Development and certification of a coal fly ash certified reference material for selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

The development and certification of a coal fly ash certified reference material (CRM) for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) is described; this is the first natural matrix CRM for organic environmental analysis in China. The homogeneity and stability of this material have been tested by HPLC. The concentrations of several PAH were determined by use of two independent, different methods--solvent extraction-HPLC analysis with UV detection coupled with fluorescence detection (FLD) and solvent extraction, isolation with a silica column, and GC analysis with flame ionization detection (FID). Five certified values were determined: phenanthrene 7.1 +/- 2.6 microg g(-1), anthracene 2.0 +/- 0.8 microg g(-1), fluoranthene 7.4 +/- 1.9 microg g(-1), pyrene 7 +/- 2 microg g(-1), and benzo[a]pyrene 1.3 +/- 0.3 microg g(-1). Reference values for several other PAH are also suggested.     

Transient electrophoresis of a charged porous particle

The starting electrophoretic motion of a porous, uniformly charged, spherical particle, which models a solvent-permeable and ion-penetrable polyelectrolyte coil or floc of nanoparticles, in an arbitrary electrolyte solution due to the sudden application of an electric field is studied for the first time. The unsteady Stokes/Brinkman equations with the electric force term governing the fluid velocity fields are solved by means of the Laplace transform. An analytical formula for the electrophoretic mobility of the porous sphere is obtained as a function of the dimensionless parameters , , , and , where a is the radius of the particle, κ is the Debye screening parameter, λ is the reciprocal of the square root of the fluid permeability in the particle, ρ_p and ρ are the mass densities of the particle and fluid, respectively, ν is the kinematic viscosity of the fluid, and t is the time. The electrophoretic mobility normalized by its steady-state value increases monotonically with increases in and , but decreases monotonically with an increase in , keeping the other parameters unchanged. In general, a porous particle with a high fluid permeability trails behind an identical porous particle with a lower permeability and a corresponding hard particle in the growth of the normalized electrophoretic mobility The normalized electrophoretic acceleration of the porous sphere decreases monotonically with an increase in the time and increases with an increase in from zero at .     

Modulation of the lifespan of C. elegans by the controlled release of nitric oxide

The frontier of nitric oxide biology has gradually shifted from mechanism elucidation to biomanipulation, e.g. cell-proliferation promotion, cell-apoptosis induction, and lifespan modulation. This warrants biocompatible nitric oxide (NO) donating materials, whose NO release is not only controlled by a bioorthogonal trigger, but also self-calibrated allowing real-time monitoring and hence an onset/offset of the NO release. Additionally, the dose of NO release should be facilely adjusted in a large dynamic range; flux and the dose are critical to the biological outcome of NO treatment. Via self-assembly of a PEGylated small-molecule NO donor, we developed novel NO-donating nanoparticles (PEG-NORM), which meet all the aforementioned criteria. We showcased that a low flux of NO induced cell proliferation, while a high flux induced cell oxidative stress and, ultimately, death. Notably, PEG-NORM was capable of efficiently modulating the lifespan of C. elegans. The average lifespan of C. elegans could be fine-tuned to be as short as 15.87 ± 0.29 days with a high dose of NO, or as long as 21.13 ± 0.41 days with a low dose of NO, compared to an average life-span of 18.87 ± 0.46 days. Thus, PEG-NORM has broad potential in cell manipulation and life-span modulation and could drive the advancement of NO biology and medicine.

Schematic illustration of modulating the longevity of the C. elegans by PEG-NORM nanoparticles.     

Excellent field-emission properties of P-doped GaN nanowires

GaN nanowires with P doping were synthesized via a simple thermal evaporation process. The P-doped GaN nanowires have average diameters of approximately 100 nm and lengths up to tens of micrometers. Scanning electron microscope and high-resolution field-emission transmission electron microscope analyses revealed that P doping results in a rough surface morphology of GaN nanowires. Field-emission measurements showed that P doping effectively decreases the turn-on field of GaN nanowire to 5.1 V/mum, holding promise of application as an electron emitter. The rough surface is responsible for enhancement of the field-emission properties of GaN nanowires.     

