A facile route to hollow superparamagnetic magnetite/polystyrene nanocomposite microspheres via inverse miniemulsion polymerization

In this article, we report a facile route to the preparation of hollow superparamagnetic magnetite/polystyrene nanocomposite microspheres via inverse miniemulsion polymerization at room temperature and under ambient pressure. Water droplets act as a soft template for the formation of hollow structure. Meanwhile, the existence of amphipathic magnetite nanoparticles (MPs) which can assemble at the interface of W/O is favorable to the interfacial polymerization of styrene, ensuring the formation of hollow nanocomposite microspheres. The final products were thoroughly characterized by X‐ray powder diffraction (XRD), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), field‐emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), which showed the formation of hollow magnetite/polystyrene nanocomposite microspheres. Magnetic hysteresis loop measurements revealed that both MPs and hollow nanocomposite microspheres displayed superparamagnetism. The effects of the content of H₂O, sorbitan monooleate (Span 80) and styrene and the dose rate on the morphology of nanocomposite microspheres were studied. Furthermore, the mechanism of the formation of the hollow magnetic microspheres was also discussed. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 3900–3910, 2008     

Synthesis and characterization of synthetic polymer colloids colloidally stabilized by cationized starch oligomers

A method is developed for anchoring enzymatically degraded cationized starch as electrosteric stabilizers onto synthetic latices, using cerium(IV) to create free‐radical grafting sites on the starch. Direct anchoring of debranched starch onto a poly(methyl methacrylate) seed latex yields a latex stabilized by well‐defined oligosaccharides. Using α‐amylase to randomly cleave starch to form (1→4)‐α‐glucans, and a comonomer, N‐isopropyl acrylamide (NIPAM), whose corresponding polymer exhibits a lower critical solution temperature (LCST), creates a means to synthesize block (or graft) oligomers of oligosaccharide and synthetic polymer, which are water soluble at room temperature. Above 30 °C, they become amphiphilic and form self‐emulsifying nanoparticles (sometimes termed “frozen micelles”) from which a synthetic latex is grown after addition of methyl methacrylate, the collapsed NIPAM‐containing entities functioning as a type of in situ seed. This synthesis of stable synthetic latex particles is shown to have a high grafting efficiency. The starch fragments were characterized by ¹H solution‐state NMR before grafting, and ¹³C solid‐state cross‐polarization magic‐angle spinning (CP‐MAS) NMR was used to characterize the starch oligomers actually grafted on the final latex. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 1836–1852, 2009     

Numerical study of magnetohydrodynamic laminar flow separation in a channel with smooth expansion

The flow of an electrically conducting incompressible viscous fluid in a plane channel with smooth expansion in the presence of a uniform transverse magnetic field has been analysed. A solution technique for the governing magnetohydrodynamic equations in primitive variable formulation has been developed. A co‐ordinate transformation has been employed to map the infinite irregular domain into a finite regular computational domain. The governing equations are discretized using finite‐difference approximations in staggered grid. Pressure Poisson equation and pressure correction formulae are derived and solved numerically. It is found that with increase in the magnetic field, the size of the flow separation zone diminishes and for sufficiently large magnetic field, the separation zone disappears completely. The peak u‐velocity decreases with increase in the magnetic field. It is also found that the asymmetric flow in a symmetric geometry, which occurs at moderate Reynolds numbers, becomes symmetric with sufficient increase in the transverse magnetic field. Thus, a transverse magnetic field of suitable strength has a stabilizing effect in controlling flow separation, as also in delaying the transition to turbulence. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Minimally non-Pfaffian graphs

We consider the question of characterizing Pfaffian graphs. We exhibit an infinite family of non-Pfaffian graphs minimal with respect to the matching minor relation. This is in sharp contrast with the bipartite case, as Little [C.H.C. Little, A characterization of convertible (0,1)-matrices, J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 18 (1975) 187–208] proved that every bipartite non-Pfaffian graph contains a matching minor isomorphic to K_3,3. We relax the notion of a matching minor and conjecture that there are only finitely many (perhaps as few as two) non-Pfaffian graphs minimal with respect to this notion.We define Pfaffian factor-critical graphs and study them in the second part of the paper. They seem to be of interest as the number of near perfect matchings in a Pfaffian factor-critical graph can be computed in polynomial time. We give a polynomial time recognition algorithm for this class of graphs and characterize non-Pfaffian factor-critical graphs in terms of forbidden central subgraphs.     

