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A series of transparent ceramics with the composition of Al(8+x)/3O4−xNx (x = 0.299–0.575) were prepared without any sintering additives by presintering combined with hot isostatic pressing (HIP). The composition of the samples was accurately determined to investigate the effect of nitrogen content on optical properties in γ-AlON. The samples with x = 0.299–0.510 possessed excellent in-line transmittance (>80 %) from the visible light to middle-infrared wavelengths, which was attributed to rare pores and high density in these ceramics. As the increasing nitrogen content, the refractive index increased, the UV absorption edge presented a red-shift, and the transmittance at about 5.5 μm decreased. The Sellmeier optical coefficients Eo, λo, So, and Ed were obtained on the basis of the single-term oscillator equation, which associates directly with the electronic energy band structure. The origin of the high refractive index is ascribed to the large electronic polarizability of nitrogen ions.

Hydrogen storage materials are the key to hydrogen energy utilization. However, current materials can hardly meet the storage capacity and/or operability requirements of practical applications. Here we report an advancement in hydrogen storage performance and related mechanism based on a hydrofluoric acid incompletely etched MXene, namely, a multilayered Ti2CTx (T is a functional group) stack that shows an unprecedented hydrogen uptake of 8.8 wt% at room temperature and 60 bar H2. Even under completely ambient conditions (25 °C, 1 bar air), Ti2CTx is still able to retain ~4 wt% hydrogen. The hydrogen storage is stable and reversible in the material, and the hydrogen release is controllable by pressure and temperature below 95 °C. The storage mechanism is deduced to be a nanopump-effect-assisted weak chemisorption in the sub-nanoscale interlayer space of the material. Such a storage approach provides a promising strategy for designing practical hydrogen storage materials. An incompletely etched Ti2CTx stack exhibits highly reversible hydrogen storage under near-ambient conditions by nanopump-effect-assisted weak chemisorption.

Tailings from the vanadium extraction process are discarded each year as waste, which contain approximately 30wt% of Fe. In our previous work, we extracted Fe and Mn from vanadium slag, and Fe and Mn existed in the form of FeCl2 and MnCl2 after chlorination by NH4Cl to achieve effective and green usage of waste containing Fe and Mn. In this work, square wave voltammetry (SWV) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) were applied to investigate the electrochemical behaviors of Fe2+ and Mn2+ in NaCl-KCl melt at 800°C. The reduction processes of Fe2+ and Mn2+ were found to involve one step. The diffusion coefficients of FeCl2 and MnCl2 in molten salt of eutectic mixtures NaCl-KCl molten salt were measured. The electrodeposition of Fe and Mn were performed using two electrodes at a constant cell voltage. The Mn/Fe mass ratio of the electrodeposited product in NaCl-KCl-2.13wt%FeCl2-1.07wt%MnCl2 was 0.0625 at 2.3 V. After the electrolysis of NaCl-KCl-2.13wt%FeCl2-1.07wt%MnCl2 melted at 2.3 V, the electrolysis was again started under 3.0 V and the Mn/Fe mass ratio of the electrodeposited product was 36.4. This process provides a novel method to effectively separate Fe and Mn from simulated chlorinated vanadium slag.

Electrically tunable optical properties in materials are desirable for many applications ranging from displays to lasing and optical communication. In most two-dimensional thin films and other quan...

A ferroelectric liquid crystal polarization rotator (FLCPR) has been widely used in polarization measurement due to its fast and stable modulation characteristics. The accurate characterization of the modulation performance of FLCPR directly affects the measurement accuracy of the instrument based on liquid crystal modulation. In this study, FLCPR is accurately characterized using a self-developed high-speed Stokes polarimeter. Strong linear and weak circular birefringence are observed during modulation processes, and all the optical parameters of FLCPR are dependent on driving voltage. A dual FLCPR-based Mueller matrix polarimeter is designed on the basis of the Stokes polarimeter. The designed polarimeter combines the advantages of the high modulation frequency of FLCPR and the ultrahigh temporal resolution of the fast polarization measurement system in the Stokes polarimeter. The optimal configuration of the designed polarizer is predicted in accordance with singular value decomposition. A simulated thickness measurement of a 24 nm standard SiO2 thin film is performed using the optimal configuration. Results show that the relative error in thickness measurement caused by using the unsatisfactory modulation characteristics of FLCPR reaches up to −4.34%. This finding demonstrates the importance of the accurate characterization of FLCPR in developing a Mueller matrix polarizer.

A novel Mg0.55Al2.36O3.81N0.19 transparent ceramic with an infrared transmission range comparable to c-plane sapphire was prepared based on the intentional design of the composition. This material possesses outstanding optical properties, such as a high in-line transmittance up to 86.5% at 3.7 µm, a refractive index of 1.7240 at 589.3 nm and an absorption coefficient of 0.8 cm−1 at 5 µm. The effects of chemical composition on the crystal structure and optical properties of spinel material were discussed. In particular, the chemical bond strength of disordered tetrahedron varying with the composition largely determines the infrared transparent range of transparent ceramic.

Solar-blind deep ultraviolet photodetectors (DUVPDs) based on conventional inorganic ultrawide bandgap semiconductors (UWBS) have shown promising application in various civil and military fields and yet they can hardly be used in wearable optoelectronic devices and systems for lack of mechanical flexibility. In this study, we report a non-UWBS solar-blind DUVPD by designing ultrathin polymer nanofibrils with a virtual ultrawide bandgap, which was obtained by grafting P3HT with PHA via a polymerization process. Optoelectronic analysis reveals that the P3HT-b-PHA nanofibrils are sensitive to DUV light with a wavelength of 254 nm but are virtually blind to both 365 nm and other visible light illuminations. The responsivity is 120 A/W with an external quantum efficiency of up to 49700%, implying a large photoconductive gain in the photoresponse process. The observed solar-blind DUV photoresponse is associated with the resonant mode due to the leakage mode of the ultrathin polymer nanofibrils. Moreover, a flexible image sensor composed of 10 × 10 pixels can also be fabricated to illustrate their capability for image sensing application. These results signify that the present ultrathin P3HT-b-PHA nanofibrils are promising building blocks for assembly of low-cost, flexible, and high-performance solar-blind DUVPDs.

