Oxygen reduction reaction mechanism and kinetics on M-NxCy and M@N-C active sites present in model M-N-C catalysts under alkaline and acidic conditions

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - M-N-C electrocatalysts (where M is Fe or Co) have been investigated for mitigating the dependence on noble metals when catalyzing the oxygen reduction...     

Effect of Zn and Mg doping on structural,dielectric and magnetic properties of tetragonal CuFe2O4

The Cu_1?xA_xFe₂O₄ (A = Zn, Mg; x = 0.0, 0.5) ferrites were successfully synthesized by chemical co-precipitation method. X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy reveals that all the ferrite samples are in single-phase with tetragonal structure for CFO and cubic spinel structure for CZFO and CMFO samples. SEM micrograph shows the variation of grain size with Zn and Mg doping in parent CFO sample. Frequency dependent dielectric response confirms the dielectric polarization and electrical conduction mechanism in the present series with a maximum value of dielectric constant and loss tangent for CZFO sample. The anomaly ～493 K in temperature dependent dielectric constant and dielectric loss is assigned to tetragonal to cubic phase transition in CFO sample. The magnetic measurement explored that the saturation value (M_s) is maximum for CZFO as compared to CFO and CMFO ferrites samples.     

Reaction of Triethyl Phosphonoacetate Anion with Phenylhydrazones: A New Method for the Preparation of 3(2H)-Pyridazinones

Various 5,6-disubstituted-2-phenyl-3(2H)-pyridazinones 4 have been synthesised by reacting triethyl phosphonoacetate anion with monophenylhydrazone of 1,2-dicarbonyl compounds 2.     

Disentangling diffusion information of individual components in a mixture with a 3D COMPACT‐IDOSY NMR experiment

A new 3D diffusion‐ordered heteronuclear NMR experiment COMPACT‐IDOSY (cross‐polarization optimized multisite polarized accelerated time internally encoded diffusion ordered spectroscopy) has been designed and experimentally implemented on a mixture of flavonoids rutin and quercetin. The pulse sequence uses a cross‐polarization mixing period and diffusion encoding gradients internally incorporated into the coherence transfer interval of a long‐range heteronuclear correlation experiment. Substantial reduction in experimental time, good sensitivity and excellent resolution of signal overlap lead to the accurate determination of translational diffusion coefficients of individual components in the mixture. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Determining the parity of a permutation using an experimental NMR qutrit

We present the NMR implementation of a recently proposed quantum algorithm to find the parity of a permutation. In the usual qubit model of quantum computation, it is widely believed that computational speedup requires the presence of entanglement and thus cannot be achieved by a single qubit. On the other hand, a qutrit is qualitatively more quantum than a qubit because of the existence of quantum contextuality and a single qutrit can be used for computing. We use the deuterium nucleus oriented in a liquid crystal as the experimental qutrit. This is the first experimental exploitation of a single qutrit to carry out a computational task.     

Tunable,dual-wavelength interferometrically coupled continuous-wave parametric source

Generation of dual-wavelength continuous-wave (cw) radiation with independent and arbitrarily tuning, and indefinitely close spacing, using two cw optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) coupled with an anti-resonant ring interferometer is reported. The singly resonant OPOs, based on identical 30-mm-long MgO:sPPLT crystals, are pumped by a single cw laser at 532 nm. Two pairs of signal and idler wavelengths can be independently and arbitrarily tuned, with each signal (idler) pair tuned through degeneracy and beyond. Frequency separation between two distinct resonant signal waves from 7 down to 0.8 THz is demonstrated, and their overlap at 951 nm providing a frequency difference as small as ~220 MHz is shown. The OPOs independently provide a signal (idler) wavelength coverage across 870–1,000 nm (1,040–1,370 nm) and simultaneously generate idler powers of >1 W.     

Upconversion Based Tunable White-Light Generation in Ln:Y<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript> Nanocrystalline Phosphor (Ln = Tm/Er/Yb)

We report the generation of efficient white light based on upconversion (UC) in Tm³⁺/Er³⁺/Yb³⁺:Y₂O₃ nanocrystalline phosphor synthesized by simple and cost effective solution combustion technique on 976 nm laser excitation. The calculated color coordinates (using 1931 CIE standard) for samples annealed at different temperatures vary from (0.16, 0.30) to (0.32, 0.33) with dopant concentration, annealing temperature and the pump power; thus providing a wide color tunability including the white one. White emission is observed even at a very low laser power (60 mW). The maximum upconversion efficiency obtained for white emission is 2.79% with the color coordinates (0.30, 0.32) at laser power of 420 mW which is quite close to the standard white color coordinates.     

Photo-physical studies of pyridine capped ZnO nanostructures

Pyridine capped ZnO nanocrystals with different sizes were synthesized at room temperature by wet chemical synthesis. Pyridine provides the control over the morphology of final product. X-ray study confirms the crystalline hexagonal structure of the capped and uncapped ZnO nanocrystals. The particle size was found to decrease with increase in capping concentration. Electron microscopy investigation reveals the uniform morphology of the product. Optical absorption studies indicate the blue shift effect for pyridine capped ZnO as compare to uncapped ZnO.     

Reaction of β‐Lapachone with 1,2‐Diamines: Facile Synthesis of Novel Tetracyclic Pyrazines

The reactions of β‐lapachone (1) with 1,2‐diaminoethane (2) and 1,2‐diaminopropane (4) gave the tetracyclic pyrazine derivatives (3) and mixtures of (5) and (6), respectively, while reaction with o‐phenylene diamine (7) gave the quinoxaline derivative (8). The structure of pyrazine derivative (3) is confirmed by single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction study.     

Enhancement of Dissolution Behavior of Aceclofenac by Complexation with β-Cyclodextrin-Choline Dichloride Coprecipitate

The objective of the present investigation was to study the effect of presence of choline dichloride (CDC) in β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) on in vitro dissolution of aceclofenac (AF) from molecular inclusion complexes. The molecular inclusion complexes of AF with β-CD coprecipitated with CDC in 1:1 and 1:2 M ratio were prepared using kneading method. In vitro dissolution of pure drug, physical mixtures, and cyclodextrin inclusion complexes (AF-β-CD-CDC) were carried out. Molecular inclusion complexes of aceclofenac with coprecipitated β-CD showed considerable increase in the dissolution rate in comparison with physical mixture and pure drug in 0.1 N HCl, pH 1.2 and phosphate buffer, pH, 7.4. Inclusion complexes with 1:2 M ratio showed maximum dissolution rate in comparison to other ratios. FTIR spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry studies indicated no interaction between AF and β-CD-CDC in complexes in solid state. Dissolution enhancement was attributed to the formation of water soluble inclusion complexes with the precipitated form of β-CD. The in vitro release from all the formulations was best described by first order kinetics (R ² = 0.9354 and 0.9268 in 0.1 N HCl and phosphate buffer, respectively) followed by Higuchi release model (R ² = 0.9029 and 0.9578 in 0.1 N HCl and phosphate buffer, respectively). In conclusion, dissolution of aceclofenac can be enhanced by using the β-CD-CDC coprecipitate as a host molecule.