Long‐range order in physical networks of gel‐forming triblock copolymer solutions

Structural studies on physical gels, based on a triblock copolymer and a solvent selective for its midblocks, are presented. Gel formation in such systems arises due to interconnected microdomains that form the junctions in a three‐dimensional network. Small angle X‐ray scattering studies revealed that the physical networks show either short‐range order, described by an effective hard sphere model, or long‐range order, where junctions are arranged on a cubic lattice. The emerging morphology depends on the thermal conditions during preparation of such systems, which essentially reflects a competition among microdomain ordering and formation of the physical network. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 37: 1833–1840, 1999     

The synergistic co‐operation of N—H…O=P hydrogen bonds and C—H…OX weak intermolecular interactions (X is =P or —C) in the (CH3O)2P(O)(NH–NHC6F5) amidophosphoester: a combined X‐ray crystallographic and theoretical study

The asymmetric unit of O,O′‐dimethyl [(2,3,4,5,6‐pentafluorophenyl)hydrazinyl]phosphonate, C₈H₈F₅N₂O₃P, is composed of two symmetry‐independent molecules with significant differences in the orientations of the C₆F₅ and OMe groups. In the crystal structure, a one‐dimensional assembly is mediated from classical N—H…O hydrogen bonds, which includes R₂²(8), D(2) and some higher‐order graph‐set motifs. By also considering weak C—H…O=P and C—H…O—C intermolecular interactions, a two‐dimensional network extends along the ab plane. The strengths of the hydrogen bonds were evaluated using quantum chemical calculations with the GAUSSIAN09 software package at the B3LYP/6‐311G(d,p) level of theory. The LP(O) to σ*(NH) and σ*(CH) charge‐transfer interactions were examined according to second‐order perturbation theory in natural bond orbital (NBO) methodology. The hydrogen‐bonded clusters of molecules, including N—H…O and C—H…O interactions, were constructed as input files for the calculations and the strengths of the hydrogen bonds are as follows: N—H…O [R₂²(8)] > N—H…O [D(2)] > C—H…O. The decomposed fingerprint plots show that the contribution portions of the F…H/H…F contacts in both molecules are the largest.     

Concomitant cocrystal and salt: no interconversion in the solid state

A cocrystal and a molecular salt of β‐alanine and dl ‐tartaric acid, C₃H₈NO₂⁺·C₄H₄O₆^?, of the same chemical composition, were studied over a wide temperature range by single‐crystal and powder X‐ray diffraction. Neither the interconversion between the two phases nor any polymorphic transitions were observed in the temperature range from 100 K to the melting points. This contrasts with the solvent‐mediated phase transition from the salt to the cocrystal in a slurry that has been documented earlier.     

Predicting nitrogen release during coal tar decomposition

This paper develops a detailed phenomenological reaction mechanism for N-species transformations throughout tar decomposition, including tar-N sequestration into soot. It expands the previously validated mechanism for tar decomposition based on FLASHCHAIN^® theory to cover N-transformations during pulverized fuel firing. Tar-N transformations are described by two distinctive features: (1) An elimination reaction that produces HCN governs the decay in the average moles of nitrogen per aromatic nucleus throughout tar decomposition; and (2) Empirical observations determine the fraction of tar-N incorporated into soot. Validation cases represent heating rates of at least several thousand degrees per second; temperatures from 600 to 1100 °C; tar contact times from 75?ms through 2?s; and coal ranks from subbituminous through low volatile bituminous. The predicted partitioning of coal-N into tar-N, HCN, soot-N, and char-N was within measurement uncertainties for all coals for simulated p. f. firing conditions, including the variation in fractional char-N levels from 0.4 to 0.8 across this domain. Since primary tar-N levels are directly proportional to fractional primary tar yields, and since ultimate soot-N levels account for one-third of tar-N with any coal type, the ultimate coal-N partitioning for CFD furnace simulations can be accurately described with two analyses: (1) A primary devolatilization mechanism to predict primary tar yields under rapid heating conditions; and (2) A submechanism to predict HCN release from char throughout devolatilization up to the point of char ignition. Dynamics may be resolved with either global reactions or the full tar decomposition mechanism, depending on the impact of the lag between tar decomposition and soot production in the subject application.     

A protocol for searching the most probable phase‐retrieved maps in coherent X‐ray diffraction imaging by exploiting the relationship between convergence of the retrieved phase and success of calculation

