Evaluation of new single crystal piezoelectric materials for surface acoustic-wave applications

Surface acoustic waves (SAW), or Rayleigh waves, bound to the surfaces of piezoelectric materials are becoming rapidly significant in electronic device applications, particularly as VHF-UHF frequency filters and versatile time-domain processors. The majority of available devices utilize either signle crystalline quartz or lithium niobate as the piezoelectric medium. This paper describes briefly the growth and critical evaluation of SAW impedance and propagation properties for certain new single crystal piezoelectric materials. Crystals discussed are Czochralski-grown bismuth germanium oxide, films of zinc oxide and aluminum nitride both epitaxially grown on single crystal sapphire, and flux-grown beryllium oxide. It is concluded that bismuth germanium oxide may prove an important cost-effective alternative to both quartz and lithium niobate, and that either zinc oxide or aluminum nitride is destined to prove invaluable in the realization of monolithic circuits such as programmable tapped delay lines, in which SAW will be interfaced with metal-oxide semiconductor (large scale integrated) technology, and active SAW elements employing functional integration.     

Gas Phase Ion Chemistry to Determine Isoaspartate in a Peptide Backbone

Proof of concept evidence is presented for a new method for the determination of isoaspartate, an important post-translational modification. Chemical derivatization is performed using common reagents for the modification of carboxylic acids and shown to yield suitable diagnostic information with regard to isomerization at the aspartate residue. The diagnostic gas phase chemistry is probed by collision-induced dissociation mass spectrometry, on the timescale of the MS experiment and semi-quantitative calibration of the percentage of isoaspartate in a peptide sample is demonstrated.

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Accelerated Chemical Reactions and Organic Synthesis in Leidenfrost Droplets

Leidenfrost levitated droplets can be used to accelerate chemical reactions in processes that appear similar to reaction acceleration in charged microdroplets produced by electrospray ionization. Reaction acceleration in Leidenfrost droplets is demonstrated for a base‐catalyzed Claisen–Schmidt condensation, hydrazone formation from precharged and neutral ketones, and for the Katritzky pyrylium into pyridinium conversion under various reaction conditions. Comparisons with bulk reactions gave intermediate acceleration factors (2–50). By keeping the volume of the Leidenfrost droplets constant, it was shown that interfacial effects contribute to acceleration; this was confirmed by decreased reaction rates in the presence of a surfactant. The ability to multiplex Leidenfrost microreactors, to extract product into an immiscible solvent during reaction, and to use Leidenfrost droplets as reaction vessels to synthesize milligram quantities of product is also demonstrated.     

Comparison of Several Spatial Discretizations for the Navier–Stokes Equations

Grid convergence studies for subsonic and transonic flows over airfoils are presented in order to compare the accuracy of several spatial discretizations for the compressible Navier–Stokes equations. The discretizations include the following schemes for the inviscid fluxes: (1) second-order-accurate centered differences with third-order matrix numerical dissipation, (2) the second-order convective upstream split pressure scheme (CUSP), (3) third-order upwind-biased differencing with Roe's flux-difference splitting, and (4) fourth-order centered differences with third-order matrix numerical dissipation. The first three are combined with second-order differencing for the grid metrics and viscous terms. The fourth discretization uses fourth-order differencing for the grid metrics and viscous terms, as well as higher-order approximations near boundaries and for the numerical integration used to calculate forces and moments. The results indicate that the discretization using higher-order approximations for all terms is substantially more accurate than the others, producing less than two percent numerical error in lift and drag components on grids with less than 13,000 nodes for subsonic cases and less than 18,000 nodes for transonic cases. Since the cost per grid node of all of the discretizations studied is comparable, the higher-order discretization produces solutions of a given accuracy much more efficiently than the others.     

The sub-millimeter and Fourier transform microwave spectrum of HZnCl (X Σ)

The pure rotational spectrum of HZnCl (X ¹Σ⁺) has been recorded using sub-millimeter direct-absorption methods in the range of 439-540 GHz and Fourier transform microwave (FTMW) techniques from 9 to 39 GHz. This species was produced by the reaction of zinc vapor and chlorine gas with H₂ or D₂ in a d.c. glow discharge for the sub-millimeter studies. In the FTMW measurements, HZnCl was created in a discharge nozzle from Cl₂ and (CH₃)₂Zn. Between 5 and 10 rotational transitions were measured in the sub-millimeter regime for four zinc and two chlorine isotopologues; four transitions were recorded with the FTMW machine for the main isotopologue, each consisting of several chlorine hyperfine components. The data are consistent with a linear molecule and a ¹Σ⁺ ground electronic state. Rotational and chlorine quadrupole constants were established from the spectra, as well as an r_m⁽²⁾ structure. The Zn-Cl and Zn-H bond lengths were determined to be 2.0829 and 1.5050 Å, respectively; in contrast, the Zn-Cl bond distance in ZnCl is 2.1300 Å, longer by ∼0.050 Å. The zinc-chlorine bond distance therefore shortens with the addition of the H atom. The ³⁵Cl electric quadrupole coupling constant of eQq = −27.429 MHz found for HZnCl suggests that this molecule is primarily an ionic species with some covalent character for the Zn-Cl bond.     

Surface Modification of Magnetic Nanoparticles Using Gum Arabic

Magnetite nanoparticles were synthesized and functionalized by coating the particle surfaces with gum arabic (GA) to improve particle stability in aqueous suspensions (i.e. biological media). Particle characterization was performed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) to analyze the morphology and quantify the size distribution of the nanoparticles, respectively. The results from DLS indicated that the GA-treated nanoparticles formed smaller agglomerates as compared to the untreated samples over a 30-h time frame. Thermogravimetric analyses indicated an average weight loss of 23%, showing that GA has a strong affinity toward the iron oxide surface. GA most likely contributes to␣colloid stability via steric stabilization. It was determined that the adsorption of GA onto magnetite exhibits Langmuir behavior.