Alleviation of Osmotic Stress Effects by Exogenous Application of Salicylic or Abscisic Acid on Wheat Seedlings

The aim of the study was to assess the role of salicylic acid (SA) and abscisic acid (ABA) in osmotic stress tolerance of wheat seedlings. This was accomplished by determining the impact of the acids applied exogenously on seedlings grown under osmotic stress in hydroponics. The investigation was unique in its comprehensiveness, examining changes under osmotic stress and other conditions, and testing a number of parameters simultaneously. In both drought susceptible (SQ1) and drought resistant (CS) wheat cultivars, significant physiological and biochemical changes were observed upon the addition of SA (0.05 mM) or ABA (0.1 μM) to solutions containing half-strength Hoagland medium and PEG 6000 (−0.75 MPa). The most noticeable result of supplementing SA or ABA to the medium (PEG + SA and PEG + ABA) was a decrease in the length of leaves and roots in both cultivars. While PEG treatment reduced gas exchange parameters, chlorophyll content in CS, and osmotic potential, and conversely, increased lipid peroxidation, soluble carbohydrates in SQ1, proline content in both cultivars and total antioxidants activity in SQ1, PEG + SA or PEG + ABA did not change the values of these parameters. Furthermore, PEG caused a two-fold increase of endogenous ABA content in SQ1 and a four-fold increase in CS. PEG + ABA increased endogenous ABA only in SQ1, whereas PEG + SA caused a greater increase of ABA content in both cultivars compared to PEG. In PEG-treated plants growing until the harvest, a greater decrease of yield components was observed in SQ1 than in CS. PEG + SA, and particularly PEG + ABA, caused a greater increase of these yield parameters in CS compared to SQ1. In conclusion, SA and ABA ameliorate, particularly in the tolerant wheat cultivar, the harmful effects and after effects of osmotic stress induced by PEG in hydroponics through better osmotic adjustment achieved by an increase in proline and carbohydrate content as well as by an increase in antioxidant activity.     

Effects of grain size and grain boundaries on defect production in nanocrystalline 3C–SiC

Cascade simulations in single crystal and nanocrystalline SiC have been conducted in order to determine the role of grain boundaries and grain size on defect production during primary radiation damage. Cascades are performed with 4 and 10 keV silicon as the primary knock-on atom (PKA). Total defect production is found to increase with decreasing grain size, and this effect is shown to be due to increased production in grain boundaries and changing grain boundary volume fraction. In order to consider in-grain defect production, a new mapping methodology is developed to properly normalize in-grain defect production rates for nanocrystalline materials. It is shown that the presence of grain boundaries does not affect the total normalized in-grain defect production significantly (the changes are lower than ～20%) for the PKA energies considered. Defect production in the single grain containing the PKA is also studied and found to increase for smaller grain sizes. In particular, for smaller grain sizes the defect production decreases with increasing distance from the grain boundary while for larger grain sizes the presence of the grain boundaries has negligible effect on defect production. The results suggest that experimentally observed changes in radiation resistance of nanocrystalline materials may be due to long-term damage evolution rather than changes in defect production rates from primary damage.     

Quantitative determination of degree of conversion in photocured poly(urethane‐dimethacrylate)s by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

In this work, infrared spectroscopy was used to characterize the degree of double bonds conversion (DC) in six series of poly(urethane‐dimethacrylate)s, derived from dicarbamates of oligoethylene glycols monomethacrylates and aliphatic, cycloaliphatic and aromatic diisocyanates. To evaluate the degree of conversion in polymers devoid of aromatic moieties, two methods of calculation have been proposed: internal band ratio method, with carbonyl stretching vibrations as a standard, and a method involving the direct observation of the decrease in the intensity of C?C stretching band. The validity of these methods has been checked on polymers with aromatic structures, by comparing the results with those obtained by the internal band ratio method applying an aromatic band as a reference. A good correlation between the degree of conversion from two internal standard methods, using aromatic band and carbonyl band as references, was obtained. It was shown that the degree of conversion increases as the number of oxyethylene units increases. Polymerization of monomers with aliphatic cores resulted in higher DC values, while those with cycloaliphatic and aromatic cores—resulted in lower DC values. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012     

Morpholinium-based ionic liquid mixtures as electrolytes in electrochemical double layer capacitors

Butyl-Methyl-Morpholinium bis(trifluoromethanesulphonyl)imide [ButMetMor][TFSI] and Ethyl-Methyl-Morpholinum bis(trifluoromethanesulphonyl)imide [EtMetMor][TFSI] and their mixtures with propylene carbonate (PC) were investigated as potential electrolytes in an electrochemical double layer capacitor (EDLC). Temperature dependencies of conductivity and electrochemical stability windows of ionic liquids (ILs) as well as their mixtures were determined. PC mixtures give higher conductivity with maximum ca. 1:4 (IL:PC) molar rate. Temperature dependencies of conductivity follow the Arrhenius type, showing higher energy activation for neat ILs rather than for mixtures. The EDLC was constructed based on activated carbon cloth (ACC, Kynol^®) ca. 2000 m² g^?1 and IL:PC mixture giving specific capacitance of ca. 100–120 F g^?1.     

