Poly(N-bromo-N-ethylbenzene-1,3-disulfonamide) and N,N,N′,N′-tetrabromobenzene-1,3-disulfonamide as efficient reagents for synthesis of quinolines

Poly(N-bromo-N-ethylbenzene-1,3-disulfonamide) [PBBS] and N,N,N′,N′-tetrabromobenzene-1,3-disulfonamide [TBBDA] were used as efficient reagents for the synthesis of quinolines in excellent yields from 2-aminoaryl ketones and carbonyl compounds under aqueous and solvent-free conditions.     

Ablation efficiency of α-Al2O3 in liquid phase and ambient air by nanosecond laser irradiation

Ablation efficiency and influences of laser parameters on a material removal rate by a nanosecond laser irradiation of α-Al₂O₃ are studied in gas and liquid phases. The laser ablation in the air yields maximum material removal rate of 12 ng/pulse using a 4.6-mJ pulse energy at 4-kHz repetition rate, compared to 88 ng/pulse in the water flow. Using a specific interpulse distance and a laser repetition rate further increase material removal rate by factor of 3 and 65, respectively, owing to an optimized lattice temperature and laser pulse interactions with the generated cavitation bubble. For the ablation in the air, these parameters do not significantly affect the ablation efficiency.     

Effect of S- and Sn-doping to the optical properties of ZnO nanobelts

In this study, the optical properties of S- and Sn-doped ZnO nanobelts, grown by thermal evaporation, were investigated. The sulfur and tin contents in the nanobelts were about 12% and 8% (atomic), respectively. The average widths of the S- and Sn-doped ZnO nanobelts were 73 and 121 nm, respectively. Room temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy exhibits significantly different optical properties for the two types of nanobelts. The PL result of the S-doped ZnO nanobelts shows the broad visible emission with no detectable ultraviolet (UV) peak, while the PL result of the Sn-doped sample shows two emission bands, one related to UV emission with a strong peak at 376 nm that is blue-shifted by 4 nm in comparison to pure ZnO nanobelts, and another related to green emission with a weak peak. A weak peak in the UV region at 383 nm appeared after annealing the S-doped ZnO nanobelts at 600 °C. Additionally, the annealed S-doped nanobelts show a stronger peak in the visible emission region in comparison to that observed prior to annealing. The Sn-doped ZnO nanobelts are also affected by annealing, as the UV emission peak is blue-shifted to 372 nm after annealing.     

Fabrication and characterization of ZnO and ZnMgO nanostructures grown using a ZnO/ZnMgO compound as the source material

ZnO and ZnMgO nanostructures were synthesized on Si (1 0 0) substrates with the assistance of a gold catalyst, using a thermal evaporation method with a ZnO/ZnMgO compound as the source material. The substrates were placed in different temperature zones. ZnO nanostructures with different morphologies and different compounds were obtained at different substrate temperatures. Nanostructures with nanorods and nanosheets morphologies formed in the low and high temperature zones, respectively. The nanorods grown in the low temperature zone had two phases, hexagonal and cubic. Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) results showed that the nanorods with a cubic shape contained more Mg in comparison to the nanowires with a hexagonal shape. We found that the substrate temperature and the gold catalyst were two key factors for the doping of Mg and the formation of nanostructures with different morphologies. Room temperature photoluminescence spectroscopy showed a blue-shift for the nanostructures with the nanorods morphology. This shift could be attributed to Mg effects that were detected in the nanorods.     

Fluctuations of fluctuation-induced casimir-like forces

The force experienced by objects embedded in a correlated medium undergoing thermal fluctuations-the so-called fluctuation-induced force-is actually itself a fluctuating quantity. Using a scalar field model, we compute the corresponding probability distribution and show that it is a Gaussian centered on the well-known Casimir force, with a nonuniversal standard deviation that can be typically as large as the mean force itself. The relevance of these results to the experimental measurement of fluctuation-induced forces in soft condensed matter is discussed, as well as the influence of the finite temporal resolution of the measuring apparatus.     

