Enantioselective intramolecular Rauhut-Currier reaction catalyzed by chiral phosphinothiourea

Chiral organophosphine-catalyzed enantioselective Rauhut-Currier reaction has been disclosed for the first time. With L-valine-derived phosphinothiourea, the intramolecular Rauhut-Currier reaction of bis(enones) was achieved in good yields (up to 99%) with excellent enantioselectivities (up to 99.4% ee).     

A novel catalyst precursor K2TiF6 with remarkable synergetic effects of K, Ti and F together on reversible hydrogen storage of NaAlH4

A synergetic effect of K, Ti and F together on improving the reversible hydrogen storage properties of NaAlH(4) is found by intruding K(2)TiF(6) as catalyst precursor. Around 4.4 wt% of hydrogen can be released from the NaAlH(4)-0.025 K(2)TiF(6) sample within 40 min at 140 °C.     

Recognizing ortho-, meta- or para-positional isomers of S-methyl methoxylphenylmethylenehydrazine dithiocarboxylates by ESI-MS2: The positional effect of the methoxyl substituent

The dissociation chemistry of the ortho-, meta- or para-isomers of protonated S-methyl methoxyl- (or chloro-) benzenylmethylenehydrazine dithiocarboxylate, RPhCHN–NHC(S)–SCH₃ (R = MeO– or Cl–), has been investigated by collision induced dissociation experiments and DFT theoretical calculations. The three methoxyl-substituted isomers were easily differentiated according to the different abundance of the characteristic ion at m/z 136, resulting from the varying reactivity of the (NSC)SCH₃ elimination. This fragmentation is triggered by the positive charge upon protonation on the imine N2. Relative to the meta isomer, the positive charge on N2 in the para isomer is dispersed due to the electron donating resonance of the methoxyl group, which leads to higher energy barrier in the dissociation reaction and the less abundant product ion (m/z 136) in the MS/MS. (NSC)SCH₃ elimination of the ortho- isomer is further suppressed due to both the resonance effect and the “ortho effect” (an intramolecular hydrogen bond), with much higher energy barrier and extremely lower abundance of the fragment ion (m/z 136, 0.4%). The chloro substituted isomers, however, are short of the above positional effects due to the weak electronic effect of the substituent, and share the similar tandem mass spectrum.     

High-performance silicon nanowire array photoelectrochemical solar cells through surface passivation and modification

Nanowire solar cells: Pt nanoparticle (PtNP) decorated C/Si core/shell nanowire photoelectrochemical solar cells show high conversion efficiency of 10.86 % and excellent stability in aggressive electrolytes under 1-sun AM 1.5 G illumination. Superior device performance is achieved by improved surface passivation of the nanowires by carbon coating and enhanced interfacial charge transfer by PtNPs.     

Local defects enhanced dehydrogenation kinetics of the NaBH(4)-added Li-Mg-N-H system

A mechanistic understanding on the enhanced kinetics of hydrogen storage in the NaBH(4)-added Mg(NH(2))(2)-2LiH system is provided by carrying out experimental investigations associated with first-principles calculations. It is found that the operating temperatures for hydrogen desorption of the Mg(NH(2))(2)-2LiH system are reduced by introducing NaBH(4), and the NaBH(4) species seems almost unchanged during dehydrogenation/hydrogenation process. First-principles calculations reveal that the presence of NaBH(4) in the Mg(NH(2))(2)-2LiH system facilitates the formation of Mg vacancies in Mg(NH(2))(2). The appearance of Mg vacancies not only weakens the N-H bonds but also promotes the diffusion of atoms and/or ions, consequently resulting in the improvement of the reaction kinetics of hydrogen desorption/absorption of the NaBH(4)-added Mg(NH(2))(2)-2LiH system. This finding provides us with a deep insight into the role played by NaBH(4) in the Li-Mg-N-H system, as well as ideas for designing high-performance catalysts for metal-N-H-based hydrogen storage media.     

Droplet-driven transports on superhydrophobic-patterned surface microfluidics

Droplet-based transport phenomena driven by surface tension have been explored as an automated pumping source for a number of chemical and biological applications. In this paper, we present a comprehensive theoretical and experimental investigation of unconventional droplet-based motions on a superhydrophobic-patterned surface microfluidic (S(2)M) platform. The S(2)M surfaces are monolithically fabricated using a facile two-step laser micromachining technique on regular polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) chemistry. Unlike the traditional droplet-driven pumps built on an enclosed microfluidic network, the S(2)M network pins the liquid-solid interface of droplets to the lithographically defined wetting boundary and establishes a direct linkage between the volumetric and hydraulic measures. Moreover, diverse modes of droplet motions are theoretically determined and experimentally characterized in a bi-droplet configuration, among which several unconventional droplet-driven transport phenomena are first demonstrated. These include big-to-small droplet merging, droplet balancing, as well as bidirectional transporting, in addition to the classic small-to-big droplet transition. Furthermore, multi-stage programmable bidirectional pumping has been implemented on the S(2)M platform, according to the newly established droplet manipulation principle, to illustrate its potential use for automated biomicrofluidic and point-of-care diagnostic applications.     

Recent Progress in Digital Image Correlation

In this paper, we report the following important progress recently made in the basic theory and practical implementation of digital image correlation (DIC) for deformation measurement. First, we answer a basic but confusing question to the users of DIC: what is a good speckle pattern for DIC? We present a simple, easy-to-compute yet effective global parameter, called mean intensity gradient, for quality assessment of the entire speckle pattern. Second, we provide an overview of various correlation criteria used in DIC for evaluating the similarity of the reference and deformed subsets, and demonstrate the equivalence of three robust and most widely used correlation criteria, i.e., a zero-mean normalized cross-correlation (ZNCC) criterion, a zero-mean normalized sum of squared difference (ZNSSD) criterion and a parametric zero-mean normalized sum of squared difference (PSSD_ab) criterion with two additional unknown parameters, which elegantly unifies these correlation criteria for subset-based pattern matching. Third, we describe an iterative least squares (ILS) algorithm for accurate subpixel motion detection, which is proved to be equivalent to the existing Newton–Raphson algorithm, but the principle and implementation of ILS algorithm is more straightforward and easier. Finally, to overcome the two limitations of existing subset-based DIC technique, we introduce a robust and generally applicable reliability-guided DIC technique, in which the calculation path is guided by the ZNCC coefficients of computed points, to determine the genuine full-field deformation of an object with complex shape.