Uranyl oxamate hydrates: hydrothermal synthesis, crystal structure, photophysical properties, and selective crystallization

Presented here are two isostructural uranyl coordination polymers [UOe（EDO）（H2O）]· H2O （1） and [UO2（BDO）（H2O）]-2H2O （2） （EDO2---ethylene-1,2-dioxamate; BDO2 =butylene-1,2-dioxamate） with identical stepwise zigzag chain structure and distinct interchain hydrogen bonding interaction, prepared from hydrothermal reaction of DEEDO or DEBDO （DEEDO- diethyl ethylene-1,2-dioxamate; DEBDO--diethyl butylene-l,2-dioxamate） with uranyl ions. The monomeric uranyl-based fluorescence emissions of compounds 1 and 2 are red-shifted by about 6 and 5 nm respectively, compared to that of uranyl nitrate hexahydrate. Compound 1 has stronger emission than compound 2, but both their emissions exhibit triple-exponential decay. The photophysics of uranyl oxalate trihydrate was also investigated for comparison. The selective crystallization of compound 1 in alkaline solution was applied to the sequestration of uranyl ions, showing a kinetic preference.

High stability and low noise laser-diode end-pumped Nd:YAG ceramic passively Q-switched laser at 1123 nm based on a Ti_(3)C_(2)T_(x)-PVA saturable absorber

We report a high repetition frequency, high power stability and low laser noise laser-diode(LD) end-pumped Nd: YAG ceramic passively Q-switched laser at 1123 nm based on a Ti_(3)C_(2)T_(x)-polyvinyl alcohol(PVA) film as a saturable absorber(SA). A Brewster polarizer(BP) and a birefringent crystal(BC) are incorporated to enable frequency selection and filtering for the passively Q-switched 1123 nm pulsed laser to improve the power stability and reduce the noise. When the pump power is 5.1 W, an average output power of 457.9 m W is obtained, corresponding to a repetition frequency of 1.09 MHz,a pulse width of 56 ns, a spectral line width of 0.65 nm, a power instability of ±0.92%, and a laser noise of 0.89%.The successful implementation of the “Ti_(3)C_(2)T_(x)-PVA film passively Q-switching” combined with “frequency selection and filtering of BP + BC” technology path provides a valuable reference for developing pulsed laser with high repetition frequency, high stability and low noise.

A 3-D Selected Solvent Large Aperture MOF

The metal-organic framework（MOF）{[Cu（L1）_（0.5）（CN）]·4H_2O·3DMSO}_n（1） was assembled by 1,4-bis（3？,5？-dicyano-2？,6？-di（pyrid-4-yl）-1？,4？-dihydropyridyl）benzene（L1） together with copper cyanide at room temperature. In 1,the Cu~＋ ions are linked by CN-anions into a 1D helical chain,which is further fused together by tetradentate L1 ligands to build an extended 3D porous framework with two different types of functionalized channels. 1 crystallizes in the monoclinic,space group P21/c with a = 17.8729（6）,b = 8.7298（3）,c = 22.7524（9） ？,β = 96.072（4）o,V = 3530.1（2） ？~3,μ = 0.845 mm-1,Dc = 1.352 Mg/m^3,Z = 4,Mr = 718.35,F（000） = 1500,S = 1.081,the final R = 0.0877 and wR = 0.2275 for 6975 observed reflections with I 〉 2σ（I）.

Simultaneous characterization of multiple properties of solid and liquid phases in crystallization processes using NIR

Near infrared spectroscopy （NIR） is now probably the most popular process analytical technology （PAT） for pharmaceutical and some other industries. However, unlike mid-IR, NIR is known to have difficulties in monitoring crystallization or precipitation processes because the existence of solids could cause distortion of the spectra. This phenomenon, seen as unfavorable previously, is however an indication that NIR spectra contain rich information about both solids and liquids, giving the possibility of using the same instrument for multiple property characterization. In this study, transflectance NIR calibration data was obtained using solutions and slurries of varied solution concentration, particle size, solid concentration and temperature. The data was used to build calibration models for prediction of the multiple properties of both phases. Predictive models were developed for this challenging application using an approach that combines genetic algorithm （GA） and support vector machine （SVM）. GA is used for wavelength selection and SVM for mode building. The new GA-SVM approach is shown to outperform other methods including GA-PLS （partial least squares） and traditional SVM. NIR is thus successfully applied to monitoring seeded and unseeded cooling crystallization processes of L-glutamic acid.

Naphthylethyne based liquid crystals with high birefringence and characteristics of selective reflection

A series of high birefringence liquid crystalline molecules with cyano, isothiocyanato and trifluoromethyl terminal compounds based on naphthylethyne core was successfully synthesized and characterized. The molecular structures of the intermediates and resulting compounds were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared （FT-IR）, nuclear magnetic resonance （NMR）, mass spectrometry （MS）, and elemental analysis （EA）. Their thermal stability, transition temperatures, and phase sequences were investigated by simultaneous thermal analyzer polarized （STA）, optical microscopy （POM） and differential scanning calorimetry （DSC）. The birefringence was measured by using an Abbe refractometer. In addition, the selective reflection characteristics with naphthylethyne compounds were also studied.

Selectivity of Crystal Growth Direction in Layered Double Hydroxides

Investigation of selectivity of crystal growth direction in layered double hydroxides is helpful to control their particle sizes in different directions. Mg-AI layered double hydroxides (LDHs) were synthesized using a coprecipitation method. The influences of aging temperature, aging time, and Mg/AI molar ratio on the crystal structure, the LDHs particle size, and the selectivity of crystal growth in different directions were investigated. The results show that the size of the crystallites in the a direction is larger than that in the c direction for all experimental conditions, indicating faster crystal growth in the a direction than in the c direction. The crystallite sizes in the a and c directions both increase with decreasing Mg/AI molar ratio but with less difference between the sizes in the two directions. Therefore, the crystal growth rate in the c direction increases more than that in the a direction as the Mg/AI molar ratio decreases. The influence of the aging time, aging temperature, and Mg/AI molar ratio on the selectivity of the crystal growth direction can be used to prepare LDHs with selected sizes in the a and c directions.