Decorating surface charge of graphite nanoplate using an electrostatic coupling agent for 3-dimensional polymer nanocomposite

Here, we report a facile approach to electrostatically couple the surface charges of graphite nanoplate (GNP) fillers and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) polymer particles using ethylene maleic anhydride (EMA) copolymer as an electrostatic coupling agent. Our strategy involved switching the intrinsic repulsive electrostatic interactions between the directly exfoliated GNPs fillers and the PMMA particles to attractive electrostatic surface interactions for preparing core(PMMA)-shell (GNP) precursor in order to optimizing 3-dimensionally dispersed polymer nanocomposite. As a result, the electrical conductivity of the composites dramatically increased by a factor of 16.7 in the EMA-coupled GNP/PMMA composites compared with that of the EMA-free GNP/PMMA composites. In addition, the percolation threshold was also notably reduced from 0.32 to 0.159 vol% after electrostatic coupling of the GNPs fillers and PMMA particles. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020 , 137, 48390.     

A Simple and Effective Mass Spectrometric Approach to Identify the Adulteration of the Mediterranean Diet Component Extra-Virgin Olive Oil with Corn Oil

Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) with its nutraceutical characteristics substantially contributes as a major nutrient to the health benefit of the Mediterranean diet. Unfortunately, the adulteration of EVOO with less expensive oils (e.g., peanut and corn oils), has become one of the biggest source of agricultural fraud in the European Union, with important health implications for consumers, mainly due to the introduction of seed oil-derived allergens causing, especially in children, severe food allergy phenomena. In this regard, revealing adulterations of EVOO is of fundamental importance for health care and prevention reasons, especially in children. To this aim, effective analytical methods to assess EVOO purity are necessary. Here, we propose a simple, rapid, robust and very sensitive method for non-specialized mass spectrometric laboratory, based on the matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) coupled to unsupervised hierarchical clustering (UHC), principal component (PCA) and Pearson’s correlation analyses, to reveal corn oil (CO) adulterations in EVOO at very low levels (down to 0.5%).     

Preparation and characterization of Fe‐Tetranitro phthalocyanine/polyurethane blends

In this article, Fe‐Tetranitro phthalocyanine (Fe‐TNPc)/polyurethane (PU) blends were prepared by solution blending. The mechanical properties of the samples were studied by tensile tests. The results showed that the tensile strength and the elongation at break of the samples increased with increasing Fe‐TNPc content. The improved mechanical properties for the samples containing Fe‐TNPc was attributed to the increased microphase separation degree of PU, which was further investigated by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and Fourier transform infrared analysis. The lower T_g of the soft segments and the higher T_g of the hard segments for the samples containing Fe‐TNPc indicated an increase of microphase separation degree of PU. The increased hydrogen bonded carbonyl groups in the samples with increasing Fe‐TNPc content also proved the conclusion. Quantitative evaluation of the interaction between Fe‐TNPc and PU was also investigated by analyzing the physical crosslinking density of the samples. The results indicated that the physical crosslinking density of the samples increased with increasing Fe‐TNPc content. The antibacterial properties of the samples were investigated. The results showed that the percentage bacterial inactivation toward S. aureus and E. coli of the samples were 98.9% and 90.9%, respectively, when Fe‐TNPc was added to 1%. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 41284.     

The organization of biological sequences into constrained and unconstrained parts determines fundamental properties of genotype–phenotype maps

Biological information is stored in DNA, RNA and protein sequences, which can be understood as genotypes that are translated into phenotypes. The properties of genotype–phenotype (GP) maps have been studied in great detail for RNA secondary structure. These include a highly biased distribution of genotypes per phenotype, negative correlation of genotypic robustness and evolvability, positive correlation of phenotypic robustness and evolvability, shape-space covering, and a roughly logarithmic scaling of phenotypic robustness with phenotypic frequency. More recently similar properties have been discovered in other GP maps, suggesting that they may be fundamental to biological GP maps, in general, rather than specific to the RNA secondary structure map. Here we propose that the above properties arise from the fundamental organization of biological information into ‘constrained'' and ‘unconstrained'' sequences, in the broadest possible sense. As ‘constrained'' we describe sequences that affect the phenotype more immediately, and are therefore more sensitive to mutations, such as, e.g. protein-coding DNA or the stems in RNA secondary structure. ‘Unconstrained'' sequences, on the other hand, can mutate more freely without affecting the phenotype, such as, e.g. intronic or intergenic DNA or the loops in RNA secondary structure. To test our hypothesis we consider a highly simplified GP map that has genotypes with ‘coding'' and ‘non-coding'' parts. We term this the Fibonacci GP map, as it is equivalent to the Fibonacci code in information theory. Despite its simplicity the Fibonacci GP map exhibits all the above properties of much more complex and biologically realistic GP maps. These properties are therefore likely to be fundamental to many biological GP maps.     

无源光网络标准发展及关键技术研究

无源光网络(Passive Optical Network,PON)作为当今接入网的主要技术解决方案,具有带宽使用效率高、传输距离远、抗干扰能力强等特点.通过研究PON技术的发展动态,本文首先归纳了各种PON技术的产生背景和应用特点,整理出各技术间的连接关系及主要标准;其次介绍了PON技术的帧结构,并对带宽、波长、传输模式等PON技术的主要参数进行了汇总;然后将国内外研究热点进行划分,围绕媒体访问控制协议、帧结构、动态带宽分配算法、节能机制等关键技术,阐述了其研究现状及在PON中的重要作用;最后对PON技术的发展趋势进行了展望.     

