Resonant soft x‐ray scattering and reflectivity study of the phase‐separated structure of thin poly(styrene‐b‐methyl methacrylate) films

Combined soft X‐ray scattering and reflectometry techniques promise analysis of polymer thin film domain structure and composition without resorting to chemical modification or isotopic labeling. This work explores the capabilities of these techniques in polymer films of poly(styrene‐b‐methyl methacrylate) (P(S‐b‐MMA)). The results demonstrate that the techniques give detailed information on the domain structure of thin films using well‐known modeling procedures. Discrepancies were noted between the X‐ray optical parameters that are needed to best fit the reflectivity data to the model and the expected parameters. The sources of these discrepancies are discussed in terms of instrument configuration parameters, sample attributes, and, particularly, anisotropy of the chromophore parameters. The results show that fitting the soft X‐ray reflectivity data is much more sensitive to these X‐ray optical parameters than the soft X‐ray scattering data. Nevertheless, fits to both types of data yield quantitative measures of the polymer film's lamellar morphology that are consistent with each other and with literature values. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2013     

Highly Conductive Films of Layered Ternary Transition‐Metal Nitrides

Film studies : Epitaxial films of BaZrN₂ (see TEM image) and BaHfN₂ are grown by polymer‐assisted deposition on SrTiO₃ (STO) substrates. The films are phase‐pure, allowing the intrinsic physical properties of the ternary nitrides to be studied. From 5 to 300 K, the films exhibit metallic‐like resistivity–temperature behavior, with large residual resistivity ratios.

     

Electroreduction of diphenyldiazomethane in acetonitrile at a hanging mercury drop electrode

Cyclic voltammetric studies of the reduction of diphenyldiazomethane (Ph₂CN₂) in CH₃CN-Me₄NPF₆ at a hanging mercury drop electrode have established that the halflife of Ph₂CN₂^? is less than l ms at either 8°C or ?37°C.     

A Kinetic Model for the Reactions of Co and H2 to CH4 and C2H2 in a Flow Microwave Discharge Reactor

A kinetic model was developed to describe the reactions of CO and H2 to CH4 and C2H2in a microwave plasma. The experimental system consisted of a 24 mm I.D. tubular quartz reactor which passed through a microwave cavity. A variable-incident power waveguide system could supply up to 800 watts of incident microwave power to the cavity. The reactant gas mixture of H2 and CO flowed through the reactor, where a plasma was maintained under pressures of 20 - 100 mm Hg. The reactor effluent was analyzed by IR spectroscopy for CH4 and C2H2. Conversions of up to 5.3% CO to C2H2 and 7.2% CO to CH4 were observed. A 26-reaction kinetic model was developed and fitted to the experimental data. The plasma reactor was modeled in two zones: a discharge zone where electron-impact dissociations produce H, C, and O, and a downstream recombination zone where the atomic species from the discharge recombine. The discharge zone was modeled as a well-mixed reactor, and the recombination zone was modeled as a plug-flow reactor. The model was able to explain the asymptotic shape of the observed conversion versus residence time data; the effect is due to a kinetic limitation. This also explains why the conversions obtained in the plasma cannot be predicted by thermodynamic equilibrium.     

Real time evolution of liquid crystalline nanostructure during the digestion of formulation lipids using synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering

The role of the digestion of lipids in facilitating absorption of poorly water-soluble compounds, such as vitamins, is not only an important nutritional issue but is increasingly being recognized as an important determinant in the effectiveness of lipid-based drug formulations. It has been known for some time that lipids often form complex liquid crystalline structures during digestion and that this may impact drug solubilization and absorption. However, until recently we have been unable to detect and characterize those structures in real time and have been limited in establishing the interplay between composition, digestion, and nanostructure. Here, we establish the use of an in vitro lipid digestion model used in conjunction with synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering by first confirming its validity using known, nondigestible liquid crystalline systems, and then extend the model to study the real time evolution of nanostructure during the digestion of common formulation lipids. The formation of liquid crystalline structures from unstructured liquid formulations is discovered, and the kinetics of formation and dependence on composition is investigated.     

Solid-state quantum computer based on scanning tunneling microscopy

We propose a solid-state nuclear-spin quantum computer based on application of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and well-developed silicon technology. It requires the measurement of tunneling-current modulation caused by the Larmor precession of a single electron spin. Our envisioned STM quantum computer would operate at the high magnetic field (approximately 10 T) and at low temperature approximately 1 K.     

The benefit of binaural hearing in a cocktail party: effect of location and type of interferer

The "cocktail party problem" was studied using virtual stimuli whose spatial locations were generated using anechoic head-related impulse responses from the AUDIS database [Blauert et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 103, 3082 (1998)]. Speech reception thresholds (SRTs) were measured for Harvard IEEE sentences presented from the front in the presence of one, two, or three interfering sources. Four types of interferer were used: (1) other sentences spoken by the same talker, (2) time-reversed sentences of the same talker, (3) speech-spectrum shaped noise, and (4) speech-spectrum shaped noise, modulated by the temporal envelope of the sentences. Each interferer was matched to the spectrum of the target talker. Interferers were placed in several spatial configurations, either coincident with or separated from the target. Binaural advantage was derived by subtracting SRTs from listening with the "better monaural ear" from those for binaural listening. For a single interferer, there was a binaural advantage of 2-4 dB for all interferer types. For two or three interferers, the advantage was 2-4 dB for noise and speech-modulated noise, and 6-7 dB for speech and time-reversed speech. These data suggest that the benefit of binaural hearing for speech intelligibility is especially pronounced when there are multiple voiced interferers at different locations from the target, regardless of spatial configuration; measurements with fewer or with other types of interferers can underestimate this benefit.