A Novel Naphthalene-Immobilized Nanoporous SBA-15 as a Highly Selective Optical Sensor for Detection of Fe<Superscript>3+</Superscript> in Water

A novel organic-inorganic hybrid optical sensor (SBA-NCO) was designed and synthesized through immobilization of isocyanatopropyl-triethoxysilane and 1-amino-naphthalene onto the surface of SBA-15 by post-grafting method. The characterization of materials using XRD, TEM, N₂ adsorption-desorption, and FT-IR techniques confirmed the successful attachment of organic moieties and preserving original structure of SBA-15 after modification step. Fluorescence experiments demonstrated that SBA-NCO was a highly selective optical sensor for the detection of Fe³⁺ directly in water over a wide range of metal cations including Na⁺, Mg²⁺, Al³⁺, K⁺, Ca²⁺, Cr³⁺, Mn²⁺, Fe²⁺, Co²⁺, Ni²⁺, Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺, Cd²⁺, Hg²⁺, and Pb²⁺ in a wide pH values.     

A quantal Tolman temperature

The conventional Tolman temperature based on the assumption of the traceless condition of energy-momentum tensor for matter fields is infinite at the horizon if Hawking radiation is involved. However, we note that the temperature associated with Hawking radiation is of relevance to the trace anomaly, which means that the traceless condition should be released. So, a trace anomaly-induced Stefan-Boltzmann law is newly derived by employing the first law of thermodynamics and the property of the temperature independence of the trace anomaly. Then, the Tolman temperature is quantum-mechanically generalized according to the anomaly-induced Stefan-Boltzmann law. In an exactly soluble model, we show that the Tolman factor does not appear in the generalized Tolman temperature which is eventually finite everywhere, in particular, vanishing at the horizon. It turns out that the equivalence principle survives at the horizon with the help of the quantum principle, and some puzzles related to the Tolman temperature are also resolved.     

Liouville mode in gauge/gravity duality

We establish solutions corresponding to AdS\(_4\) static charged black holes with inhomogeneous two-dimensional horizon surfaces of constant curvature. Depending on the choice of the 2D constant curvature space, the metric potential of the internal geometry of the horizon satisfies the elliptic wave/elliptic Liouville equations. We calculate the charge diffusion and transport coefficients in the hydrodynamic limit of gauge/gravity duality and observe the exponential suppression in the diffusion coefficient and in the shear viscosity-per-entropy density ratio in the presence of an inhomogeneity on black hole horizons with planar, spherical, and hyperbolic geometry. We discuss the subtleties of the approach developed for a planar black hole with inhomogeneity distribution on the horizon surface in more detail and find, among others, a trial distribution function, which generates values of the shear viscosity-per-entropy density ratio falling within the experimentally relevant range. The solutions obtained are also extended to higher-dimensional AdS space. We observe two different DC conductivities in 4D and higher-dimensional effective strongly coupled dual media and formulate conditions under which the appropriate ratio of different conductivities is qualitatively the same as that observed in an anisotropic strongly coupled fluid. We briefly discuss ways of how the Liouville field could appear in condensed matter physics and outline prospects of further employing the gauge/gravity duality in CMP problems.     

Phase transitions in a holographic s $$$$ p model with back-reaction

In a previous paper (Nie et al. in JHEP 1311:087, arXiv:1309.2204 [hep-th], 2013), we presented a holographic s \(+\) p superconductor model with a scalar triplet charged under an SU(2) gauge field in the bulk. We also study the competition and coexistence of the s-wave and p-wave orders in the probe limit. In this work we continue to study the model by considering the full back-reaction. The model shows a rich phase structure and various condensate behaviors such as the “n-type” and “u-type” ones, which are also known as reentrant phase transitions in condensed matter physics. The phase transitions to the p-wave phase or s \(+\) p coexisting phase become first order in strong back-reaction cases. In these first order phase transitions, the free energy curve always forms a swallow tail shape, in which the unstable s \(+\) p solution can also play an important role. The phase diagrams of this model are given in terms of the dimension of the scalar order and the temperature in the cases of eight different values of the back-reaction parameter, which show that the region for the s \(+\) p coexisting phase is enlarged with a small or medium back-reaction parameter but is reduced in the strong back-reaction cases.     

CP violations in predictive neutrino mass structures

We study the CP-violation effects from two types of neutrino mass matrices with (i) \((M_\nu )_{ee}=0\), and (ii) \((M_\nu )_{ee}=(M_\nu )_{e\mu }=0\), which can be realized by the high-dimensional lepton number violating operators \(\bar{\ell }_R^c\gamma ^\mu L_L (D_\mu \Phi )\Phi ^2\) and \(\bar{\ell }_R^c l_R (D_\mu {\Phi })^2\Phi ^2\), respectively. In (i), the neutrino mass spectrum is in the normal ordering with the lightest neutrino mass within the range \(0.002\,\mathrm{eV}\lesssim m_0\lesssim 0.007\,\mathrm{eV}\). Furthermore, for a given value of \(m_0\), there are two solutions for the two Majorana phases \(\alpha _{21}\) and \(\alpha _{31}\), whereas the Dirac phase \(\delta \) is arbitrary. For (ii), the parameters of \(m_0\), \(\delta \), \(\alpha _{21}\), and \(\alpha _{31}\) can be completely determined. We calculate the CP-violating asymmetries in neutrino–antineutrino oscillations for both mass textures of (i) and (ii), which are closely related to the CP-violating Majorana phases.     

