Influence of oxygen flow rate on the surface chemistry and morphology of radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtered zinc oxide thin films

Zinc oxide thin films were deposited, by radio frequency magnetron sputtering, on heated and unheated substrates. The oxygen flow rate was varied during deposition, and its effects on the structural and chemical properties of the films were investigated. The films had oriented c‐axis growth with nano‐crystallite size. Their surfaces manifested columnar microstructure, with a surface roughness that was suppressed by the introduction of oxygen. Chemical analysis showed that deposition under an oxygen atmosphere resulted in substantial reduction of oxygen vacancies, with a corresponding incorporation of chemisorbed species. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Differential geometric analysis of alterations in MH α‐helices

Antigen presenting cells present processed peptides via their major histocompatibility (MH) complex to the T cell receptors (TRs) of T cells. If a peptide is immunogenic, a signaling cascade can be triggered within the T cell. However, the binding of different peptides and/or different TRs to MH is also known to influence the spatial arrangement of the MH α‐helices which could itself be an additional level of T cell regulation. In this study, we introduce a new methodology based on differential geometric parameters to describe MH deformations in a detailed and comparable way. For this purpose, we represent MH α‐helices by curves. On the basis of these curves, we calculate in a first step the curvature and torsion to describe each α‐helix independently. In a second step, we calculate the distribution parameter and the conical curvature of the ruled surface to describe the relative orientation of the two α‐helices. On the basis of four different test sets, we show how these differential geometric parameters can be used to describe changes in the spatial arrangement of the MH α‐helices for different biological challenges. In the first test set, we illustrate on the basis of all available crystal structures for (TR)/pMH complexes how the binding of TRs influences the MH helices. In the second test set, we show a cross evaluation of different MH alleles with the same peptide and the same MH allele with different peptides. In the third test set, we present the spatial effects of different TRs on the same peptide/MH complex. In the fourth test set, we illustrate how a severe conformational change in an α‐helix can be described quantitatively. Taken together, we provide a novel structural methodology to numerically describe subtle and severe alterations in MH α‐helices for a broad range of applications. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Interfacial Behavior,Structure, and Thermodynamics of Water in Oil Microemulsion Formation in Relation to the Variation of Surfactant Head Group and Cosurfactant

Interfacial behavior, structural, and thermodynamic parameters in relation to the formation of water-in-oil (w/o) microemulsion (μE) with varied surfactant head groups and cosurfactants have been evaluated through dilution technique at different temperature and [water]/[surfactant] mole ratio. Dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB), sodium dodecylsulphate (SDS), and polyoxyethylene sorbitan monolaurate (Tween-20) were used as surfactants and n-butanol and n-pentanol were used as cosurfactants. Distribution of cosurfactants between bulk oil and the interface using fixed amount of surfactant at varied [water]/[surfactant] mole ratio and temperature has been studied to evaluate thermodynamic parameters. Associated structural parameters, such as droplet dimension and aggregation number of surfactant and cosurfactant at the droplet interface, have also been evaluated. Spontaneity of the μE formation followed the order DTAB>SDS>Tween-20 for both butanol and pentanol in the studied range of temperature. Correlations of the results in terms of the evaluated physicochemical parameters have been attempted.     

New symmetric azomethinic dimer: the influence of structural heterogeneity on the liquid crystalline behaviour

The paper deals with the study of the thermotropic liquid crystalline properties of a new azomethinic symmetric dimer and some of its structural heterogeneous mixtures with one of its reagents. Their thermotropic behaviour was monitored by polarised light microscopy, differential scanning microscopy and variable temperature X-ray diffraction measurements. The influence of the structural heterogeneity on the mesomorphic behaviour was established and some similarities with the mesomorphic behaviour of the polydisperse polymers were underlined.     

煤液化沥青分析表征及结构模型

对从煤液化残渣中萃取出的沥青类物质进行了固体13C-CP/MAS NMR分析、元素分析、红外光谱分析(FT-IR)和光电子能谱(XPS)分析,得到煤液化沥青的芳香结构单元信息及相关结构参数信息。结果表明,煤液化沥青芳香桥碳与周碳之比为0.115,芳香碳原子的存在形式以苯结构为主;脂肪结构多以甲基和环状亚甲基形式存在;氧主要以羰基、酯基的形式存在;氮主要以吡咯的形式存在。利用结构参数和分析表征结果构建了煤液化沥青的大分子结构模型,并运用13C-NMR预测软件ACD/CNMR Predictor计算了煤精制沥青大分子结构模型的13C化学位移。根据计算结果对大分子结构模型进行了修正,获得了与实验谱图吻合较好的大分子结构模型。     

油页岩的~(13)C-NMR特征及FLASHCHAIN热解模拟研究

采用固体13C-NMR核磁共振技术表征了甘肃窑街矿区油页岩的碳骨架结构,分析并计算了油母质团簇化学结构参数,包括团簇平均碳原子数、芳碳原子数、脂碳原子数及芳环数。在热重红外分析仪(TG-FTIR)上进行了油页岩的热解实验,得到了热解产物的生成规律。结合样品的团簇化学结构参数,采用基于油页岩结构的FLASHCHAIN模型模拟其热解产物的生成过程;模拟结果与TG-FITR实验数据符合较好,印证了模型预测的合理性。     

A structural analysis of ultrathin barrier (In)AlN/GaN heterostructures for GaN-based high-frequency power electronics

Metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) is one of the best growth methods for GaN-based materials as well-known. GaN-based materials with very quality are grown the MOCVD, so we used this growth technique to grow InAlN/GaN and AlN/GaN heterostructures in this study. The structural and surface properties of ultrathin barrier AlN/GaN and InAlN/GaN heterostructures are studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements. Screw, edge, and total dislocation densities for the grown samples have been calculated by using XRD results. The lowest dislocation density is found to be 1.69 × 10⁸ cm⁻² for Sample B with a lattice-matched In_0.17Al_0.83N barrier. The crystal quality of the studied samples is determined using (002) symmetric and (102) asymmetric diffractions of the GaN material. In terms of the surface roughness, although reference sample has a lower value as 0.27 nm of root mean square values (RMS), Sample A with 4-nm AlN barrier layer exhibits the highest rough surface as 1.52 nm of RMS. The structural quality of the studied samples is significantly affected by the barrier layer thickness. The obtained structural properties of the samples are very important for potential applications like high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs).