Highly sensitive photonic crystal fiber biosensor based on titanium nitride

A highly sensitive surface plasmon resonance photonic crystal fiber (PCF) biosensor based on Titanium Nitride (TiN) as a new alternative plasmonic material is proposed and analyzed. The TiN has high stability, high conductivity, and corrosion resistance which make it an ideal material for nanofabrication. The suggested biosensor is analyzed by full vectorial finite element method with perfectly matched layer as boundary conditions. In this paper, the biosensor geometrical parameters are studied to achieve high sensitivity for both polarized modes. A refractive index sensitivity of 7700 and 3600 nm/RIU for quasi-transverse electric and quasi transverse magnetic modes, respectively, are obtained. Additionally, the reported biosensor could be used for detecting an unknown analyte refractive index ranging from 1.32 to 1.34 with a high linearity. Further, the proposed biosensor structure is easy for fabrication using standard PCF fabrication current technologies.     

Ring‐opening polymerization of cyclic ethers initiated by benzazaphosphole‐W(CO)5/silver hexafluoroantimonate

Attempts to prepare mixed M(0)/Ag⁺ complexes with µ‐bridging P ligands by reaction of benzazaphosphole M(CO)₅ complexes 1a–e (M?W, Mo, Cr) with AgSbF₆ in THF lead to rapid ring‐opening polymerization of this ether at room temperature and, as shown for 1a /AgSbF₆, even at low temperature. Oxetane and epoxides (styrene oxide and cyclohexene oxide) polymerize even more vigorously in the presence of this initiator and require dilution with toluene to control the strongly exothermic reaction. Related P(III)W(CO)₅/AgSbF₆ systems with Ph₃P, (EtO)₃P or 2,4,6‐triphenyl‐phosphinine ligands also initiate the THF polymerization, but less efficiently. Efforts to isolate the initiator complex in other solvents failed because of its high sensitivity to nucleophiles and provided 2a ,characterized by crystal structure analysis as the addition product of methanol at 1a , although 1a itself is stable towards MeOH. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2014 , 52, 664–670     

Free vibration analysis of moderately thick asymmetric piezoelectric adaptive cantilever beams using the distributed transfer function approach

A semi-analytical distributed transfer function (DTF) approach is proposed for the free-vibration analysis of moderately thick cantilever beams with a single surface-bonded piezoelectric patch. The asymmetric piezoelectric adaptive structure is decomposed into three segments; the first and third segments are bare beam parts before and after the patch, while the second segment contains the beam part with attached piezoelectric patch bonded to its upper surface. The theoretical formulation assumes first-order shear deformation kinematics and linear electric potential through the patch thickness with an electrode equipotential physical condition, and uses the extended Hamilton?s principle to derive the equations of motion and electromechanical boundary conditions. The latter, together with the continuity and equilibrium conditions at the segments interfaces, are then transformed into a first-order state space equation that is solved using the DTF approach. The electrodes of the piezoelectric patch are considered either in short-circuit (SC) or open-circuit (OC); this leads to two free-vibration problems to be solved for the corresponding SC and OC frequencies, from which the Electro-Mechanical Coupling Coefficient (EMCC) is post-treated. Four benchmarks from the open literature are simulated in order to validate the proposed approach. Very satisfactory correlations are obtained for all examples with maximum errors less thank 5 percent in all results. For future reference, an additional benchmark is proposed to assess the influence of the patch-to-composite host width ratio on the effective modal EMCC. It was found that the latter is mode-dependent (as expected) and decreases with increasing the former.     

Novel (N‐heterocyclic carbene)Pd(pyridine)Br2 complexes for carbonylative Sonogashira coupling reactions: Catalytic efficiency and scope for arylalkynes,alkylalkynes and dialkynes

New N,N′‐substituted imidazolium salts and their corresponding dibromidopyridine–palladium(II) complexes were successfully synthesized and characterized. Reactions of palladium bromide with the newly synthesized N,N′‐substituted imidazolium bromides ( 2a and 2b ) in pyridine afforded the corresponding new N‐heterocyclic carbene pyridine palladium(II) complexes ( 3a and 3b ) in high yields. Their single‐crystal X‐ray structures show a distorted square planar geometry with the carbene and pyridine ligands in trans position. Both complexes show a high catalytic activity in carbonylative Sonogashira coupling reactions of aryl iodides and aryl diiodides with arylalkynes, alkylalkynes and dialkynes.