Generation of an ultrabroadband supercontinuum in the mid-infrared region using dispersion-engineered GeAsSe photonic crystal fiber

An ultrabroadband mid-infrared (MIR) region supercontinuum (SC) is demonstrated numerically through dispersion-engineered traditional chalcogenide (ChG) photonic crystal fiber (PCF). By varying structural parameters pitch (hole to hole spacing) and air-hole diameter to pitch ratio, a number of 10-mm-long hexagonal PCFs made employing GeAsSe ChG glass as a core and air-holes of hexagonal lattice running through their lengths as a cladding are optimized to predict an efficient mid-infrared region SC spectral emission by pumping them using a tunable pump source between 2.9 and 3.3 µm. Simulations are carried out using an ultrashort pump pulse of 100-fs duration with a low pulse peak powers of between 3 and 4 kW into the optimized designs. It is found through numerical analysis that efficient SC spectral broadening with flattened output can be obtained by increasing the PCF pitch rather than increasing the PCF cladding containing air-hole diameter although a larger nonlinear coefficient could be obtained through increasing air-hole diameter of an optimized design. Simulation results show that the SC spectra can be broadened up to 12.2 µm for a certain design with a peak power of 3 kW. Using a peak power of 4 kW, it is possible to obtain SC spectral broadening beyond 14 µm with an optimized design spanning the wavelength range from 1.8 to 14 µm which covers the electromagnetic spectrum required for MIR molecular fingerprint region applications such as sensing and biological imaging.     

Variable time lag and backward ejection in full-dimensional analysis of strong-field double ionization

Ensembles of 400,000 two-electron trajectories in three space dimensions are used with Newtonian equations of motion to track atomic double ionization under very strong laser fields. We report a variable time lag between e-e collision and double ionization, and find that the time lag plays a key role in the emergence directions of the electrons. These are precursors to production of electron momentum distributions showing substantial new agreement with experimental data.     

Bromination of 1,3,5-trimethyl-4-chloropyrazole

The bromination of 1,3,5-trimethyl-4-chloropyrazole with N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) in the presence of benzoyl peroxide leads to 5-bromomethyl-1,3-dimethyl-4-chloropyrazole, whereas 3,5-bis(bromomethyl)-1-methyl-4-chloropyrazole predominates in the case of a twofold excess of NBS. Products of subsequent substitution in the 3- and 5-bromomethyl groups of the 3,5-bis(bromomethyl) compound in a ratio of 31 were detected in small amounts; this is evidently associated with the syn orientation of the bromine atom in the 5-bromomethyl group, which hinders attack by the bromine radical.Translated from Khimiya Geterotsiklicheskikh Soedinenii, No. 1, pp. 40–42, January, 1988.     

Quantification of a tightly adsorbed monolayer of xylan on cellulose surface

The successive extraction and re-adsorption of a linear β-(1 → 4) xylan extracted from microfibrillated birch pulp was investigated using solid-state CP/MAS ¹³C NMR spectroscopy, specific surface area measurements, and atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The NMR spectra confirmed that when in contact with cellulose after re-adsorption, the xylan molecules altered their conformation from the classical left-handed threefold structure found in the bulk to a different one, presumably a cellulose-like twofold system for quantities up to the equivalent amount of extracted xylan. Combining these observations with specific surface area measurements and the surface occupied by a xylosyl residue, it was possible to show that the re-adsorbed xylan in the modified conformation occurred only within the first adsorbed layer in direct interaction with the cellulose surface. It is only when an excess xylan was added and after full cellulose surface coverage, that the subsequent deposited layers took the classical threefold organization. Following the variation of xylan conformation in terms of sequential xylan addition allowed quantifying the surface of cellulose accessible for a tight adsorption of xylan, not only for microfibrillated birch cellulose, but for other samples as well. The MD simulations confirmed that xylan in threefold conformation had a weaker affinity for the cellulose surface than its twofold counterpart, thus supporting the hypothesis of the twofold conformation for xylan at the cellulose surface. The MD simulations also showed that in contact with cellulose, the adsorbed xylan was mainly organized as an extended molecular chain aligned parallel to the cellulose chain direction.     

Thermodynamics of Viscous Flow of <Emphasis Type="Italic">tert</Emphasis>-Butanol with Butylamines: UNIFAC–VISCO,Grunberg–Nissan and McAllister Three Body Interaction Models for Viscosity Prediction and Quantum Chemical (DFT) Calculations

Thermodynamic activation parameters, enthalpies (ΔH ^?), entropies (ΔS ^?) and Gibbs energies (ΔG ^?) for viscous flow of the systems tert-butanol (TB)+n-butylamine (NBA), TB+di-n-butylamine (DBA) and TB+tri-n-butylamine (TBA) have been calculated from measured density and viscosity data at temperatures ranging from 303.l5 to 323.15 K over the composition range 0 ≤ x ₂ ≤ 1, where x ₂ is the mole fraction of TB. For all systems, the corresponding excess properties ΔH ^?E, ΔS ^?E and ΔG ^?E have been determined, which are negative in the whole range of composition. The observed negative excess activation properties have been accounted for in terms of dispersive forces and H-bonding. The derived properties are well represented by fourth degree polynomial equations whereas the excess properties could be fitted to third degree Redlich–Kister polynomial equations. Furthermore, the viscosities have been predicted by using the UNIFAC–VISCO model, Grunberg–Nissan model and McAllister three-body interaction model. The UNIFAC–VISCO model and Grunberg–Nissan model do not show good agreement with the experimental data, whereas the McAllister three-body interaction model shows excellent agreement for all three systems, with small average absolute percent deviations (AAD% = 0.6–2.3). The DFT-B3LYP method with the 6-311 G (d, p) basis set has been employed for the optimization of the geometry and calculation of the total energies of the pure compounds and their binary complexes.     

Elucidating the Effect of Ion Exchange Protocol on the Copper Exchange Efficacy,Copper Siting,and SCR activity in Cu-SSZ-13

The influence of the copper ion exchange protocol on SCR activity of SSZ-13 is quantified. Using the same parent SSZ-13 zeolite, four exchange protocols are used to assess how exchange protocol impacts metal uptake and SCR activity. Large differences in the SCR activity, nearly 30 percentage points at 160 °C at constant copper content, are observed for different exchange protocols implying that different exchange protocols lead to different copper species. Hydrogen temperature programmed reduction on selected samples and infrared spectroscopy of CO binding corroborates this conclusion as the reactivity at 160 °C correlates with the intensity of the IR band at 2162 cm⁻¹. DFT-based calculations show that such an IR assignment is consistent with CO adsorbed on a Cu(I) cation within an eight-membered ring. This work shows that SCR activity can be influenced by the ion exchange process even when different protocols lead to the same metal loading. Perhaps most interesting, a protocol used to generate Cu-MOR for methane to methanol studies led to the most active catalyst both on a unit mass or unit mole copper basis. This points to a yet not recognized means to tailor catalyst activity as the open literature is silent on this issue.     

Synthesis and study of poly(ethylene oxide) membranes obtained from homopolymerization of peo macromonomers

Hydrogels were obtained by free-radical polymerization of bifunctional macromonomers. This reaction can be conducted in water solution or in organic solvent. The k_p value is yet strongly depending on the solvent used. The properties of these networks will be compared to those of networks obtained by end-linking procedures. These materials were also used as a semi-permeable membrane in the conception of an artificial pancreas.