Liquid crystal fibers produced by using electrospinning technique

This paper investigates the electrospinning process of liquid crystalline polysiloxane with cholesterol as side chain (LCPC) and the influence on the morphology of the formed fibers by mixing LCPC solution with small-molecule liquid crystal, triethylamine, and poly(ethylene oxide)(PEO). The mechanical properties of single fibers were characterized by a novel approach. The results indicate that, under appropriate conditions, fine liquid crystal fibers can be obtained and the preferable mechanical properties can be achieved, especially after annealing. WXRD was used to investigate the orientation of polymer molecules in the formed fibers, suggesting that strong interaction exists between LCPC and PEO molecule in the resulting composite fibers, and polymer molecular tends to arrange regularly during electrospinning processing. This research work provides a new and facile method of using electrospinning to prepare liquid crystal fibers, which would be useful for designing the related high-performance materials.     

Molecular weight dependence of phase behavior of PEO/P(EO‐b‐DMS) blends: Application of Sanchez‐Lacombe lattice fluid theory

Molecular weight dependence of phase separation behavior of the Poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO)/Poly(ethylene oxide‐block‐dimethylsiloxane) (P(EO‐b‐DMS)) blends was investigated by both experimental and theoretical methods. The cloud point curves of PEO/P(EO‐b‐DMS) blends were obtained by turbidity method. Based on Sanchez‐Lacombe lattice fluid theory (SLLFT), the adjustable parameter, (quantifying the interaction energy between different components), was evaluated by fitting the experimental data in phase diagrams. To calculate the spinodals, binodals, and the volume changes of mixing for these blends, three modified combining rules of the scaling parameters for the block copolymer were introduced. The calculated binodals with those modified combining rules show good agreement with the experimental data. Furthermore, the calculated volume changes during mixing decrease with increasing molecular weight of PEO, and the relationship between the volume changes and temperature is quite different for the mixtures with different molecular weight of PEO. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 46: 452–459, 2008     

Two-photon fluorescent probes for long-term imaging of calcium waves in live tissue

2-Acetyl-6-(dimethylamino)naphthalene-derived two-photon fluorescent Ca2+ probes (ACa1-ACa3) are reported. They can be excited by a 780 nm laser beam, show 23-50-fold enhancement in one- and two-photon excited fluorescence in response to Ca2+, emit fourfold stronger two-photon excited fluorescence than Oregon Green 488 BAPTA-1 upon complexation with Ca2+, and can selectively detect intracellular free Ca2+ ions in live cells and living tissues with minimum interference from other metal ions and membrane-bound probes. Moreover, these probes are capable of monitoring calcium waves at a depth of 120-170 microm in live tissues for 1100-4000 s using two-photon microscopy with no artifacts of photobleaching.     

Two-photon fluorescent turn-on probe for lipid rafts in live cell and tissue

We report a new two-photon fluorescence turn-on probe 6-[(E)-3-oxo-1-dodecenyl]-2-[N-methyl-N-(carboxymethyl)amino]naphthalene (CL2) that is designed specifically for visualizing lipid rafts in living cells and tissues. This probe emits much brighter two-photon excited fluorescence in lipid rafts than in non-raft domains and allows direct visualization of the lipid rafts in the live cells and pyramidal neuron layer of the CA1 region at a depth of 100-250 mum in live tissues using two-photon microscopy.     

Bioassay directed identification of natural aryl hydrocarbon-receptor agonists in marmalade

Citrus fruit and citrus fruit products, like grapefruit, lemon and marmalade were shown to contain aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) agonists, as detected with the DR CALUX bioassay. This is of interest regarding the role of the Ah-receptor pathway in the adverse effects of dioxins, PCBs and other aromatic hydrocarbons. So far it is unclear which compounds in citrus fruit are responsible for the AhR-mediated activity and whether regular exposure to these compounds can cause effects comparable to, e.g. dioxins. The present study aimed at developing a method for identifying unknown Ah-receptor agonists in citrus products based on bioassay directed analysis, using marmalade as a first target. Following extraction with hexane and purification on an aluminium oxide-column, the extract was fractionated by HPLC using a C-18 semi-preparative column. Fractions were extracted, solvent-exchanged into dimethylsulfoxide and subsequently tested with DR CALUX. Extracts were shown to contain primarily coumarins, furocoumarins (FCs) and polymethoxyflavones (PMFs). Identification of fractions most active in the bioassay via LC/MS revealed that bergapten (an FC) is the most important Ah-receptor agonist in marmalade. The approach and method developed resulted in the successful identification of the bioactive component. However, potential pitfalls of the procedure will be discussed.     

