A phthalocyanine dendrimer capable of forming spherical micelles

A novel and intrinsically spherical micelle has been prepared by utilizing a silicon phthalocyanine ((WG3)SiPc) that has a thin hydrophobic alkyl chain and a bulky hydrophilic poly(aryl ether) dendrimer with terminal carboxyl groups, as its two axial ligands. Gel-permeation chromatography and cryo-transmission electron microscopic experiments indicate that (WG3)SiPcs self-assemble to form a spherical micelle at very low concentrations in aqueous solution. Depending on the pH of the aqueous phase, (WG3)SiPc shuttles between aqueous and organic phases. In the presence of hydrophobic molecules, this transfer is accompanied by the inclusion of these (guest) molecules, indicating that the micelle acts as a molecular capsule with a nanospace surrounded by functional phthalocyanine planes.     

Diastereoselective photocycloaddition of axially chiral monothiosuccinimides to 1,1-diphenylethylene

Photolysis of axially chiral monothiosuccinimides in the presence of diphenylethylene gave spirothietanes effectively, where the cycloaddition took place diastereoselectively by way of the steric effect of the ortho-substituent on the phenyl ring.     

Optical computing by a vector holographic memory system

We propose what is to our knowledge a novel holographic memory system that is simultaneously applicable to data storage and optical computing. We introduce a polarization-modulated reference beam into holographic recording. A desired spatial-frequency component of an object beam is recorded as a polarization-modulated grating, and the other component is recorded as an intensity-modulated grating. Since the polarization-modulated grating rotates the polarization axis of the incident light by 90 degrees , it is possible to distinguish the desired spatial-frequency component of the retrieved image. Utilizing this property, we have successfully performed spatial-frequency filtering and frequency-selective matched filtering. The system is capable of a variety of optical computations, depending on the design of the polarization modulation.     

Spectral intensity measurement for soot formation of benzene behind reflected shock waves

Soot formation of benzene was observed using He-Ne laser extinction at 632.8 nm as well as the visible and infrared thermal radiation at 0.63, 0.80, 1.12, 1.52, 2.3, 3.4, 3.9, 4.3 m. From the light extinction we determined the temperature-dependent soot formation rate. Also from the visible and infrared radiation we calculated the temperature of soot particles and kcl-values which were dependent on the soot volume concentration. The temperature dependence of soot formation rates below 2500 K was obtained in the early part of soot formation and that above 1900 K was obtained in the later part of soot formation for the cases of the laser extinction and the visible-infrared radiation intensities, respectively. Received 5 February 2002 / Accepted 13 February 2002 Published online 11 June 2002     

Interfacial structure in an air–water planar bubble jet

The objective of the current study is to better understand the interfacial structure and its development in an air–water planar bubble jet, as well as to provide a unique benchmark data set for a 3D thermal-hydraulic analysis code. Both flow visualization and local measurements were performed in three characteristic flow conditions at four elevations along a test section with a cross section of 200 mm in width and 10 mm in gap. A high-speed digital video camera was applied in the flow visualization study to capture the flow structures and bubble interaction phenomena, while a miniaturized four-sensor conductivity probe was used to acquire the time-averaged local void fraction, interfacial velocity, and bubble number frequency. Also, the interfacial area concentration and the averaged bubble Sauter mean diameter were obtained from the local measurements. The lateral bubble transport and bubble interaction mechanisms were clearly demonstrated in the acquired data.     

Measurement of liquid film in microchannels using a laser focus displacement meter

This paper presents a new method for measuring the interfacial displacement of a liquid film in microchannels using a laser focus displacement meter (LFD). The purpose of the study is to clarify the effectiveness of the new method for obtaining detailed information concerning interfacial displacement, especially in the case of a thin liquid film, in microchannels and minichannels. To prevent the tube wall signal from disturbing that of the gas–liquid interface, a fluorocarbon tube with a water box was used; the refraction index of this device is the same as that for water. With this method, accurate instantaneous measurements of the interfacial displacement of the liquid film were achieved. The error caused by refraction of the laser beam passing through the acrylic water box and fluorocarbon tube was estimated analytically and experimentally. The formulated analytical equation can estimate the real interface displacement by using the measured displacement in a fluorocarbon tube of 25 m to 2.0 mm I.D. A preliminary test using fluorocarbon tubes of 1 mm and 2 mm I.D. showed that the corrected interface displacement calculated by the equation agreed with the real displacement to within a 1% margin of error. It was also confirmed that the LFD in the system could measure a liquid film of 0.25 m at the thinnest. We made simultaneous measurements of the interface in fluorocarbon tubes of 0.5 mm and 1 mm I.D. using the LFD and a high-speed video camera with a microscope. These showed that the LFD could measure the interface of a liquid film with high spatial and temporal resolution during annular, slug, and piston flow regimes. The data also clarified the existence of a thin liquid film of less than 1 m in thickness in the slug and annular flow regimes.     

