Synthesis of nano-polycrystalline diamond from glassy carbon at pressures up to 25 GPa

ABSTRACT

Nano-polycrystalline diamond (NPD) with various grain sizes has been synthesized from glassy carbon at pressures 15–25?GPa and temperatures 1700–2300°C using multianvil apparatus. The minimum temperature for the synthesis of pure NPD, below which a small amount of compressed graphite was formed, significantly increased with pressure from ～1700°C at 15?GPa to ～1900°C at 25?GPa. The NPD having grain sizes less than ～50?nm was synthesized at temperatures below ～2000°C at 15?GPa and ～2300°C at 25?GPa, above which significant grain growth was observed. The grain size of NPD decreases with increasing pressure and decreasing temperature, and the pure NPD with grain sizes less than 10?nm is obtained in a limited temperature range around 1800–2000°C, depending on pressure. The pure NPD from glassy carbon is highly transparent and exhibits a granular nano-texture, whose grain size is tunable by selecting adequate pressure and temperature conditions.     

Hexagonal boron nitride quantum dots: Properties,preparation and applications

As a new type of quantum dots (QDs), hexagonal boron nitride quantum dots (BNQDs) exhibit promising potential in the applications of disease diagnosis, fluorescence imaging, biosensing, metal ion detection, and so on, because of their remarkable chemical stability, excellent biocompatibility, low cytotoxicity, and outstanding photoluminescence properties. However, the large-scale fabrication of homogeneous BNQDs still remains challenging. In this article, the properties and common fabrication methods of BNQDs are summarized based on the recent research progress. Then, the corresponding yields, morphologies, and fabrication mechanisms of these as-obtained BNQDs are discussed in detail. Moreover, the applications of these as-obtained BNQDs in different fields are also discussed. This article is expected to inspire new methods and improvements to achieve large-scale fabrication of homogeneous BNQDs, which will enable their practical applications in future.     

Collective Tunnelling of Strongly Interacting Cold Atoms in a Double-Well Potential

It is known that under resonance conditions, a group of strongly interacting bosonic atoms, trapped in a double-well potential, mimics a single particle, performing Rabi oscillations between the wells. By implication, all atoms need to tunnel at roughly the same time, even though the Bose–Hubbard Hamiltonian accounts only for one-atom-at-a-time transfers. The mechanism of this collective behavior is analyzed, the Rabi frequencies in the process are evaluated, and the limitation of this simple picture is discussed. In particular, it is shown that the small rapid oscillations superimposed on the slow Rabi cycle result from splitting the transferred cluster at the sudden onset of tunnelling, and disappear if tunnelling is turned on gradually.     

Microwave‐assisted polycondensation of 4‐octylaniline with dibromoarylene

The Pd‐catalyzed polycondensation of 4‐octylaniline with various dibromoarylenes was carried out under microwave heating. Microwave heating led to a decrease in the reaction time and an increase in the molecular weight of the polymers as compared to conventional heating. Microwave heating also allowed the catalyst loading to be reduced to 1 mol %, yielding polymerization results that were comparable to those under conventional heating and 5 mol % catalyst. Investigations regarding field‐effect transistors and organic photovoltaic cells using the obtained poly(arylamine) with azobenzene units revealed that increasing the molecular weight of the polymer led to improved device performance, including hole mobility and power conversion efficiency. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015 , 53, 536–542     

Evaluation of Charged Defect Energy in Two-Dimensional Semiconductors for Nanoelectronics: The WLZ Extrapolation Method

Defects play a central role in controlling the electronic properties of two-dimensional (2D) materials and realizing the industrialization of 2D electronics. However, the evaluation of charged defects in 2D materials within first-principles calculation is very challenging and has triggered a recent development of the WLZ (Wang, Li, Zhang) extrapolation method. This method lays the foundation of the theoretical evaluation of energies of charged defects in 2D materials within the first-principles framework. Herein, the vital role of defects for advancing 2D electronics is discussed, followed by an introduction of the fundamentals of the WLZ extrapolation method. The ionization energies (IEs) obtained by this method for defects in various 2D semiconductors are then reviewed and summarized. Finally, the unique defect physics in 2D dimensions including the dielectric environment effects, defect ionization process, and carrier transport mechanism captured with the WLZ extrapolation method are presented. As an efficient and reasonable evaluation of charged defects in 2D materials for nanoelectronics and other emerging applications, this work can be of benefit to the community.     

Atmospheric chemistry of diazomethane – an experimental and theoretical study

The kinetics of the O₃, OH and NO₃ radical reactions with diazomethane were studied in smog chamber experiments employing long-path FTIR and PTR-ToF-MS detection. The rate coefficients were determined to be k _CH2NN+O3?=?(3.2?±?0.4)?×?10^?17 and k _CH2NN+OH?=?(1.68?±?0.12)?×?10^?10 cm³ molecule^?1 s^?1 at 295?±?3?K and 1013?±?30 hPa, whereas the CH₂NN?+?NO₃ reaction was too fast to be determined in the static smog chamber experiments. Formaldehyde was the sole product observed in all the reactions. The experimental results are supported by CCSD(T*)-F12a/aug-cc-pVTZ//M062X/aug-cc-pVTZ calculations showing the reactions to proceed exclusively via addition to the carbon atom. The atmospheric fate of diazomethane is discussed.     

