Fluoropolymer Nanosheet as a Wrapping Mount for High‐Quality Tissue Imaging

In the field of biological microscopy technology, it is still a practical challenge to obtain high‐quality tissue images, due to the tissue desiccation that occurs during observations without an effective sample mounting. Inspired by the use of plastic food wrap, this study proposes the use of polymer thin films (also known as nanosheets) to fix the tissue samples. Water‐repellent nanosheets composed of the amorphous fluoropolymer CYTOP are prepared with adjustable thicknesses and their hydrophobicity, transparency, and adhesion strength are evaluated. They show excellent water‐retention effect and work well for sample fixation. By wrapping cleared mouse brain slices with a 133 nm thick CYTOP nanosheet, this study achieves high spatial resolution neuron images while scanning over a large area for a long period of time. No visible artifacts arising from sample shrinkage can be detected. This study also expects that nanosheet wrapping could be effective over a longer time span by combination with conventional agarose embedding.     

25th Anniversary Article: Charge Transport and Recombination in Polymer Light‐Emitting Diodes

This article reviews the basic physical processes of charge transport and recombination in organic semiconductors. As a workhorse, LEDs based on a single layer of poly(p‐phenylene vinylene) (PPV) derivatives are used. The hole transport in these PPV derivatives is governed by trap‐free space‐charge‐limited conduction, with the mobility depending on the electric field and charge‐carrier density. These dependencies are generally described in the framework of hopping transport in a Gaussian density of states distribution. The electron transport on the other hand is orders of magnitude lower than the hole transport. The reason is that electron transport is hindered by the presence of a universal electron trap, located at 3.6 eV below vacuum with a typical density of ca. 3 × 10¹⁷ cm^?3. The trapped electrons recombine with free holes via a non‐radiative trap‐assisted recombination process, which is a competing loss process with respect to the emissive bimolecular Langevin recombination. The trap‐assisted recombination in disordered organic semiconductors is governed by the diffusion of the free carrier (hole) towards the trapped carrier (electron), similar to the Langevin recombination of free carriers where both carriers are mobile. As a result, with the charge‐carrier mobilities and amount of trapping centers known from charge‐transport measurements, the radiative recombination as well as loss processes in disordered organic semiconductors can be fully predicted. Evidently, future work should focus on the identification and removing of electron traps. This will not only eliminate the non‐radiative trap‐assisted recombination, but, in addition, will shift the recombination zone towards the center of the device, leading to an efficiency improvement of more than a factor of two in single‐layer polymer LEDs.     

The charge transport properties of a-Si:H thin films under hydrostatic pressure

Time resolved thermoelectric effects (TTE) were used to simultaneously determine trap levels and trap state density differences in amorphous (a-Si:H) samples. In particular, the trap state density differences are obtained from the decay of the ambipolar charge distribution, i.e. stage 2 of the TTE transients. The trap state difference density is measured under hydrostatic pressures, up to 2.2 kbar. The trap state density difference changes from a negative peak to a positive peak with increasing hydrostatic pressure, suggesting a significant pressure induced shift of the electron and hole trap levels.     

Nanoscale paul trapping of a single electron

We demonstrate that a Paul trap made up of four conducting nanotubes is capable of trapping a single electron. In addition to the size, the major differences between such a nano-trap and its macroscopic analogue are that the electron is treated as a quantum object and that its effect ("back reaction") on the trapping device cannot be ignored. We computationally demonstrate focusing and trapping of an electronic wave packet, while fully accounting for the image charges induced by the electron on the nanotubes. The electron image charge interaction significantly affects the electron dynamics, and thus the trap stability. An (entangled) set of trapped electrons offers a number of advantages for quantum information processing.     

Electron capture dissociation in a radio frequency ion trap

We report on the first evidence of electron capture dissociation (ECD) in a radio frequency (rf) ion trap. Peptide ions, [substance P]2+, trapped in a two-dimensional, linear rf ion trap were cleaved by electrons injected along the central axis of the trap. Along the axis, the rf field component was zero and a magnetic field of 50 mT was applied. This electron injection scheme keeps the energy of the electrons below 1 eV, preventing them from heating by the rf field. The present ECD efficiency is approximately 4% by irradiation of electron current of 0.2 microA for 80 ms. ECD in rf traps may open high-throughput and low-cost ECD applications to obtain molecular structure information complementary to collision-induced dissociation.     

