Spectrophotometric Determination of Zirconium in Monazite Sand

A sensitive spectrophotometric method was developed for the determination of zirconium in monazite sand. The zirconium ion was previously separated from the other interfering elements by a 0.5 M thenoyltrifluoroacetone (TTA)-xylene extraction, then determined with Arsenazo III in 9 M HCl medium. Zirconium reacted with Arsenazo III to form an emeraled green coloured complex having maximum absorbance at 665 nm in 9 M HCl medium. The color was stable for at least 2 hours. Effects of time, HCl concentration, gelatine and various ions have been studied. The system confirms the Beer's law over the concentration range investigated. Optimum condition range for measurement in 1.0 cm quartz cell is 0.1–0.5 μg/ml of zirconium. The molar absorptivity is 1.51×10⁵ liter mole^?1 cm^?1. The metal-ligand ratio of 1:4 was confirmed by Job's Continuous Variation method and the conditional stability constant of Zirconium-Arsenazo III Complex in 4 M HCl and 9 M HCl were also determined by this method.     

Catalytic Pyrolysis of Methane

Methane decomposition over metal oxides/SiO₂ surface was investigated. At 1400 K obtained product distribution of this decomposition varied with metal oxide used. The effectiveness of these catalysts has been discussed in terms of activity and C₂ selectivity. ThO₂/SiO₂ was found to be the most effective catalyst for the catalytic decomposition of methane. Positive catalytic effect of ThO₂/SiO₂ on the pyrolysis has also been confirmed at 1073 K. At low reaction conversions, ethane and ethylene are found as major products. Yields of ethylene and other unsaturated products are sensitively inhibited by NO impurities in the methane. A reaction mechanism has been proposed to account observed experimental results.     

Optimizing Membranes for Osmotic Power Generation

The design of ion-selective membranes is the key towards efficient reverse electrodialysis-based osmotic power conversion. The tradeoff between ion selectivity (output voltage) and ion permeability (output current) in existing porous membranes, however, limits the upgradation of power generation efficiency for practical applications. Thus, we provide the simple guidelines based on fundamentals of ion transport in nanofluidics for promoting osmotic power conversion. In addition, we discuss strategies for optimizing membrane performance through analysis of various material parameters in membrane design, such as pore size, surface charge, pore density, membrane thickness, ion pathway, pore order, and ionic diode effect. Lastly, a perspective on the future directions of membrane design to further maximize the efficiency of osmotic power conversion is outlined.     

Selective binding of mannose-encapsulated gold nanoparticles to type 1 pili in Escherichia coli

The synthesis, characterization and biological application of mannose encapsulated gold nanoparticles (m-AuNP) are reported. m-AuNP is well dispersed and very stable without aggregation in the media of broad ion strength and pH ranges. The selective binding of m-AuNP to the mannose adhesin FimH of bacterial type 1 pili is demonstrated using transmission electron microscopy. The competition assay with free mannose suggests that m-AuNP binds FimH better than free mannose does. This work demonstrates that carbohydrate attached nanoparticles can be used as an efficient affinity label and a multi-ligand carrier in a biological system.     

Design and synthesis of a fluorescent reporter of protein kinase activity

There is widespread interest in developing fluorescent reporters of protein kinase activity, species that can furnish a visual readout of both when and where intracellular kinases are activated in response to a stimulus. We have constructed and identified, via a combination of rational design, library synthesis, and screening, a difluorofluorescein-appended peptide-based species that responds to protein kinase C phosphorylation in a fluorescently sensitive fashion. The phosphorylation-induced divalent metal ion-mediated 265% enhancement in fluorescence proceeds with a V(max) of 8.5 micromol/min.mg and a K(m) of 20.5 microM.     

Positron lifetimes in proton-irradiated silicon

Substantial extensions of the shorter of two positron lifetimes in p-type silicon upon proton irradiations have been observed, showing that some induced defects can act as traps for positrons. The mean electron density of the defect has been found to be about 30 per cent less than that in the perfect part of the crystal. The result demonstrates that the positron-lifetime measurement is a useful tool for studying defects in semiconductors.     

On harmonic typically real mappings

In this paper, we prove that a univalent orientation-preserving harmonic mapping defined on the unit disk U with the normalization f(0)=0, , is a typically real mapping, if f(U) is a starlike domain with respect to the origin or f(U) is convex in one direction.