Sequence-Dependent Nanofiber Structures of Phenylalanine and Isoleucine Tripeptides

The molecular design of short peptides to achieve a tailor-made functional architecture has attracted attention during the past decade but remains challenging as a result of insufficient understanding of the relationship between peptide sequence and assembled supramolecular structures. We report a hybrid-resolution model to computationally explore the sequence–structure relationship of self-assembly for tripeptides containing only phenylalanine and isoleucine. We found that all these tripeptides have a tendency to assemble into nanofibers composed of laterally associated filaments. Molecular arrangements within the assemblies are diverse and vary depending on the sequences. This structural diversity originates from (1) distinct conformations of peptide building blocks that lead to different surface geometries of the filaments and (2) unique sidechain arrangements at the filament interfaces for each sequence. Many conformations are available for tripeptides in solution, but only an extended β-strand and another resembling a right-handed turn are observed in assemblies. It was found that the sequence dependence of these conformations and the packing of resulting filaments are determined by multiple competing noncovalent forces, with hydrophobic interactions involving Phe being particularly important. The sequence pattern for each type of assembly conformation and packing has been identified. These results highlight the importance of the interplay between conformation, molecular packing, and sequences for determining detailed nanostructures of peptides and provide a detailed insight to support a more precise design of peptide-based nanomaterials.     

Tuning effect of silicon substitution on magnetic and high frequency electromagnetic properties of R2Fe17 and their composites

In this work, we report the tuning effect of the Si substitution on the magnetic and high frequency electromagnetic properties of R₂Fe₁₇ compounds and their paraffin composites. It is found that the introduction of Si can remarkably improve the magnetic and electromagnetic properties of the R₂Fe₁₇ compounds, making the R₂Fe_17–xSi_x-paraffin composites excellent microwave absorption materials (MAMs). By introducing the Si element, their saturation magnetizations decrease slightly, while much higher Curie temperatures are obtained. Furthermore, better impedance match is reached due to the decrease of the high-frequency permittivity ε′ by about 40%–50%, which finally enhances the performance of the microwave absorption. The peak frequency (f_RL) of the reflection loss (RL) curve moves toward high frequency domain and the qualified bandwidth (QB, RL ≤ ?10 dB) increases remarkably. The maximum QB of 3.3 GHz (12.0–15.3 GHz) is obtained for the Sm_1.5Y_0.5Fe₁₅Si₂-paraffin composite (d = 1.0 mm) and the maximum RL of ?53.6 dB is achieved for Nd₂Fe₁₅Si₂-paraffin composite (d = 2.2 mm), both surpassing most of the reported MAMs. Additionally, a distinguished dielectric microwave absorption peak is observed, which further increases the QB in these composites.     

Structural,electrical, optical and dielectric properties of yttrium substituted cadmium ferrites prepared by Co-Precipitation method

The yttrium substituted cadmium ferrites having composition Cd_1-xY_xFe₂O₄ (X = 0.00, 0.125, 0.250, 0.375, 0.500) were synthesized by the co-precipitation method and sintered at 1100 °C for 6 h. Structural, morphological, electrical, optical and dielectric characteristics were explored by XRD, SEM, EDS, FTIR, I–V two probes, UV–Vis and LCR techniques.XRD results confirmed the cubic structure of spinel ferrites. A decrease in lattice constants of the prepared samples was observed with the substitution of Y ions and was attributed to the difference in ionic radii of Y³⁺ (0.95 Å) and Cd²⁺ (0.97 Å) ions. Cationic distributions, ionic radii of both tetrahedral and octahedral sites, tolerance factor, oxygen positional parameters, bond lengths, interatomic distances, positional parameters and bond length angles were calculated from XRD data. The morphology of the prepared ferrites was studied using SEM and results ratified the XRD results. EDS confirmed the presence of all inserted elements in Cd_1-xY_xFe₂O₄ composition. DC resistivity and drift mobility of soft-ferrites were found to be increased from 1.047 × 10⁸–4.822 × 10¹⁰ Ω-cm and 5.87 × 10⁻¹² – 1.045 × 10⁻¹⁴ cm²V⁻¹s⁻¹, respectively, at 523 K with yttrium content confirming the behavior of semiconductor materials. The optical band gap energy calculated from the UV–Vis pattern of the Cd_1-xY_xFe₂O₄ system was decreased from 3.6011 to 2.8153 eV. DC resistivity and optical band gaps exposed inverse relation. FTIR results revealed lower and upper-frequency absorption bands in the ranges of 419.31–417.01 cm⁻¹ and 540.95–565.70 cm⁻¹, respectively. Dielectric constant and dielectric losses were in decreasing order, while ac conductivity revealed rising behavior with increasing frequency. Results showed the potential of yttrium doped Cd nanoferrites for applications in high-frequency microwave absorbing devices.     

Influence of deposition parameters on surface morphology and application of CuInS2 thin films in solar cell and photocatalysis

Copper indium disulfide (CuInS₂) thin films as an absorption layer for solar cell and photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants, were successfully electrodeposited on the FTO coated glass substrate using the simple and inexpensive electrodeposition method and a sulfurization process. The effects of the Cu/In molar ratio, annealing temperature and kind of Cu²⁺ precursor (Cu(salen) and Cu(acac)₂ as novel Cu²⁺ precursors) on the structural and morphological properties of samples were examined. The XRD diffraction patterns and energy dispersive spectroscopy measurements exhibit that high-quality film with superior crystalline structure was formed in the presence of Cu(salen) as Cu²⁺ precursor. Also, we found that a suitable heat treatment temperature could suppress the CuS phases and form well-crystallized CIS. As we know, this is the first reported efficiency for any CuInS₂ superstrate solar cell to date that fabricated using Cu(salen) as Cu²⁺ precursor. In addition, the photocatalytic degradation of organic dye in the presence of as-synthesized CuInS₂ thin films was studied. The as-prepared semiconductor photocatalysts have a good reusability; it can be successfully reused for 5 times recycling photoactivity tests.