4,4′‐Bipyridyl N,N′‐dioxide–3‐hydroxy‐2‐naphthoic acid (1/2)

4,4′‐Bipyridyl N,N′‐dioxide crystallizes with 3‐hydr­oxy‐2‐naphthoic acid to give a centrosymmetric three‐component adduct, C₁₀H₈N₂O₂·2C₁₁H₈O₃, which is engineered into a two‐dimensional layer structure by two kinds of π–π inter­actions. Weak C—H⋯O inter­actions further link the two‐dimensional structure into a three‐dimensional structure.     

Systematic Study of Ti‐Distribution in Titanosilicate *BEA Zeolites via Symmetry‐Adapted Enumeration

The high performance of titanosilicate zeolites in various industrial oxidation reactions is highly affected by the distribution of Ti atoms in their frameworks. Because of their structural complexity, previous theoretical studies mainly focus on the preferential location of single Ti atoms within the unit cells of titanosilicate zeolites. When multiple Ti atoms are required, conventional approaches consider only symmetrically related T sites to reduce the computation complexity. Such symmetry‐constrained approaches obviously overlooked many possible configurations. Herein, we conduct a systematic study on the distribution of two Ti atoms in the unit cell of titanosilicate zeolite *BEA . Different from conventional symmetry‐constrained approaches, we introduce two Ti atoms simultaneously without any constraint and adopt a symmetry‐adapted algorithm to enumerate all possible configurations for double‐Ti introduction. We generate a total of 273 distinct configurations and analyze the Ti‐distribution via Boltzmann statistics. We find that many of the configurations overlooked by conventional symmetry‐constrained approaches indeed exhibit more feasible energies, which may lead to different Ti‐distributions. Our study indicates the necessity of unconstrained introduction of Ti atoms when multiple‐Ti atoms are considered for calculations.     

Aggregation-driven growth of size-tunable organic nanoparticles using electronically altered conjugated polymers

A novel class of monodisperse conjugated polymer nanoparticles have been readily prepared by the facile reprecipitation of poly{1,3-bis[2-(3-alkylthienyl)]azulene} or poly{1,3-bis[2-(3-alkoxythienyl)]azulene}. The multicomponent poly(bithiophene-alt-azulene) macromolecules were efficiently self-assembled into a wide range of size-tunable nanoparticles from a few tens to five hundred nanometers via the hydrophobic and pi-stacking effects in the mixed chloroform/methanol solutions. Electronically altered polymer structures with different alkyl or alkoxy substitutes exhibited variable self-assembling behaviors to precisely tune the size and the optical/electronic properties of nanoparticles. A strong size dependence of continuous bathochromic absorption and significant enhanced emission were observed with the increase of particle size. A linear relationship between the absorption or fluorescence intensities and the particle size was demonstrated as well, and this is very useful to probe the intermolecular interactions and the size evolutions of conjugated polymer nanoparticles. After the size-dependent optical and electronic properties are created, they can be further optimized to improve the performance of materials prior to the use in novel organic nanodevices in a cost-effective way.     

Ultrathin polymer film formation by collision-induced cross-linking of adsorbed organic molecules with hyperthermal protons

A new synthetic approach for the formation of ultrathin polymer films with customizable properties was developed. In this approach, the kinematic nature of proton collisions with simple organic molecules condensed on a substrate is exploited to break C-H bonds preferentially. The subsequent recombination of carbon radicals gives a cross-linked polymer thin film, and the selectivity of C-H cleavage preserves the chemical functionalities of the precursor molecules. The nature and validity of the method are exemplified with theoretical results from ab initio molecular dynamics calculations and experimental evidence from a variety of characterization techniques. Its applicability is demonstrated by the synthesis of ultrathin polymer films with precursor molecules such as dotriacontane, docosanoic acid, poly(acrylic acid) oligomer, and polyisoprene. The approach is fundamentally different from conventional chemical synthesis as it involves an unusual mix of physical and chemical processes including charge exchange, projectile penetration, kinematics, collision-induced dissociation, inelastic energy transfer, chain transfer, and chain cross-linking.