Alkane films on water: stability and wetting transitions

Types of surface forces determining the disjoining pressure isotherms of wetting films of low-molecular-weight alkanes on water surface are discussed. The van der Waals forces in alkane interlayers at different temperatures were calculated using a combination of exact equations of the Dzyaloshinsky—Lifshitz—Pitaevsky macroscopic theory and the multi-oscillator model for representation of the dielectric permittivity spectra of contacting bodies. Taking account of competitive action of the van der Waals and image forces allows one not only to reproduce specific features of wetting in the systems studied at different temperatures, but also to describe quantitatively the contact angles and the experimentally observed isotherms of polymolecular adsorption. The experimentally detected wetting transition in the water—pentane—vapor system was rationalized using the results of calculations mentioned above and the Derjaguin—Frumkin theory of wetting. Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 2, pp. 256–266, February, 2008.     

TCO-free dye solar cells based on Ti back contact electrode by facile printing method

The back contact dye solar cells (BCDSCs), in which the TCO(Transparent Conductive oxide) is omitted, have a potential for use of intact low-cost general substrates such as glass, metal foil and papers. Herein, we introduce a facile manufacturing method of a Ti back contact electrode (Ti BCE) for the BCDSCs. We found that the polylinkers such as poly(butyl titanate) have a strong binding property to make Ti particles connect one with another. A porous Ti film, which consists of Ti particles of ≤ 10? size connected by a small amount of polylinkers, has an excellent low sheet resistance of 10 Ω sq^-1 for an efficient electron collection for DSCs. This Ti BCE can be prepared by using a facile printing method under normal ambient conditions. Conjugating the new back contact electrode technology with the traditional monolithic structure using the carbon counter electrode, we fabricated TCO-less DSCs. These four-layer structurered DSCs consist of a dye-adsorbed nanocrystalline TiO₂ film on a glass substrate, a porous Ti back contact layer, a ZrO₂ spacer layer and a carbon counter electrode in a layered structure. Under AM 1.5 G and 100 mWcm^?2 simulated sunlight illumination, the four-layer structurered DSCs with N719 dyes and I^-/I₃^-redox electrolytes achieved PCEs up to 5.21 %.     

离子色谱(IC)-电感耦合等离子体质谱(ICP-MS)法测定食品接触涂层制品中可迁移六价铬

此研究旨在建立食品接触涂层制品中低含量可迁移六价铬的一种快速、准确的测定方法。试样经过水和4%乙酸迁移试验后,以75 mmol/L硝酸铵溶液（调节pH=7.0）为洗脱液,经过NP5阴离子柱分离,选择碰撞（KED）监测模式,用离子色谱（IC）-电感耦合等离子体质谱（ICP-MS）法测定样品中六价铬的迁移量。实验发现,以水和4%乙酸作模拟物进行迁移试验,六价铬迁移量在0～5.0 μg/L 范围内线性关系良好,相关系数均大于0.999,检出限低至0.05 μg/kg。三种浓度水平的加标回收率试验结果为81.5%～94.7%,精密度结果为3.1%～7.2%。与紫外可见分光光度（UV-Vis）法相比,检出限更低,抗基质干扰性更好。对购于商超和电商平台的多种食品接触涂层制品进行测试,结果显示,该方法快速、准确,适用于食品接触涂层制品中低迁移量的六价铬的快速测定。     

Synthesis and properties of fluorine-containing polyurethane based on long chain fluorinated polyacrylate

For the first time, a novel fluorine-containing polyurethane (FPU) was prepared by introducing long chain fluorinated polyacrylate into PU. The FPU was prepared from dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate (DFMA), β-mercaptoethanol (β-ME), methacryloyloxyethyl isocyanate(MOI), hydroxyethyl methylacrylate (HEMA), iso-butyl acrylate(I-BA), polyether diol (N220) and toluene diisocyanate (TDI). The structure of product for every step was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H-NMR) spectra. It was found that when the DFMA content increased from 0 to 12%, thermal stability was improved in some degree; the hardness, the adhesion and the tensile strength increased; the swelling degree in water, NaOH solution and HCl solution decreased; the solvent resistance in hexane and butanone improved to some degree; the contact angle of water and ethylene glycol increased; the surface free energy decreased. XPS tests indicated fluorine migrated to surface.     

