Combustion synthesis and photocatalytic properties of magnetically separable Zn_1-xCd_xS/γ-Fe₂O₃ composites

Liu, J.,Zhang, D.,Pu, X.,Dong, D.,Cai, P.,Seo, H.J. North-Holland 2014 Materials letters Vol.130 No.-

Magnetically separable Zn<SUB>1-x</SUB>Cd<SUB>x</SUB>S/γ-Fe<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>3</SUB> (x=0-1) photocatalysts were synthesized by a one-step combustion method. The structures, morphologies, absorbance, optical and photocatalytic properties of the samples were studied by X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry and photoluminescence. The experimental results show that the formation of hexagonal Zn<SUB>1-x</SUB>Cd<SUB>x</SUB>S and γ-Fe<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>3</SUB> and the combination of them were one-pot achieved. The Cd<SUP>2+</SUP> content has a significant influence on the absorbance of visible light and fluorescence properties. The magnetic properties of samples ensure the magnetic separation by using a magnet. CdS/γ-Fe<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>3</SUB> shows the best photocatalytic performance compared with other samples, ascribed to its small energy band gap and matching energy band structure between CdS and γ-Fe<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>3</SUB>. Moreover, no obvious deterioration was observed in the stability tests.

Target-based drug discovery through inversion of quantitative structure-drug-property relationships and molecular simulation: CA IX-sulphonamide complexes

&#x17d,uvela, Petar,Liu, J. Jay,Yi, Myunggi,Pomastowski, Paweł P.,Sagandykova, Gulyaim,Belka, Mariusz,David, Jonathan,B&#x105,czek, Tomasz,Szafra&#x144,ski, Krzysztof,&#x17b,ołnowska, Beata,Sławi&#x14 TaylorFrancis 2018 Journal of enzyme inhibition and medicinal chemist Vol.33 No.1

<P><B>Abstract</B></P><P>In this work, a target-based drug screening method is proposed exploiting the synergy effect of ligand-based and structure-based computer-assisted drug design. The new method provides great flexibility in drug design and drug candidates with considerably lower risk in an efficient manner. As a model system, 45 sulphonamides (33 training, 12 testing ligands) in complex with carbonic anhydrase IX were used for development of quantitative structure-activity-lipophilicity (property)-relationships (QSPRs). For each ligand, nearly 5,000 molecular descriptors were calculated, while lipophilicity (log<I>k</I><SUB>w</SUB>) and inhibitory activity (log<I>K</I><SUB>i</SUB>) were used as drug properties. Genetic algorithm-partial least squares (GA-PLS) provided a QSPR model with high prediction capability employing only seven molecular descriptors. As a proof-of-concept, optimal drug structure was obtained by inverting the model with respect to reference drug properties. 3509 ligands were ranked accordingly. Top 10 ligands were further validated through molecular docking. Large-scale MD simulations were performed to test the stability of structures of selected ligands obtained through docking complemented with biophysical experiments.</P>

Annealing Dependence of Solution-Processed Ultra-Thin ZrOx Films for Gate Dielectric Applications.

Liu, G X,Liu, A,Meng, Y,Shan, F K,Shin, B C,Lee, W J,Cho, C R American Scientific Publishers 2015 Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Vol.15 No.3

<P>Ultra-thin ZrOx thin films on Si substrates were prepared by sol-gel technique and processed with different methods (baked on hot plate at 150 °C, annealed at 500 °C in furnace, and photo-annealed under UV light). The decomposition of the organic groups and the formation of Zr-O bonding in the ZrOx thin films were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It is found that the ZrOx thin film annealed under UV light shows decent characteristics, including an ultra-small surface roughness, a low leakage current density of 10(-9) A/cm2 at 1 MV/cm, a large breakdown electric field of 9.5 MV/cm, and a large areal capacitance of 775 nF/cm2.</P>

Bioefficacy of Lysine from L-lysine Sulfate and L-lysine⋅HCl for 10 to 20 kg Pigs

Liu, M.,Qiao, S.Y.,Wang, X.,You, J.M.,Piao, X.S. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2007 Animal Bioscience Vol.20 No.10