Reduction and functionalization of graphene oxide sheets using biomimetic dopamine derivatives in one step

An easy and environmentally friendly chemical method for the simultaneous reduction and noncovalent functionalization of graphene oxide (GO) using dopamine derivatives is described. The reaction takes place at room temperature under ultrasonication of an aqueous suspension of GO and a dopamine derivative. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy, and cyclic voltammetry characterizations revealed that the resulting material consists of graphene functionalized with the dopamine derivative. This one-step protocol is applied for simultaneous reduction and functionalization of graphene oxide with a dopamine derivative bearing an azide function. The chemical reactivity of the azide function was demonstrated by a postfunctionalization with ethynylferrocene using the Cu(I) catalyzed 1,3-dipolar cyloaddition.     

Statistical optimization of industrial textile wastewater treatment by electrochemical methods

In this work, the Box–Behnken experimental design and the surface response methodology were applied for the optimization of the operational conditions of the electro-catalytic degradation of wastewaters, resulting from a local textile industry. The experiments were carried out in a laboratory scale batch cell reactor, with monopolar configuration, and electrodes made of boron-doped diamond (anode) and titanium (cathode). The multifactorial experimental design included the following variables: current density (i: 5–10 mA/cm²), pH (3–7), and submerged cathode area (CA: 8–24 cm²). To determine the process efficiency, the degradation percentage of: the chemical oxygen demand (%DCOD), the total organic carbon (%DTOC) and the color (%DC) were defined as response variables. The following optimal conditions for the electro-oxidation (EO) process were obtained: i = 10 mA/cm², pH = 3 and CA = 16 cm², reaching ca. 92 % of DC, 37 % of DCOD and 31 % of DTOC. The electro-Fenton (EF) and photo-electro-Fenton (PEF) processes were also evaluated at EO optimal conditions. For the EF process, with addition of iron (0.3 mM), the %DC, %DCOD and %DTOC was enhanced to 95, 52 and 45 %, respectively. For the PEF process (UV = 365 nm), it was possible to reach 98 %DC, 56 %DCOD and 48 %DTOC.     

Effect of adsorption of organic solvents on the band profiles in reversed-phase non-linear chromatography

The influence of the mobile phase composition on the adsorption equilibria in non-linear reversed-phase chromatography has been investigated. RP-18 and RP-18 endcapped columns have been selected with methanol-water and acetonitrile-water as a mobile phase and cyclopentanone as a solute. Due to its structure, cyclopentanone exhibited affinity to the active adsorption sites on alkyl chains as well as to the polar, uncovered surface of the adsorbent. The adsorption equilibria of solvents—methanol-water, acetonitrile-water on RP-18 and RP-18e columns—have been measured and the excess adsorption isotherms accounting for non-ideality of the mobile and adsorbed phase have been determined. The competitive heterogeneous adsorption model for the solute and organic solvent has been proposed and coupled with a model of column dynamics. The model predictions have been verified by comparison to experimental chromatograms.     

Reconfiguration of Amorphous Complex Oxides: A Route to a Broad Range of Assembly Phenomena,Hybrid Materials,and Novel Functionalities

Reconfiguration of amorphous complex oxides provides a readily controllable source of stress that can be leveraged in nanoscale assembly to access a broad range of 3D geometries and hybrid materials. An amorphous SrTiO₃ layer on a Si:B/Si_1?xGe_x:B heterostructure is reconfigured at the atomic scale upon heating, exhibiting a change in volume of ≈2% and accompanying biaxial stress. The Si:B/Si_1?xGe_x:B bilayer is fabricated by molecular beam epitaxy, followed by sputter deposition of SrTiO₃ at room temperature. The processes yield a hybrid oxide/semiconductor nanomembrane. Upon release from the substrate, the nanomembrane rolls up and has a curvature determined by the stress in the epitaxially grown Si:B/Si_1?xGe_x:B heterostructure. Heating to 600 °C leads to a decrease of the radius of curvature consistent with the development of a large compressive biaxial stress during the reconfiguration of SrTiO₃. The control of stresses via post-deposition processing provides a new route to the assembly of complex-oxide-based heterostructures in 3D geometry. The reconfiguration of metastable mechanical stressors enables i) synthesis of various types of strained superlattice structures that cannot be fabricated by direct growth and ii) technologies based on strain engineering of complex oxides via highly scalable lithographic processes and on large-area semiconductor substrates.