Properties of nanobelts and nanotubes measured by in situ TEM.

Characterizing the physical properties of individual nanostructures is challenging because of the difficulty in manipulating the objects of sizes from nanometers to micrometers. Most nanomeasurements have been carried using scanning probe microscopy. In this article, we demonstrate that transmission electron microscopy can be a powerful tool for quantitative measurements of the mechanical and electrical properties of a single nanostructure. Dual-mode resonance of an oxide nanobelt has been observed, and its bending modulus has been measured. An in situ technique was demonstrated for measuring the work function at the tip of a carbon nanotube. The ballistic quantum conductance of a multiwalled carbon nanotube was observed at room temperature using the setup in TEM. It is concluded that in situ measurement by directly linking structure with property is a future direction of electron microscopy.     

The thermal reaction of HNCO at moderate temperatures

The thermal reaction of HNCO has been studied in a static cell at temperatures between 873 and 1220 K and a constant pressure of 800 torr under highly diluted conditions. The reaction was measurable above 1000 K by FTIR spectrometry. The products detected include CO, CO₂, HCN, NH₃, and the unreacted HNCO. In this moderate temperature regime, the rates of product formation and HNCO decay cannot be accounted for by a previously established high-temperature mechanism, assuming HNCO → NH + CO (1) as the initiation process. Instead, a new bimolecular reaction, 2HNCO → CO₂ + HNCNH (2), has been invoked to interpret the disappearance of HNCO as well as the formation of various products, most importantly CO₂. The concentration profiles of all measured species can be quantitatively modeled, throughout the temperature range analyzed, by varying k₂ using a modified mechanism. The kinetically modeled values of k₂ can be effectively represented by This result agrees closely with that computed with the conventional transition-state theory using the TST parameters predicted by the BAC-MP4 method: The bimolecular reaction takes place via a stable 4-membered ring intermediate which is isoelectronic with diketene; viz.      

Laser desorption of DNA oligomers larger than one kilobase from cooled 4-nitrophenol

A unique matrix system consisting mostly of 4-nitrophenol has shown to be very effective for matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometric analysis of large DNA oligomers when a cooled sample stage was used to prevent the sublimation of this matrix under vacuum. Using this 4-nitrophenol matrix with UV laser desorption, detection of picomole quantities of DNA oligomers containing up to approximately 800 nucleotides was routinely achieved. The effectiveness of this matrix was further demonstrated by the observation of a double-stranded DNA oligomer larger than 1000 base pairs, seen as a denatured single-stranded species, with a molecular ion mass exceeding 300 000 Da. The potential applications of 4-nitrophenol as a matrix for DNA sizing are discussed.     

Anomalous Nitration Reactions of Halotropones and Tribromotropolone

Nitration of 2-bromo or 2-chlorotropone gave a new compound, 2,7-dinitrotropone: The halegen atom on the 2-position was displaced by the nitro group through an electrophilic substitution reaction. Nitration of 3,5,7-tribromotropolone gave 3,7-dibromo-5-nitropolone: the nitro group again displaced the bromine atom at position 5.     

Novel Phenomenon of Oxygen-to-oxygen Silyl Migration in Directed Aldol Reaction

The phenomenon of migration of the silyl groups from α-oxygen to β-oxygen in sodium aldol reaction was observed for the first time in this paper.     

Evaluation of Eigenvalues by Successive Variations

A successive variation method was studied and tested on the hydrogen molecular ion H₂⁺. Results show that it takes less computational time than conventional method. It was also found that ground state wavefunction of H₂⁺ can be well approximated by the linear combination of the simplest Gaussian orbitals e^?I(T-a)3     

Spectrophotometric determination of aluminium with chlorophosphonazo I

Aluminium reacts with Chlorophosphonazo I at pH 4-6 to form a water-soluble 1:1 red-violet complex. The absorption maximum is at 610 nm and the apparent molar absorptivity is 1.96 x 10(4) l.mole(-1).cm(-1). The apparent instability constant has been calculated to be 1.8 x 10(-4). The colour of the complex is stable for 24 hr. Beer's law is obeyed over the concentration range up to 0.8 mug ml . Titanium and zirconium interfere seriously.     

