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Within angle‐resolved polarized Raman spectroscopy (ARPRS) experiments, ensuring accurate configurations is crucial for obtaining reliable results, especially when dealing with anisotropic materials like CrOCl with anisotropic crystal structure and phonon properties. However, comprehensive understanding of phase‐dependent ARPRS and the calibration of phase angle on anisotropic phonon modes from a crystallographic perspective are still lacking. Herein, detailed investigation on phase‐dependent ARPRS and looked into the anisotropic photo‐phonon interaction in CrOCl through in situ ARPRS is conducted. The Raman tensors and crystal orientation are acquired under two typical configurations. Phase‐dependent ARPRS are thoroughly analyzed for the calibration of analyzer deviation. The anomalous anisotropic response in phase‐dependent ARPRS is closely related to the intrinsic linear dichroism (LD) effect in CrOCl, which is further confirmed by angle‐resolved polarization absorption. Moreover, the strong localized rules for various parallel energy bands of CrOCl have generated anomalous LD conversion effect near 470 nm, which expands the potential application of CrOCl in polarization‐wavelength selected devices. This findings can offer in‐depth comprehension on the anisotropic phonon physics of CrOCl and a feasible approach to utilize phase‐dependent ARPRS for probing the undiscovered abundant photo‐induced effects in low‐symmetry 2D materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A porous microplate embedded with two nanocomposite piezoelectric layers is investigated in the current work. All three layers are functionally graded and completely attached to each other, and the microstructure lies on a bi-parameter elastic foundation that withstands shear and normal forces simultaneously. Also, an external voltage is subjected to the piezoelectric patches. The mentioned patches are reinforced with carbon nanotubes to enhance their electro-mechanical performance. A higher-order shear deformation theory and von Karman's assumptions are hired to demonstrate the kinematic relations. Next, applying Hamilton's principle and variational technique, the governing motion equations are derived with the help of the modified couple stress theory to capture the scale influence. To solve the system of differential equations, a closed-form Navier method is employed, and by ensuring the correctness of the results, then it turns to investigate the impact of different factors including porosity percentage and also pores' distribution patterns, nanotubes dispersion patterns, and other important factors on the natural frequencies of the model. Obtained results show that symmetric and uniform porosity distributions have the maximum and minimum amounts of natural frequencies. Moreover, the maximum difference between natural frequencies of three different porosity distribution occurs in e0 = 0.95 and is approximately 32%. The current study results may consider to design and produce smart structures and devices with improved performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-temperature silver sintering technology is emerging as a lead-free die-attach solution to significantly improve the heat dissipation and reliability packaging of power devices and modules die attached by solder alloys. With the recent introduction of nanosilver materials, which dramatically simplify the bonding process by lowering the required pressure down to a few megapascals, the silver sintering die-attach solution is poised for wide use in the manufacture of electronic products. In this paper, the thermomechanical reliability of sintered-silver joints was studied in comparison with soldered joints of two lead-free solders, SN100C and SAC305. Die-attach samples were fabricated by bonding 10 mm \times\, 10 mm silicon mechanical chips to silver-metalized copper blocks and direct-bond copper (DBC) substrates according to the respective heating profiles of a nanosilver paste and the two solders. The die-attach samples were thermally cycled between {-}{40}^{\circ}{\rm C} and {+}{125}^{\circ}{\rm C} . The bonding reliability was evaluated by measuring the bending curvatures of the cycled samples and examining the cross sections of the samples under an electron microscope. Bending of the bonded structures, which is the result of mismatched coefficients of thermal expansion between silicon and copper or DBC, offered a nondestructive method for monitoring the integrity of the bond line. The bending curvatures of all of the die-attach samples decreased rapidly after they were thermally cycled. Most of the drop in curvature can be attributed to stress relaxation in the bonding materials without bond-line cracking. However, in the samples on copper blocks, after 800 cycles, the curvatures of the soldered samples decreased to near 0 m^-1 , but those of the silver-sintered samples still had about 30% of the original curvatures. Scanning electron microscopy images showed that the joints of the soldered samples with near 0 m^-1 curvature had been cracked almost all the way through, but the joints of the sintered samples were still intact. These results demonstrate that the sintered-silver joints are more reliable than the soldered joints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gold nanoshells have shown a great potential for use as agents in a wide variety of biomedical applications, and some of which require the delivery of large numbers of gold nanoshells onto or into the cells. Here, we develop a ready method to enhance the cellular uptake of gold nanoshells by modifying with meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA). The quantifiable technique of inductively coupled plasma atomic emissions spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to investigate the cellular uptake of unmodified and DMSA-modified gold nanoshells. Three cell lines (RAW 264.7, A549, and BEL-7402) were involved and the results indicated that the cellular uptake of the DMSA-modified gold nanoshells was obviously enhanced versus the unmodified gold nanoshells. The reason possibly lies in the nonspecific adsorption of serum protein on the DMSA-modified gold nanoshells (DMSA-GNs), which consequently enhanced the cellular uptake. As a continued effort, in vitro experiments with endocytic inhibitors suggested the DMSA-GNs internalized into cells via receptor-mediated endocytosis (RME) pathway. This study has provided a valuable insight into the effects of surface modification on cellular uptake of nanoparticles. