A Visible and Near-Infrared Light-Fueled Omnidirectional Twist-Bend Crawling Robot

In recent years, although light-driven soft actuators have attracted intense scientific attention and achieved remarkable progress, the design and construction of an intelligent robotic system with maneuverability, self-adaptability, untethered control, and greater freedom of action, in particular the omnidirectional motion capability on a plane, remains challenging. Herein, four types of photo-thermal fillers and an unprecedented twist-bend actuation mode is introduced into a liquid crystal elastomer-based soft robot. The obtained twist-bend crawling robot not only exhibits in situ rotation, four-way turning, and four-way linear motion under light irradiation with four wavelength bands (520, 655, 808, and 980 nm), but also demonstrates the ability to avoid obstacles in complex geographical environments. This work may bring a new perspective for fabrication and development of soft robots that can adapt to dynamic and complex environmental conditions.     

Toward Stable Cycling of a Cost-Effective Cation-Disordered Rocksalt Cathode via Fluorination

The recently developed Li-excess cation-disordered rock salts (DRXs) exhibit an excellent chemical diversity for the development of alternative Co/Ni-free high-energy cathodes. Herein, the synthesis of a highly fluorinated DRX cathode, Li_1.2Mn_0.6Ti_0.2O_1.8F_0.2, based on cost-effective and earth-abundant transition metals, via a solid-state reaction, is reported. The fluorinated DRX cathode using ammonium fluoride precursor exhibits more uniform particle size and delivers a specific discharge capacity of 233 mAh g⁻¹ and specific energy of 754 Wh kg⁻¹, with 206 mAh g⁻¹ retained after 200 cycles. The combined synchrotron X-ray absorption spectroscopy and resonant inelastic X-ray scattering spectroscopy analysis reveals that the remarkable cycling performance is attributed to the high fluorination and thus enhanced Mn content, enabling the utilization of more Mn redox than the oxide analog. This study demonstrates a great promise to develop next-generation cost-effective DRX cathodes with enhanced capacity retention for high-energy Li-ion batteries.     

Spectrophotometric methods for the determination of labetalol hydrochloride in pure and dosage forms

Simple and sensitive Spectrophotometric methods for the determination of labetalol hydrochloride are described. The first two are based on the oxidative coupling reaction of labetalol hydrochloride withp-N,N-dimethyl-phenylenediamine dihydrochloride (method A, _max 685 nm) and 3-methyl-2-benzothiazolinone hydrazone hydrochloride (method B, _max 545 nm) in the presence of sodium hypochlorite and eerie ammonium sulphate as oxidants, respectively. The third depends on the formation of an ion-association complex of labetalol hydrochloride with suprachen violet 3B at pH 1.3, which is extracted into chloroform (method C, _max 565 nm). The methods obey Beer's law and the precision and accuracy of the methods were checked against the B.P. reference method and the relative standard deviations were in the range 0.35–0.52%. These methods are applied to the determination of labetalol in dosage forms.     

Electroweak tests with τ leptons at LEP

We report on two sensitive tests of lepton universality carried out by the 4 LEP experiments at the Z⁰ pole. From measurements of the τ polarization in e⁺ e^?→τ ⁺ τ ^?, the ratios of the vector and axial vector coupling constants of the electron and the tau lepton to the weak neutral current are obtained to beg _{v e} /g _{a e} =0.066±0.015 andg _{V τ} /g _{A τ} =0.070±0.009 respectively. From measurement of the τ lifetime and the τ leptonic branching ratios, the ratio of the coupling constants describing weak leptonic decays of the τ and the μ is measured to beG _τ /G _μ =0.996±0.008.     

Evaluation of the quality of colour changes of complexometric indicators in the titration of copper (II) with EDTA by tristimulus colorimetry

The quality of colour changes of the indicators hematoxylin, 4(2-pyridylazo)resorcinol (PAR), xylenol orange, pyrocatechol violet, chromazurolS and eriochrome cyanineR in the complexometric titration of copper(II) with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) were studied with the help of tristimulus colorimetry, utilising a comparative study of the parameters SCD (specific colour discrimination), CIE La^*b^* 1976 and LABHNU 1977. Hematoxylin was found to be the best indicator among those studied. A screened indicator, viz. PAR + malachite green (52), was developed to enhance the quality of colour transition at the end-point and the accuracy of the titrimetric determination.     

Trace Spectrophotometric Determination of Dichlorvos using Diphenyl Semicarbazide (DPC) in Environmental and Agricultural Samples

A new and highly sensitive spectrophotometric method is developed for the determination of sub ppm levels of the widely used organophosphorus insecticide dichlorvos. The method is based on alkaline hydrolysis of dichlorvos to dichloroacetaldehyde followed by coupling with diphenyl semicarbazide (DPC) in alkaline medium. The absorption maxima of the wine red dye compound formed is measured at 490 nm. Beer's law is obeyed over the concentration range of 4.3 to 34 μg in a final solution volume of 25 mL (0.18–1.36 ppm). The molar absorptivity, Sandell's sensitivity and correlation coefficient were found to be 2.9 × 10⁵ l mole^?1 cm^?1, 0.013 μg cm^?2 and 0.9999, respectively. The standard deviation and relative standard deviation were found to be ± 0.007 and 1.90%, respectively. The lower limit of detection is 0.04 μg. The method is simple, sensitive and free from interferences of other pesticides and diverse ions. Other organophosphorous pesticides do not interfere with the proposed method. The method has been satisfactorily applied to the determination of dichlorvos in environmental and agricultural samples.     

Thiourea to bicyclic scaffolds: highly regio- and stereoselective routes to dithiazolopyrimidines

Microwave-activated solvent-free Michael addition of 3-imino-1,4,2-dithiazoles to 4-arylidene-5(4H)-oxazolones furnished isolable adducts regio- and diastereoselectively, which underwent ring transformation to yield the target dithiazolopyrimidines. Alternatively, the similar conjugate addition of methanesulfinylmethylisothioureas to 4-arylidene-5(4H)-oxazolones diastereoselectively afforded Michael adducts, which underwent ring transformation followed by heterocyclization via deoxygenative demethylation with thionyl chloride to yield the same products dithiazolopyrimidines regio- and diastereoselectively.     

Titrimetric determination of vanadium(V) and chromium(VI) alone and in mixtures with hydrazine sulphate in phosphoric acid media

Hydrazine sulphate is proposed as a primary standard reagent for the direct titrimetric determination of vanadium(V) and chromium(VI) alone and in mixtures with potentiometric and photometric end-points, in 9–12 M phosphoric acid medium. The methods proposed possess advantages over those currently available. The use of phosphoric acid as a reaction medium not only accelerates the hydrazine-vanadium(V) reaction very much but also makes it follow an accurate stoichiometric path.     

A novel conversion of erythro phospholane epoxides to one-carbon atom homologated allylic alcohols

A novel synthetic approach is described to incorporate one more carbon atom at C-2 position of phospholane oxides as homologated allylic alcohol by treatment of erythro-2,3-epoxy-3-methylphospholane 1-oxides with excess of dimethylsulfonium methylide.