Organogel of an 8-quinolinol platinum(II) chelate derivative and its efficient phosphorescence emission effected by inhibition of dioxygen quenching

A newly synthesized 8-quinolinol platinum(II) chelate derivative gelates various organic solvents, and the gel formed shows unique thermo- and solvatochromism of visible and phosphorescent colour in response to a sol-gel phase transition and possesses an attractive ability to inhibit dioxygen quenching of excited triplet states.     

Beta-1,3-glucan polysaccharides as novel one-dimensional hosts for DNA/RNA, conjugated polymers and nanoparticles

Beta-1,3-glucan polysaccharides have triple-stranded helical structures whose sense and pitch are comparable to those of polynucleotides. We recently revealed that the beta-1,3-glucans could interact with certain polynucleotides to form triple-stranded and helical macromolecular complexes consisting of two polysaccharide-strands and one polynucleotide-strand. This unique property of the beta-1,3-glucans has made it possible to utilize these polysaccharides as potential carriers for various functional polynucleotides. In particular, cell-uptake efficiency of the resultant polysaccharide/polynucleotide complexes was remarkably enhanced when functional groups recognized in a biological system were introduced as pendent groups. The beta-1,3-glucans can also interact with various one-dimensional architectures, such as single-walled carbon nanotubes, to produce unique nanocomposites, in which the single-walled carbon nanotubes are entrapped within the helical superstructure of beta-1,3-glucans. Various conductive polymers and gold nanoparticles are also entrapped within the helical superstructure in a similar manner. In addition, diacetylene monomers entrapped within the helical superstructure can be photo-polymerized to afford the corresponding poly(diacetylene)-nanofibers with a uniform diameter. These findings indicate that the beta-1,3-glucans are very attractive and useful materials not only in biotechnology but also in nanotechnology. These unique properties of the beta-1,3-glucans undoubtedly originate from their inherent, very strong helix-forming character which has never been observed for other polysaccharides.     

Water cluster growth in hydrophobic solid nanospaces

The growth mechanism of water clusters in carbon nanopores is clearly elucidated by in situ small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) studies and grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations at 293-313 K. Water molecules are isolated from each other in hydrophobic nanopores below relative pressures (P/P(0)) of 0.5. Water molecules associate with each other to form clusters of about 0.6 nm in size at P/P(0)=0.6, accompanied by a remarkable aggregation of these clusters. The complete filling of carbon nanopores finishes at about P/P(0)=0.8. The correlation length analysis of SAXS profiles leads to the proposal of a growth mechanism for these water clusters and the presence of the critical cluster size of 0.6 nm leads to extremely stable clusters of water molecules in hydrophobic nanopores. Once a cluster of the critical size is formed in hydrophobic nanopores, the predominant water adsorption begins to fill carbon nanopores.     

Improvement of the Derjaguin-Broekhoff-de Boer theory for the capillary condensation/evaporation of nitrogen in spherical cavities and its application for the pore size analysis of silicas with ordered cagelike mesopores

In a previous work, we proposed an improvement of the Derjaguin-Broekhoff-de Boer (DBdB) theory for capillary condensation/evaporation in open-ended cylindrical mesopores. In this paper, we report a further extension of this approach to the capillary condensation/evaporation of nitrogen in siliceous spherical cavities. The main idea of this improvement is to employ the Gibbs-Tolman-Koenig-Buff equation to predict the variation of the surface tension in spherical mesopores. In addition, the statistical film thickness (the so-called t-curve), which is evaluated accurately on the basis of adsorption isotherms measured for MCM-41 materials, is used instead of the originally proposed t-curve to take into account the excess chemical potential due to the surface forces. It is shown that the aforementioned modifications of the original DBdB theory that was refined by Ravikovitch and Neimark have significant implications for the pore size analysis of cagelike mesoporous silicas. To verify the proposed improvement of the DBdB pore size analysis (IDBdB), two series of FDU-1 samples, which are well-defined cagelike mesoporous materials (composed of siliceous spherical cavities interconnected by short necks), were used for the evaluation of the pore size distributions (PSDs). The correlation between the spinodal condensation point in the spherical pores predicted by the nonlocal density functional theory (NDFT) developed by Ravikovitch and Neimark and that predicted by the IDBdB theory is very good in the whole range of mesopores. This feature is mirrored to the realistic PSD characterized by the bimodal structure of pores computed from the IDBdB theory. As in the case of open-ended cylindrical pores, the improvement of the classical DBdB theory preserves its simplicity and simultaneously ensures a significant improvement of the pore size analysis, which is confirmed by the independent estimation of the average pore size by the NDFT and the powder X-ray diffraction method.     

