Hydrophobicity-induced drying transition in alkanethiol self-assembled monolayer—water interface

During the course of our investigation of the electron transfer properties of some redox species through highly hydrophobic long chain alkanethiol molecules on gold in aqueous and non-aqueous solvents, we obtained some intriguing results such as unusually low interfacial capacitance, very high values of impedance and film resistance, all of which pointed to the possible existence of a nanometer size interfacial gap between the hydrophobic monolayer and aqueous electrolyte. We explain this phenomenon by a model for the alkanethiol monolayer—aqueous electrolyte interface, in which the extremely hydrophobic alkanethiol film repels water molecules adjacent to it and in the process creates a shield between the monolayer film and water. This effectively increases the overall thickness of the dielectric layer that is manifested as an abnormally low value of interfacial capacitance. This behaviour is very much akin to the ‘drying transition’ proposed by Lum, Chandler and Weeks in their theory of length scale dependent hydrophobicity. For small hydrophobic units consisting of apolar solutes, the water molecules can reorganize around them without sacrificing their hydrogen bonds. Since for an extended hydrophobic unit, the existence of hydrogen bonded water structure close to it is geometrically unfavourable, there is a net depletion of water molecules in the vicinity leading to the possible creation of a hydrophobic interfacial gap.     

Quantum diffusion

Basic ideas and results which characterize quantum diffusion of defects in quantum crystals like solid helium as a new phenomenon are presented. Quantum effects in such media lead to a delocalization of point defects (vacancies, impurities etc.) and they turn into quasiparticles of a new type—defectons, which are characterized not by their position in the crystal lattice but by their quasimomentum and dispersion law. Defecton-defecton and defecton-phonon scattering are considered and an interpolation formula for the diffusion coefficient valid in all interesting temperature and concentration regions is presented. A comparison with the experimental data is made. Some alternative points of view are discussed in detail and the inconsistency of the Kisvarsanyi-Sullivan theory is shown.     

Compulsorily Phase Locked Interferometer Using Orthogonally Polarized Light Source of a Modulated LD with High Extinction Ratio

This paper describes a compulsorily phase locked differential interferometer using an orthogonally polarized light source of a modulated LD with high extinction ratio to reduce non-linearity of the interferometer caused by polarization cross-talk. The current modulated LD is used as a light source to make the interferometer compact and for the scanning phase of the interferometer. The interferometer is operated compulsorily at the maximum inclination point of the fringe intensity curve by fringe scanning and an electric system. A Wollaston prism of high extinction ratio (50 dB) is used to combine the polarizing beams and to make the polarization cross-talk very small. In one light source the polarized output beams are on the same propagation axis; in the other they have a small crossing angle (2.5 mrad ∼ 10 mrad) to completely exclude non-linearity of the interferometer causded by polarization cross-talk. Using jets of a gas mixture of nitrogen and ethylene, this interferometer was demonstrated to be useful in detecting the photothermal effect of a photothermal velocimeter under phase fluctuation in a turbulent flow.     

Laser-induced damage of Ta2O5/SiO2 narrow-band interference filters under different 1064 nm Nd:YAG laser modes

The laser-induced damage (LID) behavior of narrow-band interference filters was investigated with a Nd:YAG laser at 1064 nm under single-pulse mode and free-running mode. The absorption measurement of such coatings was performed with surface thermal lensing (STL) technique. The damage morphologies under the two different laser modes were also studied in detail. It was found that all the filters exhibited a pass-band-center-dependent absorption and laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) behavior, but the damage morphologies were diverse. The explanation was given with the analysis of the electric field distribution and the operational behavior of the irradiation laser.     

Representations of Positive Projections II

In this paper we obtain a number of Maharam-type slice integral representations, with respect to scalar measures, for positive projections in Dedekind complete vector lattices and f-algebras. AMS Classification: 47B65, 46A40, 06F25     

Leptonic constant of the pseudoscalar <Emphasis Type="Italic">B</Emphasis><Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">c</Emphasis></Subscript> meson

We calculate the leptonic constant for the pseudoscalar ground state of the B _c meson in the framework of a QCD-motivated potential model taking into account the two-loop anomalous dimension for the heavy quark current in nonrelativistic QCD as matched with full QCD.     

Fonctions analytiques Cliffordiennes

We define analytic functions within Clifford Algebras CL, and study their trigonometric properties. We write the addition formulas when their arguments, A and B in CL, commute, this generalizes ordinary trigonometry. We examine in particular the case A² = 1.      

Isometric Isomorphisms Between Banach Algebras Related to a Certain Class of Clifford Topological Semigroups

In the present paper it is shown that if S₁ and S₂ are two Clifford topological semigroups satisfying certain conditions and T is an isometric isomorphism of LUC(S₁*) onto LUC(S₂*), then T maps S₁ topologically isomorphically onto S₂. Furthermore, T maps M ^l _n(S₁) (M(S₁), respectively) isometrically isomorphically onto M ^l _n(S₂) (M(S₂), respectively). Indeed, we have obtained a generalization of a well-known result of Ghahramani, Lau and Losert for locally compact groups to a more general setting of Clifford topological semigroups.     

Investigation of the Property Constants of Both Al and Cu Complexes with Picramine Ca and Using Competition Coordination for the Selective Determination of Trace Amounts of Cu

The reactions between Cu(II) and picramine CA (PCA) and Al(III) and PCA were both sensitive at pH 7. The competition coordination between Cu and the Al–PCA complex was applied to the selective determination of Cu (CCSD) by the spectral correction technique. Results have shown that the complexes formed at pH 7 are Al₂(PCA) and Cu(PCA)₃, their cumulative stability constants are 4.43 × 10⁵ and 2.08 × 10¹⁵, respectively, and their real molar absorptivities are 5.78 × 10³ at 650 nm and 3.19 × 10⁴at 530 nm. At the analysis of the samples, the relative standard deviation (RSD) was 5.0% and the recovery rate of Cu was between 94 and 108%.     

Deposition of Hydrogen-Free Silicon Nitride Thin Films by Microwave ECR plasma Enhanced Magnetron Sputtering at Room Temperature

Hydrogen-free silicon nitride （SiNx） films were deposited at room temperature by microwave electron cyclotron resonance （MW-ECR） plasma enhanced unbalance magnetron sputtering system. Both Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy are used to study the bonding type and the change of bonding structures of the silicon nitride films. The results indicate that the chemical structure and composition of SiNx films deposited by this technique depend strongly on the N2 flow rates, the stoichiometric SiNx film, which has the highest hardness of 22.9 GPa, could be obtained at lower N2 flow rate of 4 sccm.