Investigation of Physicochemical Properties of Plasma Activated Water and its Bactericidal Efficacy

Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing - Presently, the world is using different types of disinfectants for various applications such as disinfecting instrument surfaces in the medical field,...     

Synthesis and morphological studies of nanocrystalline MOR type zeolite material

A number of nanosize mordenite (MOR) analogues with particle size ranging from 5 to 50 nm were synthesized by the hydrothermal method. The effect of various growth parameters like: alkalinity of the medium, type of silica source, etc. on crystal morphology and the crystal size of MOR type of zeolites was investigated. Specific surface and micropore volume were investigated by the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method. XRD, SEM, TEM studies indicate nanosize growth of the MOR type crystals. Electron diffraction patterns confirm the crystalline nature of the nanoparticles and the results of their indexing prove that the material is MOR. These synthesized materials show microporous as well mesoporous character. In the case of MOR material synthesized using sodium silicate, it was found that an increase in the alkalinity of the medium led to changes in the morphology and crystal size of the material. For low concentrations of NaOH, the crystallites were spherical in shape whereas at high concentrations, they were in the shape of nanorods of diameter 25 to 50 nm. The morphology of the MOR material synthesized using tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), on the other hand, did not change when the NaOH concentration was increased beyond 2.0 molar.     

First total synthesis of (+)-varitriol

A highly stereoselective total synthesis of (+)-varitriol, an antitumor natural product, has been achieved for the first time from commercially available methyl alpha,D-mannopyranoside and 2,6-dihydroxybenzoic acid.     

An Oxysulfide Photocatalyst Evolving Hydrogen with an Apparent Quantum Efficiency of 30 % under Visible Light

Photocatalytic water splitting is a simple means of converting solar energy into storable hydrogen energy. Narrow-band gap oxysulfide photocatalysts have attracted much attention in this regard owing to the significant visible-light absorption and relatively high stability of these compounds. However, existing materials suffer from low efficiencies due to difficulties in synthesizing these oxysulfides with suitable degrees of crystallinity and particle sizes, and in constructing effective reaction sites. The present work demonstrates the production of a Gd₂Ti₂O₅S₂ (λ<650 nm) photocatalyst capable of efficiently driving photocatalytic reactions. Single-crystalline, plate-like Gd₂Ti₂O₅S₂ particles with atomically ordered surfaces were synthesized by flux and chemical etching methods. Ultrafine Pt-IrO₂ cocatalyst particles that promoted hydrogen (H₂) and oxygen (O₂) evolution reactions were subsequently loaded on the Gd₂Ti₂O₅S₂ while ensuring an intimate contact by employing a microwave-heating technique. The optimized Gd₂Ti₂O₅S₂ was found to evolve H₂ from an aqueous methanol solution with a remarkable apparent quantum efficiency of 30 % at 420 nm. This material was also stable during O₂ evolution in the presence of a sacrificial reagent. The results presented herein demonstrates a highly efficient narrow-band gap oxysulfide photocatalyst with potential applications in practical solar hydrogen production.     

Current-induced stabilization of surface morphology in stressed solids

We examine the surface morphological evolution of a conducting crystalline solid under the simultaneous action of an electric field and mechanical stress based on a fully nonlinear model and combining linear stability theory with self-consistent dynamical simulations. We demonstrate that electric current, through surface electromigration, can stabilize the surface morphology of the stressed solid against cracklike surface instabilities. The results also have more general implications for the morphological response of solid surfaces under the simultaneous action of multiple external forces.     