Optical reflection properties for the interface associated with Chern insulator and chiral metamaterial

Based on the topological nature of Chern insulator and magnetoelectric coupling of chiral metamaterial, we investigate the electrodynamics for the interface associated with the two media. The Fresnel coefficients of the interface between Chern insulator and chiral metamaterial, as well as the corresponding polarization rotation angles, are derived. The reflection characteristics of the linearly polarized incident wave at the interface, such as complete polarization conversion and change of polarization state, are discussed. Under the combined influence of Chern insulator and chiral metamaterial, the partial polarization conversion may be enhanced to the complete polarization conversion, and the chiral metamaterial may compensate for the suppression effect of longitudinal conductivity of Chern insulator on the polarization conversion.     

Highly Luminescent Red Phosphorescent OLED with Interfacial Layers for Hole Transport and Electron Injection

Four kinds of red phosphorescent organic light-emitting devices were fabricated and compared to investigate the effect of interfacial layers for hole transport and electron injection. 1 nm-thick LiF in the device A and C and 1 nm-thick Cs₂CO₃ in the device B and D were deposited as an electron injection layer between the anode and the electron transport layer, and 5 nm-thick layer of dipyrazion[2,3-f:2′,2′-h]quinoxaline-2,3,6,7,10,11-hexacarbonitrile[HATCN] was inserted as a hole transport interfacial layer between the hole injection layer and the hole transport layer only in the device C and D. Under a luminance of 1000 cd/m², the power efficiencies were 7.6 lm/W and 8.5 lm/W in the device A and B, and 8.6 lm/W and 13.4 lm/W in the device C and D. The quantum efficiency of the device D was 15.8% under 1000 cd/m² which was somewhat lower than those of the device A and C, but a little higher than that of the device B. The luminance of the device D was much higher than those of the other devices at a given votage. The luminance of the device D at 7 V was 23,710 cd/m², which was 13.0, 3.4, and 4.0 times higher than those of the device A, B, and C at the same voltage, respectively.     

Implementing a Two-Photon Three-Degrees-of-Freedom Hyper-Parallel Controlled Phase Flip Gate Through Cavity-Assisted Interactions

Hyper-parallel quantum information processing is a promising and beneficial research field. Herein, a method to implement a hyper-parallel controlled-phase-flip (hyper-CPF) gate for frequency-, spatial-, and time-bin-encoded qubits by coupling flying photons to trapped nitrogen vacancy (NV) defect centers is presented. The scheme, which differs from their conventional parallel counterparts, is specifically advantageous in decreasing against the dissipate noise, increasing the quantum channel capacity, and reducing the quantum resource overhead. The gate qubits with frequency, spatial, and time-bin degrees of freedom (DOF) are immune to quantum decoherence in optical fibers, whereas the polarization photons are easily disturbed by the ambient noise.     

Assessing the nucleophilic character of 2-amino-4-arylthiazoles through coupling with 4,6-dinitrobenzofuroxan: Experimental and theoretical approaches based on structure-reactivity relationships

A kinetic study of the reactions of potentially bioactive 2-amino-4-arylthiazoles with highly reactive 4,6-dinitrobenzofuroxan (DNBF) is reported herein in acetonitrile solution. The complexation reaction was followed by recording the UV–vis spectra with time at λ_max = 482 nm. Electronic effects of substituents influencing the rate of reaction have been studied using structure-reactivity relationships. It is shown that the Hammett plot relative to the reaction of DNBF with 2-amino-4-(4-chlorophenyl)thiazole exhibit positive deviation from the log k₁ versus σ correlation, while it showed excellent linear correlation in terms of Yukawa–Tsuno equation. It has be noticed that the nonlinear Hammett plot observed for 2-amino-4-(4-chlorophenyl) thiazole is not attributed to a change in rate-determining step but is due to nature of electronic effect of substituent caused by the resonance of stabilization of substrates. The second-order rate constant (k₁) relating to the bond C–C and C-N forming step of the complexation processes of DNBF with 4-substituted-aminothiazoles and 2-amino-5-methyl-4-phenylthiazole, respectively, is fit into the linear relationship log k = s_N (N + E), thereby permitting the assessment of the nucleophilicity parameter (N) of the 2-amino-4-arylthiazoles of the range (4.90 < N < 6.85). 2-amino-4-arylthiazoles is subsequently ranked by positioning its reactivity on the general nucleophilicity scale developed recently by Mayr and coworkers (2003) leading an interesting and a direct comparison over a large domain of π-, σ -, and n-nucleophiles. The global electrophilicity/nucleophilicity reactivity indexes of the 2-amino-4-arylthiazoles have been investigated by means of a density functional theory (DFT) method. .