Summary Artificial ammonia synthesis (Haber-Bosch process) is a prototypical exothermic reaction of maximum catalytic yield restricted by the unbreakable equilibrium law. This is because bottlenecked N2 dissociation necessitates high temperature, but high temperature reversely shifts the thermal equilibrium toward NH3 decomposition. To surmount this equilibrium limit, here, we propose a new scenario of dual-temperature-zone catalysis. Powered by sunlight, the apparent temperature of TiO2-xHy/Fe hybrid reaches 495°C but with local temperature difference up to 137°C between the hot zone (Fe) and “cooling” zone (TiO2-xHy) owing to the plasmonic local heating effect. The hot Fe bearing hot carriers efficiently dissociates N2, while working-in-tandem TiO2-xHy well accommodates spilled-over N from Fe via successive hydrogenation, prominently mitigating the reverse equilibrium shift and thus delivering record NH3 concentrations of 1,939 (1 atm) and 19,620 ppm (10 atm) at 495°C, 1.55 and 1.57 times the theoretical equilibrium limits of 1,249 and 12,459 ppm, respectively.

The complex optical conductivities of two-dimensaionl (2D) materials are fundamental for extended applications of related optoelectronic devices. Here, we systematically investigate the layer-dependent evolutions in the complex optical conductivities of 1-6 layer 2D MoS2 over an ultrawide spectral range (0.73-6.42 eV) by spectroscopic ellipsometry. We identify five feature peaks (A-E) in the optical conductivity spectra, which present interesting layer dependencies due to the scaling effect. Results suggest that the center energies of peaks A and B are nearly layer-independent, while those of peaks C and D exhibit redshifts as the layer increases. We interpret these layer-dependent evolutions as the competition between the decreasing exciton effect and the prominent band shrinkage with the increasing layer number. Additionally, the applicability of the classical slab model and the surface current model in evaluating the optical conductivities of 2D MoS2 with different layers is discussed from an experimental perspective.

Vanadium slag contains several critical elements like V, Ti, Cr, Fe and Mn. In our previous work, V and Cr have been enriched by selective chlorination, increasing from 10.05% to 14.95% and 5.84%–8.69% separately. V and Cr still maintain the trivalence state in molten salt. In the current work, the electrodeposition behaviors of V3+ and Cr3+ in NaCl–KCl molten salt at 800 °C were investigated using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and square wave voltammetry (SWV) with a tungsten electrode. It was found that the reduction processes of V3+ and Cr3+ consist of two steps, M3+/M2+, M2+/M. The diffusion coefficients of V3+ and Cr3+ in NaCl–KCl molten salt were measured by CV. The effect of VCl3/CrCl3 mass ratio on VCr alloy was investigated by a two-electrode under constant voltage. Pure Cr can be obtained at 2.8 V in the NaCl–KCl molten salt, while VCr alloy (3.71 mass % V-94.28 mass% Cr-2.01 mass % O) was obtained when electrolysis voltage was controlled to 2.8 V at 800 °C. The composition of VCr alloy can be designed by changing the molten salt composition. This method can be applied for direct preparation of VCr alloy from vanadium slag, thus offering the use of low cost raw materials with direct environmental benefits.

In this work, we studied the effect of piperazine, a major by-product, acting as an additive, on the thermodynamics and nucleation kinetics of the triethylenediamine (TEDA)–methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) crystallization process. It was found that the solubility of TEDA in MTBE increased with increasing amount of piperazine. The interactions of piperazine, TEDA and MTBE were investigated by using molecular dynamics simulation based on Materials Studio. The experimental data of maximum supercooling ΔTmax, a measurement of the metastable zone width (MSZW), were analyzed to describe the role of piperazine in the nucleation kinetics of the TEDA–MTBE system. Modified Sangwal's theory was also employed to understand the nucleation behavior in both pure and impure systems. Improved solubility and narrower MSZWs can be achieved by controlling the amount of piperazine in the TEDA–MTBE system. Based on the thermodynamics and nucleation results, a TEDA product with a large particle size can be obtained by adjusting the supersaturation in a one-step purification process, eliminating the conventional recrystallization step.

Two-dimensional (2D) materials usually exhibit interesting layer-dependent dielectric and optical properties, which play important roles in structure optimization and performance improvement of related devices. Recently, 2D WSe2 has attracted considerable attention in atomically thin electronics and optoelectronics, due to its exotic photoelectric properties. In this paper, high-quality, continuous, and centimeter-scale 2D WSe2 with different layers on a sapphire substrate are prepared by an ultrafast ambient-pressure chemical vapor deposition method. We comprehensively investigate the evolution of the layer-dependent dielectric and optical properties of 2D WSe2 from a single layer to five layers by spectroscopic ellipsometry over an ultra-broad energy range (0.73–6.42 eV). We identify the critical points (CPs) in the dielectric function spectra of 2D WSe2 with different layers, and reveal physical origins of the corresponding optical transitions at these CPs by the CP analysis method and first-principles calculations. Results demonstrate that the center energies of these CPs exhibit intriguing layer-dependencies, which can be interpreted as the alternative domination of the decreasing exciton binding energy and the striking band renormalization. For the first time, we found that the imaginary part of the dielectric function of WSe2 at these CPs exhibits a valley-like shape versus the layer number, and the bottom appears at 3-layers. This non-monotonic evolution is explained as a competition between the layer-dependent decrease of the exciton effect and the layer-dependent increase of the joint density of states.

Ordered materials, which hold organized structures of heterogeneous matter and thus always present superior performance than their non-ordered counterparts, have been constantly pursued. Nevertheless, the direct, precise and nondestructive observation of the ordering process, which is especially critical for evaluating the quality of consecutive manufacturing, remains a formidable challenge. Herein, we introduce Mueller matrix ellipsometry (MME) as a nondestructive method to quantitatively investigate the nanocomposite ordering process upon holography. This nondestructive investigation directly offers the exact width of, refractive index and nanoparticle fraction in each bright (constructive) and dark (destructive) interference area, which is impossible to be implemented using other existing techniques. Interestingly, the width of dark regions in the formed holographic gratings is observed to decrease while the width of bright regions increases with an augmentation of holographic recording time, distinct from previous width-equal assumption. Meanwhile, an apparent diffusion coefficient of 2 × 10−15 m2 s−1 for nanoparticles is determined on the basis of time dependent grating parameter variation, which is 3 orders of magnitude lower than the initial value theoretically predicted by the Stokes-Einstein diffusion equation. The distinct diffusion coefficient is attributed to the rapid increase of viscosity driven by polymerization during holography. No depolarization is observed in these holographic polymer nanocomposites, indicating uniform dispersion of nanoparticles in the polymer matrices. The proposed protocol herein is envisioned to pave the way for precisely and nondestructively understanding the formation of ordered structure in electronics, photonics, photovoltaics, biomaterials and other disciplines.