Thermally actuated shape-memory polymers: Experiments, theory, and numerical simulations

With the aim of developing a thermo-mechanically coupled large-deformation constitutive theory and a numerical-simulation capability for modeling the response of thermally actuated shape-memory polymers, we have (i) conducted large strain compression experiments on a representative shape-memory polymer to strains of approximately unity at strain rates of 10⁻³ and 10⁻¹ s⁻¹, and at temperatures ranging from room temperature to approximately 30 °C above the glass transition temperature of the polymer; (ii) formulated a thermo-mechanically coupled large-deformation constitutive theory; (iii) calibrated the material parameters appearing in the theory using the stress-strain data from the compression experiments; (iv) numerically implemented the theory by writing a user-material subroutine for a widely used finite element program; and (v) conducted representative experiments to validate the predictive capability of our theory and its numerical implementation in complex three-dimensional geometries. By comparing the numerically predicted response in these validation simulations against measurements from corresponding experiments, we show that our theory is capable of reasonably accurately reproducing the experimental results. As a demonstration of the robustness of the three-dimensional numerical capability, we also show results from a simulation of the shape-recovery response of a stent made from the polymer when it is inserted in an artery modeled as a compliant elastomeric tube.     

Mass Distribution in 12C Induced Fission of 232Th

Formation cross sections of several fission products have been determined using recoil catcher technique followed by gamma-ray spectrometry in ¹²C induced fission of ²³²Th at E _lab = 72 MeV, corresponding to E _cm just above the Coulomb barrier. The measured formation cross sections were used to get the mass distribution by using known charge distribution systematic. Critical data analysis was carried out to look for the signatures of transfer induced fission. However, within the experimental uncertainty of about 10%, no clear indication of transfer induced fission could be seen at this energy level. The mass distribution shows a single peaked broad Gaussian distribution with the most probable mass of 119.5±1.1 and FWHM of 40.6 mass units. The total fission cross section computed from the mass distribution curve is 771±50 mb.     

Understanding the influence of structural hierarchy and its coupling with chemical environment on the strength of idealized tropocollagen–hydroxyapatite biomaterials

Hard biomaterials such as bone, dentin, and nacre have primarily an organic phase (e.g. tropocollagen (TC)) and a mineral phase (e.g. hydroxyapatite (HAP) or aragonite) arranged in a staggered arrangement at the nanoscopic length scale. Interfacial interactions between the organic phase and the mineral phase as well as the structural effects arising due to the staggered arrangement significantly affect the strength of such biomaterials. The effect of such factors is intricately intertwined with the chemical environment of such materials. In the present investigation, an idealized TC–HAP composite system under tensile loading is analyzed using explicit three-dimensional (3-D) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to develop an understanding of these factors. The material system is analyzed in three different environments: (1) in the absence of water molecules (non-hydrated), (2) in the presence of water molecules (hydrated), and (3) in the presence of water molecules with calcium ions (ionized water). The analyses focus on understanding the correlations among factors such as the structural arrangement, the peak stress during deformation, Young's modulus, the peak interfacial strength, and the length scale of the localization of peak stress during deformation. Analyses show that maximizing the contact area between the TC and HAP phases results in higher interfacial strength as well as higher fracture strength. Due to the staggered arrangement, the orientation of HAP crystals has insignificant effect on the biomaterial strength. Analyses based on strength scaling as a function of structural hierarchy level reveal that while peak strength follows a multiscaling relation, the fracture strength does not. The peak strain for failure was found to be independent of the changes in levels of structural hierarchy. Overall, the analyses, being limited in size due to the computational time constraint, point out important correlations between the mechanical strength and chemically influenced structural hierarchy of biomaterials.     

Iterative Arylation of Amino Acids and Aliphatic Amines via δ‐C(sp3)−H Activation: Experimental and Computational Exploration

Directed C?H functionalization has been realized as a complementary tool to the traditional approaches for a straightforward access of non‐proteinogenic amino acids; albeit such a process is restricted mostly up to the γ‐position. In the present work, we demonstrate the diverse (hetero)arylation of amino acids and analogous aliphatic amines selectively at the remote δ‐position by tuning the reactivity controlled by ligands. An organopalladium δ‐C(sp³)?H activated intermediate has been isolated and crystallographically characterized. Mechanistic investigations carried out experimentally in conjunction with computational studies shed light on the difference in the mechanistic picture depending on the substrate structure.