The objective of this study was to compare the bioefficacy of L-lysine sulfate relative to L-lysine${\cdot}$HCl for 10 to 20 kg pigs. Two experiments were conducted to determine the bioefficacy of the two sources of lysine using daily gain, feed conversion, plasma urea nitrogen and nitrogen retention as the response criteria. In experiment 1, 168 crossbred barrows ($Landrace{\times}Large$ White), weaned at $28{\pm}3$ d ($9.07{\pm}0.78$kg body weight), were allotted to one of seven dietary treatments in a $2{\times}3$ (two lysine $sources{\times}three $ lysine levels) factorial arrangement of treatments with an added negative control treatment group. The basal diet was based on corn, peanut meal and soybean meal and provided 0.67% lysine. The basal diet was supplemented with 0.1, 0.2 or 0.3% lysine equivalents supplied from either L-lysine sulfate or L-lysine${\cdot}$HCl. Each treatment was fed to six pens of pigs with four pigs per pen. The trial lasted 21 days. The relative bioefficacy value of lysine in L-lysine sulfate using daily gain, feed conversion and plasma urea nitrogen as response criteria was 1.01, 1.05 and 1.04 of the lysine in L-lysine${\cdot}$HCl, respectively. In experiment 2, 42 crossbred ($Landrace{\times}Large$ White) pigs ($16.03{\pm}1.58$ kg body weight) were housed in stainless steel metabolism cages for 10 d and fed the seven diets used in the nitrogen-balance trial. The relative bioefficacy value of L-lysine sulfate was estimated to be 0.95 as effective as L-lysine${\cdot}$HCl for nitrogen retention on an equimolar basis. The t-test analysis revealed that bioefficacy of lysine in L-lysine sulfate was not significantly different from lysine in L-lysine${\cdot}$HCl, which was set at 1.00. In conclusion, L-lysine sulfate can be used instead of L-lysine${\cdot}$HCl to fortify lysine-deficient diets fed to 10 to 20 kg pigs.

XRD studies on phase formation and the crystallite structure of BaTiO3 synthesized by HBM: the effect of calcination temperature

X.M. Chen,Y. Zhang,W.W. Kong,X.B. Bian,J.P. Zhou,P. Liu 한양대학교 세라믹연구소 2010 Journal of Ceramic Processing Research Vol.11 No.4

Barium titanate (BaTiO3, or BT) powders were synthesized via a solid state reaction of BaCO3-TiO2 by combining a highenergy ball milling (HBM) technique and a calcination method. Using X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods with a Rietveld refinement, the effects of calcination temperature on the phase formation and crystallite structure of BT powders were studied. It is found that by means of HBM the synthesis temperature for obtaining BT single phase is decreased to 960 oC, which is much lower than that required by the conventional solid-state reaction process, and the crystallite structure of BT is in the (pseudo)cubic form. As the calcination temperature is increased to 980 oC, the structure of BT crystallites transforms from the (pseudo)cubic to the tetragonal form. With an increase in the calcination temperature, both the tetragonality (c/a-1) and crystallite size are increased.

Laser Raman detection of platelet as a non‐invasive approach for early and differential diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease

Chen, P.,Tian, Q.,Baek, S.J.,Shang, X.L.,Park, A.,Liu, Z.C.,Yao, X.Q.,Wang, J.Z.,Wang, X.H.,Cheng, Y.,Peng, J.,Shen, A.G.,Hu, J.M. WILEY‐VCH Verlag 2011 Laser physics letters Vol.8 No.7

<P><B>Abstract</B></P><P>Early and differential diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a problem that puzzled many doctors. Reliable markers in easy‐assembling samples are of considerable clinical diagnostic value. In this work, laser Raman spectroscopy (LRS) was developed a new method that potentially allows early and differential diagnosis of AD from the platelet sample. Raman spectra of platelets isolated from different ages of AD transgenic mice and non‐transgenic controls were collected and analyzed. Multilayer perceptron networks (MLP) classification method was used to classify spectra and establish the diagnostic models. For differential diagnosis, spectra of platelets isolated from AD, Parkinson’s disease (PD) and vascular dementia (VD) mice were also discriminated. Two notable spectral differences at 740 and 1654 cm<SUP>–1</SUP> were revealed in the mean spectrum of platelets isolated from AD transgenic mice and the controls. MLP displayed a powerful ability in the classifying of early, advanced AD and the control group, and in differential diagnosis of PD and advanced AD, as well as VD and advanced AD. The results suggest that platelet detecting by LRS coupled with MLP analysis appears to be an easy and accurate method for early and differential diagnosis of AD. This technique could be rapidly promoted from laboratory to the hospital. (© 2011 by Astro Ltd., Published exclusively by WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA) (© 2011 by Astro Ltd., Published exclusively by WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA)</P>

Molecular Descriptor Subset Selection in Theoretical Peptide Quantitative Structure–Retention Relationship Model Development Using Nature-Inspired Optimization Algorithms

Z&#x30c,uvela, Petar,Liu, J. Jay,Macur, Katarzyna,Ba&#x328,czek, Tomasz American Chemical Society 2015 ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY - Vol.87 No.19

<P>In this work, performance of five nature-inspired optimization algorithms, genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), artificial bee colony (ABC), firefly algorithm (FA), and flower pollination algorithm (EPA), was compared in molecular descriptor selection for development of quantitative structure retention relationship (QSRR) models for 83 peptides that originate from eight model proteins. The matrix with 423 descriptors was used as input, and QSRR models based on selected descriptors were built using partial least squares (PLS), whereas root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) was used as a fitness function for their selection. Three performance criteria, prediction accuracy, computational cost, and the number of selected descriptors, were used to evaluate the developed QSRR models. The results show that all five variable selection methods outperform interval PLS (iPLS), sparse PLS (sPLS), and the full PLS model, whereas GA is superior because of its lowest computational cost and higher accuracy (RMSEP of 5.534%) with a smaller number of variables (nine descriptors). The GA-QSRR model was validated initially through Y-randomization. In addition, it was successfully validated with an external testing set out of 102 peptides originating from Bacillus subtilis proteomes (RMSEP of 22.030%). Its applicability domain was defined, from which it was evident that the developed GA-QSRR exhibited strong robustness. All the sources of the model's error were identified, thus allowing for further application of the developed methodology in proteomics.</P>