Birefringence and dichroism are very important properties in optical anisotropy. Understanding the intrinsic birefringence and dichroism of a material can provide great help to utilize its optical anisotropy. But the direct experimental investigation of birefringence in nanoscale materials is rarely reported. As typical anisotropic transition metals trichalcogenides (TMTCs) materials with quasi-1D structure, TiS3 and ZrS3 have attracted extensive attention due to their special crystal structure and optical anisotropy characteristics. Here, the optical anisotropy properties such as birefringence and dichroism of two kinds of quasi-1D TMTCs, TiS3 and ZrS3 , are theoretically and experimentally studied. In experimental results, the anisotropic refraction and anisotropic reflection of TiS3 and ZrS3 are studied by polarization-resolved optical microscopy and azimuth-dependent reflectance difference microscopy, respectively. In addition, the birefringence and dichroism of ZrS3 nanoribbon in experiment are directly measured by spectrometric ellipsometry measurements, and a reasonable result is obtained. This work provides the basic optical anisotropy information of TiS3 and ZrS3 . It lays a foundation for the further study of the optical anisotropy of these two materials and provides a feasible method for the study of birefringence and dichroism of other nanomaterials in the future.

More than 1.2 million tons of tailings containing approximately 30 wt% of Fe from traditional vanadium extraction processes are discarded every year as solid waste, which waste resources. In order to achieve effective and green utilization of waste, a novel process was proposed to keep Cr and V at Cr3+ and V3+ during extraction by using AlCl3-NaCl-KCl molten salt in Ar gas atmosphere to control the valuable elements (Cr, V, Mn and Fe) from oxidized. The morphological features of vanadium slag reacted in the temperature range from 200 °C to 800 °C and volatilization of samples under different AlCl3/slag ratios were analyzed. Meanwhile, the chlorinated kinetics of V, Cr, Mn and Fe in vanadium slag were systemically investigated in temperature range of 850 °C–950 °C. The kinetics investigation indicated that the chlorination processes of Fe and Mn were restricted by mass transfer in product layer (Al-Si-O mixture) and the chlorination processes of V and Cr were controlled by surface reaction. The apparent activation energies for Fe, Mn, V, and Cr are 105.28 kJ/mol, 94.26 kJ/mol, 64.64 kJ/mol, and 63.30 kJ/mol, respectively. After chlorination, the separation of metal chlorides was achieved. TiCl4 is hydrolyzed to obtain TiO2. Mn can be separated from VCl3, CrCl3, FeCl2, and MnCl2 by controlling the electrolytic voltages. Fe-V-Cr alloy was obtained by electrolysis at 2.3 V.

Piezoelectric materials enable emerging self-powered wearable and implantable devices. The sol-gel technology with the lowest cost for large-scale production has shown its potential for producing high-quality PZT thin films. However, fabricating PZT films with a sufficient thickness for different application scenarios requires a long and repeated coating and heat-treatment process. The traditional solution-based method usually requires at least 20 coating cycles to fabricate 2 μm-thick PZT thin films. To save cost and improve fabrication efficiency, we develop a simplified thin-film fabrication method assisted by PZT powder. The new method can fabricate 2 μm-thick PZT films in a single step, one spin coating and annealing. Experiments indicate that the powder-based PZT thin films have porous structures and outstanding piezoelectric performances. The measured d33 of the powder-based PZT thin film is 47 pm/V. Both solution-based and powder-based PZT thin films show high flexibility and good fatigue resistance. Furthermore, we explore 2D mica as the substrate and achieve the transfer-free fabrication of flexible PZT thin-film nanogenerators that effectively simplify the complicated physical or chemical thin-film lift-off processes. The nanogenerator prototypes demonstrate the capability of accurately monitoring dynamic responses of flexible and soft human tissues.

International audience; Two-dimensional (2D) hybrid organic inorganic perovskite (HOIP) semiconductors have attracted widespread attention as a platform of next-generation optoelectronic devices benefiting from their naturally occurring and tunable multiple quantum-well-like (QW-like) structures, which enable a wide range of physical properties. Determining the intrinsic optical/electronic properties of 2D HOIPs is extremely important for further utility in photonic and optoelectronic devices. Here, we obtain the optical dielectric functions, complex refractive indices, and complex optical conductivities of both Ruddlesden–Popper (RP) and Dion–Jacobson (DJ) phases of 2D HOIPs, as a function of the perovskite QW thickness via spectroscopic ellipsometry over a broad energy range of 0.73–3.34 eV. We identify a series of feature peaks in the dielectric functions, and we explain the evolution of ground-state exciton peak with unit-cell thickness and changing excitonic confinement. We observe extraordinary values of optical extinction and electric loss tangents at the primary excitonic resonances and provide their detailed comparison with other known excitonic materials. Our study is expected to lay the foundation for understanding optical properties of pure-phase 2D HOIPs, which are critical and imperative for the accurate modelling of their photonic and optoelectronic devices.

The low efficiency and dissatisfactory chromaticity remain as important challenges on the road to the OLED commercialization. In this paper, we propose a multi-objective collaborative optimization strategy to simultaneously improve the efficiency and ameliorate the chromaticity of the stratified OLED devices. Based on the formulations derived for the current efficiency and the chromaticity Commission International de L’Eclairage (CIE) of OLEDs, an optical sensitivity model is presented to quantitatively analyze the influence of the layer thickness on the current efficiency and the CIE. Subsequently, an evaluation function is defined to effectively balance the current efficiency as well as the CIE, and a collaborative optimization strategy is further proposed to simultaneously improve both of them. Simulations are comprehensively performed on a typical top-emitting blue OLED to demonstrate the necessity and the effectivity of the proposed strategy. The influences of the layer thickness incorporated in the blue OLED are ranked based on the sensitivity analysis method, and by optimizing the relative sensitive layer thicknesses in the optical views, a 16% improvement can be achieved for the current efficiency of the OLED with desired CIE meantime. Hence, the proposed multi-objective collaborative optimization strategy can be well applied to design high-performance OLED devices by improving the efficiency without chromaticity quality degradation.

