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Now showing 1 - 10 of 10
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    Hydrophilic non-precious metal nitrogen-doped carbon electrocatalysts for enhanced efficiency in oxygen reduction reaction
    (Cambridge : Royal Society of Chemistry, 2015) Hao, Guang-Ping; Sahraie, Nastaran Ranjbar; Zhang, Qiang; Krause, Simon; Oschatz, Martin; Bachmatiuk, Alicja; Strasser, Peter; Kaskel, Stefan
    Exploring the role of surface hydrophilicity of non-precious metal N-doped carbon electrocatalysts in electrocatalysis is challenging. Herein we discover an ultra-hydrophilic non-precious carbon electrocatalyst, showing enhanced catalysis efficiency on both gravimetric and areal basis for oxygen reduction reaction due to a high dispersion of active centres.
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    Excited-state relaxation of hydrated thymine and thymidine measured by liquid-jet photoelectron spectroscopy: experiment and simulation
    (Washington, DC : ACS Publications, 2015) Buchner, Franziska; Nakayama, Akira; Yamazaki, Shohei; Ritze, Hans-Hermann; Lübcke, Andrea
    Time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy is performed on thymine and thymidine in aqueous solution to study the excited-state relaxation dynamics of these molecules. We find two contributions with sub-ps lifetimes in line with recent excited-state QM/MM molecular dynamics simulations (J. Chem. Phys.2013, 139, 214304). The temporal evolution of ionization energies for the excited ππ* state along the QM/MM molecular dynamics trajectories were calculated and are compatible with experimental results, where the two contributions correspond to the relaxation paths in the ππ* state involving different conical intersections with the ground state. Theoretical calculations also show that ionization from the nπ* state is possible at the given photon energies, but we have not found any experimental indication for signal from the nπ* state. In contrast to currently accepted relaxation mechanisms, we suggest that the nπ* state is not involved in the relaxation process of thymine in aqueous solution.
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    The Contrasting Character of Early and Late Transition Metal Fluorides as Hydrogen Bond Acceptors
    (Washington, DC : ACS Publications, 2015) Smith, Dan A.; Beweries, Torsten; Blasius, Clemens; Jasim, Naseralla; Nazir, Ruqia; Nazir, Sadia; Robertson, Craig C.; Whitwood, Adrian C.; Hunter, Christopher A.; Brammer, Lee; Perutz, Robin N.
    The association constants and enthalpies for the binding of hydrogen bond donors to group 10 transition metal complexes featuring a single fluoride ligand (trans-[Ni(F)(2-C5NF4)(PR3)2], R = Et 1a, Cy 1b, trans-[Pd(F)(4-C5NF4)(PCy3)2] 2, trans-[Pt(F){2-C5NF2H(CF3)}(PCy3)2] 3 and of group 4 difluorides (Cp2MF2, M = Ti 4a, Zr 5a, Hf 6a; Cp*2MF2, M = Ti 4b, Zr 5b, Hf 6b) are reported. These measurements allow placement of these fluoride ligands on the scales of organic H-bond acceptor strength. The H-bond acceptor capability β (Hunter scale) for the group 10 metal fluorides is far greater (1a 12.1, 1b 9.7, 2 11.6, 3 11.0) than that for group 4 metal fluorides (4a 5.8, 5a 4.7, 6a 4.7, 4b 6.9, 5b 5.6, 6b 5.4), demonstrating that the group 10 fluorides are comparable to the strongest organic H-bond acceptors, such as Me3NO, whereas group 4 fluorides fall in the same range as N-bases aniline through pyridine. Additionally, the measurement of the binding enthalpy of 4-fluorophenol to 1a in carbon tetrachloride (−23.5 ± 0.3 kJ mol–1) interlocks our study with Laurence’s scale of H-bond basicity of organic molecules. The much greater polarity of group 10 metal fluorides than that of the group 4 metal fluorides is consistent with the importance of pπ–dπ bonding in the latter. The polarity of the group 10 metal fluorides indicates their potential as building blocks for hydrogen-bonded assemblies. The synthesis of trans-[Ni(F){2-C5NF3(NH2)}(PEt3)2], which exhibits an extended chain structure assembled by hydrogen bonds between the amine and metal-fluoride groups, confirms this hypothesis.
