Yolk-Shell Nanocrystal@ZIF-8 Nanostructures for Gas-Phase Heterogeneous Catalysis with Selectivity Control

A general synthetic strategy for yolk-shell nanocrystal@ZIF-8 nanostructures has been developed. The yolk-shell nanostructures possess the functions of nanoparticle cores, microporous shells, and a cavity in between, which offer great potential in heterogeneous catalysis. The synthetic strategy involved first coating the nanocrystal cores with a layer of Cu(2)O as the sacrificial template and then a layer of polycrystalline ZIF-8. The clean Cu(2)O surface assists in the formation of the ZIF-8 coating layer and is etched off spontaneously and simultaneously during this process. The yolk-shell nanostructures were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and nitrogen adsorption. To study the catalytic behavior, hydrogenations of ethylene, cyclohexene, and cyclooctene as model reactions were carried out over the Pd@ZIF-8 catalysts. The microporous ZIF-8 shell provides excellent molecular-size selectivity. The results show high activity for the ethylene and cyclohexene hydrogenations but not in the cyclooctene hydrogenation. Different activation energies for cyclohexene hydrogenation were obtained for nanostructures with and without the cavity in between the core and the shell. This demonstrates the importance of controlling the cavity because of its influence on the catalysis.     

C?H Hydroxylation Using a Heterocyclic Catalyst and Aqueous H2O2

Substituted benzoxathiazines function as catalysts for the selective hydroxylation of tertiary C? H bonds. Mechanistic studies have revealed an unanticipated disparity between oxaziridine reactivity and catalyst performance and have given way to a new catalyst and an aqueous H₂O₂ reaction protocol that greatly facilitate such transformations (see scheme).

     

Entrapment of a dirhodium tetracarboxylate unit inside the aromatic bowl of a calix[4]arene: unique catalysts for C-H amination

Unique calix[4]arene-derived, tetracarboxylate dirhodium(II) inclusion complexes have been prepared and evaluated as catalysts for C-H amination.     

Hadron optics: Diffraction patterns in deeply virtual Compton scattering

We show that the Fourier transform of the deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) amplitude with respect to the skewness variable ζ at fixed invariant momentum transfer squared t   provides a unique way to visualize the structure of the target hadron in the boost-invariant longitudinal coordinate space. The results are analogous to the diffractive scattering of a wave in optics. As a specific example, we utilize the quantum fluctuations of a fermion state at one loop in QED to obtain the behavior of the DVCS amplitude for electron–photon scattering. We then simulate the wavefunctions for a hadron by differentiating the above LFWFs with respect to M²$M^2$ and study the corresponding DVCS amplitudes in light-front longitudinal space. In both cases we observe that the diffractive patterns in the longitudinal variable conjugate to ζ sharpen and the positions of the first minima move in with increasing momentum transfer. For fixed t, higher minima appear at positions which are integral multiples of the lowest minimum. Both these observations strongly support the analogy with diffraction in optics.     

Quarkonium Physics at a Fixed-Target Experiment using the LHC Beams

We outline the many quarkonium-physics opportunities offered by a multi-purpose fixed-target experiment using the p and Pb Large Hadron Collider (LHC) beams extracted by a bent crystal. This provides an integrated luminosity of 0.5 fb^?1 per year on a typical 1?cm-long target. Such an extraction mode does not alter the performance of the collider experiments at the LHC. With such a high luminosity, one can analyse quarkonium production in great details in pp, pd and pA collisions at ${\sqrt{s_{NN}}\simeq 115}$ GeV and at ${\sqrt{s_{NN}}\simeq 72}$ GeV in PbA collisions. In a typical pp (pA) run, the obtained quarkonium yields per unit of rapidity are 2–3 orders of magnitude larger than those expected at RHIC and about, respectively, 10(70) times larger than for ALICE. In PbA, they are comparable. By instrumenting the target-rapidity region, the large negative-x _F domain can be accessed for the first time, greatly extending previous measurements by Hera-B and E866. Such analyses should help resolving the quarkonium-production controversies and clear the way for gluon PDF extraction via quarkonium studies. The nuclear target-species versatility provides a unique opportunity to study nuclear matter and the features of the hot and dense matter formed in PbA collisions. A polarised proton target?allows the study of transverse-spin asymmetries in J/ψ and ${\Upsilon}$ production, providing access to the gluon and charm Sivers functions.     

Hunting for glueballs in electron-positron annihilation

We calculate the cross section for the exclusive production of J(PC)=0(++) glueballs G0 in association with the J/psi in e(+)e(-) annihilation using the perturbative QCD factorization formalism. The required long-distance matrix element for the glueball is bounded by CUSB data from a search for resonances in radiative Upsilon decay. The cross section for e(+)e(-)-->J/psi+G0 at sqrt[s]=10.6 GeV is similar to exclusive charmonium-pair production e(+)e(-)-->J/psi+h for h=eta(c) and chi(c0), and is larger by a factor of 2 than that for h=eta(c)(2S). As the subprocesses gamma(*)-->(cc)(cc) and gamma(*)-->(cc)(gg) are of the same nominal order in perturbative QCD, it is possible that some portion of the anomalously large signal observed by Belle in e(+)e(-)-->J/psiX may actually be due to the production of charmonium-glueball J/psiG(J) pairs.     

Determination of trace elements in water by radioisotope alpha-particle induced X-ray emission

An X-ray spectrometric system including²¹⁰Po -particle sources for excitation and a Si(Li) detector has been applied to determine the concentrations of trace elements in water samples. Thin targets were prepared by the evaporation of a known volume of water deposited on a Mylar backing. The system was calibrated using the internal standard method. Relative sensitivities were measured for 16 elements detected by their K, L and M X-rays. The results are compared with theoretical calculations. The minimum detection limits from 0.01 to 0.07 g/ml were obtained for 2000 s analysis time.     

Vorticity in nuclear fluid dynamics

We consider a model for gloun jet fragmentation based on QCD in which the fast hadrons in the jet are produced by the sequential reaction gluon $\text{→}\text{q}\text{q}\text{?}\text{q}\text{→}$ hadrons. The resulting jet shows an oblate transverse momentum structure, with a major axis preferential oriented normally to the direction of linear polarization of the gluon. We discuss jet-jet oblateness angular correlations in decays of heavy QQ? pseudoscalar and vector systems.