Hydrothermal synthesis of fluorescent silicon nanoparticles using maleic acid as surface-stabilizing ligands

Water-soluble silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs) have been synthesized with photoluminescence quantum yield more than 32% via a hydrothermal treatment of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane as silicon sources and maleic acid (MA) as surface-stabilizing ligands. Prepared SiNPs showed the presence of carboxylic acid groups through the incorporation of MA. The presence of 48.8 and 51.2% of Si–Si and Si–O binding was observed in the resulting carboxylic acid-functionalized SiNPs (COOH-SiNPs). As revealed by the fluorescence lifetime images, COOH-SiNPs possesses several fluorophores mainly composed of above Si–Si binding inside of single particle, which explains the excitation-dependent fluorescence emission behavior of COOH-SiNPs. Also, the presence of oxides mainly composed of Si–O binding and MA on the surface of COOH-SiNPs provides long-term stability for both fluorescence and dispersion. The potential use of COOH-SiNPs as fluorescence bioimaging agents for cellular media has been demonstrated. COOH-SiNPs showed excellent cell viability more than 91% for both MDAMB and MDCK cells even in 1,000 ppm concentration, and multicolor fluorescence imaging (blue, green, and red) of MDAMB cells was successfully accomplished with different excitation wavelengths.     

Droplet generation with integrated 3D pneumatic actuator for orifice control

A droplet generator with an embedded 3D balloon actuator around a flow-focusing junction is realized to adjust the size of the droplets as required with only one element. The 3D actuator encircling the orifice causes a geometric deformation due to pneumatic pressure, which controls the orifice and thus the sizes of the droplets. The orifice and actuator are designed to have triangular cross-sections with the largest possible reduction in hydraulic diameters under the same pneumatic pressure. We empirically demonstrated that, compared with typical fixed orifice structures, droplet generators with variable orifices reduce the droplet size without changing the flow rate and can even be adjusted to a wider range of 259.3 %. The devices were fabricated by the 3D-printed soluble mold technique to achieve a fully 3D structure within a single body of polydimethylsiloxane that is unattainable by conventional standard microfabrications as well as a non-bonding structure without any leakage.

     

High Temperature Deformation-Induced Transformation in Nb-Bearing Medium Mn Steel

Dynamic transformation (DT) of deformed austenite to ferrite at temperatures above A_e3 occurs during a multi-step hot torsion test of a Nb-bearing medium manganese steel. In torsion tested specimens, equiaxed grains are dispersed within a martensite matrix, and the average grain size is less than 1 μm. Electron back-scattering diffraction results confirm that most of the equiaxed grains are recrystallized ferrite, and there is a small fraction of retained austenite.     

Protection against diesel oil toxicity by sodium chloride-induced exopolysaccharides in Acinetobacter sp. strain DR1

Acinetobacter sp. strain DR1 is capable of growth on diesel oil. Interestingly, the degradation of diesel oil by the strain DR1 is enhanced in the presence of sodium chloride (NaCl). However, the growth rate of strain DR1 is not affected by the presence of NaCl. Northern blot analysis has also demonstrated that the effect of NaCl on the degradation of diesel oil is not attributable to increased levels of alkane hydroxylase (AlkM-type) gene expression. Rather, we have noted an increase in the exopolysaccharide (EPS) yields of strain DR1 under high NaCl conditions (9-fold). The lag-time of diesel oil biodegradation was significantly shorter in the strain DR1 with exogenous EPS than in the controls, although EPS alone does not support the growth of strain DR1. The recovery of strain DR1 when exposed to diesel oil was accelerated when exogenous EPS was added to the medium. The overproduction of EPS was also noted in the presence of diesel oil and n-hexadecane. The data indicated that EPS overproduction might play a protective role against diesel oil toxicity. Along with the results of the soil microcosm tests, the data presented herein demonstrated that NaCl-induced EPS is associated with a reduction in diesel oil toxicity, and thus increases diesel oil biodegradation in Acinetobacter sp. strain DR1.