Scalable production of graphene sheets by mechanical delamination

Mono- and multilayer graphene sheets have been successfully produced from commercial graphite powder in a wet grinding process under mild milling conditions. The shear forces in the milling chamber lead to a continuous delamination of ultrathin graphene flakes which are dispersed in a liquid medium. To avoid agglomeration of the exfoliated flakes the anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate was used. By adjusting the process parameters in a way to overcome the weak interlayer forces between the sheets without breaking them leads to the fabrication of thin flakes with high aspect ratios. The presented scalable process allows a high-yield and low-cost production of free-standing graphene sheets for various applications.     

Science and technology in the region: The output of regional science and technology, its strengths and its leading institutions

Summary We operationalize scientific output in a region by means of the number of articles (as in the SciSearch database) per year and technology output by means of the number of patent applications (as in the database of the European Patent Office) per priority year. All informetric analyses were done using the DIALOG online-system. The main research questions are the following: Which scientific and technological fields or topics are most influent within a region and which institutions or companies are mainly publishing articles or holding patents? Do the distributions of regional science and technology fields and of publishing institutions follow the well-known informetric function? Are there - as it is expected - only few fields and few institutions which dominate the region? Is there a connection between the economic power of a region and the regional publication and patent output? Examples studied in detail are seven German regions: Aachen, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Köln (Cologne), Leipzig - Halle - Dessau, München (Munich), and Stuttgart. Three different indicators were used, science and technology attraction of a region (number of scientific articles and patents), science and technology intensity (articles and patents per 1,000 inhabitants), and science and technology density (articles and patents per 1 billion EURO gross value added). Top region concerning both attraction and intensity is Munich, concerning density it is Aachen.     

Computer simulation and SERR detection of cytochrome c dynamics at SAM-coated electrodes

In this paper we present a combined experimental and theoretical study of the heterogeneous electron transfer reaction of cytochrome c electrostatically adsorbed on metal electrodes coated with monolayers of 6-mercaptohexanoic acid. Molecular dynamics simulations and pathways calculations show that adsorption of the protein leads to a broad distribution of orientations and, thus, to a correspondingly broad distribution of electron transfer rate constants due to the orientation-dependence of the electronic coupling parameter. The adsorbed protein exhibits significant mobility and, therefore, the measured reaction rate is predicted to be a convolution of protein dynamics and tunnelling probabilities for each orientation. This prediction is confirmed by time-resolved surface enhanced resonance Raman which allows for the direct monitoring of protein (re-)orientation and electron transfer of the immobilised cytochrome c. The results provide a consistent explanation for the non-exponential distance-independence of electron transfer rates usually observed for proteins immobilized on electrodes.     

Microstructure and Compression Strength of Novel TRIP‐Steel/Mg‐PSZ Composites

Novel composites on basis of austenitic stainless TRIP‐steel as matrix with reinforcements of Mg‐PSZ are presented. Compact rods were produced by cold isostatic pressing and sintering, square honeycomb samples by the ceramic extrusion technique. The samples are characterized by optical and scanning electron microscopy before and after deformation, showing the microstructure and the deformation‐ induced martensite formation. The mechanical properties of samples with 5 vol% zirconia are superior compared to zirconia‐free samples and composites with higher zirconia contents in terms of bending and compression tests. The honeycomb samples exhibit extraordinary high specific energy absorption in compression.     

Ferulic acid dehydrodimers as structural elements in cereal dietary fibre

 Investigations on insoluble dietary fibre (IDF) of wheat, rye, barley, oat, maize, rice and millet led to the identification of several new dehydrodimers of ferulic acid (DFA). These compounds arise from 8–8′, 8–5′, 8–O–4′ and 5–5′ coupling. Esterified phenolics were set free by mild alkali hydrolysis, total amounts of phenolics (ester- plus etherified) were determined by alkali hydrolysis under pressure. Phenolic acids were analysed by gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (GC-MS) as their trimethylsilyl (TMS) derivatives and by high performance liquid chromatography – diode array detection (HPLC-DAD). In esterified form 8–8′aryl DFA and 5–5′ DFA dominate in most cereal IDF with, together, 45–60% of the DFA sum. More than 60% of total bound DFA are involved in ether linkages. Highest amounts of esterified as well as etherified DFA are estimated in millet, followed by maize. DFA contents of wheat, rye and barley are about two- to threefold lower than in millet but about twofold higher than in oat or rice. Received: 27 January 2000     

Analytical techniques with a cyclotron on polymers

Nuclear analytical techniques (PIXE, RBS and ERDA) have been applied to investigate diffusion processes in polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs), employing a 30 MeV AVF cyclotron. The techniques prove to be useful in identifying the origin of the diffusion process and the nature of molecules transported from the hole injecting ITO electrode into the polymer layer.