Optical Properties of Model Compounds of Polyaniline

The UV and visible spectra of six model compounds were studied. These compounds can be considered as models of polyaniline in the reduced, cation radical, partially oxidized and oxidized forms. After treatment of a mixture of equal molar quantities of the reduced form (DPPD) and the oxidized form (QDIM) with acid, the following reaction was observed: DPPD(I)+QDIM(III)+2H⁺=2DPPD⁺(II) After similar treatment of the partially oxidized form (V) with acid, the radical cation salt formed. The UV and visible spectra of polyaniline in the reduced form, oxidized form and conductive form are similar to the spectra of DPPD, QDIM and DPPD⁺ or radical cation salt of V respectively. We propose that the polyaniline synthesized by chemical oxidation of aniline consists of oxidized and reduced repeat units. Upon protonation a redox reaction (or electron rearrangement) occurs and forms delocalized radical cations (polarons) in the polymer chain which are highly conductive.     

Isothermal Titration Microcalorimetric Studies of the Effect of Temperature on Hydrophobic Interaction between Proteins and Hydrophobic Adsorbents

This study attempted to comprehend how temperature affects hydrophobic interaction between proteins and hydrophobic adsorbents. By equilibrium batch analysis, we measured the adsorption isotherm to evaluate the protein-adsorbent affinity, while isothermal titration calorimetry was used to measure the adsorption enthalpy. In addition, the affinity and enthalpy differences between two proteins, alpha-chymotrypsinogen A and trypsinogen, with two adsorbents, butyl-Sepharose and octyl-Sepharose gel, under varying temperatures were studied with respect to the exposed hydrophobic segments of the protein and ligand hydrophobicity. The enthalpies obtained in this investigation can be used to more thoroughly understand the hydrophobic interaction between proteins and adsorbents. First, the adsorption isotherm experiments reveal that the adsorption quantity of the proteins with the Sepharose gels increases with temperature. For a microcalorimetric measurement, as temperature is increased from 298 to 310 K, the DeltaH value of alpha-chymotrypsinogen A with butyl-Sepharose increases, while the DeltaH value of trypsinogen is reduced. This is likely due to the fact that alpha-chymotrypsinogen A has a higher area of exposed hydrophobic segments than trypsinogen does. This observation also implies that as temperature increases, the interaction mechanism of alpha-chymotrypsinogen A with butyl-Sepharose changes from an adsorption-dominated process to a partitioning process. In addition, for octyl-Sepharose, the DeltaH value of alpha-chymotrypsinogen A is positive and decreases with temperature increment. However, the DeltaH value of trypsinogen was positive and increased with temperature. Therefore, we conclude that as temperature increases, the interaction mechanism of the proteins for octyl-Sepharose is a partitioning-dominated process. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.     

Taxumairols X--Z,new taxoids from Taiwanese Taxus mairei

In addition to 19-dydroxybaccatin III, 1beta-hydroxy-5 alpha-deacetylbaccatin I, taxayuntin G and 13-O-deacetyltaxumairol Z (4), three new taxane diterpenoids, taxumairols X (1), Y (2), Z (3) have been isolated from extracts of the Formosan Taxus mairei (LEMEE & LEVL.) S. Y. HU. Compounds 1-2 belong to the 11(15-->1)-abeo-taxane system, having a tetrahydrofuran ring at C-2, C-3, C-4 and C-20. The new compound 3 and 4, which was misidentified previously are derivatives of 11(15-->1)-abeo-taxane with an intact oxirane system. The structures of compounds 1-4 were elucidated on the basis of extensive two dimensional (2D)-NMR analysis.