Lamb wave sensors array for nonviscous liquid sensing

The interdigital transducer (IDT) can excite Lamb wave in a piezoelectric plate loading with a liquid layer, and the phase velocity of Lamb wave is associated with the properties of the liquid layer. In this paper, the concept of effective permittivity is introduced to study the Lamb wave’s potential application in liquid sensing. Considering the measuring of ideal nonviscous liquid, the sensors array is designed to sense the density and the dielectric constant of the liquid layer simultaneously. Using LiNbO₃ as piezoelectric material, in order to improve the sensors array sensitivity and the electro-mechanical coupling coefficient, the optimized results including plate thicknesses and cut orientations are presented by numerical simulation. These studies show that the Lamb wave sensors array can be potential in liquid sensing.     

环形激光弱磁传感器误差分析

本文从理论上分析了环形激光弱磁传感器主要误差因素并提出了若干克服这些因素的方法。这些误差因素是:大尺寸的法拉第室引入的噪声,磁光材料的费尔德常数的温度系数,塞曼效应的混入、朗谬尔效应等。     

Modeling and dynamics of double Hindmarsh-Rose neuron with memristor-based magnetic coupling and time delay

The firing of a neuron model is mainly affected by the following factors:the magnetic field, external forcing current, time delay, etc. In this paper, a new time-delayed electromagnetic field coupled dual Hindmarsh-Rose neuron network model is constructed. A magnetically controlled threshold memristor is improved to represent the self-connected and the coupled magnetic fields triggered by the dynamic change of neuronal membrane potential for the adjacent neurons. Numerical simulation confirms that the coupled magnetic field can activate resting neurons to generate rich firing patterns, such as spiking firings, bursting firings, and chaotic firings, and enable neurons to generate larger firing amplitudes. The study also found that the strength of magnetic coupling in the neural network also affects the number of peaks in the discharge of bursting firing. Based on the existing medical treatment background of mental illness, the effects of time lag in the coupling process against neuron firing are studied. The results confirm that the neurons can respond well to external stimuli and coupled magnetic field with appropriate time delay, and keep periodic firing under a wide range of external forcing current.     

Structural,magnetic, and dielectric properties of Ni–Zn ferrite and Bi_2O_3 nanocomposites prepared by the sol-gel method

Ni–Zn ferrite and Bi_2O_3 composites were developed by the sol-gel method. The structural, magnetic, and dielectric properties were studied for all the prepared samples. X-ray diffraction(XRD) was performed to study the crystal structure.The results of field emission scanning electron microscopy(FE-SEM) showed that the addition of Bi_2O_3 can increase the grain size of the Ni–Zn ferrite. Magnetic properties were analyzed by a hysteresis loop test and it was found that the saturation magnetization and coercivity decreased with the increase of Bi_2O_3 ratio. In addition, the dielectric properties of the Ni–Zn ferrite were also improved with the addition of Bi_2O_3.     

Equilibrium folding and unfolding dynamics to reveal detailed free energy landscape of src SH3 protein by magnetic tweezers

Src SH3 protein domain is a typical two-state protein which has been confirmed by research of denaturant-induced unfolding dynamics. Force spectroscopy experiments by optical tweezers and atomic force microscopy have measured the force-dependent unfolding rates with different kinds of pulling geometry. However, the equilibrium folding and unfolding dynamics at constant forces has not been reported. Here, using stable magnetic tweezers, we performed equilibrium folding and unfolding dynamic measurement and force-jump measurement of src SH3 domain with tethering points at its N-and C-termini. From the obtained force-dependent transition rates, a detailed two-state free energy landscape of src SH3 protein is constructed with quantitative information of folding free energy, transition state barrier height and position,which exemplifies the capability of magnetic tweezers to study protein folding and unfolding dynamics.