The nature of a floating electron

Dynamics of electron solvation at the water surface is studied using extensive ab initio simulations. Calculations have been performed on semi-classical water at 300 K temperature with an excess quantum electron on its surface. It is found that after a very fast 30–50 fs initial localization, there follow fast 50–70 fs rotationally mediated transitions of the excess electron between surface trap states with a lifetime of 150–400 fs. In less then 2 ps the excess electron gets trapped in an ordered “floating” electron state on the surface of water with a lifetime of more than 7 ps. The excess electron diffusion coefficient and spectrum of its velocity autocorrelation function change over time to reflect a transition from a very mobile phase (first 2 ps) to a trapped “floating” electron phase (2–7 ps).     

空间电荷聚合物驻极体材料的压电效应

自20世纪70年代空间电荷驻极体压电性概念被提出以来,开发新的聚合物压电材料一直是驻极体界研究的热点.这类材料的压电效应产生机制与传统的极性聚合物压电材料不同,是由于空间电荷在机械应力的作用下非对称性地向电极移动所致.本文从理论和实验两方面,对具有闭合型或开放型空洞结构和"软"、"硬"复合有机聚合物驻极体压电膜的研究现状进行了综述,并对进一步开展这类材料的研究提出了看法.     

Laser Heating Tunability by Off‐Resonant Irradiation of Gold Nanoparticles

Temperature changes in the vicinity of a single absorptive nanostructure caused by local heating have strong implications in technologies such as integrated electronics or biomedicine. Herein, the temperature changes in the vicinity of a single optically trapped spherical Au nanoparticle encapsulated in a thermo‐responsive poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) shell (Au@pNIPAM) are studied in detail. Individual beads are trapped in a counter‐propagating optical tweezers setup at various laser powers, which allows the overall particle size to be tuned through the phase transition of the thermo‐responsive shell. The experimentally obtained sizes measured at different irradiation powers are compared with average size values obtained by dynamic light scattering (DLS) from an ensemble of beads at different temperatures. The size range and the tendency to shrink upon increasing the laser power in the optical trap or by increasing the temperature for DLS agree with reasonable accuracy for both approaches. Discrepancies are evaluated by means of simple models accounting for variations in the thermal conductivity of the polymer, the viscosity of the aqueous solution and the absorption cross section of the coated Au nanoparticle. These results show that these parameters must be taken into account when considering local laser heating experiments in aqueous solution at the nanoscale. Analysis of the stability of the Au@pNIPAM particles in the trap is also theoretically carried out for different particle sizes.     

Optical trapping of fluorescent beads

Optical tweezers have been successfully used to trap a variety of particles and biological specimens for numerous applications. Particles which are reflective as well as absorbing could be trapped using beams such as optical vortex. Here we give the details of our efforts to trap fluorescent microparticles. We have set up an optical trap for these fluorescent microparticles using holographic optical tweezers; we observe that it is not possible to trap fluorescent microparticles with a Gaussian laser beam or a hollow beam. However, as the fluorescence of these particles gets degraded they could be trapped in custom-made holographic tweezers. Moreover, when a fluorescent particle is brought in the trap containing stably trapped non-fluorescent particle, the stably trapped non-fluorescent particle also escapes from the trap.     

ESR and TSL study of hole and electron traps in LuAG:Ce,Mg ceramic scintillator

The process of hole and electron localization in LuAG:Ce,Mg ceramics is studied by electron spin resonance (ESR) and thermally stimulated luminescence (TSL). Hole traps, which are created by UV irradiation, are detected in the form of O⁻ centers. Mg-perturbed variants of O⁻ centers are proposed to exist. The thermal stability of such defects is studied, proving that they are stable up to room temperature. The interaction between O⁻ centers and shallow electron traps is studied by thermally stimulated luminescence (TSL) and phosphorescence experiments, which reveal the occurrence of an a-thermal tunneling process between trapped electrons and randomly distributed Ce centers. By correlating the TSL-derived trap parameters and temperature dependent ESR intensities, it is found that O⁻ centers compete with Ce centers in free electron capture.     

