Studies on the kinetics of UO2 dissolution in carbonate-bicarbonate medium using sodium hypochlorite as oxidant

The dissolution of UO₂ in carbonate-bicarbonate solutions containing sodium hypochlorite as an oxidant has been investigated. The effect of temperature, sodium hypochlorite concentration and stirring speed was examined. In the temperature range of 303 to 318 K, the leaching reaction displayed linear kinetics. Apparent activation energy obtained from the differential approach was found to be 57 kJ mol^?1. This relatively high activation energy value indicates a chemically controlled behavior of UO₂ dissolution. The order of reaction with respect to sodium hypochlorite concentration was found to be unity.     

Transmetalation reaction between hydrophobic silver nanoparticles and aqueous chloroaurate ions at the air-water interface

The transmetalation reaction between a sacrificial nanoparticle and more noble metal ions in solution has emerged as a novel method for creating unique hollow and bimetallic nanostructures. In this report, we investigate the possibility of carrying out the transmetalation reaction between hydrophobic silver nanoparticles assembled and constrained at the air-water interface and subphase gold ions. We observe that facile reduction of the subphase gold ions by the sacrificial silver nanoparticles occurs resulting in the formation of elongated gold nanostructures that appear to cross-link the sacrificial silver particles. This transmetalation reaction may be modulated by the insertion of an electrostatic barrier in the form of an ionizable lipid monolayer between the silver nanoparticles and the aqueous gold ions that impacts the gold nanoparticle assembly. Transmetalation reactions between nanoparticles constrained into a close-packed structure and appropriate metal ions could lead to a new strategy for metallic cross-linking of nanoparticles and generation of coatings with promising optoelectonic behavior.     

CT complexes in radiation polymerisation processes including grafting, curing and hydrogel formation

Parameters influencing the grafting of a typical charge transfer (CT) complex, maleic anhydride /triethylene glycol divinyl ether, to representative substrates, cellulose and polypropylene, initiated by UV and ionising radiation have been investigated. The variables studied include effect of solvent, role of donor involving the type of ether and the nature of the acceptor including the use of common monomers like methyl methacrylate. A novel application of this CT grafting work is reported involving hydrogel formation with subsequent controlled release of incorporated reagent.     

Phase Transfer of Gold Metallized DNA

We report a simple solution based method for the gold (Au) metallization of DNA resulting in a Au nanowire network. Advantage of solution based approach is that it allows the removal of excess gold (Au⁺³) ions by extraction with tetraoctylammonium bromide (TOAB) in order to avoid non specific metallization. Further it has been shown that Au metallized DNA obtained in aqueous phase can be transferred to organic phase using hexadecyl aniline (HDA). Au metallized DNA has potential application in nanoscale devices.     

Imaging of human breast tissue using polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography

We report a study on the use of polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (PSOCT) for discriminating malignant (invasive ductal carcinoma), benign (fibroadenoma) and normal (adipocytes) breast tissue sites. The results show that while conventional OCT, that utilizes only the intensity of light back-scattered from tissue microstructures, is able to discriminate breast tissues as normal (adipocytes) and abnormal (malignant and benign) tissues, PS-OCT helps in discriminating between malignant and benign tissue sites also. The estimated values of birefringence obtained from the PSOCT imaging show that benign breast tissue samples have significantly higher birefringence as compared to the malignant tissue samples.     

Detection of a target protein (GroEl2) in Mycobacterium tuberculosis using a derivative of 1,2,4-triazolethiols

Molecular Diversity - Herein, we identified a potent lead compound RRA2, within a series of 54 derivatives of 1,2,4-triazolethiols (exhibit good potency as an anti-mycobacterial agents) against...     

ICP-MS determination of lead isotope ratios in legal and counterfeit cigarette tobacco samples

A method for the determination of Pb isotope ratios (IR) in cigarette tobacco by quadrupole inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (Q-ICP-MS) has been developed and applied to tobacco samples from genuine and counterfeit cigarettes obtained in the USA. The IR ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb, ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁶Pb, ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb, ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb and ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb were measured using a Q-ICP-MS instrument. Two certified reference materials, grown in the USA and Bulgaria, were also analysed for comparison with the tobacco samples, as were tobacco samples from cigarettes obtained in Pakistan and China. The precision of the results was sufficient to distinguish between the counterfeit and genuine USA cigarettes. All of the genuine cigarettes and both reference materials, grown in different regions, were statistically distinct based on the measured ratios. The counterfeit cigarettes were indistinguishable from the reference material grown in Bulgaria. The technique shows promise as a method for identifying counterfeit cigarettes, possibly determining the source region.     

Localized geometric query problems

A new class of geometric query problems are studied in this paper. We are required to preprocess a set of geometric objects P in the plane, so that for any arbitrary query point q, the largest circle that contains q but does not contain any member of P, can be reported efficiently. The geometric sets that we consider are point sets and boundaries of simple polygons.     

Study of hyperfragments

464 non-mesic and 65 mesic decay of hyperfragments (HFs) produced by pions of momenta 3·5 GeV/c. and 17·2 GeV/c. and protons of momentum 23 GeV/c., have been used to obtain information on Q^?, the ratio of non-mesic toπ ^? mesic events and S, the ratio of neutron to proton stimulated events as a function of charge of HFs. Q^? is found to increase rapidly with the increase in charge of HFs; the value of Q^? for HFs of Z?3 is 14·6±3·0 which is high compared to the theoretical value of about 4 to 5. The value of S is found to be >1 for all HFs of Z≥2.