Direct evidence for highly organized networks of circular surface micelles of surfactant at the air-water interface

We report the first direct evidence for the formation of circular surface micelles (hemimicelles) on the surface of water. These highly monodisperse 30 nm hemimicelles, made from a semifluorinated alkane deposited as a Langmuir monolayer, form organized hexagonal arrays as determined by small-angle X-ray diffraction conducted directly on the water surface at grazing incidence.     

Generalizations of a Theorem of Datko and Pazy

This note gives necessary and sufficient conditions for exponential stability of semigroups of linear operators in Banach spaces. Generalizations of a well-known result due to Datko, Pazy and Neerven are obtained for the case of semigroups of operators that are not strongly continuous.     

Determination of isotopic composition of uranium in the CMX-4 samples by SIMS

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - From the 16 laboratories participating in CMX-4, three laboratories (Buonarroti, Matisse, and Pollock) have utilized secondary ion mass...     

Spectroscopic investigations on polypropylene‐carbon nanofiber composites. I. Raman and electron spin resonance spectroscopy

Isotactic polypropylene‐vapor grown carbon nanofiber composites containing various fractions of carbon nanofibers, ranging from 0 to 20 wt %, have been prepared. Raman spectroscopy was used to analyze the effect of the dispersion of carbon nanofibers within polypropylene and the interactions between carbon nanofibers and macromolecular chains. The as‐recorded Raman spectra have been successfully fitted by a linear convolution of Lorentzian lines. Changes of the Raman lines parameters (position, intensity, width, and area) of polypropylene and carbon nanofibers were analyzed in detail. The Raman spectra of the polymeric matrix—at low concentrations of nanofibers—show important modifications that indicate strong interactions between carbon nanofibers and the polymeric matrix reflecting by vibrational dephasing of macromolecular chains. The Raman spectrum of carbon nanofibers is sensitive to the loading with carbon nanofibers, showing changes of the resonance frequencies, amplitudes, and width for both D‐ and G‐bands. Raman data reveals the increase of the disorder, as the concentration of carbon nanofibers is increased. The presence of the typical ESR line assigned to conducting electrons delocalized over carbon nanofibers is confirmed and the presence of a spurious magnetic line due to catalyst's residues is reported. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 47: 1644–1652, 2009     

Identification strategies for flame retardants employing time‐of‐flight mass spectrometric detectors along with spectral and spectra‐less databases

In the past, the preferred strategy for the identification of unknown compounds was to search in an appropriate mass spectral database for spectra obtained using either electron ionisation (GC‐MS analyses) or collision‐induced dissociation (LC‐MS/MS analyses). Recently, an increase has been seen in the use of accurate mass instruments and spectra‐less databases, based on monoisotopic accurate mass alone. In this article, we describe a systematic workflow for the screening and identification of new flame retardants. This approach utilises LC‐quadrupole‐time‐of‐flight MS and spectra‐less databases based only on monoisotopic accurate mass for the identification of ‘unknowns’. An in‐house database was built, and the input parameters used in the data analysis process were optimised for flame retardant chemicals, so that it can be easily transferred to other laboratories. The procedure was successfully applied to dust, foam and textiles from car interiors and indoor consumer products. The developed method was demonstrated for the main new flame retardant present in Antiblaze V6 and for the three unreported reaction by‐products/impurities present in the same technical mixture. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Immobilization of Pseudomonas stutzeri Lipase for the Transesterification of Wood Sterols with Fatty Acid Esters

Lipase from Pseudomonas stutzeri PL-836 was immobilized on hydrophobic supports and evaluated in the transesterification of wood sterols in solvent-free and solvent-containing media. Triton X-100 was used as additive during immobilization in butyl and octadecyl sepabeads increasing enzyme activity yield by 5% and 60%, respectively. Hyperactivation was observed during immobilization in EC octadecyl sepabeads with enzyme activity yield of 200% and protein immobilization yield of 93%. Thermostability of the immobilized enzyme was assessed at 50 °C in different media in the absence and presence of exogenous solvents. The presence of Triton X-100 during immobilization reduced enzyme stability while tert-butanol increased it. Transesterification in solvent-free and solvent-containing medium with lipase immobilized in EC octadecyl sepabeads showed that the presence of exogenous solvent increased both conversion yield and productivity. At rather high levels of biocatalyst hydration (40% on wet basis) the presence of tert-butanol in the reaction medium more than doubled conversion yield and productivity.     

Functionals on function and sequence spaces connected with the exponential stability of evolutionary processes

The exponential stability property of an evolutionary process is characterized in terms of the existence of some functionals on certain function spaces. Thus are generalized some well-known results obtained by Datko, Rolewicz, Littman and Van Neerven.     

Zur Halbwertszeit des 1,49 MeV-Niveaus im Co57

For the halflife of the 1,49 MeV state in Co⁵⁷ an upper limit of 3,0 × 10^?10 sec. has been found.     

A study on galvanic degradation of dental amalgam using activation analysis assessments

The method of neutron activation and gamma-ray spectrometry was used for studying galvanic corrosion of dental amalgam. The behaviour of galvanic couples of zinc containing and zinc free amalgam with dissimilar electrodes from other restorative material was investigated in various electrolytic media, in absence and presence of oxygen. Severe corrosion of amalgam takes place when coupled with gold electrodes.     

New insight into phase change memories

The switching mechanism in phase change memories was described on the basis of minimum switching unit: the commuton. A commuton is a minimum cluster of atoms that supports a reversible phase change from high to low electrical conduction state and back under the influence of an external signal. The switching process in a phase change chalcogenide film was modeled using two dimensional cellular automata approach. A system of 50 × 50 cells, each cell containing a commuton, was simulated. In the particular case of Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ (investigated here) this system corresponds to a 30 × 30 nm area. The formation of the percolation path as a function of phase change induced in commutons explains the switching phenomenon. The influence of the percent of defects in the material on the percolation threshold has been studied.