异丙醇处理对熔喷聚丙烯驻极体空气净化材料性能和结构的影响

本文通过测试过滤效率和阻力、热刺激放电谱、X射线衍射谱以及扫描电镜观测,研究了异丙醇浸泡和熏蒸对材料驻极体性能及微观结构的影响。结果表明,异丙醇浸泡与熏蒸都可以使材料中的电荷完全消失,但不会影响材料的晶相结构。浸泡后材料的剩余过滤效率比熏蒸后的高。浸泡与熏蒸对材料过滤阻力的影响不大。     

Grafting of ion-imprinted polymers on the surface of silica gel particles through covalently surface-bound initiators: a selective sorbent for uranyl ion

A new ion imprinted polymer coated silica gel sorbent has been prepared using the radical "grafting from" polymerization method through surface-bound azo initiators for selective uranyl uptake. The introduction of azo initiator onto the silica surface was achieved by the reaction of surface amino groups with 4,4'-azobis(4-cyanopentanoic acid chloride). The grafting step was then carried out in a stirred solution of initiator-modified silica particles in the presence of uranyl ion and functional and cross-linking monomers. The prepared sorbent was characterized using FT-IR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), elemental analysis (EA), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and BET adsorption isotherm analysis. The influence of the uranyl concentration, pH, and flow rate of solution on the grafted polymer affinity has been investigated. Maximum uptake of uranyl ion was observed at a pH 3.0. The rebinding behavior of the sorbent has been successfully described by the Langmuir-Freundlich isotherm. The dynamic column capacity of sorbent and enrichment factor for uranyl ion were 52.9 +/- 3.4 micromol g(-1) and 52, respectively. It was found that imprinting results in increased affinity of the sorbent toward uranyl ion over strong competitor metal ions such as Fe(III) and Th(IV). The sorbent was repeatedly used and regenerated for 3 months without any significant decrease in polymer binding affinities. Finally the sorbent was applied to the preconcentration and determination of uranyl ion in real water samples.     

Influence of polymer-blend morphology on charge transport and photocurrent generation in donor-acceptor polymer blends

Monte Carlo algorithms are used to simulate the morphologies adopted by polymer chains in a polymer-blend film in the limits where the chains are mutually attractive (homophilic regime) and mutually repulsive (heterophilic regime) and then to simulate the drift transport of charges through the polymer chains. In the homophilic regime, chains aggregate into tangled domains resulting in a relatively high percolation threshold, a high density of configurational trap states, and slow, dispersive charge transport. In the heterophilic regime at the same polymer volume fraction, chains self-organize into a lacework pattern resulting in a low percolation threshold and efficient, trap-free charge transport. For homophilic morphologies interchain hopping is rate-limiting and mobility is insensitive to chain length, whereas for heterophilic morphologies intrachain transport is important and mobility increases with increasing chain length. The morphologies are used in simulations of photocurrent quantum efficiency for donor-acceptor blend photodiodes, which show that the effects of morphology on charge pair generation and recombination compete with the effect on transport, such that the optimum blend composition is sensitive to both morphology and recombination rate. We conclude that it is essential to consider the connectivity of and morphology adopted by polymer chains in the optimization of materials for organic solar cells.     

Determination of Energy Levels in AgBr Emulsion Crystals from Optical Measurements

The width of the forbidden energy gap and the position of the top of the valence band cannot be determined as precisely for AgBr at room temperature as for many ionic crystals. Some choices for these parameters, which are necessarily arbitrary, are given here to provide good agreement with the variety of optical and photographic measurements made with small AgBr crystals. Changes of the energy levels with temperature, iodide incorporation, and the presence of surfaces were measured. Surface states located at lattice ions are too shallow to act as electron traps or to be detected in our optical absorption experiments. Luminescence of pure AgBr was investigated at 77°K. The luminescence centre is at an electron trap which is 0.75 eV below the bottom of the conduction band. This centre, which is stable when formed by exposures at 77°K, is the same as the unstable latent image centre at room temperature investigated by Webb and is thought to be a single electron trapped at two silver ions. The stable latent image centre at 300°K has an electron trap depth of 1.20 eV. which is precisely the Fermi level in bulk silver.     