Effect of self-fields on the electron cyclotron maser instability in a dielectric loaded waveguide

The influence of self-fields on the cyclotron maser instability in a hollow electron beam propagating parallel to a uniform axial magnetic field B ₀ ê _z in a dielectric loaded waveguide is investigated. The theoretical analysis is carried out within the framework of linearized Vlasov-Maxwell equations. It is assumed that the beam is thin with the radial thickness much smaller than the beam radius. A new dispersion relation for azimuthally symmetric electromagnetic perturbation is derived and analyzed numerically. The influence of self-fields on the cyclotron maser instability in a dielectric loaded waveguide for different dielectric medium is studied. It is found that unlike the hollow waveguide the growth rate is increased by increasing self-fields. The instability band width decreases due to the increasing self-fields. The maximum growth rate increases gradually as self-fields increase as regards a different dielectric medium.     

Coulomb screening in graphene with topological defects

We analyze the screening of an external Coulomb charge in gapless graphene cone, which is taken as a prototype of a topological defect. In the subcritical regime, the induced charge is calculated using both the Green’s function and the Friedel sum rule. The dependence of the polarization charge on the Coulomb strength obtained from the Green’s function clearly shows the effect of the conical defect and indicates that the critical charge itself depends on the sample topology. Similar analysis using the Friedel sum rule indicates that the two results agree for low values of the Coulomb charge but differ for the higher strengths, especially in the presence of the conical defect. For a given subcritical charge, the transport cross-section has a higher value in the presence of the conical defect. In the supercritical regime we show that the coefficient of the power law tail of polarization charge density can be expressed as a summation of functions which vary log periodically with the distance from the Coulomb impurity. The period of variation depends on the conical defect. In the presence of the conical defect, the Fano resonances begin to appear in the transport cross-section for a lower value of the Coulomb charge. For both sub and supercritical regime we derive the dependence of LDOS on the conical defect. The effects of generalized boundary condition on the physical observables are also discussed.     

Cycloaddition reactions of benzyne with olefins

Some novel cycloaddition reactions based on benzyne and olefins have been developed.These reactions were performed in the absence of a transition metal catalyst,and they displayed good yields.These cycloaddition reactions of benzyne with olefins provide effective routes for synthesizing benzocyclobutenes,biaryl compounds and 9,10-dihydrophenanthrene derivatives.     

Porous Tantalum Nitride Single Crystal at Two-Centimeter Scale with Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Performance

Porous tantalum nitride (Ta₃N₅) single crystals, combining structural coherence and porous microstructure, would substantially improve the photoelectrochemical performance. The structural coherence would reduce the recombination of charge carriers and maintain excellent transport properties while the porous microstructure would not only reduce photon scattering but also facilitate surface reactions. Here, we grow bulk-porous Ta₃N₅ single crystals on a two-centimeter scale with (002), (023), and (041) facets, respectively, and show significantly enhanced photoelectrochemical performance. We show the preferential facet growth of porous crystals in a lattice reconstruction strategy in relation to lattice match and lattice channel. We present the facet engineering to enhance light absorption, exciton lifetime and transport properties. The porous Ta₃N₅ single crystal boosts photoelectrochemical oxidation of alcohols with the (002) facet showing the highest performance of >99 % alcohol conversion and >99 % aldehyde/ketone selectivity.     

Electrochemical Phase Evolution of Metal-Based Pre-Catalysts for High-Rate Polysulfide Conversion

In situ evolution of electrocatalysts is of paramount importance in defining catalytic reactions. Catalysts for aprotic electrochemistry such as lithium–sulfur (Li-S) batteries are the cornerstone to enhance intrinsically sluggish reaction kinetics but the true active phases are often controversial. Herein, we reveal the electrochemical phase evolution of metal-based pre-catalysts (Co₄N) in working Li-S batteries that renders highly active electrocatalysts (CoS_x). Electrochemical cycling induces the transformation from single-crystalline Co₄N to polycrystalline CoS_x that are rich in active sites. This transformation propels all-phase polysulfide-involving reactions. Consequently, Co₄N enables stable operation of high-rate (10 C, 16.7 mA cm⁻²) and electrolyte-starved (4.7 μL mg_S⁻¹) Li-S batteries. The general concept of electrochemically induced sulfurization is verified by thermodynamic energetics for most of low-valence metal compounds.