Molecular structure and dynamics in monolayers of long chain alkanes and alkyl-derivatives

Long chain alkanes (C₃₄H₇₀ and C₅₀H₁₀₂), a fatty acid (C₁₇H₃₅COOH) and an alkyl-substituted triiodobenzoate (I₃H₂C₆COOC₁₈H₃₇) have been adsorbed at the interface between organic solutions and the basal plane of graphite. In-situ scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) has been employed to investigate their structure and dynamics on the scale of 10 pm and 1 ms or longer. All adsorbates form two-dimensional polycrystals. The molecules tend to organize in lamellae with the extended alkyl chains oriented parallel to a lattice axis within the basal plane of graphite. The n-alkane chains pack in a lattice commensurate with the graphite lattice and the carbon skeleton planes approximately perpendicular to the substrate. Due to the additional space required by a carboxyl end group the alkyl lattice in the fatty acid is incommensurate with the substrate and the carbon skeleton planes lie approximately parallel to the surface. In the triiodobenzoate the headgroup takes the space of about two alkyl chains resulting in an interdigitated packing.     

Search for the scalar top quark in pp collisions at square root[s] = 1.8 TeV

We have performed a search for scalar top quark (stop) pair production in the inclusive electron-muon-missing transverse energy final state, using a sample of pp events corresponding to 108.3 pb(-1) of data collected with the D0 detector at Fermilab. The search is done in the framework of the minimal supersymmetric standard model assuming that the sneutrino is the lightest supersymmetric particle. For the dominant decays of the lightest stop, t-->b chi+1 and t-->blnu, no evidence for signal is found. We derive cross-section limits as a function of stop ( t ), chargino ( chi+1), and sneutrino ( nu) masses.     

Electric and magnetic hyperfinestructure investigations in the 5s 25p 3 and 5s 25p 26s Configurations of121, 123Sb

Optical hyperfinestructure investigations in several spectral lines were carried out in the Sb-I spectrum from which for the first time accurate values of the hfs-splitting constantsA andB of the ground configuration 5p ³ and also for five of the eight levels of the first excited configuration 5p ²6s were obtained. With these parameters the influence of core polarization effects is calculated to bea _c= ?6.6(4) mK, (equivalent to a magnetic field of ?283(20) kG perp-electron spin). The quadrupole momentQ ₁₂₁= ?0.36(4) b (including Sternheimer correction) was obtained with the experimental valuesb _3/2= ?14.3(1.0) mK and 〈r ^?3〉 =11.2(3) a.u. andQ ₁₂₃= ?0.49(5) b withb _3/2= ?19.9(1.0) mK resp. This evaluation also yields the relativistic correction factor η= ?(C″/C′) · S _r/R′ _r=1.13(2). —For the first time, too, isotope shift investigations in Sb-I lines were possible which permit to determine the isotope shift constant βC _exp= 40(10) mK, and a value δ〈r ²〉^{121, 123}=0.12(4) fm² for the change in the mean square nuclear charge radius between¹²¹Sb and¹²³Sb which is about 50 percent of the prediction of the unified nuclear model.     

Observation of electrostatically released DNA from gold electrodes with controlled threshold voltages

DNA oligo-nucleotides, localized at Au metal electrodes in aqueous solution, are found to be released when applying a negative bias voltage to the electrode. The release was confirmed by monitoring the intensity of the fluorescence of cyanine dyes (Cy3) linked to the 5' end of the DNA. The threshold voltage of the release changes depending on the kind of linker added to the DNA 3'-terminal. The amount of released DNA depends on the duration of the voltage pulse. Using this technique, we can retain DNA at Au electrodes or Au needles, and release the desired amount of DNA at a precise location in a target. The results suggest that DNA injection into living cells is possible with this method.     

Probing the wave function of shallow Li and Na donors in ZnO nanoparticles

Electron paramagnetic resonance and electron nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) experiments on ZnO nanoparticles reveal the presence of shallow donors related to interstitial Li and Na atoms. The shallow character of the wave function is evidenced by the multitude of 67Zn ENDOR lines and further by the hyperfine interactions with the 7Li and 23Na nuclei that are much smaller than for atomic lithium and sodium. In the case of the Li-doped nanoparticles, an increase of the hyperfine interaction with the 7Li nucleus and with the 1H nuclei in the Zn(OH)(2) capping layer is observed when reducing the size of the nanoparticles. This effect is caused by the confinement of the shallow-donor 1s-type wave function that has a Bohr radius of about 1.5 nm, i.e., comparable to the dimension of the nanoparticles.     

High-speed chiral separations on a microchip with UV detection

Fast chiral separations of a variety of basic and acidic compounds could be realized on microfluidic quartz chips. A microchip electrophoresis instrument equipped with a linear imaging UV-detector was used. The usually applied but troublesome fluorescence tagging in order to enable fluorescence detection could be omitted. Using sulfated cyclodextrins as chiral selectors baseline separation of 19 compounds could be achieved in less than 1 min with high reproducibility. The relative standard deviation of migration time was below 7%. The fastest separation could be performed in 2.5 s which is to date the fastest separation of enantiomers reported. It was possible to apply microchip electrophoresis (MCE) for the determination of high enantiomeric excess (ee) values, as exemplarily shown for pseudoephedrin where 2% of the minor enantiomer could reliably be determined beside high amount of the other isomer. Successful separation of a mixture of 3 chiral drugs could be performed in a single run in less than 11 s utilizing a separation length of only 12 mm. These results show that MCE has great potential for fast chiral analysis and high-throughput screening.