Tandem organic solar cells (OSCs) show great potential due to advantages such as the utilization of wide-spectrum light and low thermalization loss. The current mismatch between sub-cells is one of the major issues reducing the final output efficiency of a tandem device. In this paper, we focus on the current mismatch of tandem OSCs at oblique incidence and aim to reduce its adverse effect on the performances of realistic devices working at varying incident angle. Firstly, we propose an optical analysis method based on the 4×4 matrix formalism to analyze and optimize the performance of tandem solar cells at arbitrary incident angles. Compared with those optimal designs via matching the currents of sub-cells only at normal incidence, the proposed method chooses the optimal structure of the tandem device by maximizing the generated energy density per day with considering the current match at different incident angles during daytime. With the proposed method, a typical tandem organic solar cell is optimized as an example, and the optimized tandem device has a balanced current match at all incident angles during a whole day. Experimental results demonstrate that the generated energy density per day of the optimized tandem device has increased by 4.9% compared to the conventional device optimized only at normal incidence. The proposed method and results are expected to provide some new insights for the performance analysis and optimization of tandem or multi-junction solar cells, especially those devices exhibiting serious current mismatch between sub-cells at varying incident angles in practical applications.

Spatial chirp induced by the misaligned gratings and mirrors in a parallel grating pair pulse stretcher can significantly affect the performance of the output pulses. Firstly, a detailed analysis about the spatial chirp of the stretched pulses caused by the misalignments has been carried out using the ray tracing simulation method. According to the simulation results, an adjustment procedure has been summarized to accurately calibrate these misalignments. The proposed method has been successfully applied in a home-made chirped pulse stretcher. By measuring the output pulse with an imaging spectrometer, the results show the stretched pulse has a good linear temporal chirp and little spatial chirp, which demonstrates the good adjustment of the stretcher.

Annealing temperature dependency of the optical and structural properties of Cu films is carefully studied using multiple means such as spectroscopic ellipsometry, x-ray diffraction, white-light interferometry, atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscope (SEM), and the four-probe method. A wide annealing temperature range from 300 to 1200 K is examined experimentally. We find that the optical and structural properties of Cu films annealed at above 600 K cannot be naturally extended from the data commonly achieved on the samples annealed at the temperature below 600 K. When the annealing temperature is increasing, two transition points at around 600 and 900 K have been found by the Drude-Tauc-Lorentz analysis of the dielectric functions covering the energy range from 0.73 to 6.42 eV. The transition feature at 600 K can be attributed to the improvement of the crystalline state caused by annealing, which can be interpreted by the sharper diffraction peak shown in x-ray diffraction (XRD). The transition feature at 900 K was caused by the emergence of island structure due to the high-temperature annealing, which was supported by the SEM images as well. In fact, both the conspicuous scattering characteristics in the pseudodielectric function and the spurious peaks in the XRD pattern indicate the dramatically morphologic changes induced by the migration and reaggregation of Cu nanoparticles. The downward trend of dc resistivity captured in dielectric function analysis was supported by that of the sheet resistivity measured by the four-probe method.

Fault detection can increase the reliability and efficiency of power electronic converters employed in power systems. Among the converters in the power system, a Neutral Point Clamped (NPC) three-level inverter is most commonly used to drive electric motors. In this paper, a new approach for open-circuit fault detection and location of the NPC three-level inverter for a shifting process using a constant voltage-to-frequency ratio is proposed. In order to diagnose open-circuit fault in as short a time as possible, an adaptive electrical period partition (AEPP) algorithm is proposed to pick single electrical periods from real-time three-phase current signals. The Maximal Overlap Discrete Wavelet Transformation (MODWT) and Park’s Vector Modulus (PVM) are used for feature analysis and normalization of electrical period signals. The statistical characteristics of the electrical period signals are extracted, and a random forest model is constructed to realize the state classification. Compared with the traditional fault diagnosis method, the proposed algorithm finds fault locations quickly and accurately. The effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed algorithm are verified by experiments.

Electronic skin made of thin, soft, stretchable devices that can mimic the human skin and reconstruct the tactile sensation and perception offers great opportunities for prosthesis sensing, robotics controlling, and human-machine interfaces. Advanced materials and mechanics engineering of thin film devices has proven to be an efficient route to enable and enhance flexibility and stretchability of various electronic skins; however, the density of devices is still low owing to the limitation in existing fabrication techniques. Here, we report a high-throughput one-step process to fabricate large tactile sensing arrays with a sensor density of 25 sensors/cm 2 for electronic skin, where the sensors are based on intrinsically stretchable piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) elastomer. The PZT elastomer sensor arrays with great uniformity and passive-driven manner enable high-resolution tactile sensing, simplify the data acquisition process, and lower the manufacturing cost. The high-throughput fabrication process provides a general platform for integrating intrinsically stretchable materials into large area, high device density soft electronics for the next-generation electronic skin.

The solubility of imatinib mesylate in nine monosolvents and two binary solvents was determined by the shaken flask method followed by UV composition analysis from 278.15 to 318.15 K at atmospheric pressure. The solubility increases with the increasing of temperature in all solvents we chose. Meanwhile, the dissolving capacity of imatinib mesylate ranks as methyl acetate < 2-propanol < acetonitrile < isobutanol < 1-butanol < tetrahydrofuran < 1-propanol < ethanol < methanol. The Apelblat model, λh equation, and nonrandom two-liquid (NRTL) model described the solubility data of imatinib mesylate in monosolvents; simultaneously, the Apelblat model, combined nearly ideal binary solvent/Redlich-Kister model, and NRTL model were employed in binary solvents. The results show a satisfactory correlation with the experimental data. Additionally, mixing thermodynamic properties of imatinib mesylate were calculated based on the NRTL model, which reveals the mixing process is spontaneous and exothermic.

Here we report the polymorph nucleation of undecanedioic acid (UDA) having high solvent-dependent selectivity. Solvents with high hydrogen bond donating (HBD) ability preferred to produce form II, while form I was obtained from solvents with no HBD ability. Cooling experiments in a series of binary solvents with an HBD ability value from 0 to 86 were designed to affirm the strong correlation between solute–solvent interactions and polymorph formation verified by solution Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and quantitative powder X-ray diffraction. Two crystal structures, evaluated as conformational dimorphs assisted by FTIR, solid-state NMR, and quantum chemistry calculations, were reported. Furthermore, the crystal structures suggest that UDA molecules from various solutions went through different conformation rearrangements resulting in two forms during nucleation. Meanwhile, we reveal that there is no direct connection between the solution chemistry of UDA in solvents with various HBD stren...