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A:, 2011. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low-temperature joining of semiconductor chips by sintering of silver paste is emerging as an alternative lead-free solution for power electronics devices and modules working in a high-temperature environment. A promising die-attachment material that would enable the rapid implementation of the sintering process is nanoscale silver paste, which can be sintered at temperatures below 300 ^\circ\C without an external pressure. In this paper, we report our findings on the silver migration in sintered nanosilver electrode-pair patterns on an alumina substrate. The electrode pairs were biased at an electric field ranging from 10 to 100 V/mm and at a temperature between 250 ^\circ\C and 400 ^\circ\C in dry air. The leakage currents across the electrodes were measured as the silver patterns were tested in an oven. Silver dendrites formed across the electrode gap were observed under an optical microscope and analyzed using scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The silver migration was found in the samples tested at 400 ^\circ\C, 350 ^ \circ\C, 300 ^\circ\C, and 250 ^\circ\C. The measurements on the leakage current versus time were characterized by an initial incubation period, called “lifetime,” followed by a sharp rise as the silver dendrites were shorting the electrodes. A simple phenomenological model was derived to account for the observed dependence of lifetime on the electric field and temperature. The EDS mappings revealed the significant presence of oxygen on the positive electrode but the complete absence on the negative electrode. A mechanism involving the oxidation of silver and the dissociation of silver oxide at the anode was suggested. We suggest that the migration of a sintered nanosilver die attachment can be prevented in high-temperature applications through packaging or encapsulation to reduce the partial pressure of oxygen. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The low-temperature joining technique of silver sintering is being actively pursued in the power electronics industry as a lead-free die-attach solution for packaging power devices and modules. However, one of the concerns of this technique is the migration of silver at a high temperature. Recently, we have reported our findings of the migration of a low-temperature sintered nanosilver in dry air at a temperature over 250 ^\circ\C. In this paper, we report our results of the effect of oxygen partial pressure on the migration kinetics of the sintered nanosilver at 400 ^\circ\C under an electrical field strength of 50 V/mm. The range of the oxygen partial pressure tested was between <\0.01 and 0.40 atm. The silver migration kinetics were monitored by measuring the leakage current across a metal-finger pattern, which allowed the determination of the “lifetime,” or the onset time for significant leakage current developed across the two electrodes. With decreasing oxygen partial pressure, the lifetime increases exponentially. Our results suggest that the concern for silver migration in a high-temperature application of sintered silver die attach can be effectively remedied through packaging to keep oxygen away from the silver joints. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on a study regarding the stability and activity of α-chymotrypsin (CT) that has been immobilized on carboxyl-functionalized magnetic nanogels. Under the study, the impact of protease and surfactants on enzyme stability and the catalytic activity of the immobilized enzyme with regard to protein substrate have been determined. Findings indicate that CT sustained activity despite immobilization. The stability of CT is associated with the structural rigidity of the enzyme.

Accurate recognition of splice sites is essential for pre-messenger RNA splicing. Mammalian 5' splice sites are mainly recognized by canonical base-pairing to the 5' end of U1 small nuclear RNA, yet we described multiple noncanonical base-pairing registers by shifting base-pair positions or allowing one-nucleotide bulges. By systematic mutational and suppressor U1 analyses, we prove three registers involving asymmetric loops and show that two-nucleotide bulges but not longer can form in this context. Importantly, we established that a noncanonical uridine-pseudouridine interaction in the 5' splice site/U1 helix contributes to the recognition of certain 5' splice sites. Thermal melting experiments support the formation of noncanonical registers and uridine-pseudouridine interactions. Overall, we experimentally validated or discarded the majority of predicted noncanonical registers, to derive a list of 5' splice sites using such alternative mechanisms that is much different from the original. This study allows not only the mechanistic understanding of the recognition of a wide diversity of mammalian 5' splice sites, but also the future development of better splice-site scoring methods that reliably predict the effects of disease-causing mutations at these sequences., (© The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.)