Collision-induced dissociation mass spectrometry of nonionic surfactants following direct supercritical fluid injection

Direct injection from a capillary supercritical fluid chromatography system was used as an inlet technique for chemical ionization (CI) and low energy collision-induced dissociation (CID) mass spectrometry of a series of low volatility nonionic surfactant mixtures. Characteristic fragment ions produced by CID for various classes of nonionic surfactant molecules were found to depend greatly on the structure of the surfactant hydrophobe. This was the case even when the charge on the molecule appeared localized away from the hydrophobe. Numerous decomposition pathways are suggested by the fragment ions produced. The use of direct supercritical fluid injection as an inlet technique does not appear to influence adversely the ability to produce cm mass spectra. Direct supercritical fluid introduction allows CI to be compared with other ionization mechanisms more commonly used for multifunctional, low volatility samples.     

Studying the Suitability of Nineteen Lignins as Partial Polyol Replacement in Rigid Polyurethane/Polyisocyanurate Foam

In this study, nineteen unmodified lignins from various sources (hardwood, softwood, wheat straw, and corn stover) and isolation processes (kraft, soda, organosolv, sulfite, and enzymatic hydrolysis) were used to replace 30 wt.% of petroleum-based polyol in rigid polyurethane/polyisocyanurate (PUR/PIR) foam formulations. Lignin samples were characterized by measuring their ash content, hydroxyl content (Phosphorus Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy), impurities (Inductively Coupled Plasma), and pH. After foam formulation, properties of lignin-based foams were evaluated and compared with a control foam (with no lignin) via cell morphology, closed-cell content, compression strength, apparent density, thermal conductivity, and color analysis. Lignin-based foams passed all measured standard specifications required by ASTM International C1029-15 for type 1 rigid insulation foams, except for three foams. These three foams had poor compressive strengths, significantly larger cell sizes, darker color, lower closed-cell contents, and slower foaming times. The foam made with corn stover enzymatic hydrolysis lignin showed no significant difference from the control foam in terms of compressive strength and outperformed all other lignin-based foams due to its higher aliphatic and p-hydroxyphenyl hydroxyl contents. Lignin-based foams that passed all required performance testing were made with lignins having higher pH, potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, and aliphatic/p-hydroxyphenyl hydroxyl group contents than those that failed.     

Characterization of the carrot defect in 4H-SiC epitaxial layers

Characterization of the epitaxial defect known as the carrot defect was performed in thick 4H-SiC epilayers. A large number of carrot defects have been studied using different experimental techniques such as Nomarski optical microscopy, KOH etching, cathodoluminescence and synchrotron white beam X-ray topography. This has revealed that carrot defects appear in many different shapes and structures in the epilayers. Our results support the previous assignment of the carrot defect as related to a prismatic stacking fault. However, we have observed carrot defects with and without a visible threading dislocation related etch pit in the head region, after KOH etching. Polishing of epilayers in a few μm steps in combination with etching in molten KOH and imaging using Nomarski optical microscope has been used to find the geometry and origin of the carrot defects in different epilayers. The defects were found to originate both at the epi-substrate interface and during the epitaxial growth. Different sources of the carrot defect have been observed at the epi-substrate interface, which result in different structures and surfaces appearance of the defect in the epilayer. Furthermore, termination of the carrot defect inside the epilayer and the influence of substrate surface damage and growth conditions on the density of carrot defects are studied.     

Systematic Study of Selected Diagonalization Methods for Configuration Interaction Matrices