Non-stoichiometric MgO·1.8Al2O3 spinel transparent ceramic was prepared from synthesized single phase powder through an aqueous gel-casting forming technique. In order to prevent hydrolysis, the powder was specially treated in toluene with stearic acid and then dispersed in an aqueous solution with the help of amphoteric compound Tween 80 and dispersant TMAH. The surface modification process was confirmed by various techniques such as Fourier transmission infrared absorption spectroscopy (FT-IR), pH value, zeta potentials and rheological properties. Afterwards, gel-casted green compacts were debinded, pressureless-sintered (PS) and hot-isostatic-pressed (HIP). Highly transparent MgO·1.8Al2O3 ceramics (3.6 mm in thickness) with in-line transmittance values of 77–82 % in visible region and higher than 85% in near infrared region were obtained. The samples exhibited Knoop hardness of 12.2 ± 0.2 GPa, Young’s modulus of 302 GPa, refractive index of 1.7046, and Abbe's number of 75.8.

Co-amorphization of drugs has been a promising approach to enhance the apparent solubility and dissolution rate of poorly-water soluble drugs. Nimesulide, a BCS Ⅱ drug, was combined with indomethacin to form three co-amorphous systems at molar ratios of 2:1, 1:1 and 1:2 via quench cooling. The aim of this research was mainly to probe the relationship between physical stability (long-term stability and temperature sensitivity) and intermolecular interaction modes among three co-amorphous systems. The calculated glass transition temperature by the Gordon-Taylor equation shows the presence of intermolecular interactions within co-amorphous systems. FTIR spectra further verify that there are hydrogen bonds and π-π stacking in intermolecular interactions. Specific atomic groups involved in the intermolecular hydrogen bonding were investigated using radial distribution function analysis based on molecular dynamic simulation. Gaussian calculation visually gives dominant molecular aggregate composed of multiple hydrogen bonding modes in co-amorphous systems and explains the stability difference of 1:2>1:1>2:1. Finally, powder dissolution profiles were conducted and the 1:2 system has the greatest dissolution advantage with six-fold improvement of dissolution rate compared with pure NMS.

We propose and demonstrate an all-dielectric metasurface-based roll-angle sensor, in which the roll angle is translated into the change of polarization state of the probe light. A circular polarization beam splitter is designed and fabricated to split the probe light into right-circularly polarized and left-circularly polarized light beams, whose intensities are then collected to estimate the roll angle. The experimental results show that the developed roll-angle sensor has a measurement resolution of 0.1° and a measurement range of 30°. The all-dielectric metasurface-based design promises to substantially reduce the size of the roll-angle sensor and is expected to gain wide applications especially on space-limited occasions.

Low-carbon transition in the non-electric energy sector, which includes transport and heating energy, is necessary for achieving the 2 °C target. Meanwhile, as non-electric energy accounts for over 60% of total water consumption in the energy supply sector, it is vital to understand future water trends in the context of decarbonization. However, few studies have focused on life-cycle water impacts for non-electric energy; besides, applying conventional LCA methodology to assess non-electric energy has limitations. In this paper, a Multi-Regional Hybrid Life-Cycle Assessment (MRHLCA) model is built to assess total CO2 emissions and water consumption of 6 non-electric energy technologies - transport energy from biofuel and gasoline, heat supply from natural gas, biogas, coal, and residual biomass, within 7 major emitting economies. We find that a shift to natural gas and residual biomass heating can help economies reduce 14-65% CO2 and save more than 21% water. However, developed and developing economies should take differentiated technical strategies. Then we apply scenarios from IMAGE model to demonstrate that if economies take cost-effective 2 °C pathways, the water conservation synergy for the whole energy supply sector, including electricity, can also be achieved.

Pyrazinamide is usually nucleated from solution as a dimeric form; it has rarely been reported in the γ form (chain structure) crystallized from solution, especially from aqueous solution. Here, we designed a novel way to obtain the γ form of pyrazinamide from aqueous solution. Specific templates were applied to disturb the intrinsic self-association of pyrazinamide molecules and prevent the formation of the dimer structure. In this paper, the heterosynthon design method was applied in pyrazinamide heterogeneous nucleation, in which sulfonamides were chosen as the templates. In the presence of sulfonamide templates, hydrogen bonds between the carbonyl moiety of the amide group in pyrazinamide molecules and the sulfonamide moiety of sulfonamide template molecules were formed; these preferred intermolecular interactions protected the carbonyl groups of PZA, facilitating assembly of PZA molecules in a chain via N–H···N′ and nucleating as the γ form of PZA. This is the first time that the heterosynthon design...

In this study, an organic dye lucigenin (BNMA) was successfully intercalated into the interlayer of montmorillonite (MMT) to prevent fluorescence quenching. With its enhanced fluorescent property, the composite was fabricated into solid strips for it fast and sensitive phenol detection in both liquid and gas phases. Under proper optimizations it is anticipated that the composite would show great potential for phenol determination in real world environment such as wastewater treatment industry.

The Comment on “Determination and Correlation of Dipyridamole p-Toluene Sulfonate Solubility in Seven Alcohol Solvents and Three Binary Solvents” is appreciated. According to the comments, we make a deep analysis and discussion of our article again. The reason for large deviations between the back-calculated value presented in our paper and the back-calculated value calculated by Acree is that we mixed up the coefficients calculated by two programs and the wrong Apelblat equation coefficients were submitted in our paper instead of the corrected ones. Therefore, the model parameters of the Apelblat equation and the calculated mole fraction solubilities of dipyridamole p-toluene sulfonate in all solvents at the temperature ranging from 288.15 to 328.15 K were recalculated by the corrected program and show satisfactory correlation results with the experimental values.

Optical properties of mono-graphene fabricated by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) are comparatively studied by Mueller matrix ellipsometry (MME) over an ultra-wide energy range of 0.73–6.42 eV. A multilayer stacking model is constructed to describe the CVD mono-graphene, in which the roughness of the glass substrate and the water adsorption on the graphene are considered. We introduce a uniaxial anisotropic dielectric model to parameterize the optical constants of both the graphene and the HOPG. With the established models, broadband optical constants of the graphene and the HOPG are determined from the Mueller matrix spectra based on a point-by-point method and a non-linear regression method, respectively. Two significant absorption peaks at 4.75 eV and 6.31 eV are observed in the extinction coefficient spectra of the mono-graphene, which can be attributed to the von-Hove singularity (i.e., the π-to-π∗ exciton transition) near the M point and the σ-to-σ∗ exciton transition near the Γ point of the Brillouin zone, respectively. Comparatively, only a major absorption peak at 4.96 eV appears in the ordinary extinction coefficient spectra of the HOPG, which is mainly formed by the π-to-π∗ interband transition.