Preparation and properties of phenyl‐modified natural rubber

We prepared phenyl‐modified natural rubber using a two‐step process. In the first step, natural rubber was brominated using N‐bromosuccinimide in a dichloromethane solution of natural rubber. The amount of N‐bromosuccinimide controlled the bromine content. In the second step, a Suzuki–Miyaura cross‐coupling reaction of the brominated natural rubber with phenyl boronic acid in the presence of a palladium catalyst replaced the bromine atoms with phenyl groups. ¹H‐nuclear magnetic resonance and ¹³C‐nuclear magnetic resonance measurements characterized the products. The signals around 7 ppm in the ¹H‐nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of the products were assigned to the phenyl protons, and based on the assigned signals, the estimated conversion of the cross‐coupling reaction under mild conditions was more than 70 mol%. The amount of phenyl groups present affected both the loss tangent and the glass transition temperature of natural rubber, which increases from ?62°C to ?30°C. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Uranium age-dating using in-situ isotope ratios by thermal ionization mass spectrometry for nuclear forensics

The model dates of two enriched uranium materials were determined using a new method for nuclear forensics investigation. In this method, without spike addition, the ²³⁰Th/²³⁴U ratio was calculated from the measured ratios of ²³⁰Th/²³⁴Th and ²³⁴U/²³⁸U and from calculated ²³⁴Th/²³⁸U ratio in secular equilibrium. The model date obtained for the low-enriched uranium material was in agreement with the known production date. For the highly enriched uranium material, a more recent model date than the known production date was obtained. The ²³⁴U interference on ²³⁴Th counting in thermal ionization mass spectrometer measurement was suspected as a potential cause.

     

Sensitivity enhancement in (13)C solid-state NMR of protein microcrystals by use of paramagnetic metal ions for optimizing (1)H T(1) relaxation

We discuss a simple approach to enhance sensitivity for (13)C high-resolution solid-state NMR for proteins in microcrystals by reducing (1)H T(1) relaxation times with paramagnetic relaxation reagents. It was shown that (1)H T(1) values can be reduced from 0.4-0.8s to 60-70 ms for ubiquitin and lysozyme in D(2)O in the presence of 10 mM Cu(II)Na(2)EDTA without substantial degradation of the resolution in (13)C CPMAS spectra. Faster signal accumulation using the shorter (1)H T(1) attained by paramagnetic doping provided sensitivity enhancements of 1.4-2.9 for these proteins, reducing the experimental time for a given signal-to-noise ratio by a factor of 2.0-8.4. This approach presented here is likely to be applicable to various other proteins in order to enhance sensitivity in (13)C high-resolution solid-state NMR spectroscopy.     

Direct measurement of isotopomer of intracellular metabolites using capillary electrophoresis time-of-flight mass spectrometry for efficient metabolic flux analysis

We have developed a metabolic flux analysis method that is based on (13)C-labeling patterns of the intracellular metabolites directly measured by capillary electrophoresis time-of-flight mass spectrometry (CE-TOFMS). The flux distribution of the central carbon metabolism in Escherichia coli was determined by this new approach and the results were compared with findings obtained by conventional GC-MS analysis based on isotopomer of the proteinogenic amino acids. There were some differences in estimation results between new approach using CE-TOFMS and conventional approach using GC-MS. These were thought to be attributable to variations in measured mass distributions between amino acids and the corresponding precursors and to differences in the sensitivity of the exchange coefficients to mass distributions. However, our CE-TOFMS method facilitates high-throughput flux analysis without requiring complicated sample preparation such as hydrolysis of proteins and derivatization of amino acids.