Several modifications to the Davidson algorithm are systematically explored to establish their performance for an assortment of configuration interaction (CI) computations. The combination of a generalized Davidson method, a periodic two‐vector subspace collapse, and a blocked Davidson approach for multiple roots is determined to retain the convergence characteristics of the full subspace method. This approach permits the efficient computation of wave functions for large‐scale CI matrices by eliminating the need to ever store more than three expansion vectors ( b _i) and associated matrix‐vector products ( σ _i), thereby dramatically reducing the I/O requirements relative to the full subspace scheme. The minimal‐storage, single‐vector method of Olsen is found to be a reasonable alternative for obtaining energies of well‐behaved systems to within μE_h accuracy, although it typically requires around 50% more iterations and at times is too inefficient to yield high accuracy (ca. 10^?10 E_h) for very large CI problems. Several approximations to the diagonal elements of the CI Hamiltonian matrix are found to allow simple on‐the‐fly computation of the preconditioning matrix, to maintain the spin symmetry of the determinant‐based wave function, and to preserve the convergence characteristics of the diagonalization procedure. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 22: 1574–1589, 2001     

Lock-in thermographic investigation of probe-sample interaction in scanning thermal microscopy (SThM)

Thermographic lock-in investigation of thermal interaction between a thermal probe used in scanning thermal microscopy and a thin composite sample is used for estimating the relative fraction of heat flux transferred to the sample by conduction through the air and by direct local contact. The latter is determined by vector subtraction of out-of-contact data from in-contact data, for different modulation frequencies. It represents only 8% of the total modulated heat flux dissipated by the probe, and is frequency-independent. The heat transfer by air conduction varies between 23% and 6% for f = 0.2...40 Hz with a broad equivalent heat source radius of r 0.2 mm.     

Noise in miniature microphones

The internal noise spectrum in miniature electret microphones of the type used in the manufacture of hearing aids is measured. An analogous circuit model of the microphone is empirically fit to the measured data and used to determine the important sources of noise within the microphone. The dominant noise source is found to depend on the frequency. Below 40 Hz and above 9 kHz, the dominant source is electrical noise from the amplifier circuit needed to buffer the electrical signal from the microphone diaphragm. Between approximately 40 Hz and 1 kHz, the dominant source is thermal noise originating in the acoustic flow resistance of the small hole pierced in the diaphragm to equalize barometric pressure. Between approximately 1 kHz and 9 kHz, the noise originates in the acoustic flow resistances of sound entering the microphone and propagating to the diaphragm. To further reduce the microphone internal noise in the audio band requires attacking these sources. A prototype microphone having reduced acoustical noise is measured and discussed.     

Quantitative Modelization of Hydrogen-Bonding in Polyoxometalate Chemistry

The PACHA (Partial Atomic Charges and Hardnesses Analysis) formalism is applied to polyoxometalate chemistry. Using the Ca₂(H₃O)₂[V₁₀O₂₈]16H₂O crystal structure, it was shown that the relative affinity for protons of the various oxygen sites may be quantitatively determined. The charge distribution was also found to be in good agreement with ¹⁷O and ⁵¹V NMR measurements. The H-bond energy in this kind of compound was found to be about –17 kJmol^–1, i.e., about 20% lower than in hexagonal ice. Finally, the 57 H-atom coordinates characterizing this structure were successfully recovered from a crystal structure optimization in the solid-state through electrostatic balance minimization. The importance of considering neutral clusters for a good modelization was demonstrated not only in the case of the decavanadate structure, but also in polysilicate chemistry. For the first time a clear picture emerges explaining the widespread occurrence of four- and five-membered rings in zeolite and silicate chemistry. The possibility of forming much larger polyanions with transition metal cations, is well explained using the crystal structure of the superfullerene keplerate [Mo₁₃₂O₃₇₂(HCO₂)₃₀(H₂O)₇₂]^42– as a benchmark compound. The possibility of performing an ab-initio retrosynthetic analysis of this cage is demonstrated.     

Pulsed amperometric detection of carbohydrates on an electrophoretic microchip

The first report of pulsed amperometric detection (PAD) on an electrophoretic microchip is presented. A hybrid poly-(dimethylsiloxane)/glass device was coupled with a platinum working electrode for the electrochemical detection of glucose, maltose, and xylose. Under optimized detection conditions, glucose was found to respond linearly from 20 to 500 microM with a measured detection limit of 20 microM. The coupling of PAD with a microchip provides a straightforward approach to the analysis of a wide range of carbohydrates using microfluidics.