Using vanadium slag as raw material, Metal-doped Mn-Zn ferrites were synthesized by multi-step processes including chlorination of iron and manganese by NH4Cl, selective oxidation of Fe cation, and hydrothermal synthesis. The phase composition and magnetic properties of synthesized metal-doped Mn-Zn ferrite were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photon spectra (XPS) and physical property measurement. It was found that Mn/Zn mole ratio significantly affected the magnetic properties and ZnCl2 content significantly influenced the purity of the phase of ferrite. Synthesized metal-doped Mn-Zn ferrite, exhibiting a larger saturation magnetization (Ms = 60.01 emu/g) and lower coercivity (Hc = 8.9 Oe), was obtained when the hydrothermal temperature was controlled at 200 °C for 12 h with a Mn/Zn mole ratio of 4. The effect of ZnCl2 content, Mn/Zn mole ratio and temperature on magnetic properties of the synthesized metal-doped Mn-Zn ferrite were systemically investigated. This process provided a new insight to utilize resources in the aim of obtaining functional materials.

The solid–liquid equilibrium data of l-carnitine fumarate in methanol + (ethanol/1-propanol/2-propanol) binary mixed systems were determined at temperatures ranging from 288.15 to 328.15 K, while the solubility data of l-carnitine fumarate in (methanol +1-butanol) mixtures were determined from T = (293.15 to 333.15) K because of its low solubility in low temperature. All experimental data were obtained by the gravimetric method under atmospheric pressure. At each composition point, the data increases with the increasing temperature in all determined solutions. A similar trend is also observed when the mole fraction of methanol increases in all binary solvent mixtures for each temperature. It is also found that the solubility data of l-carnitine fumarate in these binary mixtures rank as (methanol + ethanol) > (methanol +1-propanol) > (methanol +2-propanol) > (methanol +1-butanol). The modified Apelblat equation, (CNIBS)/Redlich–Kister model, Solubility–Polarity model, and Jouyban–Acree model were employed ...

The growth of thiamine nitrate, in supersaturated aqueous solutions in the absence and presence of sodium alkyl sulfates CH3(CH2)nSO4Na and sodium alkyl sulfonates CH3(CH2)nSO3Na was studied by a single seed crystal growth experiment. It was surprisingly found that the growth of the a-axis of thiamine nitrate is significantly inhibited by CH3(CH2)nSO4Na, thus reducing the aspect ratio of thiamine nitrate, while the aspect ratio of thiamine nitrate in the presence of CH3(CH2)nSO3Na remains almost constant. Furthermore, the mechanism of additives to modify the crystal morphology is proposed: both additives can inhibit the growth of thiamine nitrate by hindering the solute diffusion. However, their unusual behavior is due to the selective adsorption, which was caused by electrostatic and hydrogen bond interactions between solute and additive molecules. In particular, the anionic groups exposed at the end of the additives demonstrate an interesting case in which a small variation in the charge density and hyd...

Light-driven heterogeneous catalysis provides a promising way to accomplish chemical reactions by the use of light energy, which reduces the consumption of chemical energy sources. Here, we show that Ru/CeO2 catalysts exhibit high activity for the hydrogenation of CO2 to methane under illumination only, reaching high CO2 conversion (over 99.9%) and selectivity of methane (∼100%) at low temperature. In sharp contrast, less CO2 is converted at the same temperature when a traditional heating model is used. As revealed by the results, the enhanced conversion rate under illumination should not only be attributed to the light-induced thermo-heating. Further investigations by in situ IR analysis and theoretical calculation provide comprehensive understanding of the reaction mechanism, and the important role of light is revealed. It is expected that the combination of catalysts and light may afford new perspectives for CO2 hydrogenation.

Molecular structures play a critical role in forming the horizontal orientation of the emission transition dipole of light-emitting TADF materials which can improve the light outcoupling efficiency of OLEDs. Here, two TADF emitters of IndCzpTr-1 and IndCzpTr-2 based indolocarbazole derivatives with stereoscopic and linear structures were designed and synthesized. With a smaller ΔEST, better thermal stability and preferential horizontal orientation with an orientation order parameter S of −0.264, a green TADF OLED device based on IndCzpTr-2 realized a maximum EQE of 30.0% and maximum current efficiency (CE) of 82.6 cd A−1 without using any optical outcoupling technology; meanwhile, a sky-blue TADF OLED with a maximum EQE of 14.5% and a maximum CE of 28.1 cd A−1 was obtained for IndCzpTr-1 with a homologous device structure.

Tumor combination therapy using nano formulations with multimodal synergistic therapeutic effects shows great potential for complete ablation of tumors. However, targeting tumor metastases with nano structures is a major obstacle for therapy. Therefore, developing a combination therapy system able to target both primary tumors and their metastases at distant sites with synergistic therapy is desirable for the complete eradication of tumors. To this end, a dual chemodrug-loaded theranostic system based on single walled carbon nanohorns (SWNHs) is developed for targeting both primary breast tumors and their lung metastases. Methods: SWNHs were first modified simultaneously with poly (maleic anhydride-alt-1-octadecene) (C18PMH) and methoxypolyethyleneglycol-b-poly-D, L-lactide (mPEG-PLA) via hydrophobic-hydrophobic interactions and π-π stacking. Then cisplatin and doxorubicin (DOX) (2.9:1 molar ratio) were sequentially loaded onto the modified nanohorns in a noninterfering way. After careful examinations of the release profiles of the loaded drugs and the photothermal performance of the dual chemodrug-loaded SWNHs, termed SWNHs/C18PMH/mPEG-PLA-DOX-Pt, the dual drug chemotherapeutic and chemo-photothermal synergetic therapeutic effects on tumor cells were evaluated. Subsequently, the in vivo behavior and tumor accumulation of the drug-loaded SWNHs were studied by photoacoustic imaging (PAI). For chemo-photothermal therapy of tumors, 4T1 tumor bearing mice were intravenously injected with SWNHs/C18PMH/mPEG-PLA-DOX-Pt at a dose of 10 mg/kg b.w. (in SWNHs) and tumors were illuminated by an 808 nm laser (1W/cm2 for 5 min) 24 h post-injection. Results: DOX and cisplatin were loaded onto the modified SWNHs with high efficiency (44 wt% and 66 wt%, respectively) and released in a pH-sensitive, tandem and sustainable manner. The SWNHs/C18PMH/mPEG-PLA-DOX-Pt had a hydrodynamic diameter of 182 ± 3.2 nm, were highly stable in physiological environment, and had both dual drug chemotherapeutic (CI = 0.439) and chemo-photothermal synergistic antitumor effects (CI = 0.396) in vitro. Moreover, the dual drug-loaded SWNHs had a long blood half-life (10.9 h) and could address both the primary breast tumors and their lung metastases after intravenous administration. Consequently, chemo-photothermal combination therapy ablated the primary tumors and simultaneously eradicated the metastatic lung nodules. Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that SWNHs/C18PMH/mPEG-PLA-DOX-Pt is highly potent for chemo-photothermal combination therapy of primary tumors and cocktail chemotherapy of their metastases at a distant site.