Excited-state relaxation in PbSe quantum dots

In solids the phonon-assisted, nonradiative decay from high-energy electronic excited states to low-energy electronic excited states is picosecond fast. It was hoped that electron and hole relaxation could be slowed down in quantum dots, due to the unavailability of phonons energy matched to the large energy-level spacings ("phonon-bottleneck"). However, excited-state relaxation was observed to be rather fast (< or =1 ps) in InP, CdSe, and ZnO dots, and explained by an efficient Auger mechanism, whereby the excess energy of electrons is nonradiatively transferred to holes, which can then rapidly decay by phonon emission, by virtue of the densely spaced valence-band levels. The recent emergence of PbSe as a novel quantum-dot material has rekindled the hope for a slow down of excited-state relaxation because hole relaxation was deemed to be ineffective on account of the widely spaced hole levels. The assumption of sparse hole energy levels in PbSe was based on an effective-mass argument based on the light effective mass of the hole. Surprisingly, fast intraband relaxation times of 1-7 ps were observed in PbSe quantum dots and have been considered contradictory with the Auger cooling mechanism because of the assumed sparsity of the hole energy levels. Our pseudopotential calculations, however, do not support the scenario of sparse hole levels in PbSe: Because of the existence of three valence-band maxima in the bulk PbSe band structure, hole energy levels are densely spaced, in contradiction with simple effective-mass models. The remaining question is whether the Auger decay channel is sufficiently fast to account for the fast intraband relaxation. Using the atomistic pseudopotential wave functions of Pb(2046)Se(2117) and Pb(260)Se(249) quantum dots, we explicitly calculated the electron-hole Coulomb integrals and the P-->S electron Auger relaxation rate. We find that the Auger mechanism can explain the experimentally observed P-->S intraband decay time scale without the need to invoke any exotic relaxation mechanisms.     

The effect of methyl group on the cooperativity between three types of hydrogen bond: O?H···O,C?H···O,and O?H···π

The effect of the methyl group on the cooperativity between three types of hydrogen bond (O H···O, C H···O, and O H···π) in cyclic complex involving an acetylene and two waters has been studied on the basis of high-level ab initio calculations. The total interaction energy of three hydrogen bonds increases as the number of methyl group in the complex increases. The binding distances of O H···π and O H···O hydrogen bonds shorten, while that of C H···O hydrogen bond elongates with increasing methyl group. This indicates that addition of methyl group leads to enhancement of O H···π and O H···O hydrogen bonds, and weakening of C H···O hydrogen bond, as also shown in frequency shift, chemical shifts, charge populations, and stabilization energies of orbital interactions. Although the presence of methyl group has a complicated effect on different type of hydrogen bond, the cooperativity of three hydrogen bonds increases in general with the addition of methyl group. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2008     

The dewetting dynamics of the polymer thin film by solvent annealing

The slippage effect of the polymer chains is investigated in the dewetting process of the polymer solution film. The solvent-induced dewetting is used in our experiments to study the dynamics of hole growth in the dewetting process of the polymer solution film. Our results show that in the case of the low molecular weight polystyrene (PS) film, the slippage effect of the polymer chains is not displayed and the radius of the holes is R approximately exp(t/tau); in the case of the higher molecular weight PS film, the slippage effect of the polymer chain is not valid in the case of the thin film and that is valid in the case of the thick film, and the dynamic process of hole growth divides into three stages (R approximately t, and then R approximately t(x) (23相似文献   

Interchain coupling effects on dynamics of photoexcitations in conjugated polymers

Within an extended Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model including interchain interactions and the extended Hubbard model, the dynamical relaxation of photoexcitations in two coupled conjugated polymer chains is investigated by using a nonadiabatic evolution method. Initially, one of the two chains is photoexcited and the other chain is in the dimerized ground state. Due to the interchain interactions, the electron and/or the hole can be transferred from one chain to the other chain. For weak interchain coupling, the dynamical evolution of the lattice on the photoexcited chain is similar to that found in an isolate single chain case. With interchain interactions increasing, the amplitude of the distortions on the photoexcited chain decreases, and simultaneously, that on the other chain gradually increases. Until stronger interchain coupling, the deformations of the two chains have almost the same amplitude. Besides intrachain polaron-excitons and intrachain oppositely charged polaron pairs as found in single chain case, interchain polaron-excitons and interchain separated charged polaron pairs are obtained. The results show that the yield of interchain products increases and that of intrachain products decreases with interchain coupling increasing. Totally, the yield of charged polarons (including intrachain oppositely charged polaron pairs and interchain oppositely charged polaron pairs) is about 25%, in good agreement with results from experiments.     

酱油中3-氯-1,2-丙二醇检测能力验证

为了解国内实验室在3-氯-1,2一丙二醇检测领域的能力,中国国家认证认可监督管理委员会(CNCA)组织了酱油中3一氯一1,2-丙二醇检测能力验证活动,有19个省、市、自治区的34个实验室参加.测试结果满意的实验室占73.5%.