Applications of Hyaluronic Acid in Ophthalmology and Contact Lenses

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a glycosaminoglycan that was first isolated and identified from the vitreous body of a bull’s eye. HA is ubiquitous in the soft connective tissues of animals and therefore has high tissue compatibility for use in medication. Because of HA’s biological safety and water retention properties, it has many ophthalmology-related applications, such as in intravitreal injection, dry eye treatment, and contact lenses. Due to its broad range of applications, the identification and quantification of HA is a critical topic. This review article discusses current methods for analyzing HA. Contact lenses have become a widely used medical device, with HA commonly used as an additive to their production material, surface coating, and multipurpose solution. HA molecules on contact lenses retain moisture and increase the wearer’s comfort. HA absorbed by contact lenses can also gradually release to the anterior segment of the eyes to treat dry eye. This review discusses applications of HA in ophthalmology.     

Improvement of Contact Tracing with Citizen’s Distributed Risk Maps

The rapid spread of COVID-19 has demonstrated the need for accurate information to contain its diffusion. Technological solutions are a complement that can help citizens to be informed about the risk in their environment. Although measures such as contact traceability have been successful in some countries, their use raises society’s resistance. This paper proposes a variation of the consensus processes in directed networks to create a risk map of a determined area. The process shares information with trusted contacts: people we would notify in the case of being infected. When the process converges, each participant would have obtained the risk map for the selected zone. The results are compared with the pilot project’s impact testing of the Spanish contact tracing app (RadarCOVID). The paper also depicts the results combining both strategies: contact tracing to detect potential infections and risk maps to avoid movements into conflictive areas. Although some works affirm that contact tracing apps need 60% of users to control the propagation, our results indicate that a 40% could be enough. On the other hand, the elaboration of risk maps could work with only 20% of active installations, but the effect is to delay the propagation instead of reducing the contagion. With both active strategies, this methodology is able to significantly reduce infected people with fewer participants.     

Molecular simulation study of the adhesion work for water droplets on water monolayer at room temperature

The wetting phenomenon of water droplets coexisting with the ordered water monolayer termed an unexpected phenomenon of "water that does not wet a water monolayer" at room temperature has been found on several solid surfaces.Although the hydrogen bond saturation inside the monolayer can qualitatively describe this phenomenon, whether the Young–Dupré equation still holds under this unconventional wetting framework is still not answered. In this work, we have calculated the contact angle values of the droplets as well as the work of adhesion between the droplets and the monolayer based on an extended phantom-wall method. The results show that similar to the conventional solid–liquid interface,classical Young–Dupré equation is also applicable for the interface of liquid water and ordered water monolayer.     

Brieskorn manifolds as contact branched covers of spheres

We show that Brieskorn manifolds with their standard contact structures are contact branched coverings of spheres. This covering maps a contact open book decomposition of the Brieskorn manifold onto a Milnor open book of the sphere.      

Practical aspects of using Hertzian ring crack initiation to measure surface flaw densities in glasses: influence of humidity,friction and searched areas

Ring crack initiation loads on glass, using spherical Tungsten carbide (WC) and glass (G) indenters, are measured and analysed. Our measurements demonstrate that environmental humidity plays a key role in determining the load to fracture; experiments conducted without controlling this variable cannot be used to obtain material properties. The role of friction is explicitly considered for dissimilar (WC–G) elastic contacts. For this material pair, the stresses at fracture are well described by a boundary lubrication value of friction coefficient. The fracture loads are used in a fracture-mechanics formulation to calculate crack sizes on glass surfaces. The ‘searched-area’ concept for dissimilar contacts is described, and used to provide crack density values for these surfaces.     

Experimental investigation of high temperature thermal contact resistance with interface material

Thermal contact resistance plays a very important role in heat transfer efficiency and thermomechanical coupling response between two materials, and a common method to reduce the thermal contact resistance is to fill a soft interface material between these two materials. A testing system of high temperature thermal contact resistance based on INSTRON 8874 is established in the present paper, which can achieve 600°C at the interface. Based on this system, the thermal contact resistance between superalloy GH600 material and three-dimensional braid C/C composite material is experimentally investigated, under different interface pressures, interface roughnesses and temperatures, respectively. At the same time, the mechanism of reducing the thermal contact resistance with carbon fiber sheet as interface material is experimentally investigated. Results show that the present testing system is feasible in the experimental research of high temperature thermal contact resistance.