Phase‐Transition Induced Conversion into a Photothermal Material: Quasi‐Metallic WO2.9 Nanorods for Solar Water Evaporation and Anticancer Photothermal Therapy

Phase transition from WO₃ to sub‐stoichiometric WO_2.9 by a facile method has varied the typical semiconductor to be quasi‐metallic with a narrowed band gap and a shifted Femi energy to the conduction band, while maintaining a high crystallinity. The resultant WO_2.9 nanorods possess a high total absorption capacity (ca. 90.6 %) over the whole solar spectrum as well as significant photothermal conversion capability, affording a conversion efficiency as high as around 86.9 % and a water evaporation efficiency of about 81 % upon solar light irradiation. Meanwhile, the promising potential of the nanorods for anticancer photothermal therapy have been also demonstrated, with a high photothermal conversion efficiency (ca. 44.9 %) upon single wavelength near‐infrared irradiation and a high tumor inhibition rate (ca. 98.5 %). This study may have opened up a feasible route to produce high‐performance photothermal materials from well‐developed oxides.     

Tuning the morphology of amphiphilic copolymer aggregates by compound emulsifier via emulsion–solvent evaporation

A series of poly(4-vinylpyridine)-b-poly{6-[4-(4-butyloxyphenylazo)phenoxy]hexyl methacrylate} (P4VP-b-PAzoMA) were employed to fabricate aggregates via the emulsion–solvent evaporation method. The emulsion was stabilized by compound emulsifier composed of SDS and span60. By tuning the ratio of two emulsifiers, P4VP-b-PAzoMA could self-assemble into various morphologies including porous microspheres, tremella-like aggregates, bowl-like aggregates and wrinkled microspheres. The transformation of the morphologies could be ascribed to three major aspects: the stability of emulsified chloroform droplets, the permeation of water into chloroform and the dispersity of the interior water droplets with regard to different HLB values. Besides, the morphology could even be tuned by changing the block ratio and the concentration of P4VP-b-PAzoMA, and the HLB dependent morphology changing was also proved within other block ratio or different concentration. The study uncovers a convenient and effective technique to manipulate the morphology of amphiphilic copolymer aggregates.     

On the Capillary Coupling between Two Phases in a Droplet Train Model

A droplet train model proposed by Foulser {\it et al.} ({\it Transport in Porous Media} (1991), 223) is modified with addition of capillary resistance. It is shown that linear transport equations for this model can be represented in the Onsager form, where the generalized thermodynamic forces are pressure gradients of corresponding phases. In particular, the onset of capillary interactions give rise to the nonzero and equal cross term coefficients.     

A finiteness theorem for low-codimensional nonsingular subvarieties of quadrics

We prove that there are only finitely many families of codimension two nonsingular subvarieties of quadrics which are not of general type, for and . We prove a similar statement also for the case of higher codimension.

     

Recursive condition for positivity of the angle for multivariate stationary sequences

In this note a recursive type condition for positivity of the angle between past and future for -variate stationary sequences is provided. In the case it gives a simple different proof of a result due to Solev and Tserkhtsvadze on basicity of bivariate stationary sequences.

     

Two Points Blow-up in Solutions of the Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation with Quartic Potential on \mathbb{R}

We consider the blow-up problem for the nonlinear Schrödinger equation with quartic self-interacting potential on . We exhibit a class of initial data leading to the blow-up solutions which have at least two L ²-concentration points.     

Aperture-Angle and Hausdorff-Approximation of Convex Figures

The aperture angle α(x,Q) of a point x ∉ Q in the plane with respect to a convex polygon Q is the angle of the smallest cone with apex x that contains Q. The aperture angle approximation error of a compact convex set C in the plane with respect to an inscribed convex polygon Q⊂C is the minimum aperture angle of any x∈C∖Q with respect to Q. We show that for any compact convex set C in the plane and any k>2, there is an inscribed convex k-gon Q⊂C with aperture angle approximation error . This bound is optimal, and settles a conjecture by Fekete from the early 1990s. The same proof technique can be used to prove a conjecture by Brass: If a polygon P admits no approximation by a sub-k-gon (the convex hull of k vertices of P) with Hausdorff distance σ, but all subpolygons of P (the convex hull of some vertices of P) admit such an approximation, then P is a (k+1)-gon. This implies the following result: For any k>2 and any convex polygon P of perimeter at most 1 there is a sub-k-gon Q of P such that the Hausdorff-distance of P and Q is at most  . This research was supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (MOEHRD) (KRF-2006-311-D00763). NICTA is funded through the Australian Government’s Backing Australia’s Ability initiative, in part through the Australian Research Council.     

Industrial need for accurate thermophysical data and for reliable prediction methods

Intelligent design of chemical-process equipment requires accurate thermophysical property values for pure components and mixtures including solutions. Databases used by practicing engineers should include the best numbers available and estimated uncertainties of these numbers. Many important property values have not been measured and must be estimated. Care should be exercised in selecting the estimation method. Property values that are a function of temperature, pressure, and/or composition can be correlated using appropriate equations. Such equations and the number of adjustable parameters in these equations should be selected with care. Examples of determining uncertainties, estimation techniques used, and correlating equations are given.