Investigation of individual micrometer-size Kosa particle with on-site combination of electron microscope and synchrotron X-ray microscope.

The Kosa (yellow sand) aerosol affects the global environment as well as human health because it migrates from the interior of China to other areas, absorbing various atmospheric elements. Investigation into individual Kosa aerosol particles, which are submicroscopic to several tens of micrometers in diameter, is required to resolving the issue. We installed a scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX) on a synchrotron radiation (SR) beam line and introduced the SR beam into the SEM chamber for combinatorial application of SEM-EDX and SR X-ray fluorescence (SR-XRF) spectrometry to individual particles. It should be noted that detailed topographic observation by SEM and sensitive elemental analysis by SR-XRF, both crucial for individual particle measurement but which previously had to be carried out separately, were jointly performed inside the SEM chamber in this setup. Here, we show that SR-XRF results, in conjunction with SEM images, contributed toward resolving individual particle dispositions. Atmospheric sulfur primarily adheres to calcium in the aerosol particles and the particle surface roughens as a consequence of the chemical reaction between the two elements.     

Hydrogen bond network-stabilisation of blue phases by addition of a chiral N-(10-hydroxydecyl)succinimide derivative and alkane diols

Blue phases (BPs) obtained by doping a commercially available liquid crystalline compound (4-butyl-N-(4-ethoxybenzylidene)aniline (EBBA)) with (2R,3R)-2,3-bis(4-octyloxyphenylbenzoyloxy)-N-(hydroxydecyl)succinimide (1) were highly stabilised by the addition of a small amount of alkane diols. Especially, addition of only 0.5 mol% of octane-1,8-diol increased the BP–Iso transition temperature by 10 K and widened the BP temperature range up to 35 K. A model stabilisation mechanism based on the construction of a hydrogen bond network in each disclination zone in BPs was proposed.     

Fluctuating fluid forces acting on a circular cylinder and interference with a plane wall

The flow around a circular cylinder placed close to a horizontal plane wall was investigated experimentally. Fluctuations of lift and drag of the cylinder and wall interference effects were studied in terms of the gap height between the cylinder and wall and the thickness of the turbulent wall boundary layer. The fluctuating fluid forces acting on the cylinder sharply increased, and the regular vortex shedding, i.e. Kárman vortex streets, started to form beyond a critical gap height. The formation of Kárman vortex streets was abruptly interrupted when the bottom of the cylinder came in contact with the outer layer of the boundary layer developed on the wall. This critical gap height correlated well with the thickness of the boundary layer.     

Synthesis of oligo(p-phenylene)-linked dyads containing free base, zinc(II) or thallium(III) porphyrins for studies in artificial photosynthesis

A series of (p-phenylene)_n-linked meso-mesityl-substituted porphyrin dyads (n=2-4) was prepared via Suzuki coupling of zinc(II) and free base porphyrin building blocks. The resulting zinc(II)/free base porphyrin dyads were demetalated. The series of free base porphyrin dimers (n=1-4), four other porphyrin dimers (with p-phenylene, diphenylethyne or diphenylbutadiyne linkers; and aryl or tridec-7-yl meso substituents), and several benchmark monomers were converted to the thallium(III)chloride complexes under mild conditions. The collection of eight Tl(III)Cl/Tl(III)Cl dimers is designed for studies of ground-state hole-transfer processes and comparison with the excited-state energy- and hole-transfer processes of the corresponding Zn(II)/free base dyads. Altogether, 18 new porphyrin arrays and benchmark monomers have been prepared.     

Electrochemical performance of nanocomposite LiMnPO4/C cathode materials for lithium batteries

A LiMnPO₄/C composite cathode was prepared by a combination of spray pyrolysis and wet ball milling. The cathode showed stable performance at various cutoff voltages up to 4.9 V. The cutoff voltage increase up to 4.9 V allowed the achievement of a high discharge capacity in galvanostatic charge–discharge tests. The discharge capacities of 153 mAh g^?1 at 0.05 C and 149 mAh g^?1 at 0.1 C were achieved at room temperature; the trickle-mode discharge capacities at room temperature were 132, 120 and 91 mAh g^?1 at 0.1, 1 and 5 C discharge rates, respectively. The cell exhibited a good rate capability in the galvanostatic cycling up to 5 C discharge rates at both ambient temperature and 50 °C.     

Indirect bounds on heavy scalar masses of the two-Higgs-doublet model in light of recent Higgs boson searches

We study an upper bound on masses of additional scalar bosons from the electroweak precision data and theoretical constraints such as perturbative unitarity and vacuum stability in the two-Higgs-doublet model taking account of recent Higgs boson search results. If the mass of the Standard-Model-like Higgs boson is rather heavy and is outside the allowed region by the electroweak precision data, such a discrepancy should be compensated by contributions from the additional scalar bosons. We show the upper bound on masses of the additional scalar bosons to be about 2 (1) TeV for the mass of the Standard-Model-like Higgs boson to be 240 (500) GeV.     

Multiscale Lagrangian fluid dynamics simulation for polymeric fluid

We have developed a simulation technique of multiscale Lagrangian fluid dynamics to tackle hierarchical problems relating to historical dependency of polymeric fluid. We investigate flow dynamics of dilute polymeric fluid by using the multiscale simulation approach incorporating Lagrangian particle fluid dynamics technique (the modified smoothed particle hydrodynamics) with stochastic coarse‐grained polymer simulators (the dumbbell model). We have confirmed that our approach is well in agreement with the macroscopic results obtained by a constitutive equation corresponding to the dumbbell model, and observed that microscopic thermal fluctuation appears in macroscopic fluid dynamics as dispersion phenomena. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 48: 886–893, 2010     

Room Temperature Solution ENDOR of some Super Stable Fluorocarbon Radicals

Room temperature fluorine electron nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) has been successfully observed for several superstable fluorocarbon radicals ·C(C₂F₄R)(i-C₃F₇)₂ in solution. Three radicals were employed in which CF₃, F, and O-c-C₆F₁₀SO₃C₂F₅ were introduced as R, and all the hyperfine couplings (hfcs) obtained by ENDOR were assigned with the help of ESR simulation and ab initio MO calculation. In case of ·C(i-C₃F₇)₃ large ¹³C and considerable β-fluorine couplings suggest the nonplaner arrangement for the central and three carbons at the β-position, in spite of the fact that all the methyl fluorine show the same hfc. Therefore, a rapid puckering motion along the C₃ axis together with the methyl rotation should average the hfc’s of the 18 fluorine nuclei to give the same value. When one of the CF₃ groups is substituted with an F nucleus, the five CF₃ groups give two hfc values, suggesting some dynamics still exists for the molecular frame. When a large group, O-c-C₆F₁₀SO₃C₂F₅, is substituted for CF₃, all the five CF₃ groups become nonequivalent and the ENDOR signal becomes intensive and sharp even at 290 K, indicating that the molecular frame becomes rigid. The relation between the ENDOR spectra of these systems and the intramolecular dynamics is discussed.