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Sum Frequency Generation (SFG) Spectroscopy

Sum Frequency Generation (SFG) is a nonlinear optical technique used to study the details of molecular structure and dynamics at surfaces and interfaces. The extremely high surface selectivity of the SFG process allows researchers to focus on the thin layer of a few atoms or molecules near the interface, not the bulk media on either side.The physical principle behind this surface selectivity is that the even-order nonlinear processes such as SFG are forbidden (in the electric...

Organic Inorganic Hybrid Architecture: A Paradigm Shift in the Functionality & Performance of Coatings

Organic coatings/paint is regarded as complex organic inorganic hybrid composites due to use of various materials such as resins/polymers, fillers, pigments, solvents, surfactants and additives in their formulation. It is perhaps the earliest and most well-known representatives of hybrid composites wherein organic and inorganic materials combine together to enhance the mechanical, thermal, optical and protective properties. The performance characteristics of different paints depend...

Single-molecule nanocatalysis

Single-molecule nanocatalysis is research that uses single-molecule microscopy techniques to study nanoscale catalysis. Nanoscale catalysts, for example metal nanoparticles, can catalyze many important chemical transformations for organic synthesis, pollutant removal, and energy production. Understanding the catalytic activity of nanoparticle catalysts is important, but hampered by their intrinsic activity inhomogeneity following from their structural dispersions and dynamics....

Microdroplet technology

Chemical/biochemical manipulation of discrete microscopic droplets is a key process in chemical, pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. It is also an important component in microreactors, organic synthesis, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for gene analysis, and protein crystallization. For example, micro-chemical reactors are excellent for producing low-volume, high-value compounds, such as fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals; this technology could therefore revolutionise the...

Electrophilicity

An electrophile is an electron deficient species and hence prefers to accept electrons. It forms a bond with a nucleophile which is a species rich in electrons. The propensity of an electrophile to accept electrons is measured in terms of the electrophilicity, which is generally considered to be a kinetic quantity whereas the associated Lewis acidity is considered to be a thermodynamic quantity. A strong electrophile is a strong oxidizing agent as well.Experiments on fluorescence...

Aggregation Induced Emission

It has been a textbook knowledge that chromophore aggregation generally quenches light emission. Most of organic luminogens are highly emissive in their dilute solutions but become weakly luminescent or even nonemissive when fabricated into solid films. Owing to strong electronic interactions between aromatic moieties, the luminogens are prone to aggregate in poor solvents or solid state. The close vicinity between the chromophores in the aggregates often induces nonradiative...

Monolithic columns for fast high-performance liquid chromatography separations

High-Performance Liquid Chromatography is a powerful analytical tool that has been extensively used for the analysis of wide range of compounds from different food matrices. The heart of each HPLC method is the column, which enables separation of compounds based upon selectivity and column performance. At the present time, most common HPLC columns are packed with 3-5 µm porous silica microparticles. The separation performance is mainly determined by the particle size and distribution...

Future Research Direction in Leachate Treatment for Environmental Remediation

In recent decades, our global society has been dealing with one of the most formidable challenges in maintaining good quality of water supply. Due to the seepage of leachate from landfills, the groundwater in several areas that are close to open dumps have been seriously contaminated, causing potentially environmental degradation (Kurniawan et al., 2006a). To overcome this persistent problem, various strategic approaches and extensive research have been undertaken to treat such...

Electronic structure and bonding in the TEM by EELS

A very powerful feature of EELS is that it provides both compositional and bonding information at very high spatial resolution. Core-level excitations provide unique spectroscopic information about the excited atom and its bonding states. Inner-shell excitation gives rise to ionization edges. The near-edge region, up to 30–40 eV above threshold, often shows very strong modulations (or fine structure) that are highly sensitive to the nature of chemical bonds and to the local coordination...

Biosensing devices for rapid mycotoxin assessment

Deleterious effects induced by the presence of fungi are causing growing concern about their control. Food and feed storage under high temperatures and moisture levels favours the growth of filamentous fungi, responsible for the production of mycotoxins. Even though prevention being undoubtedly preferred, detection of these secondary metabolites is required. The wide range of mycotoxins with adverse acute and chronic health effects, going from digestive problems to carcinogenic...