The solubility of dipyridamole p-toluene sulfonate in seven monosolvents (methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol, 2-propanol, 1-butanol, isobutanol, 2-butanol) and three different binary solvents (methanol + ethanol, methanol + 1-propanol, methanol + 1-butanol) was measured by a gravimetric method at temperatures ranging from 288.15 to 328.15 K. The experimental results indicate that the solubility of dipyridamole p-toluene sulfonate increases with increasing temperature while showing negative correlation with the mole fraction of organic solvents (ethanol, 1-propanol, 1-butanol) at a given temperature in binary solvents. The Apelblat model, the CNIBS/R-K model, and the modified version of Jouyban-Acree models (the Apel-JA equation) were used to correlate the experimental data, and the calculated results of above models were found to agree well with the experimental data.

Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) has received widespread attention as a new type of radiation therapy. The main problem encountered in BNCT is insufficient tumor cellular uptake of boron agents. In this study, cell-penetrating peptide TAT-conjugated o-carborane was synthesized. The conjugation can self-assemble to form positively charged carborane-TAT micelles, and then adsorb negatively charged hyaluronic acid (HA) to give core-shell structured carborane-TAT@HA micelles. Carborane-TAT@HA micelles exhibits a large amount of boron uptake at the tumor tissue through the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect and the ability of HA to bind to CD44 receptors. Carborane-TAT@HA was wrapped by the HA shell during systemic circulation to avoid non-specific uptake of TAT with normal cells, while tumor microenvironment-responsive shedding of HA shell could expose Carborane-TAT to penetrate the cell membrane into tumor cells. Experiments have proved the enhanced selectivity of tumor cellular uptake of the boron drug, displayed excellent drug delivery potential, and can meet the basic requirements of BNCT.

As a typical ferroelectric material, the PbZr1−xTix O3 (PZT) thin film with a homogeneous component has drawn extensive attention to the application in self-powered flexible electronics. The design of compositionally graded PZT thin films (i.e. artificially control the Zr/Ti ratio in different compositional layers in one film) has shown its immense potentials due to some novel phenomena induced by strain gradient, such as the shifted hysteresis loop, generation of the built-in electric field, enhancement in the motion of domain wall. However, the effect of the compositionally graded heterostructure on the piezoelectric response and its performance on the device level has seldom been investigated. To fill this knowledge gap, we prepare PZT thin films with the compositionally graded structure and based on that, fabricate flexible piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs). Furthermore, we explore the 2D mica as the substrate of PENGs and avoid the commonly used costly and troublesome laser-lifting or etching transfer procedure. The PENG prototypes integrated with 1 µm thick PZT films are flexible, translucent, and show high electric responses under different mechanical stimuli. Experiments indicate that up-graded PZT films, of which Zr composition varies from 20% near the bottom to 80% at the top, outperforms the down-graded counterpart. The up-graded PENG achieves a maximum voltage response of 2 V and a current density of 10.0 μA/cm2 when bent by 90 ° . This work demonstrates that the strain-tuned compositionally graded structure is an effective approach to improve the PENG performance.

A single pulse diffraction method to probe the plasma column evolution of the air ionization induced by the femtosecond laser pulse has been proposed. By utilizing a linearly chirped pulse as the probe light, the spatiotemporal evolution spectrum of the plasma column can be acquired in a single measurement. A method based on the Fresnel diffraction integral is proposed to extract the evolution of the phase shift after the probe light is crossing through the plasma column. Results show that the plasma expands rapidly within 7 ps due to the ionization, and then reaches a steady state with a diameter of about 80 μm with the pump pulse energy of 1 mJ. Furtherly, the temporal profile of the free electron density and the refractive index in the plasma region were determined using the corresponding physical models. The single-shot method can be expected to broaden the way for detecting the dynamics of the femtosecond laser-induced plasma.

A novel pH-sensitive polymeric prodrug of camptothecin (CPT) by polymerizing γ-camptothecin-glutamate N-carboxyanhydride (Glu (CPT)-NCA) on boronate ester-linked poly (ethyleneglycol) (PEG) directly via the amine-initiated ring open polymerization (ROP) has been developed. The resulting amphiphilic prodrug (mPEG-BC-PGluCPT) could self-assemble into nanoparticles and encapsulate doxorubicin (Dox) simultaneously in aqueous solution for dual-drug delivery. The formation of polymeric prodrug micelles (mPEG-BC@PGluCPT) was confirmed by the measurements of critical aggregation concentration (CAC), particle size, and morphology observations. The mPEG-BC@PGluCPT micelles were colloidally stable in solutions for two weeks. Polymeric prodrug micelles mPEG-BC@PGluCPT and Dox-loaded micelles mPEG-BC@PGluCPT⋅Dox showed sustained drug release profiles over 48 h. As expected, drug release was accelerated by the decreasement of pH value from 7.4 to 6.0, which demonstrated pH-dependent manner of drug release. Additionally, it was found that cellular uptake of mPEG-BC@PGluCPT⋅Dox micelles on HepG2 cells was higher than that on HL-7702 cells, especially in culture medium at pH 6.0. The enhanced cellular uptake of mPEG-BC@PGluCPT⋅Dox micelles under acidic condition on HepG2 cells resulted in the higher cytotoxicity of mPEG-BC@PGluCPT⋅Dox micelles at acidic pH than that at pH 7.4.