Coherent X‐ray diffraction imaging (CXDI) is a technique for visualizing the structures of non‐crystalline particles with size in the submicrometer to micrometer range in material sciences and biology. In the structural analysis of CXDI, the electron density map of a specimen particle projected along the direction of the incident X‐rays can be reconstructed only from the diffraction pattern by using phase‐retrieval (PR) algorithms. However, in practice, the reconstruction, relying entirely on the computational procedure, sometimes fails because diffraction patterns miss the data in small‐angle regions owing to the beam stop and saturation of the detector pixels, and are modified by Poisson noise in X‐ray detection. To date, X‐ray free‐electron lasers have allowed us to collect a large number of diffraction patterns within a short period of time. Therefore, the reconstruction of correct electron density maps is the bottleneck for efficiently conducting structure analyses of non‐crystalline particles. To automatically address the correctness of retrieved electron density maps, a data analysis protocol to extract the most probable electron density maps from a set of maps retrieved from 1000 different random seeds for a single diffraction pattern is proposed. Through monitoring the variations of the phase values during PR calculations, the tendency for the PR calculations to succeed when the retrieved phase sets converged on a certain value was found. On the other hand, if the phase set was in persistent variation, the PR calculation tended to fail to yield the correct electron density map. To quantify this tendency, here a figure of merit for the variation of the phase values during PR calculation is introduced. In addition, a PR protocol to evaluate the similarity between a map of the highest figure of merit and other independently reconstructed maps is proposed. The protocol is implemented and practically examined in the structure analyses for diffraction patterns from aggregates of gold colloidal particles. Furthermore, the feasibility of the protocol in the structure analysis of organelles from biological cells is examined.     

SOLEIL shining on the solution‐state structure of biomacromolecules by synchrotron X‐ray footprinting at the Metrology beamline

Synchrotron X‐ray footprinting complements the techniques commonly used to define the structure of molecules such as crystallography, small‐angle X‐ray scattering and nuclear magnetic resonance. It is remarkably useful in probing the structure and interactions of proteins with lipids, nucleic acids or with other proteins in solution, often better reflecting the in vivo state dynamics. To date, most X‐ray footprinting studies have been carried out at the National Synchrotron Light Source, USA, and at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France. This work presents X‐ray footprinting of biomolecules performed for the first time at the X‐ray Metrology beamline at the SOLEIL synchrotron radiation source. The installation at this beamline of a stopped‐flow apparatus for sample delivery, an irradiation capillary and an automatic sample collector enabled the X‐ray footprinting study of the structure of the soluble protein factor H (FH) from the human complement system as well as of the lipid‐associated hydrophobic protein S3 oleosin from plant seed. Mass spectrometry analysis showed that the structural integrity of both proteins was not affected by the short exposition to the oxygen radicals produced during the irradiation. Irradiated molecules were subsequently analysed using high‐resolution mass spectrometry to identify and locate oxidized amino acids. Moreover, the analyses of FH in its free state and in complex with complement C3b protein have allowed us to create a map of reactive solvent‐exposed residues on the surface of FH and to observe the changes in oxidation of FH residues upon C3b binding. Studies of the solvent accessibility of the S3 oleosin show that X‐ray footprinting offers also a unique approach to studying the structure of proteins embedded within membranes or lipid bodies. All the biomolecular applications reported herein demonstrate that the Metrology beamline at SOLEIL can be successfully used for synchrotron X‐ray footprinting of biomolecules.     

Development of picosecond time‐resolved X‐ray absorption spectroscopy by high‐repetition‐rate laser pump/X‐ray probe at Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility

A new setup and commissioning of transient X‐ray absorption spectroscopy are described, based on the high‐repetition‐rate laser pump/X‐ray probe method, at the 1W2B wiggler beamline at the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility. A high‐repetition‐rate and high‐power laser is incorporated into the setup with in‐house‐built avalanche photodiodes as detectors. A simple acquisition scheme was applied to obtain laser‐on and laser‐off signals simultaneously. The capability of picosecond transient X‐ray absorption spectroscopy measurement was demonstrated for a photo‐induced spin‐crossover iron complex in 6 mM solution with 155 kHz repetition rate.     

Characterization of a sCMOS‐based high‐resolution imaging system

The detection system is a key part of any imaging station. Here the performance of the novel sCMOS‐based detection system installed at the ID17 biomedical beamline of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility and dedicated to high‐resolution computed‐tomography imaging is analysed. The system consists of an X‐ray–visible‐light converter, a visible‐light optics and a PCO.Edge5.5 sCMOS detector. Measurements of the optical characteristics, the linearity of the system, the detection lag, the modulation transfer function, the normalized power spectrum, the detective quantum efficiency and the photon transfer curve are presented and discussed. The study was carried out at two different X‐ray energies (35 and 50 keV) using both 2× and 1× optical magnification systems. The final pixel size resulted in 3.1 and 6.2 µm, respectively. The measured characteristic parameters of the PCO.Edge5.5 are in good agreement with the manufacturer specifications. Fast imaging can be achieved using this detection system, but at the price of unavoidable losses in terms of image quality. The way in which the X‐ray beam inhomogeneity limited some of the performances of the system is also discussed.     

RixsToolBox: software for the analysis of soft X‐ray RIXS data acquired with 2D detectors

A software with a graphical user interface has been developed with the aim of facilitating the data analysis for users of a new resonant inelastic X‐ray scattering (RIXS) spectrometer installed at the ESRF beamline ID32. The software is organized in modules covering all relevant steps in the data reduction from a stack of several hundred two‐dimensional CCD images to a single RIXS spectrum. It utilizes both full charge integration and single‐photon centroiding to cope with high‐flux and high‐resolution requirements. Additional modules for further data analysis and the extraction of instrumental parameters are available. The software has been in routine use for about a year now and in that time many additional features have been incorporated. It now meets the users' need for an easy‐to‐use data analysis tool that allows looking at and understanding data as it is acquired and thus steering users' experiments more efficiently.