Reductive solvothermal synthesis of MgMn2O4 spinel nanoparticles for Mg-ion battery cathodes

Rechargeable Mg-ion batteries have gained significant attention as promising alternatives to Li-ion batteries. Owing to its high theoretical energy density and relatively high Mg-ion diffusivity, spinel oxide MgMn₂O₄ is a viable candidate as a cathode material; however, its poor rate capability limits its applicability. Decreasing the particle size can effectively address this problem by enhancing Mg-ion diffusion. In this paper, we demonstrate the conventional solvothermal synthesis of MgMn₂O₄ spinel nanoparticles. Solvothermal process is one of the most fundamental methods for nanoparticle synthesis because of its simple and flexible synthetic conditions. In the alcohol solvothermal conditions, spinel type MgMn₂O₄ nanoparticles of approximately 10–15 nm are successfully synthesized using amorphous MnO₂ as a precursor. We note that controlling Mg²⁺ solvation and oxidation/reduction conditions in the reaction solution is crucial for the effective intercalation of Mg²⁺ into the MnO₆ octahedral framework. Although the obtained MgMn₂O₄ nanoparticles aggregate to form submicron secondary particles, the aggregation can be suppressed by compositing them with the carbon nanotubes dispersed in the reaction solution. The composite exhibits a discharge capacity of 60 mAh g^?1 with maintaining 80% of capacity retention after the 10th cycle.     

Durability of the adhesive bond between continuous fibre sheet reinforcements and concrete in an outdoor environment

The authors set out to investigate the durability of the bond between carbon fibre (CF) sheet reinforcement and concrete. They conducted an outdoor exposure test in a moderate climate for 14 years and an immersion test for 6 months on CF sheet bonded to concrete, and then evaluated the adhesive bond properties using the pull-off and peel methods.The pull-off strength slightly decreased after 14 years of exposure, but residual values still indicate quite good adhesive properties. The failure modes for both the initial specimens and the specimens after 14 years of exposure consisted of concrete substrate failures in all cases. This result suggests that the slight decrease in pull-off strength does not necessarily indicate a change in the properties of the bond between CF sheet and concrete. On the other hand, results of the peel tests showed different types of failure modes and seemed more discriminant than those of the pull-off method.As regards specimens immersed in water, pull-off results were in few cases consistent with the peel characterizations, showing significant evolutions in the strength and failure mode. But for most specimens, the two methods provided divergent trends. In the end, this study suggested that the peel test could be relevant for evaluating the durability of the bond between CF sheet and concrete, while the representativeness of the pull-off test remains a matter of discussion.     

Microstructural Characterization of C60-Doped Zirconia

Zirconia powders doped with C₆₀ molecules were prepared from an aqueous solution of zirconium oxynitrate dihydrate, C₆₀ and C₁₆TMA, and sintered at 600°C under 5.5 GPa for 2 h. C₆₀ was found to be retained in the sintered specimens by HRTEM, and carbon was observed to be uniformly dispersed by the SEM-EDX analysis. HRTEM observations of the sintered specimens exhibited the formation of ZrO₂ crystal grains covered with thin graphitic or amorphous carbon films.     

The rapid,living, anionic polymerization of 2‐vinylnaphthalene at ambient temperature: Characterization of an n‐butyllithium/tetrahydrofuran system in 1,2,3,4‐tetrahydronaphthalene

We report the first well‐controlled room temperature anionic polymerization of 2‐vinylnaphthalene (2‐VNP), using alkyllithium (RLi) initiators. The nucleophilicity and solubility of the RLi as well as that of the 2‐vinylnaphthalenyllithium (VNPLi) and poly(2‐vinylnaphthalenyl)lithium (PVNPLi) propagating species were found to be very important factors in this reaction. An initiator system composed of n‐butyllithium (n‐BuLi) with tetrahydrofuran (THF) in 1,2,3,4‐tetrahydronaphthalene (THN) was determined to be the most effective of the various systems examined. The n‐BuLi/THF complex initiates polymerization and the resulting VNPLi/THF and PVNPLi/THF complexes act as propagating species at room temperature. These species offer adequate nucleophilicity and stability without promoting side reactions. As a result, rapid anionic polymerization was achieved. Various poly(2‐VNP) products with well‐defined polymeric chain structures were synthesized by this process at room temperature. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 41901.     

