Synthesis of single-crystalline anatase nanorods and nanoflakes on transparent conducting substrates

Single-crystalline anatase nanorods and nanoflakes were grown on transparent conducting fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates through hydrolysis of titanium tetrachloride (TiCl(4)) followed by heating to 450 °C.     

Pseudo-Binary Phase Diagram of LiNH2-MH (M = Na,K) Eutectic Mixture

The hunt for a cleaner energy carrier leads us to consider a source that produces no toxic byproducts. One of the targeted alternatives in this approach is hydrogen energy, which, unfortunately, suffers from a lack of efficient storage media. Solid-state hydrogen absorption systems, such as lithium amide (LiNH₂) systems, may store up to 6.5 weight percent hydrogen. However, the temperature of hydrogenation and dehydrogenation is too high for practical use. Various molar ratios of LiNH₂ with sodium hydride (NaH) and potassium hydride (KH) have been explored in this paper. The temperature of hydrogenation for LiNH₂ combined with KH and NaH was found to be substantially lower than the temperature of individual LiNH₂. This lower temperature operation of both LiNH₂-NaH and LiNH₂-KH systems was investigated in depth, and the eutectic melting phenomenon was observed. Systematic thermal studies of this amide-hydride system in different compositions were carried out, which enabled the plotting of a pseudo-binary phase diagram. The occurrence of eutectic interaction increased atomic mobility, which resulted in the kinetic modification followed by an increase in the reactivity of two materials. For these eutectic compositions, i.e., 0.15LiNH₂-0.85NaH and 0.25LiNH₂-0.75KH, the lowest melting temperature was found to be 307 °C and 235 °C, respectively. Morphological studies were used to investigate and present the detailed mechanism linked with this phenomenon.     

Electrophoretically Deposited Bismuth Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Film for Supercapacitor Application

Russian Journal of Electrochemistry - Bismuth iron oxide (BFO) nanoparticles film prepared by electrophoretic deposition (EPD) process has been explored for supercapacitor application. EPD process...     

Matching Static and Dynamic Compliance of Small‐Diameter Arteries,with Poly(lactide‐co‐caprolactone) Copolymers: In Vitro and In Vivo Studies

Mechanical mismatch between vascular grafts and blood vessels is a major cause of smaller diameter vascular graft failure. To minimize this mismatch, several poly‐l ‐lactide‐co‐ε‐caprolactone (PLC) copolymers are evaluated as candidate materials to fabricate a small diameter graft. Using these materials, tubular prostheses of 4 mm inner diameter are fabricated by dip‐coating. In vitro static and dynamic compliance tests are conducted, using custom‐built apparatus featuring a closed flow system with water at 37 °C. Grafts of PLC monomer ratio of 50:50 are the most compliant (1.56% ± 0.31?mm Hg^?2), close to that of porcine aortic branch arteries (1.56% ± 0.43?mm Hg^?2), but underwent high continuous dilatation (87 µm min^?1). Better matching is achieved by optimizing the thickness of a tubular conduit made from 70:30 PLC grafts. In vivo implantation and function of a PLC 70:30 conduit of 150 µm wall‐thickness (WT) are tested as a rabbit aorta bypass. An implanted 150 µm WT PLC 70:30 prosthesis is observed over 3 h. The recorded angiogram shows continuous blood flow, no aneurysmal dilatation, leaks, or acute thrombosis during the in vivo test, indicating the potential for clinical applications.     

Correlation Processor Based Sidelobe Suppression for Polyphase Codes in Radar Systems

Wireless Personal Communications - Peak sidelobe level (PSL), integrated sidelobe level (ISL) and signal to noise ratio (SNR) are the main performance indices in pulse compression radar. Pulse...     

Relay selection in mixed RF/FSO system using DF relaying

In this paper, we carry out the performance analysis of relay selection in decode-and-forward (DF)-based mixed radio frequency/free-space optical (RF/FSO) system. We consider two relay selection schemes, namely max-select and distributed switch and stay, and compare their performance with the system having all relays active. The selected DF relay decodes the received RF signal from source and converts it into an optical signal using the subcarrier intensity modulation scheme for transmission over FSO links. The RF links follow generalized \(\eta -\mu \) distribution, while the FSO links are subjected to pointing errors and are assumed to follow gamma–gamma distribution. Novel analytical expressions for cumulative density function and the moment generating function of the equivalent end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio are derived. Capitalizing on the derived statistics, we provide the new closed-form expressions of the outage probability for different relay selection schemes.     

Alternate Proof of Shô Iseki's Functional Equation

Iseki's functional equation, a valuable tool in the transformation theory of the Dedekind modular function, has heretofore been derived using complex integration and the residue calculus. This paper gives a different and shorter proof using Fourier series.     

Molecular heterogeneity analysis of poly(amidoamine) dendrimer-based mono- and multifunctional nanodevices by capillary electrophoresis

Poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimer-based nanodevices are of recent interest in targeted cancer therapy. Characterization of mono- and multifunctional PAMAM-based nanodevices remains a great challenge because of their molecular complexity. In this work, various mono- and multifunctional nanodevices based on PAMAM G5 (generation 5) dendrimer were characterized by UV-Vis spectrometry, (1)H NMR, size exclusion chromatography (SEC), and capillary electrophoresis (CE). CE was extensively utilized to measure the molecular heterogeneity of these PAMAM-based nanodevices. G5-FA (FA denotes folic acid) conjugates (synthesized from amine-terminated G5.NH(2) dendrimer, approach 1) with acetamide and amine termini exhibit bimodal or multi-modal distributions. In contrast, G5-FA and bifunctional G5-FA-MTX (MTX denotes methotrexate) conjugates with hydroxyl termini display a single modal distribution. Multifunctional G5.Ac(n)-FI-FA, G5.Ac(n)-FA-OH-MTX, and G5.Ac(n)-FI-FA-OH-MTX (Ac denotes acetamide; FI denotes fluorescein) nanodevices (synthesized from partially acetylated G5 dendrimer, approach 2) exhibit a monodisperse distribution. It indicates that the molecular distribution of PAMAM conjugates largely depends on the homogeneity of starting materials, the synthetic approaches, and the final functionalization steps. Hydroxylation functionalization of dendrimers masks the dispersity of the final PAMAM nanodevices in both synthetic approaches. The applied CE analysis of mono- and multifunctional PAMAM-based nanodevices provides a powerful tool to evaluate the molecular heterogeneity of complex dendrimer conjugate nanodevices for targeted cancer therapeutics.     

HPLC analysis of functionalized poly(amidoamine) dendrimers and the interaction between a folate-dendrimer conjugate and folate binding protein

Poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers of different generations with carboxyl, acetyl, and hydroxyl terminal groups and a folic acid (FA)-dendrimer conjugate were separated and analyzed using reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Analysis of both the individual PAMAM derivatives and the separation of mixed generations can be achieved using a linear gradient 0-50% acetonitrile (ACN) (balance water) within 40 min. We also show that PAMAMs with defined acetylation and carboxylation degrees can be analyzed using HPLC. Furthermore, a generation 5 dendrimer-FA conjugate (G5.75Ac-FA4; Ac denotes acetyl) was analyzed and its specific binding with a bovine folic acid binding protein (FBP) was monitored. The HPLC and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) results indicate the formation of three complexes after the binding of G5.75Ac-FA4 with FBP. Dendrimers with FA moieties show much higher specific binding capability with FBP than those without FA moieties. Findings from this study indicate that HPLC is an effective technique not only for characterization and separation of functionalized PAMAM dendrimers and conjugates but also for investigation of the interaction between dendrimers and biomolecules.