Synthesis and Study of Plasmon‐Induced Carrier Behavior at Ag/TiO2 Nanowires

Nanocomposites of Ag/TiO₂ nanowires with enhanced photoelectrochemical performance have been prepared by a facile solvothermal synthesis of TiO₂ nanowires and subsequent photoreduction of Ag⁺ ions to Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs) on the TiO₂ nanowires. The as‐prepared nanocomposites exhibited significantly improved cathodic photocurrent responses under visible‐light illumination, which is attributed to the local electric field enhancement of plasmon resonance effect near the TiO₂ surface rather than by the direct transfer of charge between the two materials. The visible‐light‐driven photocatalytic performance of these nanocomposites in the degradation of methylene blue dye was also studied, and the observed improvement in photocatalytic activity is associated with the extended light absorption range and efficient charge separation due to surface plasmon resonance effect of AgNPs.     

Exploring meso-/microporous composite molecular sieves with core-shell structures

A series of core–shell‐structured composite molecular sieves comprising zeolite single crystals (i.e., ZSM‐5) as a core and ordered mesoporous silica as a shell were synthesized by means of a surfactant‐directed sol–gel process in basic medium by using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as a template and tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) as silica precursor. Through this coating method, uniform mesoporous silica shells closely grow around the anisotropic zeolite single crystals, the shell thickness of which can easily be tuned in the range of 15–100 nm by changing the ratio of TEOS/zeolite. The obtained composite molecular sieves have compact meso‐/micropore junctions that form a hierarchical pore structure from ordered mesopore channels (2.4–3.0 nm in diameter) to zeolite micropores (≈0.51 nm). The short‐time kinetic diffusion efficiency of benzene molecules within pristine ZSM‐5 (≈7.88×10^?19 m² s^?1) is almost retainable after covering with 75 nm‐thick mesoporous silica shells (≈7.25×10^?19 m² s^?1), which reflects the greatly opened junctions between closely connected mesopores (shell) and micropores (core). The core–shell composite shows greatly enhanced adsorption capacity (≈1.35 mmol g^?1) for large molecules such as 1,3,5‐triisopropylbenzene relative to that of pristine ZSM‐5 (≈0.4 mmol g^?1) owing to the mesoporous silica shells. When Al species are introduced during the coating process, the core–shell composite molecular sieves demonstrate a graded acidity distribution from weak acidity of mesopores (predominant Lewis acid sites) to accessible strong acidity of zeolite cores (Lewis and Brønsted acid sites). The probe catalytic cracking reaction of n‐dodecane shows the superiority of the unique core–shell structure over pristine ZSM‐5. Insight into the core–shell composite structure with hierarchical pore and graded acidity distribution show great potential for petroleum catalytic processes.     

The Diameters of Some Classical Groups with Respect to a Small Generating Set

In this article we study the diameter of SL _n (p) and Sp _2n (p) with respect to a small generating set consisting of a root element and a member of the Weyl group. This partially solves a problem posed by Lubotzky.     

Investigation of Spectroscopic Behaviors of Newly Synthesized (2E)-3-(3,4-Dimethoxyphenyl)-1-(2,5-dimethylthiophen-3-yl)prop-2-en-1-one (DDTP) Dye

This study introduced spectroscopic properties, physicochemical parameters, and polarity and photostability behaviors of a newly prepared chalcone dye. The chalcone dye, (2E)-3-(3,4-Dimethoxyphenyl)-1-(2,5-dimethylthiophen-3-yl)prop-2-en-1-one (DDTP), was synthesized by the reaction of 3,4-dimethoxybenzaldehyde with 3-acetyl-2,5-dimethythiophene. Results of FT-IR, ¹H-NMR, ¹³C-NMR and elemental analysis were in conformity with chemical structure of newly prepared DDTP. Data of thermal gravimetric analysis revealed that DDTP has good thermal stability. Increases in fluorescence intensities of DDTP with cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) were observed. In comparison of fluorescence intensities for DDTP with CTAB, reductions in fluorescence intensities for DDTP with sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) were observed under the same experimental and instrumental conditions. Moreover, Benesi-Hildebrand method was applied to determine stoichiometric ratios and association constants of DDTP with CTAB and SDS. The stoichiometric ratio and association constant obtained from Stern-Volmer plot strongly supported those obtained from Benesi-Hildebrand plot of DDTP with SDS. Physicochemical parameters, such as, singlet absorption, molar absorptivity, oscillator strength, dipole moment and fluorescence quantum yield of DDTP were also estimated. Fluorescence steady-state measurements ultimately displayed that DDTP has a high photostability against photobleaching. Fluorescence polarity study revealed that DDTP was sensitive to the polarity of the microenvironment provided by different solvents.     

Palladium-catalyzed bisfunctionalization of active alkenes by β-acetonitrile-α-allyl addition: application to the synthesis of unsymmetric 1,4-di(organo)fullerene derivatives

A new, efficient palladium-catalyzed bisfunctionalization of ethylidene malononitriles by addition of acetonitrile and allyl groups is developed for the construction of all-carbon quarternary and tertiary centers simultaneously. This methodology is successfully applied to the synthesis of unsymmetric 1,4-disubstituted C₆₀.     

Synthesis and spectroscopic studies of stable aqueous dispersion of silver nanoparticles

A facile approach for the synthesis of stable aqueous dispersion of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using glucose as the reducing agent in water/micelles system, in which cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) was used as capping agent (stabilizer) is described. The evolution of plasmon band of AgNPs was monitored under different conditions such as (a) concentration of sodium hydroxide, (b) concentration of glucose, (c) concentration of silver nitrate (d) concentration of CTAB, and (e) reaction time. AgNPs were characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), fluorescence spectroscopy and FT-IR spectroscopy. The results revealed an easy and viable strategy for obtaining stable aqueous dispersion of AgNPs with well controlled shape and size below 30 nm in diameter.     

Aluminium phthalocyanine chloride thin films for temperature sensing

This study presents the fabrication and temperature sensing properties of sensors based on aluminium phthalocyanine chloride(AlPcCl)thin films.To fabricate the sensors,50-nm-thick electrodes with 50-μm gaps between them are deposited on glass substrates.AlPcCl thin films with thickness of 50–100 nm are deposited in the gap between electrodes by thermal evaporation.The resistance of the sensors decreases with increasing thickness and the annealing at 100℃ results in an increase in the initial resistance of sensors up to 24%.The sensing mechanism is based on the change in resistance with temperature.For temperature varying from 25℃ to 80℃,the change in resistance is up to 60%.Simulation is carried out and results obtained coincide with experimental data with an error of±1%.     

Metal–Organic Frameworks as Catalysts for Oxidation Reactions

This Concept is aimed at describing the current state of the art in metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) as heterogeneous catalysts for liquid‐phase oxidations, focusing on three important substrates, namely, alkenes, alkanes and alcohols. Emphases are on the nature of active sites that have been incorporated within MOFs and on future targets to be set in this area. Thus, selective alkene epoxidation with peroxides or oxygen catalyzed by constitutional metal nodes of MOFs as active sites are still to be developed. Moreover, no noble metal‐free MOF has been reported to date that can act as a general catalyst for the aerobic oxidation of primary and secondary aliphatic alcohols. In contrast, in the case of alkanes, a target should be to tune the polarity of MOF internal pores to control the outcome of the autooxidation process, resulting in the selective formation of alcohol/ketone mixtures at high conversion.     

Common Zeros of the Solutions of Two Non-Homogeneous First Order Differential Equations

We consider two non-homogeneous first order differential equations and we use Nevanlinna theory to determine when the solutions of these differential equations can have the same zeros or nearly the same zeros.