Inclusion of cut and as-grown single-walled carbon nanotubes in the helical superstructure of schizophyllan and curdlan (beta-1,3-glucans)

We have found that single-chain schizophyllan and curdlan (s-SPG and s-curdlan, respectively) can dissolve as-grown and cut single-walled carbon nanotubes (ag-SWNTs and c-SWNTs, respectively) in aqueous solution. The vis-NIR spectra of the composites suggest that c-SWNTs are dissolved as a bundle, whereas ag-SWNTs exist as one or only a few pieces in the tubular hollow constructed by the helical structure inherent to these beta-1,3-glucans. EDX and CLSM measurements and TEM observation established that the distribution map of these polysaccharides overlaps well with the image of SWNTs, indicating that these two components form a composite. Very interestingly, when c-SWNTs were dissolved with the aid of s-SPG or s-curdlan in water, a clear periodical structure with inclined stripes, as detected by AFM, appeared on the fibrous composite surface. Because this periodical structure has never been recognized for the composites with other water-soluble polymers, one can regard that s-SPG or s-curdlan wraps c-SWNTs constructing a helically twined structure. High-resolution TEM observation of an ag-SWNTs/s-SPG composite gave a clearer image in that two s-SPG chains twine one ag-SWNT and the helical motif is right-handed. When this sample was subjected to the AFM measurement, the composite showed the 2-3 nm height. This height implies that one piece of ag-SWNT is included in the s-SPGs helical structure. As a summary, it has been established that beta-1,3-glucans such as s-SPG and s-curdlan not only dissolve SWNTs but also create a novel superstructure on the surface.     

Results from GRACE/SUSY at one-loop

We report the recent development on the SUSY calculations with the help of GRACE system. GRACE/SUSY/1LOOP is the computer code which can generate Feynman diagrams in the MSSM automatically and compute one-loop amplitudes in the numerical way. We present new results of various two-body decay widths and chargino pair production at ILC (international linear collider) at one-loop level.      

Study of Strangeness Photoproduction on the Neutron in the Threshold Region

Photoproduction of the neutral kaon on the deuteron has been investigated at the Research Center for Electron Photon Science, Tohoku University. We constructed the Neutral Kaon Spectrometer-2 for the detection of charged particles from the decay of the neutral kaon and the hyperon. We obtained a momentum distribution of K ⁰ with the inclusive measurement. It was consistent with the previous measurement. The total cross section of γ + d → K ⁰ + Λ + p was estimated from the measured integral cross section of γ + d → Λ + X. The total cross section with respect to the photon energy was compared with the theoretical calculations. It favored the Saclay-Lyon A model calculation with the ratio of the neutral to charged coupling constants of the axial-vector meson, K ₁, as ~ ?1.5. The energy dependence and the magnitude of the total cross section were similar to the total cross section of γ + p → K ⁺ Λ.     

Reactions on 209Bi induced by intermediate energy protons and the effect of direct reactions

Excitation functions and ranges of recoil nuclei in the ²⁰⁹Bi(p, 3n)²⁰⁷Po, ²⁰⁹Bi(p, 4n) ²⁰⁶Po and ²⁰⁹Bi(p, p3n)²⁰⁶Bi reactions have been measured for incident energies from 18 MeV up to 52 MeV. It has been found that the recoil ranges in (p, p3n) reactions are rather shorter than those in (p, 4n), and that beyond E_p = 40 MeV the high energy tail of the excitation function for (p, p3n) is roughly flat, in contrast to the decreasing tail for (p, 4n). A theoretical analysis of the excitation functions and of the nuclear recoil ranges has been made. It has been found that in (p, p3n) reactions the direct process plays a very important part in the reaction mechanism. It is also found that the reaction mechanisms of (p, 3n) and (p, 4n) reactions should be interpreted by means of an admixture of the equilibrium compound process and the pre-equilibrium decay process at bombarding energies up to 40 MeV and 50 MeV, respectively, and that the direct process seems to appear at bombarding energies higher than these respective energies.     

Clathrate-formation mediated adsorption of methane on Cu-complex crystals

We measured adsorption and desorption isotherms of methane on [Cu(4, 4'-bipyridine)2(BF4)2] (LPC) at 258, 273, and 303 K. Adsorption proceeds almost vertically at a definite pressure, which is named gate pressure. The lower the measurement temperature, the smaller the gate pressure. The temperature dependence of the gate pressure is expressed by the Clapeyron-Clausius equation, giving a thermodynamic evidence on the clathrate formation between the Cu complex and methane.