Solvolytic behaviour and the solubilities of various inorganic compounds, lewis acids and bases in fused monobromo acetic acid solvent system—II

Solubilities and the solvolytic behaviour of various inorganic compounds, Lewis acids and bases in fused monobromoacetic acid at 60 ± 0.5°C are discussed. Ionic compounds are fairly soluble, iodides and thiocyanates being comparatively more soluble than chlorides and bromides. Tetraalkyl ammonium halides are highly soluble in this solvent. Conductometric and spectroscopic studies of various Lewis acids and bases in fused monobromoacetic acid indicate their solvolytic behaviour and their subsequent ionization. The solvolyses products BBr₃·CH₂BrCOOH and SbCl₅·CH₂BrCOOH have been observed to be the strongest Bronsted acids. Auto-ionization of this solvent has been supported by acid/base titrations.     

Step‐by‐Step Growth of Complex Oxide Microstructures

The synthesis of complex and hybrid oxide microstructures is of fundamental interest and practical applications. However, the design and synthesis of such structures is a challenging task. A solution‐phase process to synthesize complex silica and silica–titania hybrid microstructures was developed by exploiting the emulsion‐droplet‐based step‐by‐step growth featuring shape control. The strategy is robust and can be extended to the preparation of complex hybrid structures consisting of two or more materials, with each having its own shape.     

First report of isolation of maleamic acid from natural source Polygonatum cirrhifolium—A potential chemical marker for identification

Polygonatum cirrhifolium (Meda) plant is being used in number of rejuvenating Ayurvedic formulations. Ever rising demands, lack of natural sources, and insufficient quantity, to meet the requirements of market, the raw material has led toward the use of official substitutes recommended by the Department of AYUSH that has further encouraged manufacturers for adulteration of formulations by other substandard/spurious raw drugs. Literature reveals that more than 60% Ayurvedic parameters as well as pharmacological actions of Ashtawarga plants do not match with their substitutes leading to reduced efficacy of the drugs along with loss of faith for use of herbal drugs. Consumers are forced to pay for the material which has never been used for high-cost claimed formulation. The situation is being exploited by manufacturers because regulatory authorities lack the tools (marker compound) needed for identification of authentic plant. Methanolic extract of rhizomes of plant was subjected to column chromatography. Isolated compound has been characterized as (Z)-4-amino-4-oxobut-2-enoic acid (maleamic acid/maleamate/maleic monoamide/maleic acid monoamide) by chemical test, melting point, IR/NMR/mass/UV spectral analysis. It is the first report in Polygonatum genus and can be used as a marker for identification of the plant in market formulations.     

pH-driven conformational switch of "i-motif" DNA for the reversible assembly of gold nanoparticles

Herein we demonstrate that gold nanoparticles conjugated to "i-motif" DNA behave like a pH dependent switch that undergoes reversible aggregations which can be easily visualized by the naked eye.     

Performance evaluation of the phase encoded optical CDMA system

Recently, there has been increasing interest in field of Optical CDMA due to its potential for offering unmatched features at ultra high data rates in field of local and metro area networks. In this paper, a very simple method of Optical CDMA encoding known as the Temporal Phase Encoding is discussed and the performance of the system with this encoding technique is evaluated on the basis of number of users, length of the spreading code for 4-phase and 8-phases. Simulation results for the system are presented for upto seven users. Bit error rate curves are plotted with data rate of 1 Gbps. This has been found that performance improves if normalized threshold higher than 0.5 is used.     

The luminescence properties of 2-isopropoxyphenyl-N-methyl carbamate

The fluorescence and phosphorescence properties of 2-isopropoxy phenyl-N-methyl carbamate, [formula (I)], have been studied in polar and non-polar solvents, at room temperature

and at 77 K. The fluorescence quantum yield of (I) in cyclohexane at room temperature, and the ratio of phosphorescence to fluorescence yield in three solvents at 77 K have been determined. Polarization studies have been carried out on both the fluorescence and phosphorescence emission. Phosphorescent lifetimes, τ_p, have been measured in various solvents and were found to be non-single exponential in all cases. The data provides an understanding of the excitation and emission processes in (I) and should be of use in the developement of spectral techniques for the detection of this molecule.     

160 Gbps S-band WDM transmission system over 1400 km using ITUT-652a and ITUT-655 fibers with low dispersion accumulation

Dispersion accumulation with the distance effects optical WDM system's performance severely. For every modulation format used there is a limit on maximum transmission distance due to dispersion accumulation. So dispersion compensation is required. But dispersion compensation can be avoided to a large extent by alternatively using different fiber standards. In this paper it has been proposed that the dispersion accumulation can be reduced to a large extent by alternatively transmitting in S-band and using fiber standards ITUT-652a and ITUT-655. To validate the claim, performance of a 16 channel 10 Gbps WDM system with the proposed method has been analyzed in terms of BER and Q-factor. And it has been observed that with the proposed scheme without any dispersion compensation the system performs well up to 1400 km.     

Toward reliable gold nanoparticle patterning on self-assembled DNA nanoscaffold

Assembly of gold nanoparticles (AuNP) into designer architectures with reliablity is important for nanophotonics and nanoelectronics applications. Toward this goal we present a new strategy to prepare AuNPs monofunctionalized with lipoic acid modified DNA oligos. This strategy offers increased bonding strength between DNA oligos and AuNP surface. These conjugates are further selectively mixed with other DNA strands and assembled into fixed sized DNA nanostructures carring a discrete number of AuNPs at desired positions. Atomic force microscopy imaging reveals a dramatically improved yield of the AuNPs on DNA tile structure compared to the ensembles using monothiolate AuNP-DNA conjugates.