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    Defect-free Naphthalene Diimide Bithiophene Copolymers with Controlled Molar Mass and High Performance via Direct Arylation Polycondensation
    (Washington, DC : ACS Publications, 2015) Matsidik, Rukiya; Komber, Hartmut; Luzio, Alessandro; Caironi, Mario; Sommer, Michael
    A highly efficient, simple, and environmentally friendly protocol for the synthesis of an alternating naphthalene diimide bithiophene copolymer (PNDIT2) via direct arylation polycondensation (DAP) is presented. High molecular weight (MW) PNDIT2 can be obtained in quantitative yield using aromatic solvents. Most critical is the suppression of two major termination reactions of NDIBr end groups: nucleophilic substitution and solvent end-capping by aromatic solvents via C–H activation. In situ solvent end-capping can be used to control MW by varying monomer concentration, whereby end-capping is efficient and MW is low for low concentration and vice versa. Reducing C–H reactivity of the solvent at optimized conditions further increases MW. Chain perfection of PNDIT2 is demonstrated in detail by NMR spectroscopy, which reveals PNDIT2 chains to be fully linear and alternating. This is further confirmed by investigating the optical and thermal properties as a function of MW, which saturate at Mn ≈ 20 kDa, in agreement with controls made by Stille coupling. Field-effect transistor (FET) electron mobilities μsat up to 3 cm2/(V·s) are measured using off-center spin-coating, with FET devices made from DAP PNDIT2 exhibiting better reproducibility compared to Stille controls.
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    Local difference measures between complex networks for dynamical system model evaluation
    (San Francisco, CA : Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2015) Lange, S.; Donges, J.F.; Volkholz, J.; Kurths, J.
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    Identifying causal gateways and mediators in complex spatio-temporal systems
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2015) Runge, J.; Petoukhov, V.; Donges, J.F.; Hlinka, J.; Jajcay, N.; Vejmelka, M.; Hartman, D.; Marwan, N.; Paluš, M.; Kurths, J.
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    Cortical hot spots and labyrinths: Why cortical neuromodulation for episodic migraine with aura should be personalized
    (Lausanne : Frontiers Research Foundation, 2015) Dahlem, M.A.; Schmidt, B.; Bojak, I.; Boie, S.; Kneer, F.; Hadjikhani, N.; Kurths, J.
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    Closing yield gaps: How sustainable can we be?
    (San Francisco, CA : Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2015) Pradhan, P.; Fischer, G.; Van Velthuizen, H.; Reusser, D.E.; Kropp, J.P.
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    Simultaneous statistical inference for epigenetic data
    (San Francisco, California, US : PLOS, 2015) Schildknecht, Konstantin; Olek, Sven; Dickhaus, Thorsten
    Epigenetic research leads to complex data structures. Since parametric model assumptions for the distribution of epigenetic data are hard to verify we introduce in the present work a nonparametric statistical framework for two-group comparisons. Furthermore, epigenetic analyses are often performed at various genetic loci simultaneously. Hence, in order to be able to draw valid conclusions for specific loci, an appropriate multiple testing correction is necessary. Finally, with technologies available for the simultaneous assessment of many interrelated biological parameters (such as gene arrays), statistical approaches also need to deal with a possibly unknown dependency structure in the data. Our statistical approach to the nonparametric comparison of two samples with independent multivariate observables is based on recently developed multivariate multiple permutation tests. We adapt their theory in order to cope with families of hypotheses regarding relative effects. Our results indicate that the multivariate multiple permutation test keeps the pre-assigned type I error level for the global null hypothesis. In combination with the closure principle, the family-wise error rate for the simultaneous test of the corresponding locus/parameter-specific null hypotheses can be controlled. In applications we demonstrate that group differences in epigenetic data can be detected reliably with our methodology.
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    A new color image encryption scheme using CML and a fractional-order chaotic system
    (San Francisco, CA : Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2015) Wu, X.; Li, Y.; Kurths, J.