Ionic liquids with herbicidal anions

Ionic liquids with herbicidal anions (named herbicidal ionic liquids—HILs) were synthesized and characterized. The combination of two active chemicals as the [cation][anion] form in a single moiety reduced the number of additional chemicals required per application. HILs ([cation][MCPA]) exhibited higher biological activity than currently used salts of MCPA, and involved pesticides of a multidirectional activity ([plant growth regulator][MCPA]). Acute toxicity of HILs could be controlled by appropriate selection of cation type. These salts had chemical and thermal stability, and showed substantially lower water solubility than starting herbicides, thus reducing soil and groundwater mobility.     

BEHAVIOR OF CHO CELLS ON MODIFIED POLYPROPYLENE BY LOW TEMPERATURE AMMONIA PLASMA

1. INTRODUCTION Bioreactors using membranes as substrates of cell cultures have become widely used for hybrid liver support systems [1]. For enhancing and prolonging the metabolism of the bioreactors, cytocompatible membranes are necessary because the cell culture is closely affected by the substrate surface. Surface factors considered to be important in cell culture are the concentration of ionic groups, the nature of polar and non-polar groups and the hydrophilic-hydrophobic balance [2].…     

Effects of textured morphology on the short circuit current of single crystalline silicon solar cells: Evaluation of alkaline wet-texture processes

The effect of different surface morphologies obtained by anisotropic etching on the light trapping and short circuit current of single crystalline silicon solar cells was investigated. The anisotropic texturing of a (1 0 0) silicon surface was performed using potassium hydroxide (KOH) solution and/or tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) solution including isopropyl alcohol (IPA) additive or tertiary butyl alcohol (TBA) additive. Texturing in TMAH solution formed smaller pyramids on the textured surface compared with texturing in KOH solution. Although the textured samples showed similar reflectances (except in the case of the TBA additive), they showed different short circuit currents. Texturing in KOH/TMAH solution led to a 9.6% increase in short circuit current compared with texturing in KOH/IPA solution, a typical etchant in commercial processes. Based on these results, the reflectivity has no simple proportionality relationship to the short circuit current, and the short circuit current of silicon solar cells should be the criterion used in evaluating texturing effects on reducing reflectance and forming a sound junction with high collection efficiency.     

Diffusivity of adatoms on plasma-exposed surfaces determined from the ionization energy approximation and ionic polarizability

Microscopic surface diffusivity theory based on atomic ionization energy concept is developed to explain the variations of the atomic and displacement polarizations with respect to the surface diffusion activation energy of adatoms in the process of self-assembly of quantum dots on plasma-exposed surfaces. These polarizations are derived classically, while the atomic polarization is quantized to obtain the microscopic atomic polarizability. The surface diffusivity equation is derived as a function of the ionization energy. The results of this work can be used to fine-tune the delivery rates of different adatoms onto nanostructure growth surfaces and optimize the low-temperature plasma based nanoscale synthesis processes.     

Dynamics of surface reactions: from “hot” precursors to conventional thermal activation

Heterogeneous catalytic reactions usually contain steps, e.g., adsorption, generating energy-rich (“hot”) precursors for other steps. With increasing the rate of energy relaxation one can observe a transition from the reaction regime dominated by “hot” precursors to conventional thermal activation. To illustrate this transition in detail and to show what may happen in various situations, I present an analytical model based on the Fokker-Planck equation for energy relaxation.     

Facetting and (n × 1) reconstructions of SrTiO3(1 1 0) surfaces

(n × 1) reconstructions and facetting of the (1 1 0) polar surface of SrTiO₃ are studied by means of a combination of shell model and density functional calculations. The polarity compensation can be achieved through the formation of {1 0 0} nano-facets, which play a crucial role in the reconstruction process. The behaviors of various possible terminations (Sr, Ti, and O) are analyzed, as well as their atomic structure and energetics. Their stability in different chemical environments is discussed, with respect to previous formulations and experimental results. The Sr-terminated surface tends to expose large facets, while the TiO and O terminations are marginally stabilized or even destabilized by (n × 1) reconstructions, respectively. Trend to facetting results from a subtle competition between the thermodynamic stability of the ideal non stoichiometric (n × 1) surfaces, and huge atomic relaxations that contribute to the lowering of the surface energy differently for each termination.     

Correlation between the surface free energy of modified and non-modified glasses with controlled porosity and their sorption properties

Summary Contact angles for water and diiodomethane drops were measured on the surface of thermally and chemically (by Carbowax 20M bonding) modified porous glasses and on the surface of naphthalene, diphenyl and anthracene. Using the obtained results to a modified Young equation, dispersion and nondispersion components of the surface free energy of these glasses and organic substances were calculated. The work of adhesion (W_A) for benzene, naphthalene, diphenyl, anthracene, nitrobenzene was estimated and correlated with the capacity factors, (k′) of these substances. On the basis of experimental and calculated data it can be stated that the thermal treatment of porous glasses increases, their hydrophobicity but the Carbowax layer causes hydrophilicity. There is a linear relationship between k′ and W_A which can be helpful for predicting retention data of chromatographed substances on the base of surface free energy which can be calculated from contact angle measurements.     

Overlap effects on surface states

A tight-binding investigation is performed of the electronic structure of a semi-infinite monatomic chain, whose atomic orbitals are assumed to be non-orthogonal, so that the effects of overlap can be taken into account. In addition to markedly modifying the bulk band-edges, the presence of overlap also greatly influences the position and existence of the surface states. These latter effects are examined in detail.     

Bivariant Chern character and longitudinal index

In this paper we consider a family of Dirac-type operators on fibration P→B equivariant with respect to an action of an étale groupoid. Such a family defines an element in the bivariant K theory. We compute the action of the bivariant Chern character of this element on the image of Connes' map Φ in the cyclic cohomology. A particular case of this result is Connes' index theorem for étale groupoids [A. Connes, Noncommutative Geometry, Academic Press, 1994] in the case of fibrations.