate the information-theoretic as well as the physical meaning of the criteria, and illustrate their effectiveness in capturing and quantifying nonclassicality of various important light states.     

Oxidative Epigallocatechin Gallate Coating on Polymeric Substrates for Bone Tissue Regeneration

Plant derived flavonoids have not been well explored in tissue engineering applications due to difficulties in efficient formulations with biomaterials for controlled presentation. Here, the authors report that surface coating of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) on polymeric substrates including poly (L‐lactic acid) (PLLA) nanofibers can be performed via oxidative polymerization of EGCG in the presence of cations, enabling regulation of biological functions of multiple cell types implicated in bone regeneration. EGCG coating on the PLLA nanofiber promotes osteogenic differentiation of adipose‐derived stem cells (ADSCs) and is potent to suppress adipogenesis of ADSCs while significantly reduces osteoclastic maturation of murine macrophages. Moreover, EGCG coating serves as a protective layer for ADSCs against oxidative stress caused by hydrogen peroxide. Finally, the in vivo implantation of EGCG‐coated nanofibers into a mouse calvarial defect model significantly promotes the bone regeneration (61.52 ± 28.10%) as compared to defect (17.48 ± 11.07%). Collectively, the results suggest that EGCG coating is a simple bioinspired surface modification of polymeric biomaterials and importantly can thus serve as a promising interface for tuning activities of multiple cell types associated with bone fracture healing.     

Pentapnictogen heterocyclic monoanions: Structure,stability, and aromaticity

Inorganic planar ring-shape molecules with 4n + 2 π electrons are always the focus of experimental synthesis and theoretical research due to their potential aromaticity and stability. In this work, the whole series of five-membered heterocycle monoanions X _nY_5-n⁻ (X, Y = group 15 elements; n = 1-4) were thoroughly investigated by means of density functional theory calculations. They all have large formation energies and HOMO-LUMO gap energies, suggesting the potential thermodynamic and kinetic stability. Their aromaticities are comparable to that of typical aromatic hydrocarbons. Their thermal stabilities were firmly established by the ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. As most of them are predicted for the first time, their various spectra were simulated for experimental characterization. Furthermore, we demonstrate that these five-membered cyclic anions can be employed as η⁵-ligand to construct novel all-inorganic metallocenes, which may serve as the building blocks of low-dimensional nanomaterials.     

Scattering of a Gaussian beam by an anisotropically coated circular cylinder

A solution to the problem of Gaussian beam scattering by an anisotropically coated circular cylinder is presented. The incident Gaussian beam source is expanded as an approximate expression in the simple form with a Tayor’s series. The transmitted field in the anisotropically coated region is expressed as a infinite summation of eigen plane waves with different polar angles. The unknown coefficients of the scattered fields are obtained with the aid of the boundary conditions. The infinite series can be truncated under the prerequisite of achieving the solution convergence. Only the case of transverse-electric polarization is discussed. The similar formulation of transverse-magnetic polarization can be obtained by adopting the similar method. Some numerical results are presented and discussed. The result is in agreement with that available as expected when the Gaussian beam degenerates to a plane wave incidence case.     

Global dynamics of a flexible asymmetrical rotor

Nonlinear Dynamics - Global dynamics of a flexible asymmetrical rotor resting on vibrating supports is investigated. Hamilton’s principle is used to derive the partial differential governing...