Synthesis and Photochemistry of 2,2-Dimethyl-3(2H)-thiophenone,a Ketonic Tautomer of 3-Hydroxythiophene. Preliminary Communication

On irradiation (λ = 366 nm), the 4-thia-2-cyclopentenone 3a behaves in complete analogy to the oxa-enone 3c undergoing regio- and stereospecific cyclodimerization, regiospecific cycloaddition with 2-methylpropene and cycloaddition with 2,3-dimethyl-2-butene to afford cyclobutane derivatives. In contrast, the 4 -aza-2-cyclopentenone 3b does not undergo the above-mentioned reactions but only slow photodecomposition.     

Au nanowire fabrication from sequenced histidine-rich peptide

A new biological approach to fabricate Au nanowires was examined by using sequenced histidine-rich peptide nanowires as templates. The sequenced histidine-rich peptide molecules were assembled as nanowires, and the biological recognition of the sequenced peptide toward Au lead to efficient Au coating on the nanowires. Monodisperse Au nanocrystals were uniformly coated on the histidine peptide nanowires with the high-density coverage, and the crystalline phases of the Au nanocrystals were observed as (111) and (220). The uniformity of the Au coating on the nanowires without contamination of precipitated Au aggregates is advantageous for the fabrication of electronics and sensor devices when the nanowires are used as the building blocks. We believe this simple metal nanowire fabrication method can be applied to various metals and semiconductors with peptides whose sequences are known to mineralize specific ions.     

Mode-coupling theory for reaction dynamics in liquids

A theory for chemical reaction dynamics in condensed phase systems based on the generalized Langevin formalism of Grote and Hynes [J. Chem. Phys. 73, 2715 (1980)] is presented. A microscopic approach to calculate the dynamic friction is developed within the framework of a combination of kinetic and mode-coupling theories. The approach provides a powerful analytic tool to study chemical reactions in realistic condensed phase environments. The accuracy of the approach is tested for a model isomerization reaction in a Lennard-Jones fluid. Good agreement is obtained for the transmission coefficient at different solvent densities, in comparison with numerical simulations based on the reactive-flux approach.     

Transport properties of normal liquid helium: comparison of various methodologies

We revisit the problem of self-diffusion in normal liquid helium above the lambda transition. Several different methods are applied to compute the velocity autocorrelation function. Since it is still impossible to determine the exact result for the velocity autocorrelation function from simulation, we appeal to the computation of short-time moments to determine the accuracy of the different approaches at short times. The main conclusion reached from our study is that both the quantum mode-coupling theory and the numerical analytic continuation approach must be regarded as a viable and competitive methods for the computation of dynamical properties of quantum systems.     

Spectrophotometric Determination of Selected Antibiotics Using Prussian Blue Reaction

A simple, sensitive and accurate spectrophotometric method has been described for the determination of ampicillin(I), amoxicillin trihydrate(II) and cefazolin sodium(III). The procedure is based on the formation of Prussian Blue (PB) complex. The reaction between the acidic hydrolysis products of antibiotics (T = 60 °C) with mixture of Fe³⁺ and hexacyanoferrate(III) ions was evaluated for the spectrophotometric determination of the mentioned drugs. The maximum absorbance of the colored complex occurs at λ = 700 nm and the molar absorptivity is 3.0 × 10⁴ 1 mol^?1cm^?1. The effect of various parameters such as concentration of K₃Fe(CN)₆ and Fe³⁺, nature and amount of acids used, temperature and time of heating were investigated. Under optimum conditions the linear range of calibration graph was 2.0–12.0, 5.0–13.5 and 3.0–12.0 μg mL^?1 for ampicillin, amoxicillin and cefazolin, respectively. The relative standard deviation for the determination of 10 μg mL^?1 of antibiotics was about 0.5–1.5%. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of selected antibiotics from pharmaceutical preparations. The validity of the method was tested by the official methods and by the recovery studies of standard addition to pharmaceuticals.