Disruption of the stationary state and electrical breakdown in amorphous dielectrics II. Ionic dielectrics

A phenomenological model is proposed for ionic dielectrics which describes the condition for disruption of the stationary state of conduction electrons emitted from localized sites in the high mobility band and accelerated up to the energy of avalanche ionization. It is found that the electric strength of amorphous ionic dielectrics decreases with increase in film thickness and temperature. The influence of the intensity of interaction of delocalized electrons with optical phonons in polar amorphous dielectrics, the character of the interconnection of an electron with a trap and the correlation between the states on electrical breakdown are investigated.     

Effect of the mechanical activation of fillers on the parameters of thermostimulated current in polymer composites

The influence of the mechanical activation of powdered fillers on the character of thermoactivation processes in polymer composites involving these fillers has been studied. It is demonstrated that thermostimulated current spectroscopy is a promising method for investigating the interaction of fillers with polymer matrices in electret compositions.     

Effect of magnetic barrier on the plasma parameters in a Trimix-M galatea

The parameters of plasma trapped in a Trimix-M galatea with increased values of the magnetic barrier and the energy of a hydrogen plasma bunch injected in the trap have been determined. For a barrier magnetic field of B _b ～ 0.1 T, the plasma confinement time in the trap is τ_p ≈ 300 μs (which agrees with estimates obtained using formulas describing the classical transfer), the maximum electron density is n _e ～ 5 × 10¹³ cm^?3, and the electron and ion temperatures are T _e ≈ 20 eV and T _i ～ 2T _e, respectively. The energy of trapped plasma is ～110 J, and the ratio of the gaskinetic to magnetic pressure in the plasma is β₀ ～ 0.2.     

Thermal conductivity of Tecamax® SRP from millikelvin temperatures to room temperature

Tecamax® SRP (self-reinforced polyphenylene) is a new commercially available amorphous polymer which is suitable for use at cryogenic temperatures. It has a high tensile strength (210 MPa at room temperature), resulting from the molecular structure of the polymer rather than by the addition of reinforcing materials. We have measured the thermal conductivity between 60 mK and 280 K. We find that the conductivity below 10 K is similar to, but lower than, most amorphous materials, and the material offers a good combination of low conductivity at low temperatures and high tensile strength. Our results suggest that the material may in fact have a small crystalline component, which may be a partial explanation for the low conductivity. Above 10 K, the temperature dependence of the conductivity is different from most amorphous materials. We are unaware of previous measurements of the thermal conductivity of this material, even at room temperature.     

Dose dependences of radiation induced yield in mixed radiation fields

A theoretical model that describes dose dependences of trap filling (radiation yield) in mixed radiation fields consisting of two components is proposed. The model consists of one type of electron traps and one type of hole traps and assumes as an initial step the creation of two types of tracks, each represented by some volume with a uniform electron-hole pair density, different for each track. The relaxation process that follows comprises interband recombination, trapping of electrons and holes, and recombination of electrons with trapped holes and of holes with trapped electrons. These processes result in filled traps in amounts depending on the absorbed dose in the track and the number and types of tracks created in a given region of irradiated matter. The summation over the matter with areas of different degrees of overlapping (assuming poisson distribution of the created tracks), gives expressions for the dependences of trap filling as a function of doses for separated and simultaneous irradiation. It is shown that the key parameters determining the behaviour of the dose dependences are the ratios between the doses in the separated tracks and the average doses delivered on the irradiated matter by the separated components of the mixed field. If the ratios of the average dose to the track dose are low, the dose dependences will be linear. In the opposite limiting case the dose dependencies go to saturation. The linear and additive approximations of dose dependences in a mixed field are valid at low doses only.     

Fourier transform time-of-flight mass spectrometry in an electrostatic ion beam trap

We report on the application of an electrostatic ion beam trap as a mass spectrometer. The instrument is analogous to an optical resonator; ions are trapped between focusing mirrors. The storage time is limited by the residual gas pressure and reaches up to several seconds, resulting in long ion flight paths. The oscillation of ion bunches between the mirrors is monitored by nondestructive image charge detection in a field-free region and mass spectra are obtained via Fourier transform. The principle of operation is demonstrated by measuring the mass spectrum of trapped Ar+ and Xe+ particles, produced by a standard electron impact ion source. Also, mass spectra of heavier PEGnNa+ and bradykinin ions from a pulsed MALDI ion source were obtained. The long ion flight path, combined with mass-independent charge detection, makes this system particularly interesting for the investigation of large molecules.