Facile synthesis of porous TiO₂ nanospheres and their photocatalytic properties

Huang, J.,Ren, H.,Liu, X.,Li, X.,Shim, J.J. Academic Press 2015 Superlattices and microstructures Vol.81 No.-

Uniform and monodisperse porous TiO<SUB>2</SUB> nanospheres were synthesized by a hydrothermal method. Techniques of X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) nitrogen adsorption-desorption, UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy were used to characterize the structure and morphology of the products. The BET surface area of the porous TiO<SUB>2</SUB> nanospheres was calculated to be 26.1cm<SUP>2</SUP>g<SUP>-1</SUP>. In addition, the obtained porous TiO<SUB>2</SUB> nanospheres were used as catalyst to photodegrade methylene blue, Rhodamine B, methyl orange, p-nitrophenol, and eosin B. Compared to commercial TiO<SUB>2</SUB> powder, the as-prepared porous TiO<SUB>2</SUB> nanospheres exhibited higher catalytic activities due to their large surface areas and porous nanostructures. The photocatalytic reaction rate constant of the porous TiO<SUB>2</SUB> nanospheres in photocatalytic decomposition of methylene blue and Rhodamine B under simulated solar light were calculated as 0.0545min<SUP>-1</SUP> and 0.0579min<SUP>-1</SUP>, respectively. Moreover, the catalyst was demonstrated to have good stability and reusability.

Enhanced energy storage properties in PbZrO3 thin films via the incorporation of NiO

Wang X.W.,Chen J.Y.,Hu S.Y.,Yu K.X.,Yang F.,Shi Y.J.,Li J.H.,Hou M.Z.,Liu A.D.,Zheng M.M.,Yin S.Q.,Hu Y.C.,Shang J. 한국물리학회 2023 Current Applied Physics Vol.52 No.-

In this study, NiO–PbZrO3 composite films were deposited on SiO2/Si substrates buffered with LaNiO3 films via the sol-gel coating technique. The effects of NiO addition in PZO thin films on the microstructure, dielectric properties, leakage mechanism, ferroelectric properties and energy storage properties have been discussed. The dielectric constant increased with the addition of NiO, while the leakage current density decreased. Compared with pure PZO films, the maximum polarization of the composite films was improved. For the composite films prepared using the NiO precursor solution with 0.05 mol/L, the recoverable energy storage density of the NiO-PZO composite film is up to 19.6 J/cm3 under the electric field of 1038 kV/cm, which is 30% higher than that of the pure PZO film under the same conditions. Also, the energy storage efficiency of the composite film reaches 48%. Accordingly, we demonstrate a simple and convenient method by adding NiO to fabricate thin films with high energy storage performance.

Tailoring the defects and carrier density for beyond 10% efficient CZTSe thin film solar cells

Li, J.,Kim, S.,Nam, D.,Liu, X.,Kim, J.,Cheong, H.,Liu, W.,Li, H.,Sun, Y.,Zhang, Y. North-Holland ; Elsevier Science Ltd 2017 Solar energy materials and solar cells Vol.159 No.-

The defects states and carrier density of CZTSe absorber layers are two of the crucial factors that decide the photovoltaic performance of CZTSe thin film solar cells. Fine tailoring the defects and carrier density is a key to push the power conversion efficiency of CZTSe solar cells to a more competitive level. In this work, the phase properties, defect states, and carrier density of CZTSe thin film are well controlled by fine tuning the ratio of Zn/Sn in the range from 0.75 to 1.27. Capacity-Voltage measurements and Admittance Spectroscopy are used to characterize the carrier density, depletion region width, and defect states of the CZTSe solar cells. The results indicate that the defects states and carrier density of CZTSe layer are very sensitive to the ratio of Zn/Sn. Combining experimental results and numerical simulation, the statistic regularities of the photovoltaic parameters of the CZTSe solar cells with different ratios of Zn/Sn is well explained. The increase of V<SUB>OC</SUB> of CZTSe solar cells with the ratio of Zn/Sn is related to both the increased carrier density and the decreased deep level defects states. The decline of J<SUB>SC</SUB> of the Zn-rich solar cells is caused by both the shrunken depletion region width and a large barrier caused by ZnSe phase. This barrier is the cause for a low fill factor in the Zn-rich solar cells. Overall, the CZTSe solar cells with a stoichiometric ratio of Zn/Sn=1.02 have favorable defects property and carrier density, thus resulting in the highest photovoltaic efficiency of 10.21%.