In order to achieve the passive tumor targeting and acid-triggered drugs release in lysosomes, optimized delivery system for doxorubicin based on pH-sensitive complex nanomicelles with suitable particle size was developed in this research. Particularly, poly(L-succinimide) was thoroughly ring-opened by ethylenediamine to give the poly(N-(2-aminoethyl)-L-aspartamide). Then, graft copolymer mPEG-graft-poly(N-(2-aminoethyl)-L-aspartamide)-hexahydrophthalic acid (mPEG-g-P(ae-Asp)-Hap) was synthesized by grafting mPEG-2000 and hexahydrophthalic anhydride onto poly(N-(2-aminoethyl)-L-aspartamide). In vitro studies revealed that mPEG-g-P(ae-Asp)-Hap copolymer was stable in neutral solutions but tend to be hydrolyzed under acidic condition, which was attributed to the acid-sensitive properties of hexahydrophthalic amides (β-carboxylic amides). MPEG-g-P(ae-Asp)-Hap copolymer with critical aggregation concentration of 0.166 mg·mL−1 could self-assemble into stable blank nanomicelles with an average particle hydrodynamic diameter of 98.1 nm, but the hydrodynamic diameter of doxorubicin-loaded nanomicelles (mPEG-g-P(ae-Asp)-Hap·Dox) was smaller and approximately 77.5 nm. MPEG-g-P(ae-Asp)-Hap·Dox nanomicelles showed sustained drug release profiles over 34 h, and the cumulative drug release showed a tendency to increase from 25% to 62% with the pH value decreasing from 7.4 to 5.0 due to the acid-triggered disassembly of nanomicelles. The cytotoxicity of mPEG-g-P(ae-Asp)-Hap·Dox nanomicelles against A549 treated with 40 mM NH4Cl (lysosomotropic weak bases) was decreased significantly than that without NH4Cl treatment, further confirmed the drug release from the nanomicelles was triggered by the low pH value of lysosome (pH 5.0). Compared with doxorubicin HCl, mPEG-g-P(ae-Asp)-Hap·Dox nanomicelle drug showed enhanced cellular uptake ability during 2 or 4 h of incubation due to the endocytosis mechanism of nanomicelle drug. In summary, the cleavage of pH-sensitive β-carboxylic amides bonds on the hydrophobic branch of mPEG-g-P(ae-Asp)-Hap copolymer triggered the disassembly of the nanomicelles and release of doxorubicin in the acidic lysosomal compartments of cancer cells. These nanomicelles exhibited excellent potential for drug delivery due to their smart properties-PEGylation, suitable size, and acid-triggered drug release.

Comprehensive optical and structural properties are reported on several MBE grown thin Si 1-x Ge x epifilms and Si 1-x Ge x /Si superlattices with low Ge contents by using spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE), high resolution x-ray diffraction (HR-XRD) and Raman scattering (RS). For thin Si 1-x Ge x films, our appraised results of the optical dielectric functions from SE spectra fitted to the parameterized models have revealed discrepancies with the existing data. While E 1 and E 1 + Δ 1 critical point energies have shown similarities, their amplitudes uncovered ∼25% larger value for the E 1 band-edge, and ∼10% larger value for the E 1 + Δ 1 band-edge. In our samples, the observed vibrational peaks in the RS are classified as unstrained Si Si, Ge Ge and Ge Si modes. These mode assignments in Si 1-x Ge x alloys are evaluated compared and discussed with the available RS data.

Visible-light driven m-LaVO 4 /BiOBr composite photocatalysts were synthesized by a two-step hydrothermal process, and were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL), and UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, respectively. The results showed that 1.0 wt% LaVO 4 /BiOBr sample exhibits the highest photodegradation rate of RhB under visible-light irradiation, within 60 mins, it achieved 83.37%. The enhanced photocatalytic performance can be ascribed to the formation of p-n heterojunction structure and the inhibition of m-LaVO 4 to 2D growth of BiOBr to a certain extent.

Temperature measurement is critical for many scientific experiments and technological applications. Diverse thermometers have been developed for the thermal sensing at macroscopic length scales. However, in situ and quantitative temperature measurement of nanoscale objects in a convenient approach is still a challenge. Here, we demonstrate a new type of optically readable VO2 nanowire-based thermometer, based on the unique axial gradient phase transition behavior along single-domain VO2 nanowires, which is attributed to the hydrogen doping of single-crystalline VO2 nanowires through hydrothermal fabrication and the hydrogen engineering via a postannealing process. Besides the appropriate microscopic size and user-friendly operation, the as-prepared optically readable VO2 nanowire-based thermometers have ultrahigh relative sensitivity (∼17.4%/K) and temperature resolution (∼0.026 K), enabling the sensitive monitoring of the thermal environment of small spaces or the temperature of even nanoscale structures.

The aim of this research is to develop a novel type of camptothecin (CPT) prodrug micelles bearing boronate ester bonds as a smart nanosystem with enhanced cellular uptake and controlled drug release based on diblock copolymer abbreviated as PEG-BC-PGlu-ss-CPT. Particularly, boronate ester bond was introduced to achieve acid-triggered de-PEGylation and succeeding boronic acid-mediated enhanced cellular uptake. Besides, CPT was conjugated to the prodrug monomer through a disulfide bond to realize reduction-responsive drug release. The resultant copolymer PEG-BC-PGlu-ss-CPT could self-assemble into spherical nanomicelles in water. The degradation half-life time of PEG-BC-PGlu-ss-CPT copolymer decreased sharply from 96.27 h to only 5.7 h with pH value decreasing from 7.4 to 5.0, indicating the acid-degradable potential, which corresponded to size change monitoring. The cumulative CPT release from prodrug micelles increased significantly from 8.5 ± 1.73 to 82.9 ± 2.29% with an increase of dithiothreitol (DTT) concentration from 20 μM to 10 mM at pH 7.4, illustrating the reduction-responsive drug release property of prodrug micelles. The half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC

Reactive crystallization and polymorphic transformation of clopidogrel hydrogen sulfate (CHS) in nine pure solvents were studied at 313.15 K. It is found that thermodynamically stable polymorphic form tends to be obtained in solvents with higher solubility of CHS and the conversion rates from form I to form II are also mainly increased with increasing solubility. The solvent hydrogen bond donor ability is essential for determining the solvent effects on solubility and polymorphic formation of CHS. Besides, the reactive crystallization of CHS at different supersaturations in 2-propanol and 2-butanol was monitored online by using ATR-FTIR and FBRM with a calibration-based approach. The results indicate the nucleation induction period is the kinetic-determining stage and supersaturation is a direct factor to determine the polymorphic formation of CHS: form II was obtained with s under 18 while form I was produced when s increases above 21.