The influence of interlayer molecules in luminescence of self-assembled bilayer PbS quantum dot films

We synthesized organic solvent-soluble and water-soluble PbS quantum dots (QDs) with different sizes. The organic solvent-soluble PbS QDs dispersed in tetrachloroethylene were used to prepare bilayers structures of QDs bound by dithiol linkers on GaAs. The water-soluble PbS QDs were used to prepare bilayer structures of QDs on quartz based on alternating adsorption of polyelectrolyte. For bilayer films on GaAs, it was found that the stacking sequence of QDs affects the quantum yield and emission wavelength of the larger QDs. However, for bilayer films with different stacking sequences on quartz, the larger QDs show similar PL intensities and emission wavelength independent of the sequence. The probable mechanism for this difference observed is discussed in terms of charge transfer between QDs.     

Expression and purification of recombinant human annexin A2 in Pichia pastoris and utility of expression product for detecting annexin A2 antibody

Annexin A2, a Ca2+-dependent phospholipid binding protein, is abundantly expressed in various human organs, which exists as either a membrane-associated, cytosolic or soluble form in serum. We constructed expression systems for recombinant human annexin A2 (rhA2) using Pichia pastoris. The systems are designed to secrete rhA2 as either the N- or C-terminally His6-tagged form to facilitate purification. Both types of rhA2 were overexpressed, but in the N-terminal-truncated form as revealed from the results of N-terminal amino acid sequencing and Western blotting. Therefore, further purification of N-terminally His6-tagged rhA2 was not feasible because of the removal of the N-terminal His6-tag sequence. C-terminally His6-tagged rhA2 was expressed as either a glycosylated or a nonglycosylated form, and the nonglycosylated form was purified using the combination of nickel-immobilized affinity, concanavalin A and cation exchanged column chromatographies. The solid-phase binding of rhA2 was examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), which revealed the specific reactivity of rhA2 against an anti-annexin A2 monoclonal antibody. These results suggest that the expression system using P. pastoris is useful for the preparation of rhA2 that is applicable to the ELISA detection of the anti-annexin A2 antibody.     

Functional Qbeta replicase genetically fusing essential subunits EF-Ts and EF-Tu with beta-subunit

Qbeta replicase, an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of RNA coliphage Qbeta, is a heterotetramer composed of a phage-encoded beta-subunit and three host-encoded proteins: the ribosomal protein S1 (alpha-subunit), EF-Tu, and EF-Ts. Several purification methods for Qbeta replicase were described previously. However, in our efforts to improve the production of Qbeta replicase, a substantial amount of the beta-subunit overproduced in Escherichia coli cells was found as insoluble aggregates. In this paper, we describe two kinds of method of producing Qbeta replicase. In one kind, both EF-Tu and EF-Ts subunits were expressed with the beta-subunit, and in the other kind, the beta-subunit was genetically fused with EF-Tu and EF-Ts. The fused protein, a single-chain alpha-less Qbeta replicase, was mostly found in the soluble fraction and could be readily purified. These results pave the way for the large-scale production of the highly purified form of this enzyme.     

Consistency, frequency, and lexicality effects in naming Japanese Kanji.

Japanese Kanji characters have various degrees of consistency of character-sound correspondences in multicharacter words. A word was classified as consistent, inconsistent typical, or inconsistent atypical with reference to the most typical pronunciations for constituent characters among words sharing the same characters. A nonword was classified as consistent, inconsistent biased, or inconsistent ambiguous according to the degree of pronunciation typicality of its constituent characters in real words. A word-naming experiment yielded a significant Frequency?×?Consistency interaction, and a nonword-naming experiment yielded significant consistency effects. In addition, both word frequency and lexicality exerted strong effects on efficiency of naming Kanji character strings. These results demonstrate the influence of Kanji print-sound correspondences both at subword and whole-word levels. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fetal calf serum-free suspension culture of Chinese hamster ovary cells employing fish serum

The effects of heat treatment and concentration of fish serum (FS) on cell growth in a suspension culture of recombinant Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) 1-15₅₀₀ (ATCC CRL-9606) cells were investigated. An increase in FS concentration from 1% to 4% markedly increased cell density. On the other hand, heat treatment of FS showed nearly no effect on cell density.