Micro-electrospray with stainless steel emitters

The physical processes underlying micro-electrospray (micro-ES) performance were investigated using a stainless steel (SS) emitter with a blunt tip. Sheathless micro-ES could be generated at a blunt SS tip without any tapering or sanding if ESI conditions were optimized. The Taylor cone was found to shrink around the inner diameter of the SS tubing, which permitted a low flow rate of 150 nL/min for sheathless microspray on the blunt tip (100 microm i.d. x 400 microm o.d.). It is believed that the wettability and/or hydrophobicity of SS tips are responsible for their micro-ES performance. The outlet orifice was further nipped to reduce the size of the spray cone and limit the flow rate to 50-150 nL/min, resulting in peptide detection down to attomole quantities consumed per spectrum. The SS emitter was also integrated into a polymethylmethacrylate microchip and demonstrated satisfactory performance in the analysis and identification of a myoglobin digest.     

多支链烷基苯磺酸钠水溶液的表面性质

用自制的四种高纯度多支链烷基苯磺酸钠,研究了支链结构对其表面性质的影响.结果表明,随支链烷基碳数增加,临界胶束浓度降低,标准吸附自由能DGadӨ更负;但是,饱和吸附量Γmax却随支链烷基碳数增加而减小,且临界胶束浓度时的表面张力γcmc随吸附量减小而降低,表现出与一般表面活性剂不同的变化趋势.从多支链烷基苯磺酸钠的分子结构特点,解释了随支链烷基碳数增加Γmax和γcmc的变化规律,探讨了分子的独占面积(as)对Γmax及γcmc的影响.     

Influence of demulsifiers of different structures on interfacial dilational properties of an oil-water interface containing surface-active fractions from crude oil

The influences of two commercial demulsifiers that have a straight chain and branch chain, respectively, on the dilational viscoelasticity of an oil-water interfacial film containing surface-active fractions from crude oil were investigated. The branch-chain demulsifier AE-121 could efficiently substitute surface-active fractions of different average molecular weights from the oil-water interface, while straight-chain SP-169 could only efficiently substitute those of large average molecular weight. It was apt to form a mix-adsorption layer with surface-active fractions of small average molecular weight. The results showed that the molecular size (or represented by average molecular weights) of the surface-active fractions was an important factor influencing the reciprocity of demulsifiers and surface-active fractions at the oil-water interface. This effect could be well explained by the difference between sizes of surface-active fraction molecules and vacancies between demulsifier molecules at the interface. The results of SDBS also proved this explanation.     

Rapid chiral analysis based on liquid-phase cyclic chemiluminescence

Rapid chiral analysis has become one of the important aspects of academic and industrial research. Here we describe a new strategy based on liquid-phase cyclic chemiluminescence (CCL) for rapid resolution of enantiomers and determination of enantiomeric excess (ee). A single CCL measurement can acquire multistage signals that provide a unique way to examine the intermolecular interactions between chiral hosts and chiral guests, because the lifetime (τ) of the multistage signals is a concentration-independent and distinguishable constant for a given chiral host–guest system. According to the τ values, CCL allows discrimination between a wide range of enantiomeric pairs including chiral alcohols, amines and acids by using only one chiral host. Even the chiral systems hardly distinguished by nuclear magnetic resonance and fluorescence methods can be distinguished easily by CCL. Additionally, the τ value of a mixture of two enantiomers is equal to the weighted average of each enantiomer, which can be used for the direct determination of ee without the need to separate the chiral mixture and create calibration curves. This is extremely crucial for the cases without readily available enantiomerically pure samples. This strategy was successfully applied to monitoring of the Walden inversion reaction and analysis of chiral drugs. The results were in good agreement with those obtained by high-performance liquid chromatography, indicating the utility of CCL for routine quick ee analysis. Mechanism study revealed that the τ value is possibly related to the activity of the chiral substance to catalyze a luminol–H₂O₂ reaction. Our research provides an unprecedented and general protocol for chirality differentiation and ee determination, which is anticipated to be a useful technology that will find wide application in chirality-related fields, particularly in asymmetric synthesis and the pharmaceutical industry.

Rapid chiral analysis has become one of the important aspects of academic and industrial research.     

CuAl2O4 powder synthesis by sol-gel method and its photodegradation property under visible light irradiation

Nanocrystalline spinel CuAl₂O₄ powders were prepared by sol-gel method from nitrate Cu(NO₃)₂·3H₂O, Al(NO₃)₃·9H₂O and complex C₆H₈O₇·H₂O. Sintering was carried out at 400, 500, 600, 700, 800°C respectively for 2 h in air. The XRD patterns started to appear CuAl₂O₄ peaks after sintering of 500°C and consist of only CuAl₂O₄ peaks as spinel crystal after sintering of 700°C. The powders were analyzed by TEM and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectrum to be round, about 10–30 nm in size and Eg=1.77 eV. Photodegradation property of nanocrystalline CuAl₂O₄ powders was investigated by using methyl orange as model pollutant and mercury lamp (λ>400 nm) as energy source. The results indicated that CuAl₂O₄ powders sintered at 700°C had the excellent visible photocatalytic property. Under the irradiation of visible light, methyl orange could be degraded 97% in 120 min.     

Tuning Ground States of Bis(triarylamine) Dications: From a Closed‐Shell Singlet to a Diradicaloid with an Excited Triplet State

Three bis(triarylamine) dications were isolated by using weakly coordinating anions. Their electronic structures in the ground state were investigated by various experiments in conjunction with theoretical calculations. The ground‐state electronic structures of these species were tunable by substituent effects, with two of them as closed‐shell singlets and one of them as an open‐shell singlet in the solid state. The excited state of the latter is thermally accessible, indicated by EPR and SQUID measurements. The work provides a new and stable diradicaloid structure motif with an excited triplet sate.     

Preparation and Optical Limiting Properties of Polyurethane Containing Long Conjugated Chromophores

Two functional polyurethanes (P1 and P2) bearing a large π electron conjugated chromophoric pendant were synthesized and characterized by FT‐IR, ¹H‐NMR and UV‐Vis absorption spectra. Their optical limiting properties were evaluated. The results show that P1 and P2 show novel optical limiting properties, which are assigned to a long π electron conjugated chromophoric pendant. It was found that their optical limiting properties were affected simultaneously by solution concentration and P2 displays a better optical limiting property than P1 at the same solution transmittance, although that P1 has larger χ⁽³⁾ (4.28×10^?11 esu) than P2 (0.87×10^?11 esu), and their optical limiting mechanism is investigated.